A client holds who you bill: their contact details, their rates and how their work is billed.
Tick This client is a Business to show the Tax ID / EIN field; it prints on invoices when filled in. Note: some jurisdictions require a Tax ID on business invoices - check your local regulations. Only the name and contact email are required; the rest fills in the bill-to block on your invoices.
Each rate applies from the date you give it. Earlier work keeps the rate it was done at.
The editor shows your Current rate at the top with an Active badge. Press Change Rate to set a new rate from a date - it is added to the timeline and earlier rates are left exactly as they are. Past and upcoming rates appear below under Billing Rate History.
FAQ:
A client sets how its projects bill, the way it sets their rate, and every project follows it unless the project changes it for itself (see Projects). The client's Billing Settings always shows its three choices: Time and materials (the default), Per unit or Retainer. A fixed fee is agreed per project, so it is chosen on the project. Each change saves at once.
Billing per unit, the client holds the Price list its projects use, and a default for Bill extra hours: off, the hours tracked on its per-unit and fixed-fee projects are covered by the fee; on, they bill at the project's rate on top of it. Removing a price takes it out of every picker; items already logged keep their own price.
Billing by retainer, the client holds its retainers and its projects draw on them. Add Retainer sets an amount per period - monthly, the 1st to 15th and 16th to month end, or weekly - from a start date, optionally to an end date, with optional Included hours. Each period becomes one line for the client: planned while it runs, then delivered on its last day, when it joins Unbilled. A new amount changes only the running period. Once a period has been delivered, the retainer's period and start are fixed - stop it and add another to change them. A client can run several retainers; each project then picks the one it draws from.
A period the retainer only partly covers bills its share of days: a monthly $1,500.00 retainer starting July 10 bills 22 of July's 31 days, $1,064.52, and its included hours shrink the same way. The line names the days it covers ("July 2026, 10-31"); start on the 1st to bill whole months.
While a period runs, the client shows each retainer's allowance - "7:30 of 10:00 hours", counting the hours of every project drawing from it - and its effective rate so far. Hours past the allowance are covered unless Bill hours over the allowance is on: then, when the period ends, they bill as one overage line at the Overage rate, exact to the minute - "1:30 hours" at $90.00 is $135.00. The overage line follows your hours until it is invoiced or settled; hours logged for that period afterwards, within three months of its end, go on a second line marked "later hours". While a retainer runs, the client keeps billing by retainer: stop or end it first. When the client runs more than one, the allowance card also splits its hours by project ("Support desk 9:30 · Rebrand 2:00").
Two weeks before a retainer's end date its card says Ends Oct 31. Once it has ended, hours on its projects bill by the hour, like time and materials, and the card says how many: "Ended Oct 31 - 4:15 hours since bill by the hour". The note stays while such hours exist, and for two weeks after the end; with no work since, it then goes quiet. Extend keeps the amount and the included hours and moves the end - by the retainer's own length first, or 1, 3, 6 or 12 months, or no end date. New Retainer starts one on new terms; a stopped retainer is not extended.
A change to how a client bills applies from the day you make it. Hours already tracked keep the terms of their own day: switching a retainer client to time and materials never bills its retainer months by the hour, and switching a time client to per unit never hides hours you have not billed yet. Once the terms have changed, the client lists them in order ("Retainer - to Sep 30", "Time and materials - from Oct 1").
Open Clients and click New Client. Only Client / Company Name and Contact Email are required.
You can edit any client detail at any time. If a client becomes inactive, you cannot "delete" them if they have associated data (to preserve history), but you can archive them to hide them from active lists. Credit a client holds stays on their account while they are archived; Keep It or Mark Refunded clears it.
Type in the search beside New Client: the list keeps the clients whose name or contact email contains what you typed, and remembers the search until you clear it. The list cannot be reordered while a search is on.
Drag the handle icon on the left of each client to reorder your list. On mobile, long-press the handle and then drag. The new order is saved automatically.
Each client can optionally have custom invoice tax and fee settings that override your global defaults. On the client edit page, turn on "Use custom invoice settings for this client" to configure a per-client tax rate, tax label (leave it blank to use your global one) and flat fee. When the switch is off, the client uses your global settings from the Configuration panel on the Invoices page (the gear icon).
When a client pays more than they owe and you keep it as credit, the client page shows it as Credit on account, and it comes off their next generated draft by itself. To decide otherwise, Keep It makes it your income today (say what it is: a tip, rounding, a late fee or interest, or other) and Mark Refunded records that you sent it back - when, and how. Part or all of it, either way. Each one is listed under the credit with an Undo that puts the amount back. The same two buttons sit on the client's credit row in the Invoices Unpaid tab.
The Statement section of the client page makes a statement of account: every invoice, payment, write-off and credit in a period, each with the running balance, ending at what they owe you (or the credit they hold) - a PDF to send when a client asks where they stand. Leave the dates empty for this year and any older unpaid invoice, or pick a From and To date. It works for an archived client too.