Track billable hours
without losing the detail
Capture hours as you work, write descriptions clients will read, and push the result to Xero as a draft invoice. One workflow from timer to paid.
Free plan. No credit card.
Why most billable hours never make it onto an invoice
The hours themselves aren't the hard part. The problem is what happens between doing the work and getting paid for it.
- You forget to log an hour here and an hour there. By Friday, two days are guesswork.
- Descriptions are cryptic. By invoice time, "Acme work" tells you nothing and the client even less.
- Billable and non-billable hours get mixed up, so admin time ends up on a client invoice or proper work ends up missing from one.
- Invoicing day is its own job, retyping line items into Xero from a CSV or, worse, from memory.
Hour Cap is built around the idea that the time entry, the description, and the invoice line are the same thing. Get it right once.
Three things that make billable hours stick
Capture time the way you actually work
Start a timer when you start. Backfill a manual entry when you didn't. Hour Cap supports both equally so you don't have to commit to one workflow.
- Persistent timer widget that survives page navigation
- Manual entries accept human formats like 1h30m or 1:30
- Edit duration later when something runs longer than the timer
Rebuilt the checkout flow to handle expired tokens. Added a recovery path so users don't lose their cart.
Regression tested across browsers. Wrote a runbook for support.
Write descriptions that pay for themselves
Most trackers give you one short line. Hour Cap gives you a multi-line description that flows straight onto the Xero invoice. Clients pay invoices they understand.
- Multi-line, paragraph-style descriptions per entry
- Descriptions become Xero invoice line items verbatim
- Group line items by entry, project, date, or person
The right rate, every time
Rates cascade. Set a default at the organisation level, override per team member where seniority matters, override per project where a client negotiated a custom rate. Hour Cap picks the right one without you thinking about it.
- Three levels: organisation, member, project
- Most specific rate wins, automatically
- Mark entries non-billable when you're tracking but not invoicing
Most specific rate wins. Project beats member beats organisation default.
From hour one to invoice sent
Four steps. The same four every week.
Start the timer or log manually
Pick the client and project. Hour Cap remembers the rate.
Write the description as you go
Outcome first, not just activity. This is what the client reads.
Review the week
Filter by client and date. Catch anything missing before invoicing.
Push to Xero as a draft
Hours, rates, descriptions, tax. Review in Xero and send.
Try it free. No credit card.
Hour Cap's free plan covers unlimited time entries with descriptions and rates. Add Xero invoicing on any paid plan when you're ready.
What changes when you do this right
No more lost hours
Captured while the context is fresh. The 30 minutes you forgot last Friday now ends up on an invoice.
Invoices clients pay
Detailed line items, written in plain language. Fewer "what was this for?" emails.
Billing day takes minutes
No CSV exports, no retyping. Push to Xero, review, send.
Real utilisation numbers
Billable vs non-billable tracked separately. You know what's actually paying for itself.
Common questions
What are billable hours?
Billable hours are time you can charge a client for under your agreement: client work, project delivery, agreed meetings. Non-billable hours are real work that isn't on the invoice: internal admin, sales calls, training. Tracking both gives you an honest view of where your week went and what's actually paying for it.
How do I track billable hours accurately?
Capture time as you work, not at the end of the week. Either start a timer when you start a task or log a manual entry the moment you stop. Write the description while context is fresh. The detail you record now becomes the line items on the invoice later.
Should I use a timer or manual entry?
Both. Timers are best for focused sessions on a single client. Manual entries work for backfilling meetings, phone calls, or anything where you forgot to hit start. Hour Cap supports both modes on the same entry list, so you don't have to choose.
How do billable rates work when you have multiple clients?
Set a sensible default at the organisation level. Override per team member where senior people bill more. Override per project where a specific client has negotiated a different rate. Hour Cap resolves the right rate automatically so you don't have to remember it for every entry.
What's the best way to turn tracked hours into an invoice?
Group entries by date, project, person, or per entry depending on what the client expects. Push the result to Xero as a draft invoice with the hours, descriptions, and rates already filled in. Review in Xero and send. No retyping.
Start tracking the hours that pay
Free to start. Set up in minutes. Push to Xero on any paid plan.