Create and manage projects

Projects are what time gets tracked against. A project can belong to a client or be internal work with no client. Time doesn't have to go on a project at all (see Time without a project), but projects are how you organise, price and bill it.

Create a project

Go to Projects in the sidebar and click New project. You can also start from a client's Projects tab, which fills in the client for you.
Type a Name. If a project with a similar name already exists, Timebun shows it so you don't open a duplicate by accident.
Choose a Client, or leave it empty for internal work. Only active clients are listed.
Choose how it bills under Billing: - Draws down a retainer — time comes out of the client's hours. Once they run out, the rest is billed as overage. - Billed directly — time is invoiced at its rate, with no balance involved. - Internal — never billed — tracked for your own records only.

The default follows the client: Draws down a retainer if they have a live retainer, otherwise Billed directly. 5. Pick a Colour. It can't be changed once the project is created. 6. Click Create project.

If the client has an hourly rate, a new project bills at it (Client rate) until you change the project's Rate.

the New project dialog

The project page

Click a project's name in Projects to open it. The top of the page answers the first questions about a project:

Client can see this or Hidden from client — whether the project's time shows in the client's portal. An internal project is always hidden. See What clients can see.
Tracked — all the time on the project. Billable — the part that counts as billable. On an internal project it reads Internal project — never billed.
Worth — what the time comes to, in the client's currency. Only Admins and the Owner (shown as Portal admin in the app for now) see it. The number of entries is shown under it.
Team — the people who work on the project. Admins and the Owner click Assign (or the names already there) to add or remove people. Being on the Team can decide whose time a Team member sees here; see Who sees what below.

Admins and the Owner also get Create invoice, which opens the New invoice dialog with only this project ticked; you can add the client's other projects, pick the dates and leave expenses out before you create the draft. The button is greyed out when there's nothing to bill: internal work, or every billable entry is already invoiced or covered by the client's hours. See Create an invoice from unbilled work.

a project page with the Tracked, Billable, Worth and Team figures

Change a project

Open the project and edit the Details card, then click Save.

Name and Client. Moving a project to another client moves its existing time to the new client too, including the hours it drew from a balance. On a large project this finishes in the background. The project's files move with it and become internal at the new client, and any links to them stop working; see Organise client files.
Status — Open, On hold or Closed. A closed project stops accepting new time.
Billing — changing it re-prices the time already on the project under the new billing.
Rate — Flat rate, By person or Client rate, with a Flat rate amount when you choose flat. Only people who can manage rates see this. See Set your rates.
Draws from — for a project that draws down a retainer, pin it to one retainer, or leave Any of this client's hours so it uses whichever hours expire soonest.
Show this project in the client portal — on by default. See What clients can see.

Under the project's name, Tags files it under your project tags.

Time on the project

Under Time on this project, the page lists the time tracked on it, 25 entries to a page. There's no project column, since every row is this project. The rows otherwise work as they do on Track: edit a description, time or billable switch in place, or delete an entry (see Edit or delete a time entry). To move an entry to another project, do it from Track or My time. Admins and the Owner can also click the scales icon (Billed hours…) to write an entry down or up (see Billed hours and write-downs). An invoiced entry is locked; click its padlock to open the invoice.

Export CSV downloads every entry you can see on the project, not just the page on screen. See Export your data to CSV.
If some entries have no price because no rate reached them, a button such as Price 3 unpriced entries on this project appears beside the count. It prices them at today's rates, across every page of the list, and leaves entries that already have a price alone. See Set your rates.

Files on the project

A project that belongs to a client has a Files card below its time, listing the project's files with whether each is Shared with the client or Internal. Click a name to open the file, or Download to save it. Upload adds files to the project. Admins and the Owner also get Open in client files, which opens the project on the client's Files tab to share, rename, move or delete files. Team members see the files of projects whose Team they're on, or of clients they look after. See Share files with a client.

Archive a project

Click Archive on the project's row in Projects. Archived projects drop out of the pickers but keep their time. Tick Include archived to find them again, then click Restore.

Who sees what

Admins and the Owner create, edit and archive projects, choose each project's Team, see everyone's time and see what it's worth.
Team members can open Projects and each project page. They see their own time on every project, and the figures add up only their own time. If the Owner turns on Team members can see colleagues' time on their projects (see Time tracking settings), they also see everyone's time on the projects whose Team they're on. Other projects still show only their own time. They never see what the time is worth.