Tracking and reporting billable hours
Track billable hours per client, then report them
Billable hours only help you if you can find them at month end. This is the plain way to track them while you work, keep them tied to the right client, and turn them into a report you invoice from, without reconstructing your week on a Friday afternoon.
The habit
Track them while you work, not on Friday
Tracking billable hours is one habit, not a system. You log time against the task you did it for while it is fresh, you note which client it was for, and you let the totals build on their own. Reconstructing a week from memory is where hours quietly go missing, and the missing ones are almost always billable.
Log time on the task
Start a timer on the task you are working, or add the minutes when you finish. The time lands on the work itself, so there is nothing to piece together later.
Tag the client
Give the task a client label. Every hour you log then lands against the right client automatically, which is the whole trick to a clean report.
Let it total up
Hours per client build over the month without a spreadsheet. When it is time to invoice or report, the number is already sitting there.
What it adds up to
Hours per client, ready at month end
The point of tracking is not the tracking. It is that at the end of the month you can see, per client, exactly how much billable time you spent, with no guessing and no back-filling. That single view is where both the invoice and the client update come from. If you have logged as you went, month end is a five-minute read, not an evening of reconstruction.
You can start a work session for a client, move across their tasks, stop, and reconcile the time later, so a morning of switching between two clients still ends up on the right two invoices.
From tracked to reported
Turn tracked hours into a client report
A client report is usually hours per project or per task over a period, with a short note on what the time bought. If the hours are already tracked against the right client, that report is a rollup, not a rewrite. You pick the client and the period, and the hours you logged are the report.
Tracking time per task and per client is free. Turning it into a per-client report you can hand over, a clean PDF or a share link, is on Pro at €9.95 a month.
Around this
The rest of the billable-hours picture
If the line between billable and non-billable is still fuzzy, sort that out first, because tracking the wrong hours is worse than not tracking at all.
What are billable hours?Once you can see your billable hours, the next question is how many a week should hold. For most solo freelancers it is 20 to 30, not 40, and planning against the real number is the point.
How many billable hours a week is realisticTo put a number on your own week before you track a thing, run your working days and non-billable time through the free calculator.
Try the free billable hours calculatorCommon questions
Questions about tracking billable hours
- How do you track billable hours as a freelancer?
- Log time against the task you did it for while it is fresh, and tag which client it was for. A timer on each task beats reconstructing the week from memory, where billable hours quietly go missing. Over a month the hours per client build on their own, so the number is ready when you invoice.
- Do I need a separate time-tracking tool?
- Not if your planner already tracks time per task. Tracking time inside the tool where you plan the work keeps one screen instead of two, and the hours stay attached to the task and the client instead of a stopwatch you have to copy over. TaskBerry tracks time per task and totals it per client on the free plan.
- How do I report billable hours to a client?
- Pick the client and the period, and show hours per project or per task with a short note on what the time bought. If the hours are already tracked against the right client, the report is an export, not a rewrite. TaskBerry turns logged hours into a per-client report on Pro at €9.95 a month; the tracking underneath is free.
- What is the difference between tracking and reporting billable hours?
- Tracking is the daily habit of logging time against tasks and clients while you work. Reporting is the month-end view that rolls those hours up per client into something you can invoice from or hand over. Good tracking is what makes reporting a five-minute job instead of an evening.
- How often should I log my hours?
- As you go, or at the end of each task while it is fresh. The longer you wait, the more you round and the more you forget, and rounding down is the common direction. A quick log per task keeps the month accurate without a Friday reconstruction.
Stop reconstructing your billable hours
Start free, log time per task, and watch the hours per client build on their own. When the invoice is due, the number is already there.