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• Need to write invoices and receipts (I use the time tracker 

Harvest for this)

• Have multiple people using the same business bank 

account

• Have regular employees or subcontractors

 When I transitioned from nonprofit work to freelancing, 

the minimum payment of $25/month seemed exorbitant. 

Quicken (I pay $3/month) does the following for me:

• Automatically enters transactions from my bank accounts

• Categorizes my income and expenses

• Handles my business and personal accounts side-by-side

• Streamlines reporting for taxes

• Makes it easy to observe trends in my business and ana-

lyze development efforts (reports are very user friendly)

 I started with my tax lady’s worksheet when setting up 

my categories; each line item she requests becomes a cat-

egory. This ensures that I can write off as many business 

expenses as possible. I also track some categories for my 

family, such as eating out (way down this fiscal year!).

A few more things to consider:

• Make sure the software will sync with your specific bank.

• I have not found the budgeting features very intuitive in 

either Quicken or QuickBooks.

• It takes me about 15 minutes per month to review the 

transactions uploaded in Quicken and make sure every-

thing has been categorized properly.

• At tax time, it takes no more than 45 minutes to report 

everything accurately. My tax lady gives me a discount for 

turning in my information early. This discount more than 

pays for the annual price of Quicken!

— Allie Boman

FREELANCE FOCUS

International Society of Managing and  
Technical Editors
October 11-14, 2021
Virtual
https://www.ismte.org/page/Conferences

Regulatory Affairs Professionals Society
September 12-15, 2021
Virtual
https://www.raps.org/regulatory-convergence

National Association of Science Writers
October 8-11, 2021
Boulder, Colorado, and Virtual
https://www.nasw.org/events

International Conference on Communication  
in Healthcare
October 17-20, 2021
Virtual
https://achonline.org/ICCH2021

American Public Health Association
October 24-27, 2021
Denver, Colorado, and Virtual
https://www.apha.org/events-and-meetings/annual

AMWA Medical Writing & Communication Conference
October 27-29, 2021
Virtual
www.amwa.org/conference

European Medical Writers Association
November 4-6, 2021
London, England, and Virtual
https://www.emwa.org/conferences/future-conferences/

Alliance for Continuing Education in the Health 
Professions
January 12-15, 2022
Aurora, Colorado
http://www.acehp.org/p/cm/ld/fid=570

American Association for the Advancement of Science
February 17-20, 2022
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Virtual
https://meetings.aaas.org/

DIA Europe 2022  
March 29-31, 2022
Brussels, Belgium, and Virtual
https://www.diaglobal.org/en/flagship/dia-europe-2022

CALENDAR OF MEETINGS
Please confirm with individual meeting hosts

www.amwa.org/conference

2021
AMWA

Medical Writing &
Communication
Conference
OCTOBER 27-29, 2021
Coming to a device near you

Trends and Opportunities for Medical Communicators

http://www.amwa.org/conference
https://www.ismte.org/page/Conferences
https://www.raps.org/regulatory-convergence
https://www.nasw.org/events
https://achonline.org/ICCH2021
https://www.apha.org/events-and-meetings/annual
http://www.amwa.org/conference
https://www.emwa.org/conferences/future-conferences/
http://www.acehp.org/p/cm/ld/fid=570
https://meetings.aaas.org/
https://www.diaglobal.org/en/flagship/dia-europe-2022



