Time tracking and invoicing fall apart at the hand-off: hours are logged in one place, invoices are raised in another, and somewhere in between billable time disappears. This article covers one job for firms that bill by the hour: turning a period's tracked time into an invoice on the levelpartner.ai platform, with the record behind every line, so clients can check it and pay without a dispute. It assumes you track time in a timesheet tool or a shared sheet, and it does not claim any built-in timer on the platform.
Where billable hours go missing
Hourly billing leaks in three places. Time is not logged on the day, so it is reconstructed from memory at month end and comes out short. Logged time is not reviewed, so a few hours of internal work end up on a client invoice and cause a dispute. And the invoice summarises everything as one line, so the client cannot see what they paid for and queries the whole thing.
For consultants and agencies with flat revenue, closing those leaks can be worth more than a new client. The work is already done; it simply is not being billed.
Before you start
- A timesheet tool or shared sheet where staff log hours against client and task.
- An hourly rate per role or per person, agreed and written down.
- A product on the platform for each billable rate, priced per hour.
- A payment processor connected in Payments.
- A billing cycle: weekly, fortnightly or monthly, the same for each client.
- A named reviewer for each client's hours before invoicing.
Set your rates up as products
Create one product per rate, such as "Senior consultant, per hour" and "Analyst, per hour". The price is the hourly rate and the quantity on the invoice will be the hours. This keeps rates consistent and lets the client see the split between roles.
If some clients pay different rates under contract, create those as separate products named for the client rather than editing prices by hand on each invoice.
How to turn tracked time into an invoice
- At the end of the billing period, export or filter the timesheet for one client.
- Ask the named reviewer to remove internal or non-billable entries and confirm the total.
- Group the approved hours by role, with a short summary of the work for each role.
- Go to Contacts, open the client's Contact Details, click the Payments tab, then Actions, and select Create Invoice.
- Click Add an item and add one line per role from your hourly products, entering the approved hours as the quantity.
- Under Additional Options, use Add Attachment to include the approved timesheet extract with the work summary.
- Click Save, then use the three dots and Preview to check the total against the approved hours.
- Click Send and choose Email.
- Mark the timesheet entries as billed so they are not included next time.
What the client needs to see
Clients rarely dispute an hourly rate they agreed. They dispute hours they do not recognise. Give them enough detail to recognise the work: role, hours, dates and a plain description. "Senior consultant, 14 hours, 1 to 15 May: pricing review workshops and board paper drafting" survives a finance director's review. "Consulting services" does not.
Keep the full timesheet available but off the face of the invoice. A long table of entries on the invoice itself makes it harder to approve, not easier.
Suppose timesheets show about 1,100 billable hours a month across 18 clients, but invoices cover only around 980 because entries go missing when finance rekeys them. That is 120 hours a month logged and never billed. A reviewed export per client, with one invoice line per role, would bring billed hours back in line with logged hours. Lines that name the work should also mean fewer client queries. The hours are illustrative.
What it replaces and the time it takes
This method replaces rekeying a timesheet into a spreadsheet invoice and the one-line "professional services" bill. For a firm with 15 to 20 hourly clients, expect a reviewer to spend ten to fifteen minutes per client each cycle, and finance a few minutes per invoice. That time pays for itself in recovered hours.
The mistake most people make
Skipping the review. Sending raw timesheet totals feels efficient until a client spots an internal meeting on their bill and starts questioning every line. A short review by someone who knows the client catches those entries and gives you confidence to defend the rest.
The second mistake is billing too rarely. Quarterly time invoices are large, surprising and slow to pay. Monthly or fortnightly cycles keep each invoice a size the client expects.
When not to bill time
If your clients care about outcomes rather than effort, hourly billing may be working against you. A fixed fee for a defined piece of work is easier to sell, easier to invoice and often more profitable once you know your delivery times. You can still track time internally to check margins without putting it on the invoice. For fixed fees and retainers, see setting up recurring and team invoicing.
Troubleshooting
The invoice total does not match the timesheet. An entry was removed in review but not in the export. Re-export after review, not before.
A client asks for line-by-line detail. Send the approved timesheet extract as a separate file. Keep the invoice itself grouped by role.
Hours were billed twice. Entries were not marked as billed. Mark them the day the invoice is sent, and filter future exports to unbilled entries only.
The client wants a cap. Agree the cap in the estimate and stop billing above it without approval. The guide to sending estimates the client accepts online covers the estimate step.
Related guides
For quick charges agreed outside the normal cycle, use a one-off express invoice. To chase late hourly invoices automatically, see the invoice workflow guide.
Frequently asked questions
Does the platform have a built-in time tracker?
Treat time tracking as a separate tool and bring approved hours into the invoice as quantities. Check App Marketplace for any connector to the timesheet tool you use before building a manual export routine.
Should every timesheet entry appear on the invoice?
No. Group hours by role with a clear summary, and provide the detailed entries separately if the client asks. Detail on the face of the invoice slows approval.
How often should we invoice tracked time?
Monthly suits most clients. Fortnightly suits large or new clients where you want earlier sight of payment. Avoid quarterly cycles for hourly work.
Can different clients have different hourly rates?
Yes. Create a separate product for each contracted rate, named so the team picks the right one for that client.