About time billing
While todo.vu’s timer allows you to track and record the time you spend on tasks, todo.vu’s billing features ensure this time is tracked and recorded at specific billing rates.
This means that you can see exactly how long different activities took, as well as the monetary value of that time. You can see this data for customized parameters: i.e., for a specified date range, team member, project, and so on.
Additionally, you can create detailed billing reports to support your invoices with this data.
In this article, you’ll understand how time billing works in todo.vu. You’ll learn how time tracking with integrated billing enhances your workflows, where to view your time billing data, and about the billing statuses that categorize that data.
To learn how to create a billing report in todo.vu, please see our Help article on Billing reports here. Alternatively, learn how to update your time billing settings here, and your billing rates here.
Quick glossary
Time entry – A time entry is a detailed record of time that has been logged in todo.vu, either tracked in real time with todo.vu’s timer, or recorded manually. Time entries can be displayed on the calendar, on individual tasks, and in your reporting dashboards.
Note
Depending on your user access level, the billing features and functions mentioned in this guide may not be available to you.
Only Administrator users and Workspace owners have unlimited access to all features and functions in todo.vu. Staff users (Full access and Restricted access users) have limited access.
How time billing works
To understand how time billing works in todo.vu, it’s important to know how your time data connects with tasks, projects, and clients in the platform.
As illustrated in the graphic below:
- Time is tracked and recorded (as time entries at custom billing rates) on todo.vu tasks*.
- Tasks (and their time entries) belong to specific projects.
- Projects (and their tasks and time entries) belong to specific clients.
- Clients (and their projects, tasks and time entries) belong to a single todo.vu workspace.
*Time does not have to be linked to tasks; you can also track your time freely.
When time is tracked by a user on a todo.vu task, because that task is also connected to a client and project, you can see, calculate and report on this time—and associated billing values—according to many different contexts and degrees of specificity.
For example, you could see and report on time and billing values per:
- date range
- task
- client
- user
- project…
… as well as for many combinations of the above.
You could, for example, create a report that includes time and billing data for a specific project only. Or, you could hone in and do the same but for a single user on a that same project, and so on.
For example:
In the animation below, this task ‘Update HTML on site’ (Task no. #998) belongs to a todo.vu workspace owned and managed by a team called ‘Acme Widgets’. This task is organised according to a client, ABC Physiotherapy, and a project, ‘Website’. It is due on Monday May 1 at 5 p.m.
The time spent on the task so far (time entries) amounts to 2 hours and 5 minutes. This has been tracked by a todo.vu user, Keelie French, who has also added a time note as to what she completed during that time (“Investigating HTML error”).
Behind the scenes, todo.vu will have tracked the time at the hourly rate assigned to Keelie French.
Based on this tracked time, we can use todo.vu to create detailed reports that automatically calculate accurate time billing totals.
We can see, for example, in the images below, that a billing report has been created for the client that includes only this task.
The total of the billing report has been calculated by todo.vu based on our user Keelie French’s charge-out rate of $150. Tax has been added (in this case Australian GST), as per our time billing settings.
We can also see this activity in our internal reports in todo.vu.
An example billing report from time tracked on task #998. (Click to enlarge.)
An example internal report in todo.vu detailing time tracked on task #998. (Click to enlarge.)
If, however, I wanted to see all time (and billing values) tracked on all projects belonging to the client ABC Physiotherapy, and not only by Keelie French on the project ‘Website’, I could do that too.
Or, I could see the time (and billing values) tracked by all users to the client’s project, ‘Website’.
Because all time data is tracked and recorded at a hourly rate and at a task, user, client and project level, all I would have to do is use todo.vu’s Reporting dashboard to configure my desired report.
Time billing and your workflows
Below, we explore how todo.vu’s billing features influence your workflows.
Better productivity
As todo.vu integrates billing with time tracking and task management, there is no need to use many different systems to effectively manage, record and bill accurately for your activities. Users can streamline their workflow, reducing the time and effort spent on administrative tasks and enhancing overall productivity. Plus, the integration lessens the likelihood of errors, ensuring more accurate and reliable data for business decision-making.
Better insights
Data collected through todo.vu’s billing features can provide detailed insights into business performance, including insights on efficiency, project management, and user performance. With these insights, businesses can make informed decisions to improve their processes and capabilities.
Users can find these insights within the Reporting dashboard in todo.vu.
This Help article is focussed on billing; however, you can learn more about reporting at our dedicated Help article here.
Better billing
todo.vu’s integrated billing and time tracking features enable users to quickly and easily create itemized billing reports to support their invoicing.
Billing reports break down time data by date, user, billing rate, task and project—accurately calculating total billing values per project and report overall. They can also include fixed charges, such as item-specific charges, and fixed-price projects.
Not only do these detailed billing reports streamline your invoicing process, they can also foster an environment of transparency with your clients. By presenting a clear, itemized breakdown of time and costs, clients receive a transparent view of the services rendered. This clarity not only aids in client communication but also builds trust, as clients can see exactly what they are being billed for.
todo.vu’s billing reports are created from the Billing dashboard. Read more about billing reports here.
Where to view time billing data
As time is tracked and logged in todo.vu, data is recorded automatically, including the date, time and duration of the time entry, as well as user, project, client, task, notes and associated billing value details connected to the time entry.
You can view this time billing data in several key areas within todo.vu.
These are:
- On the Billing dashboard — Where you can see an overview of your time billing data for a specific time period. You can also see time billing data per individual client by selecting a client profile from the list on the left-hand side.
- On the Reporting dashboard — Where you can see time billing data recorded for your entire workspace and create customised reports based on your activities.
- On the Time dashboard (Calendar) — Which displays time billing data in a visual calendar format, making it easy to correlate time with dates and schedules.
- On each individual task — Where you can see time tracked to the task directly underneath that task’s description, or by selecting the ‘Time spent’ field at the top right of an open task.
Note: Non-administrator users can only see time billing data for their own user profile.
About billing statuses
Time data in todo.vu is categorized by its associated billing status. These statuses help you understand the billing context of each time entry.
Here’s what they mean:
- Billed – Time billing data is shown as ‘billed’ when it’s included in a published billing report. (Represented by green.)
- Unbilled – Time billing data is shown as ‘unbilled’ when it’s billable time that has not yet been included in a published (or draft) billing report. (Represented by blue.)
- Draft – Time billing data is shown as ‘Draft’ when it’s included in a draft billing report. (Represented by red.)
- Non-billable – Time billing data is shown as ‘Non-billable’ when it’s been marked as such in todo.vu. Non-billable time is stored neatly within the Billing page for each client and can be used for internal reporting purposes. (Represented by purple.)
**Note: todo.vu does not yet have the ability to directly invoice and take payment from clients. When data has been published in a billing report, it is marked as ‘billed’ in todo.vu – time that has been ‘billed’ and charges that have been ‘billed’, for example. This ensures accurate billing data in your workspace. Learn more here.
How billing statuses work
Apart from the ‘Non-billable’ status, billing statuses are applied automatically to time data; users do not have to do anything manually.
That is: as users track time, that time is automatically categorized as ‘Unbilled’ (and appears across todo.vu — in reports, on the Calendar, etc. — as such). As users create billing reports and add time entries to them, they move through ‘Draft’ and then ‘Billed’ statuses automatically. Time data is marked as ‘Billed’ as soon as a billing report is published with that data.
The only billing status that is used manually is the ‘Non-billable’ status.
Keeping track of non-billable time in todo.vu is useful for internal reporting purposes. Non-billable time is kept per client (or as in-house) on the Billing dashboard under each client/in-house profile on the left of the dashboard.
Users can mark time as non-billable in a variety of ways:
- Via a client profile on the Billing dashboard
While on the Billing dashboard, select the client from the left-hand list to whom the unbillable time is stored. Or, select ‘In-house’, if the time data doesn’t relate to a client.
You’ll be taken to the Billing Report editor which is by default populated with Unbilled time data for that client. Simply select the time entires that are non billable, then select ‘Non-billable’ from the pop-up bar that appears at the bottom of the dashboard.
- Via todo.vu’s Calendar
While on todo.vu’s Calendar, right click on an unbilled or draft billed time entry and select ‘Non-billable’ from the list of options that appear. Alternatively, you can select the unbilled or draft billed time entry to open the task it’s connected to, and then select the three-dot menu at the top right-hand side of the task. Then, select ‘Non-billable’ from the list of options that appear.
- Via a todo.vu task
While on an open task, navigate to the time entries beneath the task description. Provided the time entries displayed aren’t already included in a billing report, a pencil icon will appear to the right of the time entry details when you hover your mouse over the text.
Select the pencil icon, select the three-dot menu at the top right-hand side of the task, and then select ‘Non-billable’ from the list of options that appear.
READ NEXT:
Understand todo.vu’s Billing dashboard. Read here >>