Track your first hours and send your first invoice

Applies to Workletto 1.x.

This walkthrough takes you from an empty install to an invoice marked as paid. You need to be signed in as an admin or manager, because members can’t add clients or make invoices. It assumes you have done first-run setup.

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1. Add a client.

   Open Clients. Type the client’s name and click Add client.

   Click Edit on the client’s row to add a billing email and an address. The address is printed on the client’s invoices. Click Save.

2. Add a project with a rate.

   Open Projects. Type a project name, choose the Client, leave Billable ticked, and click Add project.

   Workletto opens the project’s Settings tab. Under Billing, keep Billable ticked and choose One hourly rate for the whole project. Type the rate in your currency, then click Save project.

   You can choose Each person’s own hourly rate instead. Those rates are set on Manage, People.

   A project needs a client before its time can be invoiced. A project with no rate still tracks hours, but its invoice lines come out at zero.

3. Track some time.

   Open Time. Choose a Project, add Notes if you like, and do one of these:

   • Run a timer. Leave Duration empty and click Start timer. The running timer shows in the sidebar, with a button to stop it. A timer stopped within its first minute makes an entry that reads “under a minute”. Starting a second timer stops the first, because you can have only one running at a time. A timer left running keeps counting, but an entry holds at most 24 hours, so stopping it cuts the entry to 24:00; correct the time afterwards if you need to. See Track your time.
   • Type the time in. Enter a duration such as 1:30, 1.5, 1h30 or 90m. A whole number up to 24 is hours (8 is 8:00) and 25 or more is minutes (90 is 1:30). The box rewrites it as hours and minutes when you click away, so you can see how it was read. The most one entry can hold is 24 hours. The button changes to Save entry.
   • Use the timesheet. Click Week. Choose a project under Choose a project…, click Add row, and type a duration into a day’s box. Press Enter or click away to save. Press Escape to undo, or empty the box to clear the time.

   The Billable box starts out as the project’s setting. Time that isn’t billable never goes on an invoice.

4. Create an invoice.

   Open Invoices. Under Ready to invoice you see each client with billable time that isn’t on an invoice yet, with the hours and the amount. Click Create invoice next to your client, or click New invoice and choose the client yourself.

   The New invoice page shows your choices beside a preview of the invoice, which changes as you go. You can bill everything not yet invoiced or only a date range, set the issue and due dates (the due date starts 30 days after the issue date), add a PO number, a subject, a discount and tax, and choose how lines are grouped. Time and billable expenses come on by default. Add any payment details in Notes, then click Create invoice. See Create an invoice for every option. An admin can change the starting due date, tax and notes, and how invoices are numbered, in invoice settings.

   The invoice opens as a Draft, numbered 0001, 0002 and so on. While it is a draft you can change its number, PO number, subject, dates, discount, tax and notes and click Save changes. You can also edit or remove lines, and Add a line for a fixed fee.

   Time that is still running isn’t included. Time on an invoice is locked, so it can’t be edited or deleted until you remove it from the invoice.

5. Print or save as PDF.

   Click Print / Save as PDF. Your browser’s print dialog opens. Choose Save as PDF as the destination.

   The printout leaves out Workletto’s buttons and shows your logo or organization name, your address from Manage, Settings, the client’s name and address, the lines, the totals and your notes.

   Send the PDF to your client yourself, or, once an admin has turned on email, email the invoice from its page. Then click Mark as sent.

6. Mark it sent, then paid.

   When the invoice goes to your client, click Mark as sent. A sent invoice can’t be edited, and it keeps the client’s and your company’s name and address as they were when you sent it, even if you change them later. Click Back to draft if you need to change it; a draft shows the current details. An invoice paid online can’t go back to draft.

   When your client has paid, click Mark as paid. Mark as unpaid undoes it. Workletto doesn’t check your bank, so this only records what you know. If you connect Stripe, invoices paid online are marked paid by themselves (see Online payments).

   On the Invoices page, a sent invoice that is past its due date is marked Overdue, and the top of the page adds up what is waiting to be paid.

If you make an invoice by mistake, you can Delete it while it is a draft. Its time and expenses can then be billed again.