10 Important Documents for Freelancers for Professional Success in 2024

Thinking about starting a freelancing business? 

If so, you should know that proper document control & management affects earnings.

If you lack important documents, you can come off as unprofessional, which makes it extremely challenging to find clients and generate steady income. 

A survey by FreelancerMap showed that 57% of freelancers struggle with project acquisition. This makes it the biggest challenge among these professionals. 

In order to help you win more projects  and earnings, it’s crucial to learn about the most important documents for freelancers that you should keep. These can help you establish a professional image that wins over new clients. 

By preserving the right records, you can also streamline bookkeeping processes, enabling you to improve tax compliance and cashflow to increase financial stability. 

If your freelance business is operating in the construction industry, check out this article I wrote about essential construction documents for boosting success. 

In this article, we’ll discuss important documents for freelancers to have to maximize professional success in 2024 and help you grow your freelancing business & revenue. 

Let’s get started. 

1. Resume document

Your resume can open doors for your business. 

It communicates your experience, qualifications and expertise to a potential client, helping to create a first impression and potentially influencing their decision to hire you.

However, when you don’t customize your resume for each application, you’ll fail to address the specific needs of the job, thus lowering your chances of getting it.  

A survey by Indeed & Glassdoor revealed that 63% of employers want job seekers to tailor their resumes to fit the open position. In fact, many of them tend to look over generic applications.

This is enough proof that you need to create a personalized CV for each freelancing opportunity you’d like to pursue. 

In order to make your CV pop, I recommend including contact information at the very top. You should also include important elements like professional memberships, awards & achievements and qualifications, among others. 

While a resume is one of the most important documents for freelancers, personalizing one from scratch each time can be very exhausting. This is why I recommend using an effective document management solution to manage resumes & other documents 

Click here to start your free FileCenter trial to use our software to create resume templates that speed up customization. 

With our software, you can create different types of resume templates targeting various niches, in order to streamline resume personalization and improve productivity.

2. Business registration 

Do I need to register a freelance business? 

For the most part, you don’t need a license to operate your freelance company, however, this may vary from state to state, depending on the nature of your business. 

Nonetheless, failing to register your business can hurt your credibility, making it very difficult for potential customers and investors to take you seriously. 

A survey by JCDecaux found that over 8 in 10 clients need to be able to trust a brand before making the decision to work with them. One of the most important documents for freelancers that can help you establish this trust is a business registration certificate.

Fortunately, you can easily register your business with state authorities in a few simple steps, helping you to obtain a registration certificate that validates your business. 

In order for that to happen, you’ll need to first choose a business structure, preferably a sole proprietorship formula if you’re the only owner, and a name for your brand. Then you may need to apply for an Employer Identification Number (EIN). 

Once you’re done with that, you’ll also need to apply for necessary licenses and business permits to improve regulatory compliance for your business. 

The best part about registering your freelance business is that it establishes your brand as a legal entity, which helps you to protect your business’s assets. 

3. Cold e-mail templates

Cold e-mailing is a popular freelancing strategy. 

It entails sending out emails to prospective clients who you have no earlier connection with, the goal being to introduce your brand and eventually get them on board. 

That said, constantly creating cold emails for every outreach campaign from scratch can be cumbersome and it may not always yield a positive response. 

It’s quite unfortunate that 91.5% of cold emails are ignored, according to a study by QuickMail. So this means that for every one hundred you send, chances are that less than ten of them will get opened.  

Nonetheless, the key to beating these odds lies in consistent cold emailing, and that’s where templates come in. 

One of the benefits of using templates is that they save you time. Once you’ve done the leg work in terms of seeking out potential clients and their contact information, you only need to slightly tweak a template and you’re good to go.

In addition, other personal document management software features you’ll get with advanced solutions include branding elements. Some of these tools allow you to add your logo and other branding features to your cold emails to improve brand identity. 

Another huge benefit of creating your own templates is that you can reduce the margin for error, ensuring fewer typos & other mistakes to preserve a great professional image.

4. Freelance proposal

What is a freelance proposal and why does it matter? 

A freelance proposal is a document that you send to prospective clients, and the primary objective is usually to prove that you’re the right fit for a particular project. 

When your proposal is poorly written, you’ll create a negative impression of your freelance business, and potential clients may choose to explore other options. 

On the flip side, you can increase conversion rates by 45% with a well-written proposal, according to a study by process.st. Going by this statistic, it’s easy to see why freelance proposals are one of the most important documents for freelancers to have.

If you’d like to create business-winning freelance proposals, there are a few important must-have elements to consider. This first is an attractive and visually rich cover page, which describes your name, proposal title and date. 

I recommend using the best Egnyte document management alternatives to create visually striking proposals that draw attention and help you to get noticed and hired. 

Aside from a genuine and enthusiastic cover letter, your freelance proposal should also comprehensively address your client’s specific requirements. 

If they’re looking for a skilled photographer for an outdoor event, your proposal should explore your portfolio and show how your skills meet the client’s needs for this project.

5. Price quotation forms

You can choose not to disclose pricing upfront. 

This is a freelance strategy that you can leverage to first achieve your marketing objectives and even prevent competitors from undercutting you, before you eventually work your way to discussions about pricing. 

However, when pricing isn’t transparent from the get go, doubts arise about whether a client can afford your services, and they may dismiss you altogether.

A survey by LabelInisight unearthed that 94% of customers are likely to choose and be loyal to brands that are transparent about their pricing. So it’s clear that price quotation forms can give your freelancing business a very significant competitive advantage.  

So what are some important elements of a great price quote? 

It should contain information such as your company’s contact information, logo, and customer data. 

More importantly, your price quote should also itemize and offer detailed descriptions of the prices behind each service to enable customers to calculate their own totals.

Advisably, you should use small business document management tools to access more advanced quote form creation features. Some of these platforms offer drag and drop functions that let you create and personalize quotes quickly. 

They also offer advanced analytics that let you track when the quote was opened and viewed, enabling you to identify and sort out bottlenecks in your quoting pipeline. 

6. Freelance contracts

So what is a freelance contract exactly? 

A freelance contract is a legal agreement between you, the freelancer, and your client. It essentially governs this professional relationship, and also clarifies the type of work you’ll do as well as financial remuneration. 

With an effective freelance contract that creates a legal basis for the work, you can easily pursue redress in case of payment defaults & other contract violations.

A survey by Freelancers Union indicated that only 28% of freelancers use a contract to govern working relationships with clients. So the vast majority do not draft these agreements, which is very unwise because it leaves you with very little legal protection. 

In order to make your freelance contract legally binding, it’s important that you correctly identify all the parties involved, show that there’s an exchange of economic value and also include important terms and clauses governing termination & intellectual properties. 

Last but not least, a contract can only be legally binding if all parties acknowledge it. One way to do that is through electronically signing these contracts, and a great document management solution can help with this.

Click here to start your free FileCenter trial to improve document signing. 

With our software, you get convenient methods for signing documents electronically, enabling you to create legally binding and professional freelance contracts with ease. 

7. Electronic invoices

Invoices help you get paid as a freelancer. 

They basically document all the services you’ve provided to a client during a particular period, offering a reference for appropriate remuneration and handling payment disputes in case they come up. 

If you lack electronic invoicing solutions, you can experience delayed payments, while the risk of invoicing errors also increases very significantly. 

The situation is quite dire, given that 74% of freelancers are paid late, according to a study by the IEC. Some of these payments take up to two months to be carried out, with some freelancers being owed outstanding payments of as much as $50,000. 

While payment delays are sometimes usually about much more than lacking formalized payment documents, creating electronic invoices can make a big difference. 

For instance, electronic invoices are much easier to generate and share, enabling you to submit payment requests much faster compared to traditional solutions. They also increase invoicing accuracy, thereby reducing the risk of lengthy disputes as well. 

By using the best PandaDoc document management alternatives, you can even add automated reminders to your electronic invoices. These will prompt clients to pay up after certain periods, thus helping you to solve cases of forgetfulness. 

So electronic invoices are undoubtedly one of the most important documents for freelancers to have, because they affect the stability of your income. 

8. Tax forms

Why is recording your tax important as a freelancer? 

No matter the business structure you choose when registering your business, it’s likely that your company has tax obligations it needs to fulfill. 

A poorly kept tax record makes it very challenging to accurately calculate taxes, while it can also make it nearly impossible to identify tax relief opportunities. 

As a matter of fact, 20% of self-employed individuals struggle to report and pay their taxes, according to a survey by Intuit QuickBooks. It ranked as the fourth biggest challenge overall, after getting paid on time, finding work and self-motivation. 

When you fail to report your taxes accurately, you may face fines and penalties from tax authorities. 

It’s highly likely that you’ll need to file various self-employment taxes if you work as a freelancer, and this means that there are several tax forms to consider.

One of those includes the T4A form, which essentially documents your annual earnings. You may also need to fill forms like the T2125 and T5013 document to report expenses and partnership incomes. 

That said, tax forms are one of the most important documents for freelancers to manage, and I recommend accounting document management tools to boost efficiency.

These platforms aren’t just great for managing tax forms, but can also help to massively streamline bookkeeping processes and cashflow for your freelancing business. 

9. Retainer agreements

A retainer agreement is another vital document. 

These specify the amount or volume of work you’ll get from a client over a specified period, and may even set monthly retainer charges for keeping you on board. 

Retainer agreements are necessary for guaranteeing a steady volume of work from clients and improving your financial stability in the freelancing world. 

Unfortunately, a survey by Upwork discovered that 63% of freelancers have struggled with irregular incomes at various points in their careers. During these moments, they had to dip into their savings to get by. 

While constantly seeking out clients is the first step to guaranteeing steady income, retainer agreements make a significant contribution to this. 

So how do you craft an excellent retainer agreement? 

There are different ways to structure your retainer but you should generally agree on an allocated amount of work per period.  For example, if you’re a freelance writer, you could agree on delivering a certain number of blog posts per month. 

It’s because of this that important small business documents like retainers are crucial, since they ensure a consistent amount of work and establish strong client relationships. 

In addition to work volumes, a bulletproof retainer should define a retainer fee and termination procedures so you’re not caught off guard if a client decides to jump ship.

10. Testimonial forms

So what is a testimonial form in freelancing? 

A testimonial form is a document that contains a review from past or current clients, describing their experience and highlighting the quality of your services or products.

Testimonials are a great way to provide third-party endorsements, which are essential because clients rarely trust reviews from brands themselves. 

A study by BrightLocal determined that 69% of customers are more likely to do business with a brand after reading positive reviews from clients. So testimonial forms are one of the most important documents for freelancers because they can get deals over the line.

They provide the endorsement you need to clear doubts and win over-the-fence leads.

Testimonial request forms will generally be filled by your clients after each project.

Preferably, these documents should collect information about the features customers liked most about your services so that you can understand your strengths even better. 

Even more importantly, this form should also have a field on areas for improvement. This is where clients will share shortcomings about your services, like the absence of a timely and effective file-sharing system, for instance, so that you sort out weaknesses.

It’s also crucial to include a rating system in these forms that reflect the client’s general experience with your brand so that you can understand overall business performance. 

Conclusion 

Keeping the right freelancing documents is key to success. 

They help you land more clients, improve regulatory compliance and strengthen your competitive position. 

However, with freelancing requiring you to juggle several responsibilities concurrently, you may have little time left for effective document management.

A survey by Romote found out that 58% of freelancers struggle with time management. One of the biggest contributors to this struggle are administrative tasks such as bookkeeping and highly manual document management. 

For this reason, it’s essential to leverage the right technologies to maintain important documents for freelancers. This is where an excellent document management solution can be a real game-changer for your business. 

Click here to start your free FileCenter trial to get advanced document management automation features to increase productivity. 

Our platform enables you to automate iterative and complex document work, including naming, routing and scanning, so that you can focus on growing your freelance career.