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How to Record Billable Hours

Only 17% of individuals track work hours accurately, leading to productivity losses. Harvest simplifies billable hour recording, enhancing efficiency and profitability.

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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 and Their Importance

Billable hours are the cornerstone of revenue generation for many professionals, especially in fields like consulting and legal services. They represent the actual time spent working on tasks that can be directly charged to a client. Accurately recording these hours is crucial as it directly impacts profitability, client trust, and project management. Inaccuracies can lead to a loss of up to 20% in annual productivity, and nearly half of employees admit to some form of time theft, highlighting the need for reliable tracking solutions.

According to the American Bar Association, ethical billing practices, including the use of appropriate billing increments (such as 6-minute intervals), are essential. This ensures transparency and fairness in client relations. By using a tool like Harvest, professionals can define and track billable versus non-billable hours effectively, aligning with industry standards and enhancing client trust.

Effective Methods for Tracking Billable Hours

Tracking billable hours can be challenging, with manual methods prone to an 80% error rate. To counteract this, businesses that adopt time tracking tools report a 30% increase in profitability. The key is to track time in real-time, capturing every task as it happens. Delaying entries can result in a loss of over 10% of billable hours due to forgotten details.

Software like Harvest offers a comprehensive solution, allowing users to start/stop timers with a single click or enter time manually. It integrates seamlessly with popular platforms like Asana, Slack, and QuickBooks, ensuring that time tracking is both accurate and efficient. This integration helps prevent the 700 hours of potentially billable work that companies lose annually due to unrecorded time.

Differentiating Between Billable and Non-Billable Hours

Understanding the distinction between billable and non-billable hours is fundamental to effective time management. Billable hours include tasks directly related to client work, while non-billable hours often cover administrative duties and internal meetings. With 49% of employees admitting to time theft, accurate differentiation is crucial to maintain profitability and transparency.

Harvest simplifies this process by allowing users to set project types and rates accordingly. This flexibility in tracking helps businesses adhere to federal regulations like the FLSA, which mandates accurate record-keeping. By using Harvest, firms can ensure that all work is categorized correctly, aiding in compliance and reducing the risk of revenue leakage from unbilled hours.

Best Practices for Recording Billable Hours

Implementing best practices for recording billable hours can significantly impact a business's bottom line. One of the most effective strategies is to use consistent billing increments, such as 6-minute or 15-minute intervals, to streamline invoicing and ensure accuracy. These increments are widely used in professional services to balance precision and efficiency.

With Harvest, users can customize these increments to fit their specific needs, improving both client transparency and reducing billing disputes. Detailed reporting features provide insights into team utilization, a key performance indicator for professional services firms. Such insights can lead to a 61% increase in revenue by minimizing productivity leaks and maximizing billable time.

Record Billable Hours with Harvest

See how Harvest's intuitive interface helps you accurately track and manage billable hours, enhancing productivity and profitability.

Harvest time tracking interface for recording billable hours

How to Record Billable Hours FAQs

  • A billable hour is any time spent on tasks directly related to client work that can be charged. It includes activities like consulting, designing, or any project work for a client. Using Harvest, you can easily track these hours to ensure accurate billing.

  • Accurate time tracking is crucial as it impacts profitability, client trust, and project management. Companies can lose up to 20% of productivity due to poor time management, but tools like Harvest can increase profitability by 30%.

  • Real-time tracking is the most effective method, as it captures work as it happens. Software like Harvest provides one-click timers and manual entry options to ensure precise time logging, reducing the risk of unbilled hours.

  • Billing increments are small time units used to measure work done, commonly set at 6, 10, or 15 minutes. Harvest allows you to choose increments that suit your business, ensuring accurate and fair billing.

  • Using time tracking software like Harvest is key to preventing revenue loss. It helps capture all work done, preventing the loss of over 700 hours of potentially billable work annually.

  • Harvest integrates seamlessly with Asana, allowing users to track time on projects directly from their task management platform. This integration enhances productivity and accuracy in time tracking.

  • Yes, Harvest allows you to track expenses alongside billable hours. You can capture receipts and manage expenses efficiently, ensuring comprehensive project cost tracking.