As a business, when you and your team track time in FreshBooks, billing methods are used to determine the rate for time worked. This helps communicate the value of your time to the client, or help you put a value on your business' productivity.
Decide the billing method that determines what rate you charge for each or all entries with the below options:
Hourly Projects
Standard Rate
The Standard Rate is automatically applied to all unbilled hours for you. Use the below steps to set up a Standard Rate:
- Go directly to Tax and Financial Information here, or select the Settings section
- Under Business Profile, select Tax and Financial Information
- At the bottom, enter in your Standard Rate
![Tax and Financial information showing field for Standard Rate to be filled out.]()
- Select Save Changes to finish.
Single Hourly Rate
The Single Hourly Rate is ideal if you want all time tracked to be consistent for a particular project, regardless of who tracked the time or which service was chosen.
- Select the Projects section
- Then select any existing project and select the Edit button, or select the New Project button
- Under Project Settings, ensure Project Type is set to Hourly Project and saved
- Then select Set Hourly Rates
![project settings button.]()
- Under Select A Billing Method, choose Single Hourly Rate
- If needed, check off Save this as my standard rate to apply moving forward
- Enter in the rate in the field and select Done.
![Single hourly rate option.]()
Team Member Rates
If you have invited team members working with you, Team Member Rates allow you to apply a rate unique to each team member on all of their time entries in your account. Team Member Rates can be accessed within a project’s settings, or within a team member’s profile in the Team Members section using the below steps:
Team Member Rates in Projects
- Select the Projects section
- Then select any existing project and select the Edit button, or select the New Project button
- Under Project Settings, ensure Project Type is set to Hourly Project and saved
- Then select Set Hourly Rates
![project settings button.]()
- Under Select A Billing Method, choose Team Member Rate
- Add a rate for each team member, including yourself. Select Done to finish, the new rates will apply for the current project only.
![Team member rates options.]()
To apply the new rate for future projects moving forward, use the Team Member Rates in Team Members steps below to edit it in their team member profile instead.
Team Member Rates in Team Members
- Select the Team Members section
- Then select the team member you want to review
- Under Team Member Settings, select Set Billable Rate
![Team member profile with set billable rates selected.]()
- Add or update the rate and select Save to finish. This rate will be applied to new projects moving forward.
Service Rates
Service Rates allows you to bill different rates for each service, regardless of the client you're billing. Service Rates are set up on a per-project basis by creating or editing an existing project:
- Select the Projects section
- Then select any existing project and select the Edit button, or select the New Project button
- Under Project Settings, ensure Project Type is set to Hourly Project and saved
- Then select Set Hourly Rates
![project hourly rate button.]()
- Next, select Service Rates
![Service rate option.]()
- Add a rate for each service and select Done to finish.
If there are no services to add a rate for, you'll need to add at least one service to the project first with the steps in What are services? here.
Flat Rate Projects
A Flat Rate Project is useful if you want to bill for a single fixed rate regardless of how many hours are tracked towards a project. Create a flat rate project with the steps below:
- Select the Projects section
- Then select any existing project and select the Edit button, or select the New project button
- Under Project Settings, ensure Project Type is set to Flat Rate Project and saved
![project type button.]()
- Then select the Flat Rate field at the bottom of the project and enter in the rate
![Flat Rate option.]()
- Select Save to finish.
When you generate an invoice for a flat rate project, it will always display the flat rate as a single line item on the invoice regardless of how many time entries you've tracked to it. All time entries are automatically marked as non-billable, and individual time entries will not appear on the invoice. A flat rate project can only be invoiced once.
FAQs
Which billing method is used if I track time that's not associated to a project?
If you log a time entry that is only associated to a client and not a project, the billing method will be applied in the following priority:
- Service Rate - Used if the time entry is assigned to a service over any other rate
- Team Member Rate - Used if the time entry was logged by a team member and no Service Rate is set
- Standard Rate - Used if no Service or Team Member rate is set
- Default Rate - 0.00 / hr is used if no Standard Rate or Team Member rate is set.
What happens if I switch my project type after my project has been created?
Changing your hourly project to a flat rate project will result in:
- All future time entries become non-billable
- Previously logged time entries will retain original billing method applied at time of entry
- Generating an invoice for a flat rate project will result in a mix of old time entries using the old billing methods and new time entries using flat rate billing method
Changing your flat rate project to an hourly project will result in:
- All previously logged and future time entries can be either marked as billable or non-billable
- Previously logged time entries will retain original flat rate billing method