A Xero Projects alternative
for agencies and consultants
Xero Projects is fine for a quick job timer. It is thin for an agency that bills time through Xero every month. Hour Cap is the Xero-native option built for billable work: real billable rates, retainers, detailed invoice lines, and drafts you review before sending. It starts free.
What Xero Projects is, and where it stops
Xero Projects is a paid add-on inside Xero. It gives you a basic timer, simple tasks, and a quick view of time and costs against a job. For a sole trader who occasionally times a task, that is enough.
For an agency or consultancy that bills time through Xero every month, the gaps show up fast. The timer is basic: no idle detection, no quick task switching, and no multiple simultaneous timers if you juggle several jobs at once. There is no background or automatic tracking, so anything you forget to start is simply lost.
The bigger one for billing teams: there is no native billable versus non-billable distinction. Time is time, whether it is client work or an internal meeting. Reporting is limited, the mobile experience is weak, and because it does not remember your tasks well, you end up re-entering the same work and filing lost-data reports when an entry never saved.
If Xero is where you invoice, you need a timer that understands billing, not just a stopwatch bolted onto your accounting plan.
What a Xero-billing agency actually needs
Billable vs non-billable
Every entry should carry a billable rate, with non-billable time tracked separately so your utilisation numbers mean something.
Detailed invoice lines
Clients should see what the work was. Descriptions belong on every line, not collapsed into a single "Services" row.
Draft invoices in Xero
Time should land in Xero as a draft you review, with your branding theme, tax treatment and revenue account applied.
Retainer tracking
Monthly retainers need an hours budget and remaining hours, not a recurring invoice with no view of usage.
Flexible time entry
Type durations the way you think: 1h30m, 1:30, 8h or 1.5. A timer that runs past midnight should split across the two days, not lose the tail.
Rates that cascade
Rates should resolve from the project, then the member, then the organisation default, so you set them once and they just apply.
How Hour Cap stacks up
Xero Projects is a light job timer bundled into your accounting plan. Hour Cap is a dedicated billing tool for agencies that live in Xero, so the depth is where it counts for invoicing.
- A real billable versus non-billable distinction, which native Projects tracking does not draw
- Draft invoices to Xero with four grouping modes and descriptions preserved, not a basic export
- Built-in retainer tracking and up to two Xero tracking categories resolved three levels deep
- A standalone free plan, then $10/mo, instead of riding on Xero's top accounting tier plus per-user fees
Want the full feature-by-feature face-off?
See Hour Cap vs Xero Projects in fullThe price reality
Xero Projects is not a line item you can buy on its own. It is bundled into Xero's top accounting plan: Established in the US at around US$90 per month, or Ultimate in Australia and the UK, which is priced regionally and runs higher. That plan includes a set number of project users, and any extra project users are charged a per-user fee on top (around A$7 in Australia, about £5 in the UK, roughly US$10 in the US).
The catch is that the per-user fee is hard to pin down before you have created an account and added people, which is the single most common frustration with Projects pricing. So the headline "it is included" hides the fact that you may be paying for an accounting tier you did not otherwise need, plus opaque per-seat fees.
Hour Cap Team is $10 per month for two users with the full Xero integration, and extra seats are roughly $5 to $6 per user. You keep your existing Xero plan for the books.
Common questions
Is Xero Projects a standalone product?
No. Xero Projects is a paid add-on to a Xero accounting subscription, not a standalone tool. It is bundled into Xero's top accounting plan (Ultimate in Australia, Established in the US) with a set number of project users included. Extra project users are billed per user. There is no way to buy Projects on its own.
Why is Xero Projects pricing so hard to find?
The most common complaint is that the real cost is opaque. Projects is folded into the top accounting plan and the per-user fee for extra project users is not always shown clearly until you have created an account and added users. The fairest way to confirm your number is to start a trial and add the people who will actually log time.
What does Hour Cap do that Xero Projects does not?
Hour Cap separates billable from non-billable time natively, preserves a description on every invoice line, gives you four line-item grouping modes when pushing to Xero, tracks monthly retainers with remaining hours, splits a timer that runs past midnight across the two days, and accepts flexible duration input like 1h30m, 1:30, 8h or 1.5. It also resolves billable rates from project, then member, then organisation.
Does Hour Cap connect to Xero like Projects does?
Yes. Hour Cap pushes invoices to Xero as drafts you review before sending, and syncs contacts, items, tax rates, revenue accounts, branding themes and tracking categories on connect. It supports up to two tracking categories per line resolved three levels deep. The Xero integration is on the Team plan and above.
Is Hour Cap cheaper than Xero Projects?
For most small agencies, yes. Hour Cap Team is $10 per month for two users with the full Xero integration, and extra seats are roughly $5 to $6 per user per month. Xero Projects requires the top accounting plan plus per-user fees, so the all-in cost is usually higher once you count the accounting tier it rides on.
Can I keep using Xero for accounting?
Absolutely. Hour Cap is not an accounting replacement. You keep Xero for the books and use Hour Cap purely to track billable time and push clean, detailed draft invoices into Xero. They are designed to sit side by side.
A better way to bill time through Xero
Start tracking time in minutes. Connect Xero and your contacts sync automatically. The Xero integration is on the Team plan; the Free plan covers a single user.
Comparison note: competitor features and pricing were researched on a best-effort basis in June 2026 and can change at any time. We aim to be accurate and fair, but details may be out of date, so always confirm the latest information on the vendor's own website before making a decision. Hour Cap capabilities described here reflect the product at the time of writing.