Bill the hours, not a lump sum
Free Timesheet Invoice Generator
One line per day worked, with the date, the hours and the rate — or the start and finish times and the break, and the hours are worked out for you. The invoice totals the hours as well as the money, so a client can check the time before they check the amount.
Everything stays in this browser. Your business, clients and past timesheets are saved on this device only.
- No signup
- Remembers your details
- Saves clients and items
- PDF, Word & Excel
Why an hourly invoice is a different document
An ordinary invoice line is a thing supplied. A timesheet line is a thing supplied on a date, and the date is what the client checks it against — their own record of when you were there, or the agency system that approved the hours.
That is why an invoice with "Consulting — 38 hours — $2,356.00" gets queried and a dated breakdown does not. The amount is the same. The difference is whether the client can verify it without emailing you.
- A date on every line, not just an invoice period
- Hours as the unit, typed or calculated from start, finish and break times
- The rate per line, so a different rate for a different task is visible
- Overtime and double-time lines at 1.5× or 2× the regular rate, added in one click
- A total hours figure alongside the money total, split into regular and overtime hours when there is overtime
- Expenses can sit on the same invoice without inflating the hours
The hours and the money have to agree
The most common defect in a timesheet invoice is a total-hours figure that does not match the lines it is supposedly summing. It happens when the hours are re-derived from the money, or typed by hand into a footer, and it is the first thing an accounts-payable clerk finds.
Here the hours total is summed from the lines at quarter-hour precision, and only lines actually booked in hours are counted. Put a travel expense or a fixed fee on the same invoice and it bills correctly without moving the hours figure.
Clock times instead of arithmetic
Give a line a start time, a finish time and an unpaid break, and its hours are calculated as decimal hours to two places: 08:30 to 17:00 with a 30-minute break is 8 hours, and 09:00 to 16:20 with no break is 7.33. A finish earlier than the start is read as a shift that ran past midnight, so 22:00 to 06:00 is 8 hours.
The times print under the date on the PDF and the Word file. In the Excel file they are real time cells, and the hours on those lines are a formula of start, finish and break, so correcting a time in the spreadsheet moves the amount and the totals too. "Repeat for next day" copies the last line with its rate and times, dated a day later.
"Overtime (×1.5)" and "Double time (×2)" add a line dated like the last one, for the same work, at the regular rate multiplied: $60.00 an hour becomes $90.00 or $120.00. Enter the extra hours, or the start and finish of the extra time, and the totals show regular hours and overtime hours separately on the preview, the PDF and the Word file. The rate stays editable if your agreement uses a different premium; the tool does not decide when overtime applies.
"Load sample" opens last week as an editable draft: five dated days with start, finish and break times, one of them past midnight, and a parking expense that is billed without counting as hours. Change the customer, dates, times and rate and it is your invoice.
A worked week
Three days at a single rate, with an expense line that is billed but is not time.
| Date | Work | Hours | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-09-01 | Discovery calls | 7.5 | $450.00 |
| 2026-09-02 | Schema work | 8 | $480.00 |
| 2026-09-03 | Review and handover | 6.25 | $375.00 |
| 2026-09-03 | Site visit mileage | — | $45.00 |
| Total hours | 21.75 | ||
| Subtotal | $1,350.00 | ||
| Total | $1,350.00 | ||
The hours total is 21.75, not 22.75: the mileage line is billed but is not time, so it stays out of the hours figure. 21.75 hours at $60.00 is $1,305.00, and the remaining $45.00 is the expense — the two numbers reconcile, which is the whole point of showing both.
Timesheet, hourly invoice or retainer?
These get used interchangeably and describe different agreements.
- Timesheet invoice
- Bills specific hours on specific dates. The client can verify each line against their own record before paying.
- Hourly invoice
- Bills a quantity of hours for a period without dating them. Faster to produce, harder for the client to check.
- Retainer invoice
- Bills an agreed amount per period regardless of hours worked. Hours may be reported alongside, but they are not what is being charged.
- Fixed-fee invoice
- Bills an agreed price for a defined deliverable. Hours are irrelevant to the amount and listing them invites a negotiation you already had.
Keeping the record
Timesheets are saved in this browser alongside your invoices, receipts and credit notes, and can be exported as a backup. Clearing site data removes them, so download the PDF for anything you need to keep.
This produces an invoice. It is not a time-tracking system, does not run a timer, and does not connect to an agency or payroll system. Whether hours must be approved before invoicing, and in what format, is set by your contract.