ClockFuelOpen accountNot every hour spent on a freelance business becomes a client invoice. Client delivery, internal organization, and preparing a proposal can all take time, but the agreement with the client determines what you should bill. Keep that distinction visible instead of treating every timer total as a payment request.
Tracked time describes effort. Billable time describes what belongs on the client invoice. They are not automatically the same.
Agree on the boundary first
A client may agree to pay for project meetings, revisions, research, or delivery work. Another arrangement may bundle those activities into a fixed project price. Do not infer billability from the task name alone. Before a project begins, clarify which activities belong on its invoice and how you will describe them. This article explains a tracking workflow, not contract interpretation.
Record effort without hiding overhead
Knowing how much time went into administration can help explain why a day felt full even when client delivery was short. Tools with a dedicated billable flag can separate these categories in reports. For example, Harvest documents non-billable projects and tasks in its non-billable time guide. That is a separate product capability, not a ClockFuel feature.
Understand ClockFuel's current boundary
ClockFuel does not currently have a billable/non-billable switch or automatic exclusions based on note text. Writing Non-billable in a session note does not remove the session from invoice totals. Keep that label as context, and review the selected records before sending any draft. Do not present a combined total as billable when you know it contains internal work.
Review with a simple example
Suppose you record three hours of agreed client work and one hour organizing your own files. At a client rate of $50, the agreed client work is $150, not $200 simply because four hours were tracked. Review and adjust your final billing document outside ClockFuel as needed. Keep the time record intact enough to explain how you reached the amount.
A ClockFuel product guide, created with AI assistance from the current app workflow. Examples are illustrative. For button-by-button instructions, see Help.