As part of my Writer's Tools project, I've started working on a new OpenOffice.org database application designed to keep track of projects and jobs. It's a single-user solution geared towards freelancers and self-employed. It's still at a very early stage of development, but I thought it would be a good time to invite you to give it a try and submit your comments, suggestions, and ideas.

The current version of the application (its current name is Writer's Jobs) allows you to keep tabs on your customers and contacts, keep track of time spent on a specific project, and manage multiple rates. The current version of Writer's Jobs is available in the project's SVN repository. Grab a copy, give it a go, and let me know how it can be improved. To get started, open the Rates form and specify your rates. Open then the Dashboard form, add a customer and populate the Contacts section with the customer's employees (this step is optional). In the Jobs section create a new project and specify its properties such as Type, Status, and Deadline. To track the time spent on the project, open the Jobs form and use it to register the time spent on a specific task the Hours section.