Time & invoicesChatBoardsDocs

Hours in, one invoice out.

Logging, approving and billing are one pipeline. The margin is never a separate calculation at the end of the month.

01Everyone logs the same wayTimer or filled-in week, staff and contractors on one screen.
02Approve onceOne screen for the whole team, with amber flags on anything unusual.
03The invoice builds itselfApproved hours at the rate on each record, grouped by project.
How it goes
01

Everyone logs hours the same way

A timer for people who work in blocks, a filled-in week for people who do not. Staff and contractors use the same screen, and every entry carries a project.

Maria Santos · week of 8 SepSubmitted
Northwind · platform build18.5 h
Northwind · QA pass6.0 h
Cairn · onboarding9.0 h
Week total33.5 h
Entries stay editable until the week is approved.
02

You approve the week once

One screen for the whole crew. Anything unusual carries an amber flag — a twelve-hour day, a project nobody expected, a rate that was overridden last month.

September approvals3 to review
Maria Santos33.5 h
Jun Alvarez27.0 h
Rina Castillo · flagged41.5 h
Approved so far60.5 h
Approving locks the hours and releases them to billing.
03

The invoice builds itself

Approved hours multiplied by the rate on each record, grouped by project. Markup only exists on contractor records, so a staff hour lands as cost and a contractor hour lands as cost plus margin.

Northwind · SeptemberReady to send
Platform build · 148 h$12,580
QA pass · 34 h$2,174
Margin$3,940
Invoice total$14,754
Contractor payments are drawn from the same approved hours.
In detail

Logging, in two shapes

Some work suits a timer and some suits filling in a week. Both produce the same entry: a person, a project, a date, a duration and an approval state. A timer started from a board card also carries the ticket.

  • Timer in the shell, running visibly from any screen
  • Week view for anyone who reconstructs a day at the end of it
  • Every entry carries a client and a project
  • Edits stay possible until the week is approved

Approval is one screen

The whole team’s week on one page, staff and contractors together, with amber flags on anything unusual — an entry logged days late, a duration well outside that person’s pattern, a project that has no budget left. Approve the week, or query one line.

Where the invoice comes from

Approved hours at the rate on each record, grouped by project. Staff hours become project cost. Contractor hours become a payable and a billable line. The client invoice and the contractor payment come out of the same set of numbers, so the margin was never a separate calculation.

  • One action turns an approved month into a client invoice
  • Rate overrides for a single month, flagged until reset
  • Contractor payables generated alongside the client invoice
  • Push to QuickBooks is next on the roadmap

Contracts on the record

The crew record holds the rate and the engagement type, so the agreement that sets them lives there too. Draft a contractor services agreement from the template, sign it, and send a link. They sign from a phone; a new contractor gets their account, their membership and their rate in the same step, and the signed PDF stays on the record.

  • A contractor services agreement per person, from one template
  • Signature by typed legal name, countersigned by you
  • Signing creates the account and the crew record
  • The signed copy emailed to both parties and kept on the record
More on this in the journal