todo.vu support

Help pages, tutorials and tips about how to get the most out of todo.vu

Billing time: Create a billing report

Once you have configured your workspace’s time and billing settings, set your billing rates, and tracked time on tasks and/or added charges for clients, you are ready to create a billing report in todo.vu.

Billing reports are customized digital records of time billing and fixed charges for a client. You can use billing reports to streamline your invoicing and provide your clients with exceptional service, as they can see exactly what they are being billed for.

To best understand the advantages of billing reports and how to use them, ensure you first understand how time billing in todo.vu works; please see our Help article: About Time Billing.

Jump to:

  1. The billing report: broken down
  2. Create a billing report
  3. Edit a published billing report
Note

Depending on your user access level, the billing features and functions mentioned in this guide may not be available to you.

Administration users and Workspace Owners by default have full access to all features and functions; however, Staff users will have limited access.

A screenshot of todo.vu's interface, demonstrating how to set a User access level to either admit or deny them access to your business' time billing reports.

The Billing report: broken down

Billing reports in todo.vu provide a detailed account of your time billing and fixed charges for any one client.

The data is broken down by time entries, charges, tasks and projects. Time entries and charges (if applicable) are grouped according to the task and then the project to which they belong.

For each of the time entries and charges, the report also shows:

  • The date and duration of the time entry
  • The hourly rate of the time entry
  • The user who logged the time entry or charge
  • The date and quantity of the charge
  • The unit price of the charge

Billing reports automatically calculate subtotals for each project and a final total that includes time billed and overall charges with taxes. This offers a comprehensive view of the work conducted and the associated billing for the client.

See the screenshot below:

A screenshot of a digitised time billing report in todo.vu, detailing the time tracked to specific tasks and projects for a client, the rate at which the time was tracked, the total bill amount, who tracked the time, as well as any time notes entered by the user, such as detail on activity.

Create a billing report

To create a billing report, follow the steps below:

Navigate to the Billing Dashboard. Select from the list of clients on the left-hand side of the dashboard the client you would like to invoice, and thus need to create a billing report for.

This will open the ‘Unbilled time and charges’ page, also known as the billing report editor, for that client. Here, all time billing and fixed charges data logged to that client within the workspace is automatically stored.

A screenshot of todo.vu's interface, demonstrating how to create a time billing report for a specific Client.

2. Filter the entries on your billing report (optional)

You can filter the time entries and charges that appear on the Billing report editor to simplify the creation of your report, which can be helpful if you have many unbilled time entries and charges here.

You can choose to filter your time entries and charges according to a:

  • Date range
  • Staff user, or
  • Label.

However, you can continue to create your billing report without these filters.

A screenshot of a time billing report being created, where the first step is selecting the parameters that will define your time billing report, if desired, such as the timeframe, which staff user's hours will be billed for, and which tasks under a specific label will be billed for.

Filter options:

By label – With the label icon in the top right-hand side of your workspace, you can filter the unbilled time entries and charges by a specific label.

For example, you may want to see tasks labelled “Out of Scope” or “Support” to  create a billing report for those specific business activities.

By user – With the user filter, you can filter the unbilled time entries and charges logged by a specific team member.

Filter by date range – With the date range selector, you can filter the unbilled time entries and charges according to a date range.

Click on the date range at the top right of the page to expand the tool and adjust it to your desired date. You will see the letters ‘D’, ‘W’ and ‘M’ above your graph on the right-hand side. These stand for:

  • Day
  • Week
  • Month.

These letters determine the length by which you can move your date range selector, which is the rectangular tool highlighted in orange.

When you select ‘D’, you are selecting ‘Snap to day’, which means you will be able to select a range down to the nearest day. If you select ‘M’, you are selecting ‘Snap to month’, which allows you to select a range in monthly intervals.

Note

You can apply more than one filter; for example, you can filter your list to display hours logged by a specific team member, with a specific label, for a specific date range.

3. Add items to your billing report

Now, to create a billing report, simply select any of the time entries and charges from the editor that you want to include in the report.

A pop-up bar will appear at the bottom of the page. Select the ‘Add to new report’ option. You may be given the option to add the selected time entry/ies to an existing draft report, if any exist.

If no draft reports exist, a new draft billing report will be automatically created containing the selected time entry or entries.

A screenshot demonstrating how to select time logs from a draft billing report to add to a finalised time billing report in todo.vu.

Note: Start with an ‘Empty’ draft billing report instead

Instead of selecting time entries from the billing report editor to create a draft billing report, you can simply create an empty draft billing report first.

Just select the plus (+) icon next to the ‘Billing reports’ section on the left-hand side. This is handy if you would like to create multiple draft billing reports at once.

 

An animated GIF demonstrating how a user can define the parameters of a Billing report in todo.vu.

Refine time entries/charges before adding to a report

Before you add any of these items to your new Billing report, you have the option to adjust or refine them here. Click on any time entry, task or project, and you will see the following options in a pop-up bar at the bottom of your screen:

  • Change rate
  • Change task
  • Non-billable.

 

A screenshot (zoomed in) demonstrating how to select time logs from a draft billing report to add to a finalised time billing report in todo.vu.

If you select:

  • “Add to new report”

Everything you have selected will be moved to a new draft billing report.

  • “Change rate”

You will be given the option to change the charge-out rate for every time entry that you have selected.

  • “Change task”

You will be given the option to move every time entry you have selected to a new task.

  • “Non-billable”

Everything you have selected will move to Non-billable; you will not be able to move these time entries to a new billing report, unless you mark them as billable once again from within the ‘Non-billable’ section of the page. (Click on ‘Non-billable’ within left-hand column of the ‘Unbilled time’ page to get to the ‘Non-billable’ section.)

An animated GIF demonstrating how a user can create a detailed time billing report in todo.vu to attach to their client invoices, helping to minimize the risk of invoice disputes.
Note

If you select a Project from your Unbilled time page, all tasks and time entries connected to (and displayed underneath) this Project will automatically be selected, too. Any edits you make; i.e., to change a rate or mark as non-billable, will be made in bulk to everything selected.

Similarly, if you select a task, all time entries connected to that task will automatically be selected and any edits made in bulk.

You can deselect certain tasks and time entries by clicking on them once more.

You can also edit a time entry note from the billing report editor; click on the pencil icon that appears on the left when you hover over a time entry. This will open todo.vu’s pop-up time modal, where you can make your edits.

A screenshot of todo.vu's billing report editor demonstrating how to add or edit a note to a specific time entry.

4. Publish your billing report

Once you have added all the required information to your draft billing report, select that report from the left-hand column to open it.

Note: All of your billing reports, both published and draft, will be stored here; your draft billing reports will be represented with a red icon, and your published reports with a green icon.

A screenshot of todo.vu's time billing editor demonstrating the visual distinction between billing reports that have been published and billing reports still in draft form.

Now, you can add a billing report name at the top, and an External invoice ID to the left of the billing report name for your own referencing purposes.

As long as your billing report is in draft, you can select and adjust individual time entries or tasks; for example, to remove an entry from the report, change a billing rate, or move an entry to Non-billable.

Click on ‘Publish report’ at the top right corner of your Workspace when you are satisfied with your report.

A screenshot of todo.vu demonstrating where users can add an External invoice ID to a new time billing report, and where they can publish their time billing report.

You will now see a clear, concise and reader-friendly billing report that you can share with your clients.

You can do this by copying the link above the report, and adding it as a link on your invoice.

Congratulations – You have created a new billing report!

A screenshot of a final, digitized time billing report in todo.vu, indicating where users can copy the unique billing report URL to attach to their invoices.

Editing your published billing report

You may want to add more details to your billing report than what is displayed by default. For example, you might want to add a billing report footer to explain your payment terms, or you may want to update how your logo looks on your reports (though this option is exclusive to Business Time subscribers!).

You might simply want to update your billing report’s name. 

To make any of these changes, simply select the cog icon at the top right hand-side of your published billing report.

A screenshot of a published Billing Report in todo.vu, indicating where a user can access published Billing Report settings to adjust their report, such as to hide cost entries and more.
A screenshot of todo.vu's published Billing Report settings available to a user to modify their published report.

There are limitations to what you can edit from within the billing report settings. For example, though you can choose to omit certain details on your billing report, such as Task IDs or the costs associated with each time entry, you cannot make any changes to the task or time entry details themselves through these settings.

If you need to make changes to these details, such as change the billing rate of a time entry or connect a time entry to a different task, you will have to select ‘Retract’ at the top right corner of your published billing report page, make these changes to the report as it is in draft mode again, and publish the report once more.

Note

All edits to Billing reports, either made by retracting the report or through the Billing report’s settings, happen in real-time.

That means even if you have already sent a link to a Billing report to a client, and need to edit that Billing report, you can still do so and the client will see the updated report through the same initial link.

READ NEXT:

Add fixed charges to your billing reports in todo.vu. Read here >>

Share This