How to track billable hours
Log time against a client and project as you work, mark what you can bill, round by one stated rule, and review unbilled time before every invoice. This guide covers what counts, a worked week, and where the hours go missing.
Last reviewed November 1, 2026. Free to start, no credit card.
What counts as billable
- Work you did for a client that your agreement says you can charge for: design, development, advice, calls and emails about their project.
- Time on tasks you quoted by the hour. For a fixed fee, the hours are not billed one by one, but track them anyway: they show what the job really cost you.
- Not billable: your own admin, selling, bookkeeping, training and anything you chose to give away.
- Grey areas, such as travel or a long onboarding call: settle them in the contract or the statement of work before you do the work, not on the invoice.
Time you track but do not charge is still worth tracking. It is how you find out what a client costs you.
A simple weekly method
- Set the rate before the work. Agree an hourly rate, or a fixed fee, for each client or project. In Honest Day a project can bill hourly by project, task or person, or at a fixed fee.
- Log time as you go. Start a timer, fill the week grid, or type what you did in plain language. Short tasks matter: ten six-minute tasks are a full hour.
- Mark what is billable. Billable time goes on an invoice; non-billable time stays in your reports.
- Round once, with a rule you state. If you bill in increments, round each entry up to the next one: a 6-minute increment is 0.1 hour and a 15-minute increment is 0.25 hour. The minutes to decimal converter does the conversion.
- Review unbilled time before you invoice. Look at what has not been invoiced for each client, check it, then invoice it.
- Check the week. Work out the share of your hours that were billable, and what you earned for every hour you worked. The billable hours calculator does it from your own numbers.
A worked week
| Day | Client work (billable) | Other work | Hours worked |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monday | 6.5 | 1 | 7.5 |
| Tuesday | 5.75 | 1.5 | 7.25 |
| Wednesday | 7 | 0.5 | 7.5 |
| Thursday | 4.25 | 2 | 6.25 |
| Friday | 3.5 | 1.5 | 5 |
| Week | 27 | 6.5 | 33.5 |
The five days add up to 27 billable hours out of 33.5 hours worked, which is a billable share of 80.6%. At $90.00 an hour the week bills $2,430.00. Spread over every hour worked, that is $72.54 an hour, which is lower than the rate because the 6.5 other hours earned nothing directly.
An example, not a benchmark. Your numbers will differ, and nothing here says what a good week looks like.
Where billable hours go missing
- Short tasks and quick replies that never get logged.
- Time logged but never invoiced, because nobody looked at the unbilled list.
- Work done after the estimate ran out, billed at the original number.
- Rounding down every entry, which adds up across a month.
- Tracking at the end of the week from memory instead of as you go.
How Honest Day handles it
Honest Day is a time tracker you type into or run a timer in. It does not watch your screen or work in the background, so your hours are the hours you say you worked. Invoices are built from the billable time that has not been invoiced yet, and Honest Day can round billed time to an increment you choose. The free plan covers up to 5 members with unlimited projects, time entries and invoices.
Honest Day has no legal billing features, such as trust accounting or billing codes.
Questions
What are considered billable hours?
Hours spent on work a client has agreed to pay for, such as design, development, advice and calls about their project. Admin, selling, bookkeeping and training are not billable unless your agreement says otherwise.
How do I calculate billable hours in 6-minute increments?
Round each entry up to the next 6 minutes, then divide by 60: 6 minutes is 0.1 hour, 12 is 0.2, 18 is 0.3 and 60 is 1.0. A call of 14 minutes bills as 18 minutes, which is 0.3 hour. State the rule on your invoices.
Is 200 billable hours a month a lot?
That is about 46 billable hours every week of the year (200 x 12 / 52), more than a 40-hour week with no non-billable time at all. Whether it is realistic depends on the work. Count your own last three months before you set a target.
How many hours a day is 2,000 billable hours a year?
Divide by the days you work. With 250 working days, 2,000 hours is 8 billable hours a day; with 230 working days it is about 8.7. Your total working hours will be higher, because not every hour is billable.
What is an easy way to track my work hours?
Pick one place and log as you work. A timer or a week grid works for most people; typing what you did in a sentence works too. Logging at the end of the week from memory is where hours get lost.
What is a good way to keep track of multiple projects?
Give each client and project its own name, set the rate on each, and log every entry against one of them. Then a report by project or client shows where the time went, and you can invoice each client from its own unbilled time.
Can I track billable hours for free?
Yes. Honest Day's free plan covers up to 5 members with unlimited projects, clients, time entries and invoices. You can also keep a spreadsheet or a printed timesheet from the timesheet templates.
Related
Track the hours, then bill them.
Log time against a client, mark it billable and invoice from what has not been billed yet. Free for up to 5 members, no credit card.