Client rates

A client’s default rate is the hourly amount you charge that company when nothing more specific applies. It is a billing rate – what you charge – never a cost.

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Where it lives

On the client page, under Details: Set it when you create the client, or edit it later. See /clients/client-details.

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Where it sits in the rate chain

TimeTracker picks the most specific rate that exists. The client rate is the last of four tiers. If a person has their own billing rate, that wins over the client rate. The client rate only applies when nobody more specific has one. The full rule, including how effective dates are picked, is at /rates/how-rates-are-chosen.

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When to use a client rate

Use it when you charge one flat hourly figure for that account, whoever does the work.

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Cost is never a client rate

A client rate is only ever a billing rate. There is no client cost rate, and there never will be – a cost belongs to a person, not to a company you bill. See /rates/cost-rates.

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Example

Northwind Studio bills Bluebird Coffee at a flat $120/hr, so Maya sets Bluebird’s default rate to 120 with currency USD. But Sarah Lin has her own billing rate of $100/hour, and Jonas Bergman has $120/hour. Person rates are more specific than the client rate, so: Sarah tracks 3 hours on “Homepage wireframes”. At $100/hour that is **$300** of billable value. Her cost rate is $45/hour, so it costs Northwind **$135**. The margin on those 3 hours is $165.

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Currency

The client’s default currency travels with the rate. If Bluebird is billed in EUR, set both the currency and the rate on the client. When a rate comes from a tier that carries no currency, TimeTracker falls back to the workspace base currency. See /rates/currencies-and-exchange-rates.

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What happens next

• The rate applies to time tracked from now on. Time already recorded keeps the rate it was captured with, so a rate change never rewrites your books. See /rates/rate-snapshots.
• Billable value on the project’s Overview and in reports picks it up on the next entry.
• Invoices built from billable time use the snapshotted rate on each entry, not today’s rate.

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Permissions

Editing the client rate goes through the client form, so it is governed by client.manage rather than rate.manage.

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Plan gating

Setting a billing rate – including a client default rate – is free. Setting a cost rate requires Pro. Cost and margin figures already recorded stay readable on Free. See /concepts/plans-and-features.

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Common questions

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Troubleshooting

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