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5 tips for easy time billing

3 minute read.

Here’s how to use todo.vu‘s unique time billing features to capture more billable hours, invoice quickly and get paid accurately.

Note

This page is an overview of Time billing in todo.vu. For more information, head to our dedicated Time billing Support page.

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.

An example of the customisable time billing reports you can create in todo.vu.

Because todo.vu is one of few tools that integrates time tracking and billing, you can track your billable (and non-billable) hours — and instantly calculate total bills — all in one place!

With detailed time billing reports available to you at any time, you can see at a glance where you’re most profitable, and provide your clients with a clear breakdown of your billable time.

An example of the time billing dashboard in todo.vu, displaying on a bar graph the time tracked by a user per day within a specific date range, coloured in accordance with the categorisation of that time: blue for unbilled time, red for draft billed time, green for billed time, purple for non-billable time.
A detailed breakdown of the bar graph above depicting which tasks in todo.vu are billed, unbilled, unbillable or non-billable for a specific date range and according to client, project, user and label.

See a clear breakdown of your billable and non-billable time with customised reporting.

If you already use an invoicing system, that’s great! todo.vu isn’t meant to replace tools like Xero or QuickBooks, but to complement them, helping you to invoice accurately, quickly, and with transparency.

Here’s how to make the most of todo.vu’s time billing features.

Jump to:

  1. Set different billing rates
  2. Assign clients, staff & projects to your tasks
  3. Track time on tasks
  4. Create billing reports regularly
  5. Attach billing reports to invoices

1. Set custom billing rates

Do you charge different clients at different rates? Many of us do! That’s why todo.vu offers a ton of flexibility when it comes to your own billing set-up.

In todo.vu, you can easily track and record your time at rates specific to staff, clients and projects. There’s no need for multiple systems, spreadsheets or timesheets to calculate your total bill, because it has been tracked and recorded for you in todo.vu.

Here’s how to set up billing rates for:

todo.vu Workspaces

Your todo.vu Workspace’s billing rate is your default billing rate when you’re tracking time.

To configure your Workspace’s billing rate, click on your Workspace name in the upper-left corner, then “Time & billing settings”. Or, once you are already logged in to todo.vu, navigate to this link here.

Then, simply scroll down to “Billing rate” to complete your set-up.

A screenshot of how to navigate to time billing settings in todo.vu.
A screenshot depicting how an admin user in todo.vu can configure and edit the time billing rate of another user.

Team members

To set different charge-out rates for different staff, select “View all team members”  by clicking on the ellipses (…) beside your team avatars at the top left of your workspace. Or, once you’re already logged in, navigate to this link here.

Then, select a team member you wish to customise. In that team member’s profile, select the menu in the top right-hand side and click, “Edit user details”.

Here, you can change the team member’s billing rate.

Clients

In todo.vu, the only change you can make to client billing is to the tax rate.

You can still bill clients at different rates, however, you’ll have to set this up at a project level. (You can customise your charge-out rates on specific projects, you see. More on this below.)

Click on “Clients” in the left sidebar (or go to this link once logged in), select a client and select “Billing” to change the tax rate for that client.

A screenshot depicting how an admin user in todo.vu can configure and edit the tax rate of a client.
A screenshot depicting how an admin user in todo.vu can configure and edit the time billing rates for a specific project, or of users on a specific project.

Projects & project users

To set a charge-out rate for a specific project, click on “Projects” in the left sidebar of your workspace (or go to this link once you’ve logged in), select a project and then “Billing rates”.

Note the heirarchy of billing settings

  1. Billing rate on Workspace: default across all projects, clients and team members.
  2. Billing rate on each Team member (staff user): overrides Workspace settings.
  3. Billing rate on Project: overrides Workspace and Team member (staff user) settings.
  4. Billing rate on User on a Project: overrides everything.

For more information, see our Time and Billing Settings Support webpage.

2. Assign clients, staff & projects to your tasks

Every time you create a task in todo.vu, you can choose to assign team members (Users), a Client and a Project to that task.

An animated gif instructing how a user can assign a client, project, followers and team members to specific tasks in todo.vu.

Take the time to do this before you start tracking time to the Task, so that you’re recording the time correctly from the outset. (For example, say you have set a unique Project billing rate, but you forgot to assign that Project to your Task. Any time logged to that Task would be at your Workspace’s default billing rate, instead of your specified Project rate.)

Then, your billing is clear and accurate, and invoicing is quick and easy, because you can see exactly who did what, when, and at what cost.

3. Track time on tasks

So that you can capture and record every billable minute, make sure you’ve hit the “Start timer” button to track your time whenever you begin a task.

You can hit this button:

1. At the very top of your Task Dashboard to start tracking your time right away, and add that time to a task later.

The timer used for time billing in todo.vu’s dashboard.

2. At the very top of your workspace within an open task, which will start tracking your time to that exact task.

A screenshot with the ‘start timer’ button at the top of todo.vu’s task dashboard, while the system has a specific task open.

3. From within your Task Dashboard‘s task listing, where you can quickly start tracking time to your selected task from the Dashboard.

A screenshot showing how a user can start the timer directly on the task listing, so that time will be tracked and billed to that task without having to open the task.

If you forget, though, it’s easy to log your time after you’ve finished working on a task, too. To manually enter time, simply navigate to the task, click the “Time spent” sidebar to the right of your workspace, and select “Log time.”

A screenshot showing how a user can manually log time after they have finished working on a task in the case that they didn't track their time while they worked. A timeline feature is displayed to the right of the todo.vu dashboard, where a user can log their time and add a note above to their time log.

On this sidebar under “Time spent”, you’ll see a clear list of the time you and your team have logged on a specific task. We refer to these as time entries.

You can add notes to each of your time entries, which will then appear on your billing reports, providing even more detail for you and your clients.

4. Create billing reports regularly

In seconds, todo.do vu can create beautiful billing reports from your logged time.

Again, this helps you to invoice quickly and accurately, and provides a clear, detailed breakdown of your billable time.

Navigate to “Billing” on the left-hand side of your workspace, and select which client you want to create a report for.

You’ll see the time logged on tasks for this particular client appears as “Unbilled”. That’s because you haven’t yet added these time entries to a billing report.

A screenshot of a time billing report being created, where the first step is selecting the parameters that will define your time billing report, such as the timeframe, which client the time billing report is for, and so on.

First, you may like to filter this list of time entries to prepare your new Billing report for a specific context. For example, you may want to filter your unbilled hours for a specific Date range, Staff User (if applicable), or Label. Simply use the icons to the top right of your screen to set a filter.

Once you’ve set your filters, select from the list of remaining time entries those you’d like to add to your billing report. (Click on a time entry and select from the options at the bottom of the workspace.)

Selecting time logs from a draft billing report to add to a finalised time billing report in todo.vu.

Once you’re finished adding time entries to your billing report, a draft report will appear in the sidebar to the left. Open your draft report, and add a title and an external invoice ID at the top.

Screenshot showing where users can add an External invoice ID to a new time billing report, and where they can publish their time billing report.

Then, hit “Publish report” at the top right-hand side. Now, select the settings cogwheel at the top right to add further details to your report, such as banking details or payment terms.

Once you’ve published your report, these time entries can’t be billed again.

5. Attach your billing reports to invoices

Attaching your billing reports to invoices is easy.

Each billing report has a unique URL, which you’ll find just above your published report. Copy that Billing report URL and add it to your invoice.

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.

Now, as soon as your customers click the link from their invoice, they’ll be taken to your branded billing report.

They’ll see every time entry – and attached time entry notes – and are unlikely to dispute what you’ve charged them!

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