About time billing
While todo.vu’s time tracker allows you to track and record the time you spend on tasks, todo.vu’s billing features ensure that that 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, with this data, you can create detailed time billing reports to support your invoices.
In this article, you’ll understand how time billing works in todo.vu. You’ll learn how time 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 ‘Billing time: Create a billing report‘ Help article. 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 Administration 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 system.
As illustrated in the graphic below:
- Time is tracked, recorded (as time entries), and linked to 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 & 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.
You could report on time and billing values per:
- date range
- task
- client
- user
- project…
… as well as overall and 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. The possibilities are near endless.
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.
We can see, for example, in the images below, that a billing report has been created for the client for this task and project.
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.)
Or, I could see the time (and billing value) 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
So far, we’ve explored todo.vu’s ability to track time at hourly rates and create detailed reports that calculate time and billing value totals.
But what benefits does this bring to your business and productivity?
Below, we take a quick look at how todo.vu’s time billing features influence your workflows.
There are three key ways:
Improve productivity
Because time is tracked on tasks at hourly rates, there is no need to use many different systems to accurately record and bill for your activities. todo.vu provides time tracking; task, project and client management; and billing all in one tool.
By having everything in one tool, you streamline your workflow, reducing the time and effort spent on administrative tasks, and enhancing overall productivity. Plus, this integration lessens the likelihood of errors that can occur when juggling multiple systems, ensuring more accurate and reliable data for business decision-making.
Improve insights
With these insights, businesses can streamline their processes, make better project timelines and resource allocation decisions, understand and develop their team’s capabilities, and enhance financial planning and client relationship management.
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.
Improve billing
With todo.vu’s time billing features, you can create itemized billing reports with included taxes.
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.
Not only do they streamline your invoicing process, detailed billing reports 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. Unlike reports on the Reporting dashboard, billing reports are created based on client profiles, which means they are created per client and can only contain time data linked to that client.
Where to view time billing data
Once time is tracked, you can view your time billing data from several key areas within todo.vu.
These are:
- On the Billing Dashboard — Where you can see an overview of your time billing activities 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; this is where you create billing reports.
- On the Reporting Dashboard — Where you can see time 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 billed 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
As you view time data in todo.vu, you will notice that this data is also categorized by specific billing statuses, which are, in most cases, represented by a specific colour. These statuses help you understand the billing context of each time entry.
- Billed – Time billing data is shown as ‘billed’ when it’s included in a published Time 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) Time Billing report. (Represented by blue.)
- Draft – Time billing data is shown as ‘Draft’ when it’s included in a draft Time 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 section for each client and can be used for internal reporting purposes. (Represented by purple.)
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.
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 (they are ‘Billed’ as soon as a billing report is published).
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 (or in-house) profile on the left of the dashboard.
Users can mark time as non-billable in a variety of ways, for example:
- Via a client profile on the Billing Dashboard
While on the Billing Dashboard, simply select the client from the left-hand list to which you know 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, simply 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 >>