As a freelancer, your time is your product. If you don’t track it, you undercharge on fixed-price jobs, forget billable hours and can’t tell which clients are worth keeping. Here’s a lightweight system that takes a minute a day.
What to track
- Client and project for every entry.
- Billable or not — admin, sales and learning are real work but not on the invoice.
- Task — optional, but it makes the invoice clearer and your next quote better.
- Expenses you pay for the client, so you can rebill them.
Pick a billing model
Hourly, fixed price or retainer — tracking matters for all three. With hourly work it’s the invoice; with fixed price it shows whether the price was right; with a retainer it shows when you’ve used up the hours. Compare them in hourly vs fixed price vs retainer and learn how to set your hourly rate.
A simple daily routine
- Start the timer when you start a task — from the browser or your phone.
- Switch tasks? Stop and start, or continue an earlier entry.
- Forgot? Add the time manually before you close the laptop.
- Friday: open the weekly timesheet and fill the gaps.
From hours to invoice
At the end of the month, don’t copy hours into a document. In Clocknico you create an invoice from the client’s billable hours — hourly, fixed-price or retainer — and download it as a PDF. Billed hours can’t be billed twice. Working with foreign clients? Invoices can be in the client’s currency — see invoicing foreign clients.
Know which clients pay off
Profitability per project and client compares what you invoiced with the time and expenses you put in. Often the “big” client turns out to be the least profitable one — see project profitability.
When you start hiring
Many freelancers grow into a small studio. Clocknico is free for up to 5 users with every feature, so adding a collaborator doesn’t mean changing tools: they get their own login and see only their own time, while you see the reports. There’s also a simple CRM for leads and follow-ups.
Checklist
- Every entry has a client and a project
- Billable and non-billable time separated
- Expenses recorded with receipts
- Weekly timesheet reviewed every Friday
- Invoices built from tracked hours, not memory
Start tracking for free — no credit card needed.