Ask HN: Freelancers do you use a ticket system for clients?

My prediction is that they'll not want to learn a new process that you put in place, which would most likely seem arbitrary to them. Since they're paying for the work, they'll expect you to just handle it. And hopefully you're charging them enough for this so that you can do this without resentment. By the way, are these ongoing projects or are you doing post-delivery support?

Isn't your inbox with tagging enough to give you an overview and when they're just simple questions you can quickly answer?

Aside from that, Trello is quite lightweight. You can forward emails to it which get turned into cards. It can be difficult to get clients to move to your preferred system though if they find e.g. phoning or emails more convenient for them.

Thanks everyone for the responses. It seems that forcing clients to use a particular ticket system is not a good idea.

I have now created a free account at Hubspot. Hubspot keeps track of all e-mails and calls I make to people and I can automatically add notes and tasks to each form of communication.

Check out http://jarhq.com. It is request management software built specifically for this problem. Clients can email in requests and it automatically tracks them, plus clients can see their status in a client dashboard and you can keep track of files, emails, etc. It's super simple and low-profile.

if you use gmail, checkout boomerang for gmail.

If a request is simple I usually complete it or reply saying I'll follow up with your tomorrow or complete it by Monday.

With boomerang you can have the email return to email at a specific time. It's nice because clients can still email you and you can have them return to your inbox when you need to take action.

You can setup custom times for things to return beyond what the default ones are. So I have a M, T, W, Th, F 7am setup so I can have work/tasks I need to work on return on the morning I need to reply or start them.

Trello is good too, I use it as well. Sounds like you're looking for a way to manage your email.

I also use the chrome snoozed tabs add on, you can do the same things with a tab, even an open email. So I use that to close my email for 2 hours at a time to minimize checking it too often/feeling overwhelmed.

A ticket system sounds like overkill, and I can't see my clients using it, vs. just emailing me.

A ticket is more for a SaaS or other application.

I suggest using a ticket system to track your work for your own organizational purposes, and something like Trello or Basecamp to give your clients visibility into progress.

Then if you have some clients who are interested in learning a new process, they can submit new requests via Trello or Basecamp, but the rest don't have to.

I'd advise against doing that. Perhaps use it for yourself but don't bring the client into it.

i use trello. they make cards or i fwd their email into a board.