About the Timesheet Calculator
Freelancers, consultants, agencies, lawyers, accountants and anyone who bills by the hour need to know how their time was spent: how many hours went to each client or project, how many are billable, and what they come to at the agreed rate. A timesheet records that time as a list of entries, and totalling it — especially when entries are in mixed formats and need rounding to a billing increment — is fiddly to do by hand.
This timesheet calculator takes your time entries, one per line with a label and a duration, groups them by client, project or task, optionally rounds each entry up to 6, 15 or 30 minutes, and gives the total hours, the hours per group and the amount at your hourly rate, both overall and for each group.
How to Use the Timesheet Calculator
Enter one entry per line: a label, then a time, for example:
Client A 2h 30m
Client B 1:45
Client A 50m
Admin 20mTimes can be written as 2h 30m, 1:45, 50m or 45s. Entries with exactly the same label are added together.
Choose a rounding increment, if you use one, and enter your hourly rate.
How the Totals Are Calculated
each entry: time in seconds, rounded up to the increment if chosen
each group: sum of its entries
total hours: sum of all entries ÷ 3,600
amount: total hours × hourly rateRounding is applied to each entry separately, which is how most billing rules work.
Step-by-Step Example
Five entries at 60 an hour, no rounding.
Client A: 2h 30m + 50m = 3 h 20 min = 3.33 h → 200
Client B: 1h 45m + 3h 10m = 4 h 55 min = 4.92 h → 295
Admin: 20m = 0.33 h → 20
Total: 8 h 35 min = 8.58 h → 515The same entries rounded up to 15 minutes.
2:30 → 2:30 1:45 → 1:45 0:50 → 1:00 0:20 → 0:30 3:10 → 3:15
Total: 9 h billed instead of 8.58 hBilling Increments
Many professions bill in fixed increments. Six minutes — a tenth of an hour — is standard for lawyers and accountants, because it is fine-grained yet easy to multiply. Fifteen minutes is common for consultants and tradespeople, and thirty minutes for some services with a minimum charge. Rounding up each entry protects the billing professional from lots of unbilled short tasks, but it adds up: five entries rounded up to 15 minutes can add half an hour or more. Agree the rounding rule with clients in advance and state it on invoices.
Billable and Non-Billable Time
Not every hour is billable. Admin, marketing, training and internal meetings are real work but are not charged to a client. Keeping them on the timesheet under their own labels shows where time goes and what share is billable — a key measure of a practice's profitability. A consultant who works 40 hours a week but bills only 25 has a utilisation rate of 62.5 percent. When invoicing, simply leave the non-billable groups out of the amount.
Setting an Hourly Rate From a Timesheet
Timesheets also help set prices. If a freelancer wants to earn 60,000 a year and can realistically bill about 1,200 hours — allowing for holidays, admin and quiet periods — the rate needs to be at least 60,000 ÷ 1,200 = 50 an hour, before business costs. Adding up actual billable hours over a few months shows whether the 1,200-hour assumption is realistic. If only 900 hours turn out to be billable, the same income needs a rate of about 67 an hour, or more billable work. Many new freelancers underestimate how much of their week goes on non-billable tasks, which is why tracking every hour, not just the billable ones, is so useful.
Keeping Good Timesheets
Record time as you go rather than reconstructing it at the end of the week, when small tasks are easily forgotten. Use consistent labels — "Client A" and "client a" are treated as different groups. Add a short description in your own records for each entry, since clients often ask what the time was spent on. And keep the exact times as well as the rounded ones, so you can answer any query about a bill.
Timesheets for Employees
Employers use timesheets to allocate staff costs to projects, to bill clients for staff time, and to claim for research and development or grant-funded work, which often requires evidence of hours spent. The same calculation applies: group the hours by project and multiply by the relevant rate. For pay purposes based on clock-in and clock-out times, the time card calculator is more suitable.
Understanding Your Result
The headline gives the total hours as a decimal.
The in hours and minutes line gives the same total in hours and minutes.
The by client or project line lists the hours for each label.
The rounding line shows the exact and billed totals when rounding is used.
The entries line counts the entries and groups.
The amount line gives the total and per-group amounts at your rate.
When Should You Use This Calculator?
Use it to total a week or month of time entries for invoicing.
Use it to see how your time splits between clients and projects.
Use it to apply a billing increment consistently.
Use it to work out utilisation and billable hours.
Common Mistakes
Inconsistent labels. Entries only group when their labels match exactly.
Rounding the total instead of each entry. Most billing rules round per entry.
Writing 1.30 for an hour and a half. Write 1:30 or 1h 30m.
Including non-billable time in the invoice. Leave admin and internal work out.
Forgetting the time on short tasks. Quick calls and emails add up; record each one, even if it is only a few minutes.