How Do I Generate an Invoice?

In FreshBooks, you and your team can track time to Projects. Those Projects are assigned to individual Clients, and you can Invoice your Clients easily based on that tracked time.
Generating an Invoice allows you to pull all unbilled time from specific or multiple Projects tracked by you, your Contractors and Employees onto an Invoice. This marks those time entries as billed automatically as well. While generating this Invoice, you can also bill for any unbilled Expenses related to the Project(s) or to your Client.
You can add unbilled time to a new Invoice a few different ways:

Generate From Time Tracking

Use the below steps:
  1. Go to the Time Tracking section (left side menu)
  2. Click on Generate Invoice at the top (next to the Start Timer button)
    Generate invoice button at top of time tracking section.
  3. Select your Client (any unbilled hours will show up next to them)
    Choose a client dropdown with clients to select.
  4. Click Continue
  5. In the Review Unbilled Time for [Client] pop-up, under Date Range, click on the dropdown and choose from All Time, This Month, Last Month or Custom
  6. Next, in the Choose Projects section, click Select All to add all your Projects, type to find a project and/or check off specific projects
    Pop-up showing Date Range dropdown and list of projects to select.
  7. In the Choose Expenses section, choose between All unbilled expenses for this client, Only unbilled expenses assigned to selected projects, or No expenses
  8. Then for Choose Time Entry Format section, choose between Detailed, Grouped or Simple for how you want your time entries to appear on the Invoice - time entries are added in chronological order. Click on Show Preview to see a preview of your time entries by a particular format: 
    Time entry format section with show preview link.

    1. Detailed - Each time entry will appear as its own line item and include all details. Above the Description, click on Includes and check off the boxes to display Service, Project, Team Member, Date and/or Notes 
      Preview showing sample time entries in a detailed format.
    2. Grouped - Time entries will be grouped by service and include all details. Above the Description, click on Grouped By to choose displaying by Service, Team Member, or Day, and click on Includes and check off the boxes to display Service, Project, Team Member and/or Date
      Preview showing sample time entries in a grouped format.

    3. Simple - Time entries will be grouped into a single line by project and include all details. Above the Description, click on Includes and check off the boxes to display Project, Team Member, Total Hours and/or Date 
      Preview showing a single line representing time entries.
  9. The Rate will automatically be populated depending on what Billing Rate was chosen
  10. Enter any additional details on your Invoice (like Notes, Terms, Due Date, etc)
  11. Then continue to edit the Invoice, or save/send it.
 

Generate From Project

  1. Go to the Projects section
  2. Click on the Project you want to generate an Invoice for
  3. Click on the More Actions button
  4. Click on Generate Invoice
    Generate invoice button on a Project.
  5. Follow the steps as outlined above for your Date Range, Projects, Expenses and Time Entry Format
  6. Then continue to edit the Invoice, or save/send it.
 

Generate From Invoice

  1. Go to the Invoices section
  2. Click on New Invoice (or edit an existing Invoice)
  3. Select a Client
  4. Click on the Add a Line button
  5. Then select Import Unbilled Time, Expenses and Projects
    Import unbilled time, expenses and project option in dropdown to add new line to invoice.
  6. Follow the steps as outlined above for your Date Range, Projects and Time Entry Format
  7. Then continue to edit the Invoice, or save/send it
 
Looking to add unbilled time to a Recurring Template for future Invoices? Check out the steps here instead.
 

FAQs

How do I manually mark time entries as billed or unbilled?
Follow the steps using the Bulk Actions button outlined here.
 
What happens if I delete my generated Invoice with the time entries on it? 
When the generated Invoice is deleted, all time entries that were on this Invoice will revert back to unbilled status. This allows you to rebill those time entries on another Invoice (or manually mark them as billed) in the future. Undeleting the Invoice will not change the status of the time entries.