Lanco

Getting Started with Lanco

Welcome to Lanco. This guide will help you get up and running quickly with your new freelance management system.

What is Lanco?

Lanco is a modern, free-to-use freelance management system designed for freelancers and consultants. It helps you track hours across projects, manage clients and projects, create professional invoices, log business expenses, and generate business documents.

Quick Start

Create Your Account

  1. Visit lanco.flett.cc
  2. Click Get Started
  3. Enter your email and password to create your free account
  4. Follow the simple onboarding flow

Set Up Your First Client

  1. Click Clients in the sidebar
  2. Click New Client
  3. Enter the client's name
  4. Add optional details (email, phone number)
  5. Set custom day rate or hours per day if they differ from your defaults (optional)

Create a Project

Projects help organize your work within each client.

  1. Navigate to your client's dashboard
  2. Click New Project
  3. Enter the project name and day rate

Projects can have their own billing rates independent of the client's default rate.

Start Logging Time

  1. Click Time Logs in the sidebar
  2. Create a new time log
  3. Select your client and project
  4. Enter the hours worked and a description of the work performed
  5. Optionally add labels to categorize different types of work

Generate Your First Invoice

  1. Go to Invoices and click New Invoice
  2. Select your client
  3. Choose which unbilled time entries to include
  4. Review the automatically calculated total
  5. Mark the invoice as paid once your client pays

Key Concepts

Clients and Projects

Clients represent the companies or individuals you work with. Each client can have multiple projects with their own billing rates. Projects organize your work and help you track time and costs for specific engagements.

Both clients and projects support:

  • Custom day rates
  • Currency settings
  • Hours-per-day configurations

Time Logs and Billing

Time logs track the hours you work on projects. Each entry includes:

  • Client and project
  • Hours worked
  • Description of work
  • Date
  • Optional categorization labels

Lanco uses a day rate system where you set a daily billing rate (e.g., £600/day) and hours per day (default: 8), which automatically calculates your hourly rate. Rates can be set at the organization level as defaults, overridden per client, or customized for individual projects.

Invoices and Expenses

Invoices transform your unbilled time logs into professional bills, automatically calculating amounts based on your project's day rates. The system tracks payment status and preserves historical rates for accuracy.

You can also track business expenses and categorize them for record-keeping.

Documents

Create and manage business documents like proposals, contracts, and specifications. The system supports AI-powered document generation and markdown editing, making it easy to create professional documents associated with specific clients and projects.

Navigation

The left sidebar provides access to all main features:

  • Clients
  • Projects
  • Time Logs
  • Invoices
  • Expenses
  • Documents

Use the client dropdown at the top of the sidebar to filter your view to a specific client, which will apply across time logs, expenses, invoices, and documents.

Using Lanco Effectively

Best practices for getting the most out of Lanco:

  • Log your time regularly to maintain accurate records
  • Use labels to categorize different types of work for easier reporting and analysis
  • Archive completed projects to keep your workspace clean while preserving all historical data
  • Invoice your clients regularly to maintain healthy cash flow

Getting Help

For detailed information on specific features, explore the other documentation sections:

  • Clients and Projects
  • Time Logging
  • Invoicing
  • Expenses
  • Documents
  • FAQs

If you need additional help:

Privacy & Data

Your data is stored securely in Supabase and protected by authentication and encryption. This is a free service provided as-is, and we recommend maintaining your own backups. See our Privacy Policy for details.

Next Steps

To get started with Lanco:

  1. Add a few of your current clients
  2. Create projects for active work
  3. Start logging time
  4. Generate your first invoice once you have hours logged
  5. If you're interested in AI features (currently in beta for test users), contact andrew@flett.cc to request access