Does this need a paid Notion plan?

No. Relations, rollups, formulas and board views all work on the free personal plan.

Why is Deals separate from Clients?

One client can bring you several pieces of work over the years. Keeping deals separate means the pipeline shows the work, and the client page shows the whole history.

Can Notion send invoices?

No. Create and send them in your invoicing tool, then add a row here so the Overdue flag and the Billed total stay correct.

Should I track proposals too?

If you send many, yes: a small Proposals database with Client, Sent date, Amount and Status. If you send a few a year, the Deals stage is enough.

Does it work for a small agency?

For two or three people sharing one workspace, yes. Past that you will want permissions and assignments that a simple build like this does not have.

How to Build a Freelance CRM in Notion

Database 1: Clients

Everything hangs off this. Name it Clients, rename the Name column to Client, then add Company, Email, a Status select (Lead, Active, Past) and a Source select (Referral, Website, LinkedIn, Repeat). After a year, Source is the column that tells you where your good work actually comes from.

Database 2: Deals

Every piece of work you might win. Name it Deals, rename the Name column to Deal, then add:

Client: a Relation pointing at Clients.
Stage: a Select: Enquiry, Proposal sent, Negotiating, Won, Lost.
Value: a Number in your currency.
Next step: Text. One line: "send revised quote", "wait for their budget".
Follow-up: a Date. The day you owe them something.

Follow-up is the column that earns the whole system its keep. A deal with no follow-up date is a deal you have quietly given up on.

The pipeline and the follow-up list

In Deals, add a Board view grouped by Stage and show Value on the cards. That is your pipeline. Then add a second view called Follow-ups, filtered where Follow-up is on or before today. Open that one first thing every morning; it is a to-do list that writes itself.

Database 3: Projects, priced properly

Name it Projects, rename the Name column to Project, then add a Client relation, Status, Start and Deadline dates, a Rate number and an Hours number. Add a Formula called Total:

prop("Rate") * prop("Hours")

What it does: your rate multiplied by the hours you actually worked.

Log the real hours, not the quoted ones. After five projects the gap between the two is the most useful number you own, because it tells you what to quote next time.

Database 4: Invoices that flag themselves

Name it Invoices, rename the Name column to Invoice, then add relations to Clients and Projects, an Amount, Issued and Due dates, and a Status select (Draft, Sent, Paid). Then add a Formula called Overdue:

and(prop("Status") == "Sent", not(empty(prop("Due"))), prop("Due") < now())

What it does: ticks itself when an invoice has been sent, has a due date, and that date has passed.

It turns on by itself the day after the due date and off the moment you mark it Paid. Add a view filtered where Overdue is checked and you have your chasing list.

What each client is worth

Back in Clients, add a Rollup called Billed: Relation set to Invoices, Property to Amount, Calculate to Sum. Sort by it. The order is rarely what you expected, and it is a good guide to whose emails you answer first.

What this does not replace

Notion will not send the invoice, take the payment or email a reminder. Use your invoicing tool for that and record the invoice here. What Notion replaces is the part that lives in your head: who is waiting, who owes you, and what each client has been worth. That is the part that goes wrong when you are busy.

How to build a freelance CRM in Notion