When you first start freelancing and getting farther and farther from “The Mothership,” it can be intimidating.
Here’s the scenario:
You get contacted by someone or someplace that wants a website. How exciting is that!?! Congratulations!?! You meet with the client, you fire-off a million inquisitive questions to get a better handle on the project and your brand new client is very impressed.
You begin to dive into the design and keep in close communication with your favorite (and only) client. You learn about the effects of miscommunication and that it happens no matter how many questions you ask. Finally, after more hours that you ever imagined, the site is finished and launched!
You’re very excited. 
After all, you launched it three days early.
Four weeks later, they still haven’t paid you.
This is where some sort of contract would have come in handy.
Docpool
Docpool is an effort to share and improve common documents used in the web design and development community.
Documents include:
- Contracts
- Questionnaires
- Invoices
- More!
The forms are easy to edit and customize to how you see fit.
A great starting point and framework to get you started. Sometimes you just need to be pointed in the right direction before you can really take of with something, and these are great for that!
I will certainly consider to start using these. As for billing, I’ve found FreshBooks to be working really well, so you may want to take a look at that, too.
For those seasoned pros out there, what do you recommend?
Hey, I use Freshbooks too! Although I am thinking of moving to thrivesolo
Docstoc and scribd are also great places to find templates to start with. Another great resource is the freelanceswitch community forums and resources section.
Lastly, I tend to hit up my b-school alum email listserv for things like this — meaning, leveraging personal networks of trusted people. Mastermind groups are great for this too. — I am trying to assemble a new one this fall for ministry leaders involved with church online for this exact purpose: being able to share, troubleshoot, collaborate & brainstorm/innovate with a close circle of peers.
It would be great to assemble a list of doc/template resource sites that everyone contributes to this thread.
Kenny Jahng
Great info, Kenny.