Last updated November 6, 2026
A consulting time tracking workflow that supports billing has four stages: open a code for each engagement before work starts, record time daily in sentences the client could read, review a draft bill before each invoice, and reconcile billed, written-down and unbilled hours every month. A spreadsheet can run all four.
Consulting is harder to bill than most hourly work because the client reads the detail. A finance director who sees "Research, 6 hours" will ask what was researched, and a consultant with no better record can only guess or discount the line.
What should a consultant record for each block of time?
A consultant's time entry needs the date, the person, the engagement code, the phase, the hours, a billable flag and one readable sentence saying what was done.
| Field | Example | Why billing needs it |
|---|---|---|
| Date | 14 April | Lets the client match the entry to a meeting or a deliverable |
| Person | Senior consultant | Sets the rate |
| Engagement and phase | NORD-2026-01, Discovery | Puts the hours on the right invoice and budget |
| Hours | 3.5 | In the billing increment your engagement letter states |
| Billable | Yes | Keeps internal time visible without charging it |
| Description | See below | The part the client will question |
How should you set up a consulting engagement before logging time?
Set up a consulting engagement by copying its billing terms from the engagement letter onto one sheet before the first hour is logged. The billing basis decides what the time record is for.
| Billing basis | What the time record does | What to watch |
|---|---|---|
| Time and materials | It's the evidence behind every invoice | Quality of the descriptions |
| Time and materials with a cap | Evidence, plus an early warning | Hours left before the cap. Warn the client before you reach it |
| Fixed fee | Internal only. The client doesn't see it | Budget against actual hours, phase by phase |
| Retainer | Shows what the month's fee bought | The allowance and the rollover terms |
If you're still choosing between these, the guide to hourly and retainer billing for consultants compares them.
Give each engagement its own code from a project numbering system, and only create phases you'd actually report on. Note the rate for each grade, the billing day and whether travel time is chargeable. When a query comes in six months later, this sheet saves you rereading the letter.
How do you write time entries a client won't query?
Write each time entry as what you did, to what, and what it was for. One sentence is enough.
| Vague entry | Entry a client can approve |
|---|---|
| Research | Compared three ERP shortlists against the requirements agreed on 3 April |
| Meeting | Steering group meeting: agreed the rollout order and two open risks |
| Report work | Drafted sections 2 and 3 of the options report for Thursday's review |
| Admin | Don't bill it. Log it to an internal code |
Two habits matter more than the wording. Log the same day, because an entry written a week later turns into "Research". And keep one task to one entry: several tasks rolled into a single total is known as block billing, and the client can't see what each task cost. Some corporate clients' billing guidelines refuse it outright.
What is a pre-bill review, and what do you check?
A pre-bill review is a check of the draft bill: every unbilled entry on an engagement, read by the person responsible for the client before the invoice goes out. It catches errors while they're still free to fix, since an issued invoice can only be corrected with another document.
- Code: is each entry on the right engagement and phase?
- Description: would you be comfortable reading it aloud to the client?
- Duplication: if two people attended one meeting, does the letter allow both to charge?
- Rework: time caused by your own mistake comes off.
- Cap: does the running total stay inside it?
- Extra scope: is there written approval for anything outside the letter?
Anything you decide not to charge is a write-down. Record it with a reason rather than deleting the entry, or you lose sight of how much work you give away.
A worked example: one month, from time log to invoice
Here's an invented example. A two-person consultancy bills a senior consultant at €140 an hour and an analyst at €85, and this is the pre-bill review for April on engagement NORD-2026-01.
| Person | Work | Logged | Written down | Billed | Rate | Net |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Senior | Discovery workshops | 14.0 | 0 | 14.0 | €140 | €1,960 |
| Senior | Steering report | 9.5 | 1.5 | 8.0 | €140 | €1,120 |
| Analyst | Process mapping | 31.0 | 0 | 31.0 | €85 | €2,635 |
| Analyst | Data clean-up, redone after our error | 6.0 | 6.0 | 0 | €85 | €0 |
| Total | 60.5 | 7.5 | 53.0 | €5,715 |
Now reconcile. The 60.5 hours logged equal 53.0 billed plus 7.5 written down, with nothing left over. If a month doesn't close to zero, the remainder is unbilled work, and it belongs on a WIP report.
At standard rates the month was worth €6,435: 23.5 senior hours and 37 analyst hours. The invoice is €5,715, so €720 was given away and you billed 88.8% of standard value. One month of that means little. A year of it on one client is a pricing conversation.
The invoice line can then be this short, with the entry-by-entry list attached if the letter promises one:
Process mapping, Discovery phase, NORD-2026-01, 1 to 30 April: 31.0 hours at €85.00
The guide to turning billable hours into an invoice covers how much detail to show on the bill itself.
Running a consulting engagement in ERPFlow
ERPFlow doesn't have a timer or timesheets today. Time tracking, including converting tracked time into invoices, is coming soon. For now, the daily log and the pre-bill review sit in a spreadsheet or a separate time tool. ERPFlow also has no time approvals or per-person time reports, and a project has no rates, caps or budgets.
ERPFlow covers the rest of a consulting business's paperwork:
- The proposal: write it as a quote with line items, then use Convert to invoice when the billing moment comes. The two documents stay linked. Clients can't accept online, so you mark the quote as accepted yourself.
- The engagement: a project is a board linked to the customer, with cards carrying assignees, deadlines, files, comments and time spent typed in as hours and minutes. Those times add up per project and per customer. Each card holds one figure, with no date, and it doesn't become invoice lines.
- The rates: create one service per grade, with the unit set to hours and the hourly price. On the invoice, pick the service and type the quantity from your log. A line can carry a discount %, and the client's purchase order goes in Order number.