Freelance Time Tracker & Timesheet (Excel)
Log every work session with its start and end time and the workbook does the rest: hours after breaks, the client's hourly rate and currency, the amount earned and whether it has been invoiced yet. A Summary sheet totals hours and money per client for any period, and the Timesheet sheet prints a clean list of hours for one client, ready to attach to your invoice.
Free · no sign-up · opens in Microsoft Excel, Google Sheets, LibreOffice and WPS Office. Files contain no macros.
Preview
Real view of the file with its sample data (yellow cells are where you type).
| Client | Currency | Hours worked | Billable hours | Amount earned | Not yet invoiced | Earned per hour worked |
| Northwind Labs (US) | USD | 7.33 | 7.5 | 528.75 | 301.25 | 72.14 |
| Brightside Media (UK) | GBP | 2.95 | 2.2 | 105.6 | 105.6 | 35.8 |
| Kaufmann GmbH (DE) | EUR | 6.33 | 6.5 | 357.5 | 357.5 | 56.48 |
| Desert Rose Events (UAE) | AED | 3.25 | 3.5 | 770 | 770 | 236.92 |
What's inside
- Settings: your name or agency, home currency, date style (your computer's style, DD-MM-YYYY, MM/DD/YYYY, YYYY-MM-DD or DD MMM YYYY) and the period to report
- Clients sheet: client, currency, hourly rate, contact email and billing increment, for up to 100 clients
- Time log with 1,000 rows: date, client, project, task, start, end, break minutes, billable yes/no, a rate override and an invoiced tick; hours, rate and amount calculate themselves
- Summary per client for the period: total hours, billable hours, amount earned and the amount not yet invoiced, each in that client's currency
- Printable Timesheet: pick a client and the period, and up to 40 sessions are listed with total hours and amount
- Hours can be rounded up to the client's billing increment (for example 15 minutes or 6 minutes)
How to use it
- Open the Settings sheet and type your name, pick your home currency and the way you want dates to look. Type the first and last day of the period you want to report on.
- Open the Clients sheet and replace the samples with your clients: currency, hourly rate and the billing increment in minutes (0 means exact minutes).
- Each time you finish a piece of work, add a row on the Time log: date, client, project, task, start time and end time (for example 09:30 and 12:15), and any break in minutes.
- Leave Billable as Yes for paid work; pick No for admin, pitching or unpaid revisions so it is tracked but not charged. Type a rate in Rate override only when one job has a different rate.
- Open the Summary sheet to see hours and money per client for the period, and the amount still to invoice.
- To bill a client, pick the client on the Timesheet sheet, check the period on the Settings sheet, then print or save it as PDF and attach it to your invoice.
- After you send the invoice, type Yes in the Invoiced column for those rows so they no longer count as "not invoiced".
Tips
- Type times with a colon (14:05). For work that runs past midnight, simply type the end time; the workbook adds a day when the end is earlier than the start.
- Log time as you go, or at least at the end of each day; hours rebuilt from memory at the month end are usually too low.
- Track unbillable time too. It shows your real hourly rate per client: amount earned divided by all the hours you spent.
- Keep one file per year. At the year start, copy the Clients sheet to a fresh copy so rates carry over.
Questions and answers
Can I bill clients in different currencies?
Yes. Each client has its own currency and rate, and the Summary and Timesheet show amounts in that client's currency. Totals are never added across currencies, because that would mix dollars with euros.
How does rounding to a billing increment work?
If a client's increment is 15 minutes, a session of 1 hour 7 minutes is billed as 1 hour 15 minutes. Billable hours are rounded up per session; the Hours column always shows the exact time worked.
Why do the dates look different on my computer?
With the date style set to "Computer setting", dates follow your computer's regional settings. Pick a fixed style such as DD-MM-YYYY on the Settings sheet if you want every date shown the same way.
Does it work in Google Sheets or LibreOffice?
Yes. The formulas use common functions such as SUMIFS, INDEX, SMALL and CEILING. The automatic date style may show your sheet's default style in other apps; the dates and totals are still correct.