Record billable time

Billable Time records work for a customer who will be invoiced on an hourly basis at a defined rate. It is suitable for a wide range of business applications, such as:

  • Consultants who bill by the hour rather than the project
  • Lawyers who charge different rates for research than for courtroom time
  • Repair technicians billing for time and materials

Billable Time is not a time clock. It does not record start or stop times of tasks. It cannot be used to monitor employee attendance or directly support payslip generation.

Enable the Billable Time tab

Enable the Billable Time tab by clicking Customize below the left navigation pane, ticking the Billable Time box, and clicking Update below the list:

Changes to your chart of accounts

When you create your first Billable Time entry, Manager will automatically add three new accounts to your chart of accounts:

These accounts can be renamed under Settings Chart of Accounts, but cannot be deleted while the tab is in use. You can assign them to Groups of your choosing and give them numerical Codes .

Note
The Billable Time tab can be used under cash basis accounting. But balances of these automatic accounts will never show. Therefore, your financial position and performance will not be completely represented on your financial statements.

Enter billable time

Now, you can make a basic entry of billable time. Select the Billable Time tab and click New Billable Time:

Complete the entry:

  • Date will be prefilled with today’s date.
  • A Customer must be selected from the dropdown list of predefined customers. If you do not select a customer, you will not be able to invoice the billable time.
  • Description allows you to record the nature of work performed during the billable time.
  • Enter Hourly rate in your base currency.
  • Record Time spent in hours and minutes.
  • Choose a Division (if enabled and desired). This field will not appear if no divisions are defined.
  • Status will be Uninvoiced by default.

Click Create when finished.

Example
Sample Consulting records billable time worked for ACME Distributing:



The entry is visible in the Billable Time tab. Its status shows as Uninvoiced:



Sample Consulting’s Summary (stripped of all other transactions) shows the result of the entry:

Edit billable time

You can Edit the completed entry in the Billable Time tab. Remember to click Update to save any changes.

Note
Although a dropdown Status field appears on the form:



this field is not used for normal invoicing. Ignore it for now. Invoicing of billable time is described in another Guide.

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