What freelancers can do with spreadsheets
Last Updated on 21 March 2026
Guest post by SA Mathieson
You can edit with a typewriter or a calculator, but not both, legendary Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter apparently used to tell his underlings.*
This may be true if you work for a large organisation, but if you are a creative freelancer it helps if you can use the modern equivalent of both.
While most people can use a word processor, spreadsheets remain a mystery to many. That’s one reason why spreadsheets are one of the two main topics of my new course on demystifying technology for freelancers, along with artificial intelligence.
Like AI spreadsheets can be used for all sorts of things, although happily unlike AI they tend to get things exactly right.
In particular, spreadsheets can help with many of the administrative tasks that freelancers face. In the course I will cover how to:
- Set up a catalogue of what you have produced, so you can find specific items and claim for secondary rights.
- Plan time, to work out when you can take on new jobs and when you are already stretched.
- Track payments, to see how much you get from different clients and who owes you money.
Specialist accounting software may be a better option for the last one and many freelancers will have to start using this soon as a result of HMRC’s Making Tax Digital programme. But you can get started with spreadsheets, which are great for building what you need quickly and refining it over time.
If you are a creative freelancer who would like to learn about spreadsheets, AI and other technology, you can read more about the course and reserve a place here.
* According to Toby Young’s 2001 memoir of his not entirely successful time working at Vanity Fair in the 1990s, How to lose friends and alienate people.
Posted on 20 March 2026
