Last updated November 6, 2026
A freelance time tracking and invoicing workflow needs one log, one weekly check and one billing day. Write each block of work down the day you do it, check the log for fifteen minutes every Friday, and on a fixed date each month turn each client's hours into one invoice.
Hours mostly go missing between doing the work and writing it down, so the routine matters more than the tool you pick.
What should a freelancer agree before tracking time?
A freelancer should agree the hourly rate, the billing increment, what counts as chargeable and the billing date before the first hour is logged. Put them in the quote or the email confirming the job, because a rule the client has seen in writing is hard to argue with later. You can copy this and change the figures:
Time is charged at €75.00 an hour plus VAT, recorded in 15-minute units and invoiced on the last working day of each month. Travel is charged at half rate. Payment is due 14 days after the invoice date.
Each of those choices has its own guide if you're unsure: billing increments, charging for travel time and payment terms.
What does a simple freelance time log look like?
A freelance time log needs six columns, and a spreadsheet handles it fine. These entries are invented:
| Date | Client | Task | Hours | Chargeable | Invoice |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 April | Harbour Foods | Product pages, first draft | 3.25 | Yes | INV-2026-0031 |
| 3 April | Harbour Foods | Call with marketing lead | 0.5 | Yes | INV-2026-0031 |
| 6 April | Fell Cycles | Homepage rewrite | 2.0 | Yes | |
| 7 April | Own admin | Bookkeeping | 1.0 | No | n/a |
The Invoice column does the most work. A blank means the hours haven't been billed, so filtering for blanks shows your unbilled work and stops anything being billed twice.
Log your own admin too, even though nobody pays for it. After a few months it tells you how many hours you really have to sell, and that's the number your rate depends on.
What is the weekly and monthly routine?
The routine has three regular steps, and the one people skip is Friday.
| When | About how long | What you do |
|---|---|---|
| Same day | 2 minutes | Write down what you worked on, for whom, and for how long |
| Friday | 15 minutes | Compare the log with your calendar, sent emails and changed files, and fill any gaps |
| Billing day | 10 minutes per client | Filter by client, add up the chargeable hours, issue the invoice, write its number into the log |
Friday catches the most money. On a Friday you can still remember Tuesday's unplanned call with a client. At the end of the month you can't, and hours rebuilt from memory come out short.
After the due date passes, you need one more habit: chase on a set day, using a reminder sequence you've already written.
A worked example: one month's hours on one invoice
Here's an invented example. A freelance copywriter charges €75 an hour, travel at half rate, and adds 20% VAT. These are April's chargeable hours for one client.
| Line | Hours | Rate | Net |
|---|---|---|---|
| Copywriting, product pages | 18.5 | €75.00 | €1,387.50 |
| Calls and revisions | 3.25 | €75.00 | €243.75 |
| Travel to client's office, half rate | 2.0 | €37.50 | €75.00 |
| Net | 23.75 | €1,706.25 | |
| VAT at 20% | €341.25 | ||
| Total due | €2,047.50 |
Before you issue it, check that 23.75 matches the log's chargeable total for that client and month. If it doesn't, you've missed a line or picked up one from another month. Write each line so the client doesn't need to ask:
Copywriting, product pages, 1 to 30 April: 18.5 hours at €75.00
If you aren't VAT-registered, the VAT line goes and the total is €1,706.25. The guide to invoicing a client as a freelancer covers what else the invoice has to say, and turning billable hours into an invoice goes further on summary or detailed lines.
Should a freelancer track time on fixed-price jobs?
A freelancer should track time on fixed-price jobs too, because nothing else shows what the job paid per hour. Take an invented €2,400 website rewrite that took 44 hours. That works out at €54.55 an hour, against a €75 rate, and at €75 the same hours would have been €3,300.
The client never sees those hours. You use them on the next quote, or when you compare budgeted hours with actual hours to see which kinds of job you keep underpricing.
Tracking hours and invoicing them in ERPFlow
ERPFlow doesn't have a timer or timesheets today. Time tracking, including converting tracked time into invoices, is coming soon. For now your log stays in a spreadsheet or a timer app, and ERPFlow handles the invoice and everything after it.
- The rate: create a service with its unit set to hours and your hourly price. On an invoice, pick the service and type the quantity from your log, such as 18.5. You can reword the description on the line.
- Sending: issuing gives the invoice its number and makes it final. It emails as a PDF, in any of 19 languages.
- Getting paid: record each payment as it arrives, including part payments. The Invoices list filters Overdue, and Send payment reminder emails an overdue invoice when you choose to. Nothing sends on a schedule, and ERPFlow doesn't collect the money itself.
- Hours beside the client: a project linked to the customer holds cards with time spent typed in, and those times add up per project and per customer. Each card holds one figure with no date, and it doesn't become invoice lines, so it doesn't replace a dated log.
The Free plan has one member and allows 5 invoices a month, 5 services and 10 project cards in total, so check those limits against your own client list.