It’s been a big week over at Intuit. Wednesday, they announced their new GoPayment reader was ready to be shipped to GoPayment users. If you have a small business that makes face-to-face sales – crafters, direct sales reps, daycare providers, etc. – this reader will allow for smartphone credit card processing on the go.

This device plugs into the audio jack of your Apple, Android or other compatible smartphone. Information is encrypted to ensure safety. The app is free and the reader is free. You can choose from two plans depending on your sales volume:

• Pay-As-You-Go has no monthly fee, 2.7% swipe rate and 3.7% key rate.
• High-Volume is $12.95 per month, 1.7% swipe rate and 2.7% key rate.

No setup fee, no monthly minimums, and no tranactions fees for either plan.

Never Miss a Sale. Try Intuit GoPayment and take Credit Cards on any Mobile Phone

Next up – QuickBooks Online is my accounting software of choice. I have used it for several years. I have clients that use it. It’s a great online product for tracking your business income, expenses and invoices. For a Limited Time, Get 50% Off QuickBooks Online for One Year! Offer ends January 31st, so Act Fast!. You only have a few short days to take advantage of this sale. Don’t miss it!

A couple of great business deals were in my inbox this morning. We have a StudioPress discount code and more.

StudioPress

The price of the StudioPress Pro Plus All-Theme Package will go up on Tuesday, January 31, 2012. Until Monday, you can get all 44 StudioPress child themes, plus every child theme design they make in the future, for only $299.95.

Starting today, you can get 10% off your Pro Plus purchase by using the discount code TEN.

Mavenlink

Mavenlink brings complete end-to-end project management to the cloud, giving you a single source to manage your projects, collaborate with clients and colleagues, track time and expenses, share documents, and synchronize with Intuit QuickBooks. Sign up before February 6 and get Mavenlink Expert Plus 50% off forever.

Celebrate the GoDaddy Bowl on January 8th, 2012 with a new $5.99 .com domain. This is the perfect time to snag a new domain as .com URLs will go up in price on January 15. Tackle the web today!

Contracts are imperative to freelance success. If you aren’t already aware of that, you will be the first time a client tries to skate off without payment or restructure a project entirely under the original payment terms. Getting a contract signed can be time-consuming under the wrong circumstances however. Contracts are lost in cyberspace. No one uses fax anymore. You sure don’t want to wait for postal delivery. Utilizing a service that captures electronic signatures can make managing contracts a lot easier.

You may already be familiar with EchoSign if you are on the receiving end of many contracts. Several companies that I work with in both my blogging and home business worlds use this system. Lucky for us, it is extremely affordable.

Features

EchoSign will allow you to import or upload your business contract from your computer, Dropbox, Evernote or Google Docs. If you simply need an I-9, W-4 or W-9 for a new employee or contractor, you can use the forms they have available in their Document Library.

Contracts or other forms can be emailed from within your dashboard. You can choose whether you want an e-signature or fax signature, password protection and/or form fields.

EchoSign will track the process of your document. You will be able to see when the recipient views, signs, declines and/or forwards your document.

Once the document has been signed, a copy is sent to both parties. EchoSign will also keep a copy in your account.

You can integrate your eFax number.

You can store your personal electronic signatures.

You can keep your frequently used documents in your personal digital library.

EchoSign Apps will integrate the system with some of the web’s biggest leaders; Salesforce, Google, Zoho, DropBox, Evernote, eFax and more.

It also works with most smartphones.

Cost

Free: One user, up to 5 transactions per month, the last 5 documents are archived

Pro: $14.95 per month, one user, unlimited transactions per month, last 500 documents are archived

Additional upgrades are also available.

For freelancers that focus on contracting long-term clients, the free plan may be perfect. If your home business concentrates on one-off projects, the Pro plan may be necessary.

EchoSign’s free plan requires no payment information upon registration. You can upgrade/downgrade your plan at any time.

Have you used EchoSign to acquire electronic signatures and for managing contracts?

Truly free project management tools are often hard to come by. Many of the free online project management posts I come across are referencing companies that simply offer a free trial of their services. The options below all have at least a free limited version available if they are not free entirely. All are also web-based.

Zoho Projects

• Task Management and Milestones
• Integrates with Google Apps
• Invoicing
• File Sharing
• Email Collaboration
• Import MS and Basecamp Projects
• Reports
• App for Mobile
• Calendar

Pivotal Tracker was created by software developers. Many features may be unnecessary for most freelancers.

• Simple to Use
• Integrates with Lighthouse, JIRA, Zendesk, Get Satisfaction, Bugzilla and more
• Paid plans allow real-time collaboration

Free: Up to 5 projects, no collaborators

Paid: $7 to $175 per month based on number of collaborators and projects

Mavenlink

• File Sharing
• Email Integration
• Invoicing & Time Tracking
• Custom Branding
• Work History
• Integrates with Google Apps
• Team Collaboration

Free: 3 Active Projects, 500 MB Storage

Paid: $39 to $79 per month

TeamLab

• Task Management and Milestones
• Time Tracking
• Mobile Version
• Reports
• Team Discussions
• Cloud, Open Source or AMI models
• Import data from Basecamp, Google Docs, Zoho or Box.net

Free: Always

Teambox

• Integrates with Google Docs and Dropbox
• iPad and iPhone Apps
• Time Tracking
• Task Lists
• File Sharing

Free: Up to 3 Projects and 50 MB Storage

Paid: $12 to $99 per month based on number of projects and storage needed

Producteev may be considered more of an online To Do List than free online project management.

• Unlimited Tasks
• iPhone, Gmail and gadget apps
• Syncs with Google Calendar
• Import from Remember the Milk
• Attach files to your tasks
• Send alerts to email or Instant Messenger
• Social Aspect – earn badges for being the most “producteev”

Free: Up to 2 team members and 100 MB of storage

Paid: $5 to $30 per month based on storage and members

Do.com is a “social” project management tool.

• Instant notifications on your iPhone, iPad or browser.
• Set up tasks, projects and notes
• Integrates with Google Apps

Free: For now. Premium services may be available in the future.

DeskAway

• Project Management
• File Sharing
• Integration with Google Apps
• Basecamp alternative with BaseEscape

Free: 1 Project, 3 Users and 25MB of Storage

Paid: $25 to $99 monthly

It is very rare to find a WPMU Dev coupon code. Right now you can get a one-year subscription (reg. $419) for only $100 through SocialSpark. This will give you access to over 300 WordPress plugins and themes, plus around-the-clock support. Grab your membership to the most popular premium plugin site on the web while they last.

TalkO’Clock is a new start-up, only coming onto the scene in July 2011. The company calls it a “social alarm service.“ This unique service allows users to place or receive reminder, wake-up call or greetings from anywhere in the world. At first I was a little nervous about this service. I was concerned about random strangers calling me, and I was worried about my privacy. After reviewing the service fully, those things are covered.

Overview

TalkO’Clock is the leading voice-based social discovery platform. It is a free global service, available from any place in the world. It is social networking, but with real voice instead of text. Users make a request, set their goal – whether it’s a wake-up call or reminding about something, and then they get a call exactly at the time they had appointed. One of the things that make the project actual social media is that users not only get calls, but are able to call other users themselves.

What’s the Cost?

This is a free service. The only charge that may be incurred is for an incoming call depending on your phone plan.

Why Would I Give My Phone Number to Strangers?

The people calling will not have access to your number, nor will you be able to see theirs. All calls are routed through TalkO’Clock’s system. Your privacy is protected.

Will 400 People Call Me?

No. Once a caller chooses your request, it is removed from the open listings. If no one is available to make the call, the trusty robot CallOBot will pick up the slack.

What If I Don’t Want Strangers Calling Me?

You can work the system several ways:

1. While you cannot choose the specific person that calls you, you can designate language and gender.
2. You can choose the automatic service which will have CallOBot call you rather than a human.
3. Or, you can add in your Facebook Friends. Soon you will be able to add friends of friends.  If you don’t want to speak with a stranger, you never have to.

How Would I Use This Service?

Once I become immersed in work, all concept of time is lost. I frequently forget webinars for which I have registered, making important personal calls, etc. Even Outlook reminders no longer work. But, I really don’t need to hire a personal assistant to keep me on schedule. This voice-based social discovery service will have someone, or the automated system if I prefer, give me a ring to remind me at no charge.

This post was brought to you by TalkO’Clock. For more information on partner relationships, please see my disclosure. If your company is interested in sponsoring a post, please visit my Advertising page.

This is a sponsored guest post on freelance invoicing brought to you by Bunker App.

Freelancers are a mixed bunch. Today, with the huge variety of sites that you can use to find jobs, from Elance to oDesk to Guru, and with the ease of working over the Internet, you can find freelance work as a graphics designer, software developer, business advisor, and even as an interior decorator.

Unfortunately, not many of us have, in addition to our freelancing skills, a background in finance.

Lacking financial skills tends to make the business side of our job, and invoicing in particular, one of the lesser evils for people who want to strike out on their own. I found myself grinding my teeth when bill collecting time came round every month. It’s true, there are plenty of invoicing software tools around today, but lets face it – No one really wants to spend more money on software tools to collect money, and creating a professional invoice in Google Docs (for instance) isn’t the easiest of tasks. So what is it that we DO want? Well, as a freelancer myself, all I wanted was to make invoicing less of a pain in the neck, without having to jump through hoops to ask our clients to pay their bills.

That’s exactly where Bunker App steps in. It was created with freelancers in mind, basically a tool that I would want to use as well. You can pick it up and start using it in five minutes. With a fledgling project management section (which will be fleshed out, of course), you set up your clients and your projects in a few easy steps. Once you’ve done that, creating and sending the invoices is really simple – you can either send the invoice by email, or send a link.

Of course the whole app is cloud-based, so you don’t have to worry about losing your information, and you can access and send invoices where ever you are – there’s even a mobile version, so you can get the job done just as easily with your smartphone or tablet.

Bunker App has a free version for those of you who have just started out freelancing (and I wish you the best of luck!). It is fully featured, with the only difference between it and the Pro version is a limitation on the number of invoices that can be sent out monthly.

So sign up today, and see for yourself how easy it can be!

This post was brought to you and written by Bunker App. For more information on sponsored posts, please see my disclosure. If your company is interested in sponsoring a post on The Work at Home Wife, please see my Advertising page.