Billable time, explained

"Billable" trips people up because it sounds like "an extra charge on the next invoice". It isn't. In AspirePro, billable means the client is paying for this time. How they pay depends on their agreement: the hours might be covered by a monthly fee, or invoiced by the hour.

This page explains the four kinds of time, how each works with an agreement, and when to use which.

The four kinds of time#

Reports use the same words everywhere: Billable, Client time, no charge and Internal (Time entries, Insights, Resources reports, the Profitability Team tab). "Billed separately" is billable time, so reports count it as Billable.

How billable time works with each agreement#

A retainer — say Northwind Group pays $3,000 a month for 10 hours of marketing. - Billable time on Northwind counts toward those 10 hours. The agreement's Retainer usage card shows how many have been used this period. Time billed separately never does. - Periods are calendar periods (Monday-to-Sunday weeks, months, quarters or years, as the agreement says) in your organization's time zone. An hour counts in the period of the day it was logged on, so time logged at 11pm on the 31st stays in that month. - The 10 hours are never invoiced by the hour: the fee pays for them, so they don't appear in Ready to invoice. - Hours beyond the 10 follow the agreement's overage setting. If overage is invoiced, those hours appear in Ready to invoice once the month has ended, at the overage rate if the agreement has one. If it's absorbed, they're never charged. - Client time at no charge, like the monthly check-in, doesn't use up any of the 10 hours.

A fixed fee — say a $20,000 website project. - The fee is the price, so billable time on the project is in scope: it shows what the work took, and Profitability measures it against the fee. - Invoice the fee (or its installments). The hours never appear in Ready to invoice. Anything outside the scope is billed separately, which is invoiced by the hour.

A prepaid block of hours — say a 100-hour PO. - Billable time on the block counts toward its 100 hours, for as long as the block runs — the total never resets. Time billed separately, and client time at no charge, never counts. - Billed up front, the price pays for the hours: they don't appear in Ready to invoice. Billed as used, each hour is invoiced at its rate until the total is reached. - Past the total, the block's setting decides: the extra hours are billed, not billed, or new time is refused ("stop new time"). See Prepaid hours.

Time and materials, or no agreement — every billable hour is invoiced at its rate.

The full rules, including agreement families and finished agreements, are in Time an agreement covers. Client time at no charge is never invoiced (you can still show it on an invoice at $0; see No-charge lines).

Who decides: the rules, then you#

You rarely have to think about the switch. AspirePro works it out in this order:

1. The client's agreement, if it has a rule for the kind of work. For example, Northwind's retainer might say Account management: client time, no charge. Set it on the agreement under Kinds of work. Agreements under it (SOWs, renewals) follow the same rule unless they set their own.
2. The kind of work. Each work type in System → Work & rates → Work types can have its own billing, for example Sales: Internal or Emergency: Billed separately.
3. The work's own default. A ticket follows its board's default new entries to billable setting; a project (and its tasks) follows the project's billable setting.

When you log time, pick the Kind of work and the Billable switch sets itself. A line under it says which rule decided. You can always flip the switch, and your choice wins. Flipping only changes billable or not, though: a kind of work that's billed separately stays separate when you tick it, and one set to Internal stays internal when you untick it.

Time logged on an internal category or a planner task is always internal: there's no client to bill.

When a planner task moves into a client project, its time becomes client work. The move asks whether the client should be charged for the time that hasn't been invoiced: Make it billable, or Keep it as client time, no charge. Time whose kind of work isn't billable stays as it is.

When to use which: quick answers#

• "It's work the client asked for and is paying for." Billable, whatever the agreement. On a retainer it uses the included hours; that's the point of them.
• "It's for the client, but we'd never charge for it." Client time, no charge. Don't untick billable and log it as internal: the time would vanish from the client's cost, and the client would look more profitable than it is.
• "It's outside what their agreement covers." Billed separately.
• "It's a sales meeting with a prospect." Internal. Use a Sales kind of work set to Internal, so the meeting doesn't turn the prospect into a client that costs money and earns nothing.
• "It's our own stuff." Internal: log it on an internal category.

Setting it up#

1. In System → Work & rates → Work types, give your kinds of work their billing (for example Account management: client time, no charge, Sales: internal), and switch on Offered when logging time for the ones people should pick. Only people who manage Finance can change billing.
2. On agreements that need something different, add rules under Kinds of work.
3. Changed a rule after time was already logged? Use Apply to unbilled time on the work type's row. It shows what would change before changing anything, and never touches invoiced or approved time, or anything someone set by hand. See Work & rates.

See also#

• Agreements: agreement types, families, and kind-of-work rules.
• Invoices: which time can be invoiced.
• My work: billable or not.
• Profitability: costs: why no-charge client time still counts as the client's cost.