Hourly Invoice Template: How to Invoice for Hours Worked

If you sell your time, your invoice has one job: let the client check your hours and your math in a minute, then pay. An hourly invoice that lists dates, tasks, hours and a rate gets approved. One that says "Consulting, 39.5 hours" gets questions.

This guide covers what an hourly invoice shows, how to round time fairly, how to describe the work, when to attach a timesheet, and when a retainer fits better than hourly billing. It includes a plain-text template you can copy and a worked example in US dollars.

What an hourly invoice shows

An hourly invoice has the same core parts as any invoice, plus the detail that lets a client trace each charge back to the work. For the basics of any invoice, see how to make an invoice as a freelancer.

Part	What to write	Example
Your details	Business name, address, email, tax ID if you have one	Rivera Analytics LLC, Austin, TX
Client details	Company name, contact, billing address, PO number	Northwind Outfitters, Accounts Payable
Invoice number	A unique, sequential number	INV-0042
Issue date and due date	Both as dates, not only "net 30"	Issued Nov 3, 2026; due Dec 3, 2026
Billing period	The dates the hours cover	Oct 1–31, 2026
Dates of work	On each line: one day or a date range	Oct 5–9
Task description	What was done, in words the client uses	Sales data cleanup and data model
Hours	On each line, in decimals	11.25
Rate	Per hour, on every line	$120.00
Line amount	Hours × rate	$1,350.00
Total hours	The sum of the hours column	39.5
Subtotal, tax and total	Subtotal, any sales tax or VAT, amount due	$4,830.00
Currency	The three-letter code, at least for clients abroad	USD
Payment terms and details	How and by when to pay	Net 30, bank transfer or payment link
Timesheet reference	If you attach one	Timesheet attached, October 2026

Two parts are easy to forget. Total hours lets the client compare the invoice with their own records without a calculator. The billing period tells them which hours this invoice covers, so nothing is billed twice or skipped.

Write hours as decimals, not as hours and minutes: 1 hour 45 minutes is 1.75 hours, and 20 minutes is 0.33 hours. Multiplying "1:45" by a rate in a spreadsheet is where many invoice errors start.

Hourly invoice template (copy and paste)

Paste this into a document, an email or your invoicing tool, and replace everything in brackets. Keep one line per task or one line per day, whichever your client prefers.

INVOICE                                        [INV-0000]

From:    [Your business name]
         [Address] · [Email] · [Tax ID, if any]

Bill to: [Client company]
         [Contact name] · [Billing address] · [PO number, if any]

Issue date:      [Month Day, Year]
Due date:        [Month Day, Year]  (Net [15 / 30])
Billing period:  [First day] – [Last day]
Currency:        [USD]

Date(s)    Description                          Hours   Rate     Amount
---------  -----------------------------------  -----  -------  ---------
[Date]     [Task, in the client's words]        [0.00] [000.00] [0,000.00]
[Date]     [Task]                               [0.00] [000.00] [0,000.00]
[Date]     [Task at another rate, if agreed]    [0.00] [000.00] [0,000.00]

Total hours:  [00.00]
Subtotal:     [0,000.00]
Tax:          [name, rate and amount, or "none"]
Total due:    [USD 0,000.00]

Time is billed in [15-minute / 6-minute] increments, as agreed in
[contract or quote, date]. Detailed timesheet attached.

Payment: [bank details or payment link]
Questions about this invoice: [email]

Keep the rounding sentence even if the client never asks about it. It shows the rule was agreed before the work, not chosen afterwards.

Worked example: a month of consulting in USD

A data consultant bills $120 an hour, with a $180 rush rate for weekend work written into her contract. She rounds each entry up to the next 15 minutes and invoices once a month. Here is October 2026, grouped by task:

Dates	Description	Hours	Rate	Amount
Oct 1–2	Discovery workshop and four stakeholder interviews	6.5	$120.00	$780.00
Oct 5–9	Sales data cleanup and dashboard data model	11.25	$120.00	$1,350.00
Oct 12–16	Dashboard build: revenue, churn and pipeline pages	14.75	$120.00	$1,770.00
Oct 18	Weekend fix to the CRM import (rush rate, approved by email on Oct 17)	1.5	$180.00	$270.00
Oct 19–23	Review call and revisions, round 1	3.5	$120.00	$420.00
Oct 27	Handover session and written documentation	2.0	$120.00	$240.00
	Total	39.5		$4,830.00

The math: 38 hours × $120 = $4,560, plus 1.5 hours × $180 = $270, for a total of $4,830.00.

There is no sales tax in this example. Many US states do not tax most professional services, but the rules vary by state and by type of service, so check with your accountant before you leave tax off. The invoice is issued on November 3 with net 30 terms, so it is due on December 3. Our guide to invoice payment terms has wording you can reuse.

What makes this invoice easy to approve: each line names a deliverable, the higher rate explains itself, and the hours add up to one total the client can compare with their calendar.

Rounding and minimum increments

Rounding is a convention you agree with the client, not a legal rule. Three conventions are common:

• Exact minutes. The most transparent. Easy if your tool does the math.
• 6-minute increments (0.1 hour). Common in law and consulting.
• 15-minute increments (0.25 hour). Common with freelancers and agencies.

You also choose the direction: always up to the next increment, or to the nearest one. Here is the same 156 minutes of work (a 6-minute email, a 51-minute call and a 99-minute work block) at $120 an hour under each rule:

Rule	6-min email	51-min call	99-min block	Billed hours	Amount
Exact minutes	0.1	0.85	1.65	2.6	$312.00
Up to the next 6 minutes	0.1	0.9	1.7	2.7	$324.00
Nearest 15 minutes	0	0.75	1.75	2.5	$300.00
Up to the next 15 minutes	0.25	1.0	1.75	3.0	$360.00

The same work bills anywhere from $300 to $360. None of these rules is wrong, as long as it is written down and applied the same way every time. A few practical points:

• Round the task, not every fragment. Three 5-minute emails rounded up to 15 minutes each become 45 billed minutes for 15 minutes of work. Add up the day's time on a task first, then round once.
• A minimum charge is a separate rule. Some freelancers bill at least 15 minutes for any call, or 2 hours for any on-site visit. Write it in the contract next to the rounding rule.
• Do not switch rules mid-project. If you want to change, do it from the next billing period and tell the client first.

For capturing the time itself (timers, manual logs and a weekly review), see how to track billable hours.

How to describe the work

A description should let someone who was not in the room understand what they paid for. Name the deliverable, use the client's own project names, and note who asked for anything outside the original scope.

Vague	Clear
Consulting	Pricing model review: churn assumptions and three scenarios
Meetings	Weekly status call (Oct 13) and follow-up notes
Design	Homepage mockups, desktop and mobile, revision round 2
Dev work	Checkout form: validation and error states
Extra changes	Extra landing page variant, requested by Dana on Oct 21
Research	Competitor pricing research for the March launch page

Two more habits help. Keep internal jargon and ticket numbers out unless the client uses them too. And group tiny tasks into one line per day ("Email support and small copy fixes, 0.75 h") rather than listing ten 5-minute items.

Timesheet attachments: when and what to include

A timesheet is the detailed log behind the invoice. Attach one when:

• the client's accounts payable team or contract requires it;
• you bill against a purchase order, a budget or a not-to-exceed cap;
• several people worked on the project at different rates;
• the client is new, or a past invoice was questioned.

A useful timesheet lists, for each entry, the date, the person, the project and task, the duration (or start and end times) and whether it is billable. Add a subtotal per task that matches each invoice line exactly. If the timesheet says 11.5 hours and the invoice says 11.25, you will spend more time explaining the gap than you saved by rounding.

Reference it on the invoice ("Timesheet attached: October 2026, 39.5 hours") and send both as PDFs in the same email. Before you send, check the export for notes about other clients or internal comments.

If your invoice already has one line per task per day, it can serve as the timesheet. Many clients are happy with that.

Hourly billing vs a retainer

Hourly billing suits work whose size you cannot predict. A retainer suits steady, ongoing work. Many freelancers use both: hourly for a first project, then a retainer once the volume is clear.

	Hourly	Monthly retainer
The client pays	For the hours actually worked	A set amount for access or a set volume of work
The invoice	Changes every period	Same amount each month, with any overage on extra lines
Works best when	Scope is unclear, or work comes in bursts	Work is ongoing and predictable
Your risk	Income that varies month to month	Underpricing, if the client uses more than you planned
The client's risk	No ceiling, unless you agree a cap	Paying for unused hours, unless rollover is agreed
What you track	Every billable entry	Hours used against hours included, to report and bill overage

A middle path is an hours bank: the client prepays a block of hours each month, and you bill any extra hours at an agreed rate. Our guide to how to bill retainer clients has invoice examples for each model.

If you stay hourly with a client who worries about cost, offer an estimate with a not-to-exceed cap, and warn them before you reach it.

Common mistakes

• Hours without dates. The client cannot match them to anything.
• A rate that appears only once. Put it on every line, especially when you use more than one rate.
• Expenses mixed into hours. Bill reimbursable costs, such as software bought for the client or travel, on their own lines, at cost or as agreed.
• Invoicing long after the work. Questions multiply and payment slips. Invoice weekly, every two weeks or monthly, on a fixed day.
• A bare "$" for a client abroad. Write USD, CAD or AUD. See which currency to invoice international clients in.
• Different totals in two places. The invoice, the timesheet and any project report must show the same hours.

Key takeaways

• An hourly invoice shows the billing period, and for each line the date, task, hours, rate and amount, plus total hours and the amount due.
• Write hours as decimals and put the rate on every line.
• Agree a rounding rule and any minimum charge before the work, write them in the contract and on the invoice, and round tasks rather than fragments.
• Describe deliverables in the client's words, and note who asked for extra work.
• Attach a timesheet when the client, a purchase order or a cap requires it, with totals that match the invoice.
• Move steady, predictable work to a retainer or an hours bank.

How Clodou helps

Clodou keeps your hours, projects and invoices in one place, and you can run it by chat. Each project can carry a client and an hourly rate. Track time with the timer on the Time page, or tell the chat something like "log 90 minutes on the Northwind dashboard, billable", and each entry takes the project's rate.

When the period ends, select the unbilled hours of a project on the Time page, or ask "Invoice Northwind for October's unbilled hours". Clodou creates a draft invoice in one step: one line per time entry, with its description and date, the hours to two decimals and the rate. If a rate is missing, Clodou asks you to set it on the project instead of guessing. It bills the minutes you logged and does not apply rounding increments, so if your contract rounds to 15 minutes, log the rounded time. There is no separate timesheet export, but because each entry becomes a dated line, the invoice itself carries the detail.

Before the invoice goes out, you can ask Clodou to change its lines, dates or notes, add a discount line, set a different tax rate (or none) on one line, or add a date of supply next to the issue date. Invoices are numbered per workspace (INV-0001, INV-0002…) and come out as branded PDFs with your logo. You send them from the Documents page with the PDF attached, or Clodou emails them once an owner or admin approves. For retainer clients, Clodou prepares one draft invoice a month and never sends it on its own.

Every new workspace starts with a 14-day trial of Team, no card required. After that, the Free plan includes 20 AI requests and 3 quotes or invoices a month; Solo is $29 a month and Team $79 a month, per workspace.