Time & billing ·
How to Track Billable Hours (and Stop Losing Unbilled Time)
How to track billable hours as a freelancer: what counts as billable, timer vs manual logs, rounding rules, a weekly unbilled-time review and invoice examples.
7 min read
Who it's for / Computer repair & IT support
Computer repair shops and independent IT providers bill in a few ways: a diagnostic or bench fee, labor by the hour or a flat price per job, and parts such as drives, memory or screens, sometimes with tax on the part and not on the labor. Small offices often pay a monthly support plan priced per device or per user, with project work and after-hours calls on top. Tell Clodou what you did and at what price: it writes the invoice, prepares the monthly plans as drafts, keeps track of your parts stock and shows who still owes you.
"Invoice Dana Brooks: diagnostic at $49, 1.5 hours of labor at $90 and a 1 TB SSD at $95, 7% sales tax on the SSD only" writes three lines, with the tax on the line it applies to.
Set up each office's support plan once as a retainer, such as 12 devices at $35, $420 a month. Clodou prepares one draft invoice a month for you to check; add project work or an after-hours call to the draft before you send it.
Keep the parts you stock in Clodou with a reorder level. Clodou lists what is running low and drafts a purchase order for you to approve; it never contacts a supplier. Invoicing a part does not take it out of stock, so record the parts you use with a stock adjustment.
Most repairs start with a diagnostic or bench fee, sometimes credited if the customer goes ahead, then labor by the hour or a flat price per job, such as a virus removal or a screen replacement. Give Clodou each with your price. A credited diagnostic is a discount line with the amount you give, such as diagnostic credit, −$49. Clodou never picks a price or adds a fee by itself.
Parts such as drives, memory, batteries or screens are billed at the price you set, and in some places sales tax applies to the part and not to the labor. Give a line its own tax rate, or none, and Clodou prints each tax on the lines it applies to. Whether labor is taxed where you work is for you to check with your accountant.
Small offices often pay a monthly plan per device or per user: set it up as a retainer and Clodou prepares one draft a month. A retainer keeps a fixed amount, so when the count changes, change the month's draft before you send it, or set up a new retainer and pause the old one. A prepaid block of hours is one invoice; log the time you spend as non-billable on the client's project to see how much of the block is used. Project work and after-hours calls go on the month's draft or on their own invoice.
Step 1
Invoice Dana Brooks for her laptop: diagnostic at $49, 1.5 hours of labor at $90 and a 1 TB SSD at $95. 7% sales tax on the SSD only. I gave her the invoice and she paid at the counter.
Adds Dana Brooks as a client and creates invoice INV-0310 with three lines: diagnostic, $49.00; labor, 1.5 hours at $90, $135.00; 1 TB SSD, $95.00, with 7% sales tax. Sales tax is $6.65, so the total is $285.65. It marks INV-0310 as sent and shows an approval card to record $285.65 received; once you approve it, the invoice is marked paid.
Step 2
Set up a $420 monthly retainer for Harbor Dental from December 1: managed IT support, 12 devices at $35. Then prepare this month's retainer invoices.
Finds Harbor Dental and sets up the retainer: $420 a month with the line "Managed IT support, 12 devices at $35", starting December 1. Then creates draft invoice INV-0311 for Harbor Dental with that line, $420.00. Nothing is sent on its own.
Step 3
Add the after-hours call on December 9 to INV-0311: 2 hours at $135.
Adds a line to draft INV-0311: after-hours call, December 9, 2 hours at $135, $270.00. The total is now $690.00.
Step 4
What's low on stock? Draft a purchase order to TechParts Supply for 10 of the 1 TB SSDs.
Lists the parts at or below their reorder level, such as 1 TB SSD, 2 on hand for a reorder level of 5. Then creates a draft purchase order to TechParts Supply for 10 at the SSD's recorded cost, for you to approve on the Inventory page.
Invoice Dana Brooks: diagnostic at $49, 1.5 hours of labor at $90 and a 1 TB SSD at $95, 7% sales tax on the SSD only
Set up a $420 monthly retainer for Harbor Dental from December 1: managed IT support, 12 devices at $35
What's low on stock?
Time & billing ·
How to track billable hours as a freelancer: what counts as billable, timer vs manual logs, rounding rules, a weekly unbilled-time review and invoice examples.
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