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This is the full chain, start to finish, for one real client job. Client → Project → Task → Estimate → Time entry → Approval → Budget impact → Invoice → Payment Every step links to the page that explains it in full. The value of this page is the order, the decisions and the money adding up.
The example: Northwind Studio wins the Bluebird Coffee website redesign for a fixed $40,000. Priya (Project Manager) sets it up. Sarah and Jonas (Members) do the work. Daniel (Finance) bills it.

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Before you start

Plan requirements. Tracking time, tasks and timesheets are free. Approvals, budgets, invoicing and payments are Pro. On Free you can record everything on this page but you cannot approve it, bill it or export it. See Free vs Pro.
You also need these apps switched on in Settings → Apps: Projects & tasks, Time tracking, Timesheets, Budgets, Invoices. See Apps and modules.

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The whole journey

1

Priya creates the client

A client is the company you bill. Everything below hangs off it.Create Bluebird Coffee once. You will attach every Bluebird project, rate and invoice to it, so the name, currency and billing details only get typed one time.→ Create a client
Set the client’s default billable rate now if the whole account bills at one price. It saves you setting a rate on every project. See Client rates.
2

Priya creates the project

A project is one engagement for that client. One client, many projects.Create Website Redesign under Bluebird Coffee. Bluebird also has a Monthly Retainer, and keeping them separate is what lets you tell the fixed job from the ongoing one.→ Create a project
3

Priya adds the people who will work on it

Project membership decides who can pick the project when they track time, and it is also how project visibility works.Add Sarah Lin and Jonas Bergman.→ Project members
A group is a standing team. Project membership is who works on this one job. They are different things – see Groups.
4

Priya sets the budget

The budget is the ceiling for the whole engagement. Bluebird is a fixed price job, so set a money budget of $40,000.Choosing money over hours matters. A money budget burns at each person’s billable rate, so an hour from Jonas eats more of it than an hour from Sarah. An hours budget counts every hour the same.→ Set a project budget · Hours vs money budgets
Turn on budget alerts now, not later. They fire at 50%, 75%, 90% and 100% of the budget. See Budget alerts.
5

Maya sets the rates

Rates are what make an hour worth money.Billable is what you charge Bluebird. Cost is what the person costs Northwind. The gap is your margin.→ Set a person rate · Billable rates · Cost rates
Set rates before anyone tracks time. A time entry snapshots the rate that applied on the day it was tracked, so hours logged before a rate exists have no value on them. See Rate snapshots.
6

Priya lays out the sections

Sections are the stages a task moves through on this project. You define them per project.For Bluebird: Discovery, Design, Build, Review, Done.→ Project sections
7

Priya creates the tasks and puts an estimate on each one

An estimate is on a task – how long that piece of work should take. It is not the budget. The budget is the ceiling for the project.Those three tasks are 62 hours and **6,800∗∗ofthe6,800** of the 40,000 budget.→ Create a task · Task estimates · Budget vs estimate
8

Sarah and Jonas track their time

Two ways to record an hour, and both produce the same time entry.Every entry needs a task or project, a duration, and a billable flag. Non-billable hours are still tracked and still count toward the timesheet – they just cannot go on an invoice.In week one:Margin so far: 3,240−3,240 − 1,530 = $1,710, which is 52.8%.→ How to track time · Billable hours
9

Sarah and Jonas submit the week

On Friday each person reviews their week and submits it. A timesheet is a whole week of entries sent for review in one go.The timesheet compares what they were expected to work against what they tracked, so a short week is visible before it reaches Priya.→ Fill in a timesheet · Submit a timesheet
Submitted is not approved. Submitted means the person is finished. Approved means a reviewer accepted it and the time is locked. See Timesheet statuses.
10

Priya approves the week

Priya opens Approvals, checks the week, and approves it. Approved time is locked – only an admin can change it after that.If something is wrong she can reject the week with a reason, and it goes back to draft for the person to fix.→ Approve a timesheet · Reject a timesheet
This is the gate. Only approved billable time can be invoiced. Time that is still in draft or submitted will not appear when Daniel builds the bill. Approvals are a Pro feature.
11

Priya checks the budget

Open the project and look at the budget bar.Northwind is 8.1% through the money for the first week of work. Priya compares that against how much of the job is actually done. If 8.1% of the budget bought less than 8.1% of the project, that is the first warning sign.→ Project profitability · How budgets work
12

Daniel raises the invoice

Daniel creates an invoice from tracked time. He picks Bluebird Coffee and the Website Redesign project, and TimeTracker pulls in every approved billable entry that has not been billed yet.Week one bills at $3,240. Approved billable expenses can go on the same invoice.He reviews the draft, edits the line descriptions if the client needs plainer wording, sets a due date, and sends it.→ Invoice from tracked time · Edit a draft invoice · Send an invoice
Set your “bill from” block once, before the first invoice goes out. See Invoice sender details.
13

Ruth receives it and Daniel records the payment

The invoice moves draft → sent → viewed as Ruth opens it. When the money lands, Daniel records the payment.
  • A payment for the full $3,240 moves the invoice to paid.
  • A payment for part of it moves the invoice to partially_paid.
→ Record a payment · Invoice statuses
If Bluebird has a client portal contact, Ruth can see her invoices and shared projects herself. See Invite a client contact.
14

Priya reviews the numbers

At the end of the month, build a report on the time entry source, filter it to Bluebird Coffee, and group it by person and task.You get the hours, the billable value, the cost and the margin in one table. Save it once and it reruns every month.→ Build a report · Saved reports · Export a report

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The money, at every stage

This is the same 30 hours from week one, viewed from each stage of the chain. The same hour appears in every row. That is the point of the chain – you never re-enter a number, so the report, the budget and the invoice cannot disagree.

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Common questions

No. An invoice built from tracked time pulls approved billable entries only. Time still in draft or submitted will not appear. This is deliberate – it stops unreviewed hours reaching a client.If you need to bill before the week is approved, approve the week first, or raise a manual invoice with your own lines. See Create an invoice.
The entry records the hours but has no billable value, because there is no rate to snapshot. Set the rate, then have an admin adjust the affected entries so they pick up the new rate. See Rate snapshots and Adjustments.Set rates before the first hour is tracked and this never comes up.
The most specific one. The order is task rate, then project member rate, then the person’s default rate, then the client default rate, then the workspace default. See How rates are chosen.
An hours budget counts every hour, billable or not. A money budget only grows from hours that carry a billable value. See Hours vs money budgets.
You can do the left half. Free covers clients, projects, tasks, estimates, time tracking and timesheets. Approvals, budgets, invoicing and payments are Pro.Nothing is lost while you are on Free. Submissions pile up and clear the day you upgrade. See When a plan lapses.
Either she is not a project member, or her role does not reach it. Check Project members first, then Project visibility and Supervision scope.

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Troubleshooting

Weekly timesheet routine

Turn steps 9 and 10 into a habit.

Quote to invoice

When the estimate becomes a fixed quote.

Monitor project profitability

Catch the budget going wrong early.

Month-end close

Do all of this for every client at once.

Set up a new workspace

Everything that happens before step one.