Time tracking software for bookkeepers
and the advisory around it
You live in Xero, so your time tracker should too. Hour Cap tracks reconciliations, payroll runs and BAS prep across every client, catches the advisory questions that arrive by email, and pushes one itemised draft invoice to your own practice Xero.
7-day trial with everything unlocked. No credit card needed.
We bought a second ute in March on finance. Can we claim the GST up front, and what should the repayments be coded to? Also does this change anything for the BAS?
You can claim the full GST credit in the March quarter since you are on accruals. I have coded the repayments to the finance liability with the interest split out, and it does change the March BAS, which I have adjusted.
You live in Xero. Your time tracker should know that.
Bookkeepers spend most of the week inside Xero: bank reconciliations, payroll runs, BAS prep, invoice processing, client onboarding, end-of-period reviews. Then at month end somebody has to turn all of that into invoices, by hand.
Most generic time trackers know nothing about Xero. They give you a CSV. You translate that CSV into Xero invoices line by line, hoping you did not miss a client or duplicate hours.
And none of them capture the questions clients email you between jobs, which is the work a practice most often gives away.
- Compliance work is tracked, roughly, in a spreadsheet or in somebody's head.
- The advisory question that took twenty minutes to answer is on no timesheet at all.
- A dozen client retainers, each on its own cycle, with usage visible only at month end.
- Invoices say "Bookkeeping" and a number, which is what generates the query email.
- The billing run is a CSV, then an afternoon of retyping into Xero.
One loop, three stages
The question arrives, the hours build against the client's retainer, and the month closes as a draft in your own practice Xero.
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Receive
Client questions land beside your rates
Forward your practice address and client mail arrives in Hour Cap, matched to the client using the contacts already synced from your Xero. No rekeying, and nothing sitting unanswered in one person's mailbox.
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Track
Compliance and advisory, on one timesheet
Reconciliations, payroll runs and BAS prep logged with enough description that the client sees the value. Advisory answered from the thread counts against the same retainer as everything else.
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Bill
One draft in your practice Xero
Push the period and the work arrives itemised, not as a single line. Your clients' own Xero files stay separate and untouched; this is your practice account only.
Stage one is the Customer Support Inbox add-on at $12 a seat, and only for the people who answer client mail.
Most advisory work arrives as an email
A client emails asking whether they can claim something, or what a transaction should be coded to, or what the BAS position looks like this quarter. You check it, you think about it, and you write back. That is advisory work, and it is chargeable.
The volume peaks at BAS quarter and in the weeks after year end, when every client has a question and nobody is timing the answers.
- Forward your practice support address and client questions land beside your rates
- Senders matched to clients using the contacts already synced from Xero
- Log the time from the conversation, prefilled with the client it came from
- Everyone in the practice sees the queue, so nothing stalls while somebody is away
- The advisory hour reaches the same invoice as the compliance work
$12 per seat per month, included in your trial.
Previously invisible, and previously free.
How bookkeepers bill clients
Hour Cap supports the three models most practices use, often mixed across the client base.
Itemised work, not "Bookkeeping, $400"
Clients pay invoices faster when they understand what they are paying for. Write a proper description on every time entry, and when you push to Xero those descriptions become the line item text.
That is the difference between "what is this $400 for?" and "thanks, paying now."
- Multi-line descriptions per time entry, reaching Xero verbatim
- Group per entry, per date, or per client, whichever suits the account
- Advisory and compliance itemised side by side on the same invoice
- Invoiced entries lock, so nothing is billed twice
Reconciled 142 bank transactions across operating and savings accounts. Resolved 3 mismatched payments.
Prepared and lodged the March BAS, including the finance adjustment for the vehicle purchase.
Advisory: GST treatment on vehicle finance, POS fee coding, and contractor status query.
Every client retainer on one dashboard
Most bookkeepers run a dozen or more clients. Without one place to see usage, retainer overruns turn up at the end of the month as awkward conversations. Hour Cap shows every active retainer with current usage and alert state on a single screen.
- Mixed billing cycles per client: weekly, monthly, quarterly
- Alert thresholds, so you find out about overruns before the client does
- Advisory hours counted against the cap alongside compliance work
- Contacts sync from your practice Xero on connect, with no rekeying
- Invoice the retainer period directly from the invoice screen
Your practice account, not your clients' files
Hour Cap connects to your own practice's Xero, and issues invoices to your clients from it. That is how most bookkeepers already work, and your clients' Xero data stays separate and untouched.
Contact sync happens automatically on connect, so every client already in your practice Xero appears in Hour Cap with no rekeying, and the support inbox uses those same contacts to file incoming mail.
Common questions
What is the best time tracking software for bookkeepers?
Bookkeepers already live in Xero, so the simplest fit is a time tracker that pushes invoices directly to your own Xero practice account. Hour Cap is built around that flow: track time against client work, then push a draft invoice to Xero with reconciliation hours, payroll runs, BAS prep, and ad-hoc work itemised as line items.
How do bookkeepers usually bill clients?
Three common models: hourly with a written rate, a fixed monthly retainer with a stated hours cap, or a hybrid where the retainer covers the standard work and overruns are billed hourly. Hour Cap handles all three: hourly via rate cascade, retainer via a budget that auto-resets each period, and hybrid by invoicing the retainer cap and the overrun separately.
How do I bill for the advisory questions clients email me?
This is the work most bookkeepers give away, because a question about a transaction code takes ten minutes and nobody opens a timer for ten minutes. The Customer Support Inbox add-on forwards your practice address into Hour Cap, matches the sender to the client using contacts already synced from Xero, and puts a timer beside the reply. The advisory hour then reaches the same invoice as the compliance work.
Does Hour Cap connect to my clients' Xero accounts?
No. Hour Cap connects to your own practice's Xero account, not to each of your clients' Xero files. You issue invoices to your clients from your own practice, which is the standard bookkeeper setup. Your clients' Xero data stays separate and untouched.
How do I show clients what they paid for?
Each time entry has a multi-line description, for example "Reconciled 142 bank transactions across operating and savings accounts. Resolved 3 mismatched payments and reissued 2 client invoices." When you push the invoice to Xero, those descriptions become the line item text. Clients see specifically what was done, which cuts down on "what is this charge?" emails.
Can I track multiple bookkeeping clients on a free plan?
The free plan supports unlimited clients but only one active project at a time, which is too restrictive for most bookkeepers. The Team plan removes the project cap and adds Xero invoicing. For practices with junior staff that need approvals, the Business plan adds timesheet review and activity logging. The support inbox is a per-seat add-on on top of either.
Does Hour Cap replace my practice management software?
It is not a full practice management system. Hour Cap focuses on time tracking, client correspondence, retainers, and billing into Xero. If your practice management needs are CRM, document workflow, or compliance task scheduling, you will still need a dedicated tool. If they are mainly tracking and billing, Hour Cap covers that without the cost or complexity of a full suite.
Why I built Hour Cap
I'm Jonathan, a freelance web developer in Brisbane, Australia. After 15 years, I wanted my client work to run on one system instead of separate tools that didn't handle retainers or Xero, copy/paste errors, and time that never got invoiced. I needed one tool that handled retainers, fixed-price, and hourly projects, let me write proper multi-line descriptions, showed me what was actually profitable, and pushed straight to Xero as invoices. Nothing did all of it, so I built one. Today it is pivotal to my business: all my time tracking, invoice drafting, and profitability runs through Hour Cap, and it scales the same way for agencies and teams.
Independent and self-funded. When you email support, you reach the person who built it.
More about JonathanBill the advisory work too
Everything unlocked for 7 days, including the client inbox. The free plan is yours after that.