Freelance & services · template 03 of 12
Hourly invoice template with a timesheet
Bill by time and show the work: a dated line per session, hours at your rate, and the hour count totalled alongside the amount. It is the version a client's manager can approve without asking for a breakdown.
Free, no sign-up, nothing stored. It opens filled in so you can see the shape.
When to use it
Use it when your contract prices time rather than deliverables, and when whoever approves the invoice isn't the person you worked with. A dated timesheet answers their questions before they ask them.
Keep task descriptions specific enough to jog a memory in three months and short enough to fit one line. “On-call incident 4471 — postmortem” beats both “support” and a paragraph.
Field by field
The window the timesheet covers, in the header. It stops a second invoice for the same fortnight being paid twice or rejected as a duplicate.
One row per working session, in order. When a client questions an invoice, they question a date — being able to point at one is the whole value of the format.
Decimal hours (7.5) read more clearly than 7h30 in a column of numbers, and they multiply correctly against a rate.
State it in the header and repeat it per line. If the rate changed mid-period, use two blocks rather than explaining it in a note.
Questions people ask
Should I round my hours?
Round consistently and say how — to the nearest quarter hour is common. Inconsistent rounding across a long timesheet is what triggers a line-by-line audit.
How much detail per line?
Enough that the approver recognises the work. If the contract has a ticket system, quote the ticket reference — it makes the invoice self-verifying.
Can I attach a longer timesheet?
Yes, and note it on the invoice. Where a period runs long, many people invoice summary lines and keep the full log for whoever asks.
What this is, and what it isn't
This creates an invoice document — the kind you send a client and attach to a payment. It is not a fiscalised e-invoice. Many countries now require invoices to be registered with the tax authority through an approved system, which returns an official number and QR code. We don't do that. If your business is in scope where you are, this document is still yours to send — but the official filing happens elsewhere. We'd rather tell you than let you find out.
We don't validate tax IDs or registration numbers, and nothing here is tax advice. Rates and labels are yours to set; we don't maintain rate tables for every country and won't pretend to.