Invoice fixed-fee projects
Bill all or part of a project's contract value without turning tracked hours into invoice lines.
A fixed-fee project is a contract ledger: you invoice its agreed value, not the hours logged to deliver it. Hoursmith tracks what has been invoiced, what another draft has reserved, and what is still available.
- Role
- OwnerAdminManager
Creating and reconciling fixed-fee invoices is a manager-tier action. Members can track delivery time, but never see the project's fee or invoices.
Before the first invoice
New fixed-fee projects start with Previously invoiced = 0, so they are ready to bill.
An older or imported fixed-fee project must be reconciled once before it appears as selectable in the invoice builder:
Open the project's Edit page
The project page shows Needs reconciliation until this is done.
Enter Previously invoiced
Enter how much of the contract was invoiced before Hoursmith began tracking project-linked fixed fees. Enter 0 if none was invoiced.
Save
Hoursmith subtracts that opening amount from the contract fee. Existing invoices are never rewritten. You can correct the opening amount later if you discover more historical billing.
Add a fixed fee to an invoice
Open Invoices → New invoice
Choose the client. The Fixed-fee projects panel lists reconciled contracts that still have value available, including archived projects whose client is active.
Select a project
Review the Fixed fee, Invoiced, Reserved in other drafts, and Available amounts.
Enter Amount to invoice now
Use the full available amount or enter a smaller amount for a deposit, milestone, or installment. The amount must be positive, use no more than two decimal places, and cannot exceed the available balance.
Create the draft
The draft reserves that amount immediately. The line stays linked to the project and appears as a quantity of 1.00 fixed fee on the invoice, public page, client portal, print view, and PDF.
The invoice-level discount and tax change the invoice total, but they do not change how much of the project's gross contract value is allocated.
How the balance moves
| Invoice state | Effect on the fixed-fee project |
|---|---|
| Draft | The selected amount is reserved and unavailable to other drafts. |
| Sent / Paid | The amount counts as invoiced. |
| Cancelled / deleted Draft | The amount is released and becomes available again. |
Project and report views show the contract fee, previously and posted invoicing, draft reservations, remaining value, and any over-allocation separately. Tracked time remains delivery effort only; it never consumes the fixed-fee balance.
Editing, restoring, and duplicating
- Editing a Draft lets it reuse its own reservation, but Save rechecks the live project balance.
- If the fee or Previously invoiced amount changes and a draft now reserves too much, reduce or remove the allocation before sending.
- Restoring a Cancelled invoice revalidates fixed-fee allocations and opens the editor for review.
- Duplicating a mixed invoice omits fixed-fee allocations and asks you to select a fresh available balance. A fixed-fee-only invoice cannot be duplicated into an empty draft.
Archiving and currency
- You cannot archive a fixed-fee project or its client while a Draft reserves part of the fee.
- An archived project with remaining value can still be selected for invoicing while its client is active. Restore the project to create new work from its own page.
- Once a fixed-fee project has billing history, Hoursmith protects the contract from client or workspace currency changes that would mix currencies.
Troubleshooting
- "Confirm this project's previous invoicing." Open the project's Edit page and enter the historical amount, including 0 when appropriate.
- The available amount is lower than expected. Check Reserved in other drafts and existing Sent/Paid invoices for the project.
- The draft cannot be sent. Its allocation may no longer fit the live balance. Edit the draft and reduce or remove that fixed-fee amount.
- The project is over-allocated. The fee or historical baseline is now below already-posted invoice history. Existing invoices remain immutable; review and correct the project baseline or fee prospectively.