Time Tracking

Set hourly rates and billing rounding on projects, then add billable time to an invoice.

A project sets the Contact, hourly rate, billing rounding and hour budget that its new entries start with. Billable entries with a rate become invoice lines priced from their billed time, while each entry keeps the time recorded. Once the invoice is issued, its entries are marked Invoiced and cannot be changed.

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Project settings

Team admins add projects, and each project's page sets what new entries on it start with. The settings are copied to each new entry, so changing them later does not change entries already recorded.

Contact
Linked to new entries on the project that do not choose another Contact.
New timers
Whether a timer started on the project is billable.
Hourly rate and Rate currency
The rate for new entries on the project, in the project's currency.
Billing rounding
Exact, or the nearest 5, 6, 10 or 15 minutes, applied when entries are added to an invoice.
Hour budget
Hours for the project, such as 12.5. The project shows the completed time everyone in the team has recorded against it.
Archive project
Keeps the project's entries and stops it being chosen for new time. Restore project brings it back.

Where an entry's hourly rate comes from

A new entry takes its hourly rate from the first of these that has one. The rate and its currency are copied to the entry, so changing a default later does not change time already recorded.

  1. The project

    The project's Hourly rate, in its Rate currency.

  2. The Contact

    The Default hourly rate on the linked contact's page, in the default currency.

  3. Invoicing settings

    The Default hourly rate in Invoicing settings, for time with no project or Contact rate.

  4. The entry itself

    A team admin can enter another rate on the entry, which replaces the one it started with.

Billing rounding

Billing rounding rounds each entry's time to the nearest increment when the entry is added to an invoice. With the nearest 15 minutes, an entry of 38 minutes is billed as 45 minutes, and one of 37 minutes as 30. Time with no project is billed exactly as recorded.

The entry keeps the time recorded. The invoice editor shows recorded and billed time when they differ, and the Reports CSV export has both.

Add time to an invoice

In the invoice editor, Add unbilled time lists the time ready to bill to the invoice's contact. It is shown in Personal and to a team's admins, and lists the time they recorded themselves.

  1. The entries listed

    Completed, billable entries linked to the invoice's contact, with an hourly rate and a rate currency that matches the invoice.

  2. One line for each entry

    Each ticked entry becomes one invoice line, priced from its billed time and hourly rate and rounded to the currency's smallest unit. The price is set when the line is added: changing the project's rounding later will not reprice it.

  3. While the invoice is a draft

    The entry cannot be changed or added to another invoice. Removing its line, or deleting the draft, releases it.

  4. When the invoice is issued

    The entry is marked Invoiced, and invoiced time cannot be changed.

Proposals, Expenses and Accounting

A project from an accepted Proposal
A Proposal can make a Time Tracking project for its client when the work starts, named after the proposal and in its currency. When the accepted lines priced in hours share one rate, that is the project's hourly rate, and their hours are its budget.
Expenses on a project
An expense can be linked to a Time Tracking project. A reimbursable expense for a contact can go on an invoice beside the time.
Profit by project
Accounting's Profit by project report shows each project's income from invoices billed from its time or expenses, its costs from expenses and bill lines, and the profit. Time worked is not counted as a cost.

Bill your first hours.

Create a Magpie account, add a project with an hourly rate in Time Tracking, and record time against it.

Create account