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Billable Hours Tracking Template

Harvest offers a comprehensive solution for tracking billable hours, helping professionals avoid losing 10-25% of potential billable income due to delayed time entries.

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What should you charge per hour?

Most freelancers and consultants dramatically undercharge. This calculator accounts for what most people miss: non-billable time, taxes, and overhead.

$
Accounting for vacation, holidays, sick days
60%
Most freelancers can bill 50-70% of their time. The rest goes to admin, marketing, proposals, and learning.
$
Software, insurance, equipment, accounting, taxes beyond income tax, etc.
Your break-even rate $0
Recommended rate (+20% buffer) $0
Billable hours per week 0h
Equivalent daily rate $0

Start tracking your billable hours

Walk through the entire flow below. Start a timer, check your reports, and create a real invoice — all in three clicks.

Go ahead — start tracking!

One click and you're timing. Try it right here: start a timer, add an entry, edit the details. This is exactly how it feels in Harvest.

  • One-click timer from browser, desktop & mobile
  • Works inside Jira, Asana, Trello, GitHub & 50+ tools
  • Duration or start/end — your call
  • Day, week & calendar views to stay on top of it all
  • Friendly reminders so no hour gets left behind
Acme Corp
Website Redesign
Homepage layout revisions
1:24:09
Content Strategy
Blog calendar planning
1:30:00
SEO Audit
Technical audit report
0:45:00
Brand Guidelines
Color system documentation
2:15:00
Logo Concepts
Initial sketches round 1
1:00:00
Today's total 6:54:09

Understanding Billable Hours: The Foundation of Professional Services

Billable hours are crucial for professionals who charge clients based on time spent on projects. These hours include activities directly related to client work, such as meetings, drafting, and research. Non-billable hours, on the other hand, encompass internal tasks like admin work and marketing. Accurate tracking of billable hours is essential as it influences revenue, profitability, and client trust. A study shows that lawyers can lose 10-25% of their billable time if not recorded promptly, leading to significant revenue leakage. Furthermore, 1-5% of total revenue can be lost to billing inaccuracies in general businesses.

Utilization rates, which measure productivity, depend heavily on accurate billable hour tracking. For example, legal practices average 38% utilization, equating to about three billable hours in an eight-hour workday. Inaccurate tracking not only impacts revenue but also compliance with legal obligations like the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), which requires precise record-keeping.

Essential Components of an Effective Billable Hours Tracking Template

An effective billable hours tracking template should include several key fields: Date, Client/Project, Task Description, Start/End Time, Duration, Billable/Non-Billable Flag, Hourly Rate, and Total Amount. These components ensure comprehensive tracking and transparency. For professions like law, using consistent time increments, such as 6 minutes, is crucial for precise billing.

Templates can be customized for different professions. For instance, freelancers might need simple spreadsheets, while legal professionals require detailed descriptions to meet ethical obligations. Consistent tracking allows for accurate invoicing and reduced disputes, leveraging data for financial forecasting and profitability analysis.

Best Practices for Accurate and Ethical Time Tracking

Real-time tracking is essential to maintaining accuracy in billable hours. Professionals are advised to log their time as tasks are completed to prevent guesswork and under-billing, which can result in losing 10-15% of potential billable hours if delayed to the end of the day. Establishing clear timekeeping policies and communicating them to teams and clients is vital to maintaining ethical standards and avoiding disputes.

Categorizing tasks effectively and providing detailed descriptions can enhance transparency and client trust. Additionally, regular reviews and reconciliation of time entries ensure that data remains accurate and reliable. Automating processes using tools like Harvest can further streamline time tracking, reduce errors, and save time by integrating timers and invoicing systems.

Legal and Industry-Specific Compliance

Compliance with legal and industry standards is non-negotiable for professionals tracking billable hours. For instance, the FLSA mandates precise record-keeping of hours worked, which must be maintained for several years. Government contractors must adhere to DCAA requirements, ensuring daily time entry and total time accounting for audit trails.

In the legal industry, accurate time tracking is not just a best practice but an ethical obligation. Lawyers must avoid overbilling or underbilling to maintain professional integrity. These standards emphasize the need for detailed task descriptions and accurate billing practices, which can be efficiently managed using Harvest's customizable reporting features.

Leveraging Time Tracking Data for Business Growth

Accurate time tracking is a powerful tool for business growth. By providing precise billing and reducing disputes, professionals can enhance client trust and improve financial forecasting. Tracked data also aids in project budgeting and resource allocation, identifying areas for efficiency improvements.

Using time tracking data, businesses can analyze utilization rates, which are crucial for understanding productivity and revenue potential. Transparent time tracking not only strengthens client relationships but also boosts business reputation, making Harvest an ideal solution for professionals seeking to optimize their time management and billing practices.

Track Billable Hours with Harvest

See how Harvest tracks billable hours accurately, offering detailed reports and customizable templates for various professions.

Screenshot of Harvest's billable hours tracking feature

Billable Hours Tracking Template FAQs

  • A billable hours tracking template should include fields for Date, Client/Project, Task Description, Start/End Time, Duration, Billable/Non-Billable Flag, Hourly Rate, and Total Amount. These components ensure comprehensive tracking and transparency.

  • Yes, templates can be tailored to different professions. For instance, freelancers may use simple spreadsheets, while legal professionals require detailed task descriptions to meet ethical obligations. Harvest offers customizable templates suitable for various needs.

  • Customizing a billable hours template involves adding fields that are specific to your work requirements, such as client names, project codes, and detailed task descriptions. Harvest allows for such customizations to fit different professional needs.

  • Best practices include real-time tracking, establishing clear timekeeping policies, categorizing tasks effectively, and providing detailed descriptions. Regular review and reconciliation of entries are also crucial to maintain accuracy.

  • Yes, billable hours tracking templates can be used in Excel or Google Sheets. These platforms allow for easy customization and sharing. Harvest also integrates with these tools, providing additional functionalities.

  • Harvest integrates seamlessly with tools like Asana and Slack, allowing users to start/stop timers from within these platforms and sync tracked time back to Harvest for comprehensive reporting.

  • Yes, Harvest allows you to track expenses alongside billable hours. You can capture receipts and assign expenses to specific projects, ensuring a complete overview of project costs.

  • Harvest helps reduce lost revenue by providing one-click timers for real-time tracking, detailed task descriptions, and flexible reporting. This minimizes guesswork and ensures accurate billing.