Who this is for
Anyone who bills by the hour. Copywriters, editors, virtual assistants, developers, designers, project managers, voice actors, language tutors. If your fundamental unit is hours worked times a rate, this template fits.
How to bill hourly without losing money
Three habits separate the freelancers who actually capture their time from the ones who quietly leak 20 percent of it every month.
1. Track in real time, not from memory. A timer running while you work is the only reliable way. Toggl, Harvest, Clockify, the native macOS Focus app. Pick one and live in it. Reconstructing hours from calendar entries at month-end loses 15 to 20 percent of billable time on average. I have done this measurement on my own work and the gap is real.
2. Round honestly. The two common conventions are rounding to the nearest 15-minute increment or to the nearest 6 minutes (0.1 hours). Pick one and apply it consistently. Do not round every short task up; clients notice when a one-minute Slack reply shows up as 15 billable minutes.
3. Invoice weekly or fortnightly for hourly work. Monthly hourly invoices are too easy to dispute ("did you really spend 42 hours on that?"). Weekly invoices keep the client's memory fresh and produce smaller sums that get approved faster.
What to put on each line
One line per work period, not per task, for most clients. Example: "Week ending 13 May 2026, 18.5 hrs @ $95". If the client wants detail, offer a time log as a separate attachment; keep the invoice itself scannable.
For clients who specifically want task-level detail, put one line per project or task with hours for that task:
- API integration, 6.5 hrs @ $120
- Bug fixes, 2.0 hrs @ $120
- Calls and planning, 1.5 hrs @ $120
Overtime and surge pricing
If you have a client where weekend or late-night work sometimes happens, put the surge rate in your Terms up front: "Hours over 40 per week billed at 1.5x. Hours on weekends or public holidays billed at 2x." Then it is automatic. No awkward conversation, no after-the-fact bargaining when an emergency call lands at 11pm on a Saturday.
How to use this template
- Open the hourly template.
- Replace the placeholder date and hours with your actual time period.
- Update your hourly rate. Decimals are fine for partial-hour tracking (e.g. 18.5).
- In Notes, mention which time-tracking tool you used so the client can request a log if needed.
- Download the PDF.