How to turn billable hours into a clear client invoice

To invoice billable hours, total the work within the agreed billing period at the agreed rates, add any chargeable expenses, and give the client a description they can recognize. Before sending, check that the work hasn’t already been invoiced.

That last check is easy to miss when you’re copying between a timesheet and an invoice template. A repeatable process helps you include the work you should bill and leave out what belongs elsewhere.

Start with the agreement

Check the rate, billing period, and what the client agreed to pay for. Research, travel, and revisions may be treated differently from delivery work. Your timesheet records what happened; your agreement determines what belongs on the bill.

If the client agreed to a fixed project fee, the hours help you understand costs. They don’t automatically become extra charges on top of that fee.

Review the entries before totaling them

Look for missing days, duplicate entries, and descriptions that won’t make sense a month later. A note like “work” is harder to explain than “revised homepage layout after client review.”

For a team, have each person check their own entries and use your review process before preparing the invoice. If corrections are needed, make them while the records are still editable.

Use the rates that apply to the work

For example, four hours of design at $100/hour and two hours of development at $150/hour total $700 before tax, discounts, or expenses. Showing the two categories separately makes that amount easy to follow.

Avoid applying today’s rate to older work if the client agreed to a different rate for that period. In PayPolka, time entries carry saved rates, which the unbilled-work invoice process uses.

Choose a useful level of detail

Some clients want each dated entry. Others prefer one line per type of work or person. The aim is to help them recognize what they’re paying for without making them read your internal notes.

Keep supporting detail available even if you send a summary. In PayPolka, invoice lines created from tracked work stay linked to the underlying entries.

Check expenses and previous bills

Review receipts and mark the expenses that are billable under your agreement. Then check previous invoices, including drafts, before treating work as unbilled. A draft waiting for review can already contain the hours you’re about to add.

PayPolka’s Uninvoiced report shows hourly work and expenses that aren’t on an invoice. Saving the work on a draft removes it from that report. If you remove the linked invoice row or delete the draft, the work becomes available again.

Prepare and send the invoice

In PayPolka, create an invoice for the project, select your dates in Unbilled work, and choose how to group the lines. Add the work, review the descriptions and total, confirm the contact and due date, then save and send.

The invoice walkthrough covers those steps. If you’re still comparing tools, see how time tracking and invoicing work together before setting up your next client project.