Time tracking
for agencies
Capture team time across multiple retainer and project clients, approve timesheets before they hit invoices, and push tracked time to Xero as drafts. Designed for the way agencies actually bill.
All features free for 30 days. No credit card needed.
Agency time tracking is harder than it looks
A solo consultant tracks their own hours. They have one rate, one accounting account, and one client at a time. An agency has none of that.
- Five team members on three projects each, all logging time at different rates.
- Half a dozen retainer clients, each on a different billing cycle, none of which line up with calendar months.
- Junior staff whose entries should be reviewed before they land on an invoice.
- Account managers who need to know which retainers are about to overrun, today, not at month-end.
- A monthly billing run where one person re-keys every line item into Xero by hand.
None of this is solved by a basic timer. It's solved by giving every part of the team the right view and the right controls: tracking that's friction-free for the people doing the work, real-time budget visibility for the people running the accounts, and an invoicing flow that doesn't get redone in Xero.
Setting up agency time tracking that people actually use
Adoption is the hard part. These are the four decisions that determine whether your team will log time or just fight you about it.
Set rates at the right level
Set a sensible default rate at the organisation level. Override per member where senior people bill more. Override per project where a client has negotiated a specific rate. Three layers handles almost every agency.
Decide who needs approvals
Senior people usually don't need approvals. Juniors and contractors usually do. Mark which members require approval and who their approver is, then their entries get reviewed before they're invoiceable. The seniors carry on as before.
Model your retainers honestly
Set retainer budgets to match the actual contract, not what you wish the client used. Pick the right billing period. Pick an alert threshold (80% works well) so account managers get notice before, not after, they overrun.
Pick one grouping per client
Some clients want one line per team member. Others want one line per project. Set the default that fits 80% of clients, then override per invoice for the rest. Stop having that argument every billing cycle.
Approvals built into the invoicing flow
Approvals only work if they actually prevent bad entries from being invoiced. In Hour Cap, members who require approval submit weekly timesheets, their approver reviews and approves or rejects, and only approved entries become invoiceable. Locked entries cannot be edited or deleted, so the audit trail stays clean.
- Per-member approval settings (not all-or-nothing)
- Weekly timesheet submission with rejection notes
- Approved entries lock against further edits
- Only approved entries flow through to Xero invoices
Retainer visibility across every client at once
Most retainer overruns are a visibility problem, not a delivery problem. Your team didn't know they were close to the cap because nobody could see it in one place. Hour Cap shows every active retainer with current usage, period progress, and alert state on a single dashboard.
- Mixed billing cycles (weekly, fortnightly, monthly, quarterly, custom)
- Per-retainer alert thresholds for early warnings
- Invoice the current retainer period directly from the invoice wizard
- Budgets auto-reset at the end of each period
Billable rates that cascade sensibly
Setting a separate rate on every project for every team member is a nightmare. Hour Cap resolves rates in order: project rate first if set, then member rate, then organisation default. Configure the exceptions, not the rules.
If a client has negotiated a flat rate across the project, set it once on the project and every member tracking time there inherits it. If a senior consultant bills $200/hr everywhere else, set that on the member. The defaults handle the rest.
Try it across your team for 30 days
New organisations get a 30-day Business trial with every feature unlocked: Xero invoicing, approvals, retainers, activity logging. No credit card to start.
Push to Xero, not into a spreadsheet
The biggest single time-saver for an agency on Xero is not having to retype line items at the end of the month. Approved time goes into the invoice wizard, you pick a grouping, push to Xero as a draft, and review there before sending. Entries are automatically marked invoiced so they don't appear on next month's run.
See the full Xero time tracking walkthrough for how contacts, tax rates, revenue accounts, branding themes, and tracking categories are handled.
Common questions
What is the best time tracking software for agencies?
Agencies need three things from time tracking: team-wide capture with rate variation, retainer and project budgets that show usage in real time, and invoicing that does not require retyping line items. For agencies using Xero, Hour Cap covers those without bolting on a separate invoicing tool.
How do agencies track billable hours across a team?
Each member logs their own time against clients and projects. Rates cascade from the organisation default to member overrides to project overrides, so an account manager and a developer can both work on the same project at different rates without manual line-by-line edits.
How do I approve timesheets before they go on invoices?
Configure approval requirements per member. Their entries enter an unsubmitted state, they submit weekly timesheets to their approver, and only approved entries become invoiceable. Locked entries cannot be edited or deleted after approval, so the audit trail is clean.
Can I track multiple retainers for different clients?
Yes. Set up a retainer per client with its own hours budget and billing period (weekly, fortnightly, monthly, quarterly, or custom). Budgets auto-reset at the end of each period. Usage shows in real time so account managers see when a client is close to the cap.
How is agency time tracking different from time tracking for consultants?
Agencies have a team rather than a single biller, so they need approvals, rate cascades, and per-member tracking. Consultants usually need none of that. The underlying time and billing flow is the same, but agencies sit on the Business plan because of approvals, activity logging, and higher seat counts. If you're solo, see time tracking for consultants.
Does Hour Cap handle utilisation reporting?
Yes. Hour Cap reports billable vs non-billable hours per member, per project, and per client. Revenue reports show invoiced amounts by period. The data is filterable so you can answer specific questions without exporting CSVs.
Related reading
Xero time tracking
The full overview of how Hour Cap turns tracked time into Xero invoices.
For consultants
The solo-consultant version of this page, focused on hourly, retainer, and fixed-price work.
Pricing & plans
Business plan has approvals, activity logging, and per-seat pricing for extra team members.
Tracked time, approved, invoiced through Xero
Built for agencies who'd rather be doing the work than redoing the invoices. 30-day Business trial, no credit card.