Time and projects
Projects
The work you bill clients for, and your own: its rate, budget, fee and milestones.
Open in EscBooksWhat a project is
A project is one piece of work for one client: a website, a case, a shoot. Time and expenses go on it, invoices group their lines by it, and its page shows how the work is going against its budget.
Projects are optional. Time can go straight on a client, but a project is what gives you its own rate, a budget, a fee and milestones. Your trade may call them matters, jobs or engagements; the words can be changed in Terms and features, and everything here works the same.
Tags group projects however suits you: Audiobook, Course, Phase 2. Add them in Add or Edit Project, filter and sort by them on the list, and rename or merge them in Settings → Tags.
Adding a project
- On Projects, click Add Project. Every project belongs to a client, so add the client first.
- Pick the Client and give it a Project name.
- Choose its Billing (below), and add a budget if you want one.
- Add Starts and Due dates if it has them. With both, its page shows whether you're ahead of or behind an even pace.
- Pick a color, which marks it in lists, on the timer and on its page, and any Notes. Then click Add Project.
The list shows each project's client, how it bills (Fixed $8,000.00, $165.00/hr, or Client rate when it bills like its client) and a small bar of how much of its budget is used, in hours when it has an hours budget. All clients narrows it to one client.
How it's billed
- Like client: the client's own rate. Change it there and the project follows.
- Hourly: its own Hourly rate, for work priced differently from the client's usual. Left blank, the client's or the service's rate applies.
- Daily: a Day rate, for each day with time logged. Days and half days follow your day rules in Billing Rules (see Tracking time).
- Fixed fee: one price for the work, the Project fee. Invoice it whole, or in parts: a deposit, or milestones (below). Time still counts against it, so you can see what the work really took.
Daily and Fixed fee show while Day rates and Fixed fees are on in Terms and features. A Budget (hours), a Budget (money) or both are optional; on a fixed fee, the fee is the money budget. Rates, fees and budgets are in the currency the client is billed in.
Internal projects: your own work
Not every project is for a client. A book, an audiobook, a course or your website is your own work: it takes hours and has costs (an editor, a narrator, a cover), but nobody is invoiced for it.
Every business has an internal client for this, named after the business. It's listed apart on Clients, under Your business, and can be renamed. When you add a project, choose Internal instead of For a client.
- Time and expenses on an internal project are always non-billable, so they never reach To Invoice.
- It has no rate, fee or money budget. A budget in hours still works.
- Its page shows Costs to date: every expense on the project, and its share of the bills you've paid, beside the hours logged.
- Subcontractors work as usual: pay the editor or narrator and put the payment on the project. Their 1099 totals don't change.
A project can move between a client and internal work with Edit. Moving to a client offers to make its unbilled time billable; moving to internal makes it non-billable.
The project's page
Open a project from the list to see how it's going. Under its name: the client, how it bills, its dates, and the days left (or late).
- The budget bar: how much of the budget is used, as a share. In hours it splits into Billed, Not billed yet and Non-billable; in money, Invoiced and Not invoiced yet. A fixed fee's hours are simply Logged, and its money counts as it's invoiced. With both dates, Today's pace marks where an even pace would be. Past the budget, the overrun shows in red. Switch between Hours and Money when it has both budgets.
- Under the bar: how much is used against how much of the time is gone, the Effective rate on a fixed fee (the fee over the hours logged), and any billable expenses, which sit outside the budget.
- No budget yet? The bar shows what's been invoiced and what hasn't, with Set a budget.
- Over Time draws the work adding up against the budget, Hours by Week shows the rhythm, and Where the Time Went splits it by service.
- Timeline, with both dates, places today and the milestones between the start and the due date, with any days past it in red. Team shows hours by person, once more than one person has logged time on it.
- Time Entries lists every entry on the project by day, newest first. Add Time there opens with the project and its client already picked; open an entry to edit it, or use its menu to start it again or delete it.
- Time Report, at the top, opens Time Reports for just this project.
Milestones
Milestones are the checkpoints in the work: "Design approved", "Draft filed". Add them under Milestones on the project's page with Add Milestone, give each a Due date if it has one, and tick it off when it's done. Open ones are listed soonest first, with the days left or late; done ones go to the bottom.
On a fixed-fee project, a milestone can carry part of the fee and be billed on its own:
- Give it a Share of fee (%). The shares together can't be more than the whole fee; the form says how much is left to plan, and the bar at the top of Milestones shows the plan.
- When you reach it, click Bill. EscBooks makes a draft invoice with one line, "Website redesign — Design approved (40% of the fixed fee)", and opens it for you to review and send.
- The milestone then shows its invoice: Draft until it's sent, then its number. Its share can't change while that invoice stands; void the invoice to change it.
Deleting a milestone leaves its invoice as it is. A milestone can be ticked done whether or not it's been billed, and billed whether or not it's done.
Finishing, moving and archiving
- Archive a finished project, from its page or the list, to take it out of the timer's choices. Its time, invoices and reports stay. Show archived on the list brings it into view, and Restore brings it back.
- Edit it to move it to another client: its time and expenses not invoiced yet go with it, at the new client's rates unless the project has its own. A project with invoiced work stays with its client.
- Your accountant, with read-only access, sees every project and changes none.
Still need help?
A person reads every message and replies by email. Contact support