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Projects

Project management, teams and billing

Set up the project once — customer, tasks, team, hourly tariff, budget — and everything after it follows. Hours land against tasks, the customer approves them online, and the invoice writes itself from the rate you already set.

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The Invoice Office projects dashboard showing project, task and team counts, budget against spend, invoiced and outstanding amounts, hours booked by month and the project list

What a project holds

Decide it once, at the start

Everything the invoice needs is settled when you create the project. That is the whole trick: the awkward questions get answered before the work rather than after it.

Teams and tasks
Per projectTeams and tasks
To set the tariff
3 waysTo set the tariff
Customer approval
OnlineCustomer approval
A project belongs to a customer
Every project is created against the customer you are doing it for, with a project name, your own project code and a description if you need one. The link to the customer is what makes billing automatic later.
Give it a start and an end
Turn on Time frame to give the project a beginning and end date, so an open-ended engagement does not quietly become one.
Set the tariff three ways
Turn on Invoice method and set the hourly tariff per task, per person or per project, along with the rate. A senior rate and a junior rate on the same job stop being a spreadsheet problem.
Track it against a budget
Turn on Project budget and choose how the budget is calculated. Knowing where you are against it partway through is the difference between a conversation and an apology.
Break the work into tasks
Tasks are what hours are logged against, so they decide how much detail the customer sees on the invoice. Split the work the way you would want it itemised.
Put a team on it
Create the team for the project and everyone logs their own hours against it. Team member accounts are free, so a bigger team never means a bigger bill from us.

From work to invoice

Tasks, teams, approvals, billing

These four are one chain, not four features. Hours go against a task, logged by someone on the team, approved by the customer, and billed at the rate the project already carries.

How the hours get logged

  • Project tasks

    Tasks sit under the project and are what a timesheet row is tracked against. They are also the level the hourly tariff can be set at, so a task is both the unit of work and, if you want it, the unit of pricing.

  • Project teams

    A project has a team, and each person records their own time against the tasks. Add colleagues as team members — those accounts are free and are active in projects and timesheets only, so nobody needs a licence just to log hours.

  • Online approvals

    Before you invoice, choose Action → Submit for approval and the timesheet goes to your client to sign off. Projects → Approvals gives you the overview of approved timesheets — so the hours are agreed before the invoice, not argued after it.

  • Invoice and billing

    From the Action button, create an invoice for the client straight from the timesheet. Fill in the customer, tick what should appear on the invoice, and send it like any other. The rate comes from the project, so nothing is recalculated by hand.

How it works

Set up once, then repeat

  1. Step 1Create the project

    Projects → Create projects. Set the customer, name, code and description, then switch on time frame, invoice method and budget as you need them.

  2. Step 2Add the team and tasks

    Save the project details, then create the team who will work on it and the tasks the work breaks down into. Timesheets need all three to exist.

  3. Step 3Track, approve, invoice

    The team logs hours against the tasks, you submit the timesheet for the customer to approve, then create the invoice from the same Action menu.

Project questions, answered

How do I create a project in Invoice Office?
Go to Projects → Create projects and fill in the customer, project name, project code and description. You can also turn on a time frame, an invoice method with an hourly tariff, and a project budget. Save, then add your team and tasks.
Can different people on a project have different hourly rates?
Yes. Turn on Invoice method and set the hourly tariff per task, per person or per project. Per person is what handles a senior and a junior working the same job at different rates.
Do my team members need a paid licence?
No. Team members are free accounts, active in projects and timesheets only. Only software users — the full administrator-style accounts — use a licence.
Can my customer approve hours before I invoice them?
Yes. Choose Action → Submit for approval on the timesheet and it goes to your client. Projects → Approvals gives you an overview of what has been approved.
How do I invoice the hours worked on a project?
From the Action button on the timesheet, choose to create an invoice for your client. Fill in the customer name, tick the options you want shown on the invoice and create it — then send it exactly like any other invoice.
Can I set a budget on a project?
Yes. Turn on Project budget when you create the project and choose how the budget is calculated.
What is the difference between a project and a task?
The project is the engagement for a customer and carries the settings — time frame, tariff, budget. Tasks are the pieces of work inside it, and they are what individual timesheet rows are logged against.

More answers in our FAQ and help center.

Related

Everything a project touches

Run the project, bill the project

Set the rate and the team once, then let the hours do the rest. Free to start.

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