From Timesheet to Invoice the Same Day: Billable Hours, Margin and Goals in nex-track

Approved on Monday. Invoiced on the 14th. Every day in between is cash you have earned and not asked for.

In most businesses, approved hours wait for somebody to export them, rebuild the bill at the right rate and remember the extra work agreed on a call. In nex-track, the moment a week is approved the hours are on the job at the right rate, and the invoice is ready the same day. Over the quarter, the same hours tell you whether your effort went where your goals were.

This is part 3 of 3 on nex-track. Part 1, Forgot Your Timesheet Again?, shows how the week drafts itself. Part 2, No More Friday Timesheets, is about your daily standup and the timesheet that tells you first.

The solution: approved hours become margin and an invoice

• Approved hours are on the job at once, at its rate, with the estimate beside the actual and the margin live.
• The invoice is built from approved lines only, and your accounting package numbers it, sends it and tracks payment.
• Rates stay private. Labour cost is shown as a total, never the rate behind it.
• Over the quarter, hours become insight against your goals, never a score for a person.

About the visuals: the video, the diagram and the animated loop are illustrations that explain the ideas, not product screens. The company, the people and the figures are invented.

Why billable hours leak between the timesheet and the invoice

Hours leak in the gap between tools. The timesheet lives in one place, the rates in another, the extra work agreed on a call in somebody's memory, and the invoice in the accounting package. Each step waits on the one before, and each hand-over is a chance to bill the wrong rate, forget a line or bill a line twice. Margin is seen at month end, when it is too late to do anything about it.

Concept: approved hours become margin and an invoice the same day

The idea: the moment work is approved, it is costed, billable and visible on the job. Nobody rebuilds it from an export.

The moment a week is approved, the hours are on the job at the right rate, and the job view shows the estimate beside the actual, labour cost, other costs, what is billable now and the margin, before the client sees an invoice.

• Three billing modes on one screen. Time and materials bills the hours. Fixed price bills the agreement and still records the hours, because that is where margin is won or lost. A retainer shows what is left all month.
• Costs follow the same path as hours. Materials, travel and subcontractors are entered, submitted and approved, and rebillable lines go on the invoice.
• Rates stay private. Labour cost is shown as a total. The cost rate behind it is never displayed or exported.

An invoice is built from approved hours and approved costs only; anything not yet approved is shown and held back, so it never carries a number a manager has not seen. nex-track prepares it, your accounting package numbers it, sends it and tracks payment, and nex-track records which lines went on which invoice, so every line is billed exactly once.

Concept: project time tracking against goals, not people

The idea: once a quarter, ask whether the effort went where the goals were, and whether anything was learnt.

Harbour Works is an invented design agency.

One question matters more than productivity: did our effort go where our goals were, and did we learn from the parts that did not? Because you track time on tasks, and every task in nex-orbit serves a goal, the hours roll up on their own. Where the time went puts each goal's actual hours beside its tasks' estimates and says what is worth a look: "102 hours went to 'Launch the spring range'. It was closed as missed, worth a learning," and Grow Northwind at 114 hours against a 40-hour estimate, with one task that was never estimated.

"36 hours on a goal closed as missed, and no learning written" is the most useful sentence this screen produces. It is about the work and the goals, never a score for a person.

What other tools miss here

A spreadsheet and an export means the bill is rebuilt by hand, at last year's rate, days after the work. A project tool's timer stops at the task: no approval, no rate, no invoice. And a time tracker that scores people tells you who was busy, not whether the effort went where your goals were. nex-track does it by default: approved hours land on the job at its rate, the invoice is ready the same day, and the quarter's hours are read against your goals. Part 1 compares the kinds of timesheet tool side by side.

Frequently asked questions

The nex-track series

1. Forgot Your Timesheet Again? nex-track Drafts It Automatically
2. No More Friday Timesheets: Your Standup Drafts Yesterday, and Your Timesheet Tells You First
3. From Timesheet to Invoice the Same Day: Billable Hours, Margin and Goals in nex-track (you are here)

Related reading

• Time, costs and billing: the nex-track feature page.
• Your Company Keeps Learning the Same Lesson: why effort against goals matters.
• The Nexcubator AI assistant: how it chases the timesheet that is holding up a bill.

Where it stands

nex-track is Nexcubator's time, costs and billing app, and is available in the beta now.

If your hours are approved on a Monday and invoiced a fortnight later, start with the part that hurts most. That is exactly the conversation we want to have.

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Nexcubator is business software by Aitina Tech. Request early access and tell us how your time gets from the work to the invoice.