The problem with tracking copy work
Writing days are a mess to track. You might:
- Spend 90 minutes on a headline that ends up being one line
- Switch between three clients in a single morning
- Take a "quick" call that turns into a brief
- Get notes back on a draft you wrote two weeks ago
- Buy a tool subscription mid-flow and forget to log it
Toggl assumes you start a timer. You don't — you open a doc and start writing. Bonsai wants you to set up clients and projects up front. You don't — clients send you briefs and you're already typing.
Most tracking systems were designed for billable hours that flow in clean blocks. Copy work doesn't flow in clean blocks. It flows in revisions, interruptions, and "wait, did I bill them for the second round of edits?"
That's the gap Frency fills.
How Frency works for copywriters
You write a brain dump in plain English. Something like:
"Today: 1h landing page draft for Acme, 30min revisions Studio Bianchi blog post, sent invoice Acme €800, 45min call with new client about email sequence."
I read it and produce:
- Time entries with client, project, and duration
- Income for the invoice sent
- Clients and projects auto-detected
- A report card showing what I understood and what I assumed
Real brain dump examples for copywriters
Brain dump 1 — Multi-client morning
"9-10:30 landing page draft for Acme, 10:30 call new prospect 30min, 11-12 revisions Studio Bianchi blog, lunch, 14:00 email sequence draft Acme 2h, 16:00 final edits Studio Bianchi blog 45min."
Frency understood:
- Acme: 1.5h landing page + 2h email sequence = 3.5h
- Studio Bianchi: 1h revisions + 45min final edits = 1h 45min
- Prospect call: 30min (new lead, no client yet)
Brain dump 2 — Picking up old work
"Got revisions back on the Acme blog I wrote two weeks ago. 40min applying edits. Also bought Grammarly Premium €12/month."
Frency understood:
- Acme: 40min revisions on existing project
- Expense: €12 Grammarly, monthly subscription
Brain dump 3 — Friday recap
"Week recap: Mon 4h Acme campaign copy, Tue half day Studio Bianchi blog, Wed call clients all morning then 2h Acme, Thu full day Studio Bianchi rewrite, Fri 3h admin + 2h Acme polish. Invoice Studio Bianchi €1500 sent."
Frency understood:
- 5 days split per client per day
- Acme: ~9h total
- Studio Bianchi: ~11h total
- Admin: 3h
- Income: €1500 Studio Bianchi
What you get with Frency
- Brain dump → time entries in seconds
- AI client and project detection — no setup first
- Expense capture in the same brain dump
- Credit-based wallet — €1 = 100 credits, pay only for what you use
- Free tier with about 10 brain dumps a month after signup
- Phone + desktop — write on the go or at the desk
- DP Hours timer included if you want classic timer mode
You don't have to pick a method. Brain dump, timer, or manual entry — whatever fits the moment.
How this compares to your current stack
Most copywriters I talk to use one of these setups:
- Bonsai — full freelancer suite, good but heavy and subscription-locked
- Toggl + Google Docs — timer + manual invoicing in another tool
- Notion + spreadsheet — beautiful, slow to maintain
- Nothing — guessing at month-end
Frency replaces the friction without forcing you to learn a new system. The brain dump is typing what you did. Everything structured comes from that one input.
Try it without signing up
I built Frency so you can try it before committing anything. No signup. No credit card.
Three brain dumps free without signup. If you like it, create an account to keep going on the free tier.
Frency is built by DPLab, a software studio shipping solo with AI agents.