first article about accounting solution

app/building-my-own-accounting-solution/article.tsx

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+import { H2 } from '../components/article/Common'
+import { P } from '../components/article/Common'
+import ImageFloat from '../components/image/ImageFloat'
+import Image from '../components/image/Image'
+
+import accounting from './accounting.jpg'
+import regularVsIndependent from './regular-vs-independent.jpg'
+import timelineOfEvents from './timeline-of-events.jpg'
+
+const headings = [
+  'Going independent',
+  'Not going for an accounting firm',
+  'Issues with off-the-shelf solutions',
+  'Building an online portfolio',
+]
+
+const body = (
+  <>
+    <P>
+      In 2022, I started working as an independent developer. But rather than
+      conventionally handling my bookkeeping through an accounting firm or using
+      established software solutions, I created a bespoke solution.
+    </P>
+    <P>
+      Why did I go down this path? Shouldn’t I know better than to reinvent the
+      wheel? What is this “independent” thing all about, and why does it mean I
+      need to bookkeep?
+    </P>
+    <H2>Going independent</H2>
+    <ImageFloat
+      data={regularVsIndependent}
+      width={350}
+      right
+      alt="Employed vs. independent"
+    />
+    <P>
+      In Sweden, it’s not uncommon for senior developers to go independent to
+      earn more. While “egenkonsult” – which translates literally to “own/self
+      consultant” – is the term, most of us, including myself, are contractors.
+      We augment existing staff. The main difference is that we run a company to
+      bill our “employer,” and pay our salary through that same company.
+    </P>
+    <P>
+      How exactly does this setup make one earn more? The short answer is that
+      it’s hard to let people go in Sweden – that “employer” pays a premium for
+      flexibility. It’s an Americanization of the Swedish system, where you
+      become at-will employed of your own volition.
+    </P>
+    <P>
+      Because you’re independent, there’s little to no overhead. Additionally,
+      you pay a portion of your salary through dividends, taxed lower than pure
+      income.
+    </P>
+    <P>
+      Besides having no job security, another trade-off is that you must handle
+      everything that comes with running a company. You need to record revenues
+      and expenses. Hold onto receipts. Submit reports to government agencies.
+      There’s a lot to learn and many things to keep track of.
+    </P>
+    <H2>Not going for an accounting firm</H2>
+    <P>
+      Typically, you’d call up a firm for help. They ask you questions, provide
+      you with instructions, and take care of all mundane tasks. If you’re an
+      independent developer, the cost of using one is insignificant.
+    </P>
+    <P>
+      In my case, I started my company in 2020, two years before I started
+      looking for work. In other words, there was a long stretch where little
+      administrative work was needed. Instead, I paid for a software solution
+      tailored to small business owners.
+    </P>
+    <P>
+      All this meant my learning curve wasn’t as steep. Once my business took
+      off in 2022, I felt like continuing with the software solution I used was
+      manageable.
+    </P>
+    <Image data={timelineOfEvents} width={800} alt="Timeline of events" />
+    <H2>Issues with off-the-shelf solutions</H2>
+    <P>
+      So why build my own? The solution I used worked, but it wasn’t great. You
+      had to do repetitive things. It handled certain receipts laughably bad,
+      and I ran into edge cases. The interface was also cluttered, in large part
+      because I only needed 10% of their features.
+    </P>
+    <P>
+      One lackluster solution doesn’t mean all of them are as bad. However, if
+      one of the better ones tailored to companies like mine were this lacking,
+      it certainly wasn’t a good sign. To be fair, I think the truth is that I
+      set the bar higher by being a software developer – any manual steps that
+      seem unnecessary grind my gears.
+    </P>
+    <P>
+      I’ve also found that accounting solutions cannot solve a particular user
+      experience: obtaining and organizing invoices and receipts before they
+      even get uploaded into the solution. It’s simply not scalable from an
+      engineering perspective.
+    </P>
+    <P>
+      If I make my own solution, I can reduce all the repetition. My previous
+      edge cases will become use cases, and anything non-scalable becomes
+      scalable if I’m the sole user. And while I recognize accounting solutions
+      are far from trivial, those 10% of features feel within reach, especially
+      if I take shortcuts.
+    </P>
+    <P>
+      I also have a confession to make. I’ve built software professionally for a
+      decade, but I’ve never been an actual user of the things I’ve created over
+      the years. This time it’ll finally be different.
+    </P>
+    <H2>Building an online portfolio</H2>
+    <P>Remember that zero job security thing I mentioned?</P>
+    <P>
+      I’m technically an employer now, and I sympathize with them. It’s hard to
+      find, let alone discern, good developers. We overstate our accomplishments
+      and embellish our qualities. Self-awareness isn’t really in abundance, and
+      there’s the Dunning-Kruger effect.
+    </P>
+    <P>
+      I’ve learned over the years to “show, not tell.” That’s also one of my
+      ambitions with this project. If you follow along, you can judge how I
+      learn, approach problems, communicate, code, and reason about software.
+      Whatever qualities I claim I have will hopefully come across.
+    </P>
+  </>
+)
+
+export const article = {
+  thumbnail: accounting,
+  title: 'Building my own accounting solution',
+  teaser:
+    'Rather than enlisting a firm or using off-the-shelf solutions, I built my own. Here’s why.',
+  published: 1705765945,
+  readingTime: 3,
+  headings,
+  body,
+}

app/building-my-own-accounting-solution/page.tsx

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+import { article } from './article'
+import { Metadata } from 'next'
+import { Article } from '../components/article/Article'
+
+export const metadata: Metadata = {
+  title: article.title,
+  description: article.teaser,
+}
+
+export default function Page() {
+  return <Article {...article} />
+}