5 Automation Scripts That Run My Freelance Business on Autopilot (Python, Open Source)

I run my freelance business with 5 Python scripts that handle the boring stuff automatically. Here's exactly what they do and how to build them. Why Automation Matters for Freelancers As a freelancer, your time is your product. Every hour spent on admin, follow-ups, or manual tracking is an hour not spent on billable work. These 5 scripts collectively save ~8 hours/week. Script 1: Invoice Generator Generates professional PDF invoices from a simple JSON config. import json from datetime import datetime def generate_invoice ( client_data , items ): invoice = { ' invoice_number ' : f " INV- { datetime . now (). strftime ( ' %Y%m%d-%H%M ' ) } " , ' date ' : datetime . now (). strftime ( ' %d/%m/%Y ' ), ' client ' : client_data , ' items ' : items , ' total ' : sum ( item [ ' quantity ' ] * item [ ' unit_price ' ] for item in items ), ' vat ' : sum ( item [ ' quantity ' ] * item [ ' unit_price ' ] for item in items ) * 0.20 } return invoice # Usage client = { ' name ' : ' Acme Corp ' , ' em