How I Built a Notion Dashboard That Actually Runs My Freelance Business

I tried every project management tool out there — Trello, Asana, Monday, Linear, even a custom Airtable setup. Nothing stuck. Then I built a Notion dashboard specifically for freelancing, and it changed how I run my business. This isn't a "here's a pretty template" article. I'm going to show you the exact structure, the databases, the formulas, and the thinking behind a Notion dashboard that handles clients, projects, invoices, and your pipeline — all in one place. Why Notion Works for Freelancers Freelancers aren't teams. We don't need Jira-level project management. We need: A CRM to track leads and clients A project tracker with deadlines An invoice log A time tracker (or at least a log) A place for SOPs and templates A financial overview Notion lets you build all of this in one workspace with linked databases. The magic is in the relations — when you mark a project as complete, your revenue dashboard updates automatically. The Core Database Structure Here's the architecture I use. Y