The core workflow
How Clients, Projects, Tasks, Time, Invoices, and Payments connect in Hoursmith — the one line everything follows.
Almost everything in Hoursmith is one connected line. Understanding it once makes the rest of the app obvious.
Clients → Projects → Tasks → Time → Invoices → Payment.
The six steps
Clients
A client is who you bill. You add their billing details once — name, address, currency, default rate, payment terms, tax — and Hoursmith reuses them everywhere. Add a client →
Projects
A project is a piece of work for a client. It bills tracked time at an hourly rate, invoices a fixed-fee contract independently of time, or stays non-billable. Projects can also have a budget. Create a project →
Tasks
Tasks break a project into work items on a board or list. They're optional for billing, but handy for organizing time, assigning teammates, and adding comments. Work with tasks →
Time
You log time against a project (and optionally a task) — with the live timer or by typing it in. Hourly entries can be billable or non-billable and are priced at the project rate. Fixed-fee and non-billable time records effort but never becomes an invoice line.
Invoices
When it's time to bill, Hoursmith combines billable, un-invoiced Hourly time, available fixed-fee contract value, and expenses in an invoice. You review, adjust, and send it from your own email. Create an invoice →
Payment
Your client pays by card (via your own Stripe account) or bank transfer, and you can record offline payments too. The invoice flips to Paid automatically. Get paid →
How the pieces lock together
A few rules follow from this chain — they're worth knowing up front:
- Hourly rates cascade. A client's default rate flows into new Hourly projects; a project's rate prices its time entries. Fixed-fee and non-billable projects do not inherit it.
- Invoice sources stay explicit. Only billable Hourly entries that aren't already on an invoice can become time lines. Fixed-fee projects contribute their available contract balance separately. Once an entry is on an invoice, it's locked so your numbers can't drift.
- Invoices are snapshots. When you generate an invoice, the bill-to details and line prices are frozen. Editing a client later never changes a past invoice. See Immutable snapshots.
Ready to try it?
Walk the whole chain end-to-end in the Quickstart, or read up on each piece in Core concepts.