Building a SaaS for Freelancers: Proposals, Client Onboarding, Task Management & Time Tracking

Sandeep Bhattarai — Sun, 03 Aug 2025 10:17:51 +0000

🚀 The Problem I'm Solving
Freelancers and small teams often suffer from tool fatigue. Managing clients involves:

Writing and sending custom proposals

Onboarding clients with forms, contracts, or payment steps

Tracking tasks and deadlines

Logging billable hours

But most tools solve just one part of the workflow. My goal? Build a platform that handles all of it, with minimal context-switching.

🧩 Core Features of the Platform
✅ 1. Proposal Generator
Create professional proposals using reusable templates. Features include:

Rich text editor with sections (scope, deliverables, pricing, etc.)

Client-specific customization

Export to PDF or send via email

E-signature (planned feature)

👥 2. Client Onboarding
Once a proposal is accepted:

Automatically send onboarding form(s)

Collect project briefs, files, or NDAs

Add client to the platform with limited access

Trigger welcome email with project timeline

📋 3. Task Management
Project-based task boards with:

Custom workflows (To-do / In Progress / Done)

Nested subtasks

Deadline & priority labels

Commenting for team/client communication

⏱️ 4. Time Tracker
Built-in time logging:

Manual or live tracking (start/stop timer)

Time linked to tasks or projects

Daily/weekly reports for invoicing

Optional idle detection

Here’s what I’m using under the hood:

Frontend: React + TailwindCSS (thinking of moving to Next.js soon)

Backend: Node.js with Express

Database: PostgreSQL via Supabase

Authentication: Supabase Auth

File Storage: Supabase Storage (for proposal PDFs and client uploads)

Emailing: Resend API (for transactional emails)

Deployment: Vercel (frontend) + Supabase (backend & DB)

Why Supabase? Because it speeds up prototyping and gives me a scalable backend-as-a-service without locking me in like Firebase sometimes does.