Guides
How to track time by client and project
A practical guide for consultants, contractors and agency professionals who need to account for work against clients, assignments and project budgets.
Published
To track time by client and project, give each work period a clear project reference, record its duration and add enough detail to explain what you did. Keep the structure consistent with any timesheet your client or employer requires. Before submitting hours, check the record against the work completed and the rules that apply to your assignment.
If you are a consultant, contractor or agency professional, this can be a commercial responsibility. Your time may be charged directly to a client, charged on by your employer or allocated against a project budget. A useful personal record helps answer a specific question: which client and project received this time, and what work does it relate to?
Start with the reason you need the record
Your recording method should serve the situation you face. These are different needs, even when they share the same timer.
| Your situation | What you need to explain | What to capture |
|---|---|---|
| A consultant preparing a client timesheet | Which engagement the hours belong to and what was delivered | Client, engagement or project, work date, duration and a clear activity note |
| A contractor submitting an assignment timesheet | Which assignment or work code accounts for the time | The required assignment reference, date, duration and task detail |
| An agency professional dividing a day across accounts | How personal time was allocated between clients and projects | A distinct project reference for each account and brief, with consistent activity categories |
| A freelancer reviewing a fixed-fee project | How much time the agreed work actually took | Project, activity and time spent, including revisions and project administration |
| A consultant reviewing a monthly retainer | What effort went into the services covered by the agreement | Client, retainer period, workstream and time spent; distinguish additional requests |
| An employee allocating effort to internal projects | Which initiative used the time | The required project or cost-centre code, activity and duration |
| A professional discussing additional work | Which requests consumed time beyond the original plan | The relevant project, work performed and a note identifying the request |
Tracking time can support a discussion about a fee or scope. Whether that time can be charged still depends on the agreement and the approval required. A timer cannot decide that for you.
These needs appear in published professional guidance and actual submission processes. ICAEW explains why time recording remains useful under fixed fees, including understanding client and service profitability. Syntax Consultancy's contractor process requires timesheets to be submitted and approved before payment. These are examples of distinct requirements; check the arrangements for your own work.
Use a simple client, project and activity structure
Keep three questions separate:
- Who is the work for? The client or internal cost centre.
- Which piece of work is it? The engagement, assignment, campaign or project.
- What kind of activity are you doing? Research, analysis, delivery, meetings, revisions or administration.
If your tool has a dedicated client field, use it consistently. If it organises work through projects, a naming convention such as Client — Project can preserve both references. For example, Northstar — Website discovery is easier to distinguish from Northstar — Monthly reporting than a project called Client work.
Use activity categories across projects where that helps you compare similar work. A category called Research can describe research for several clients; the project identifies whose work it was. Keep notes for the specific detail, such as Reviewed interview findings for discovery summary.
Match required codes exactly when your employer or client supplies them. Avoid creating a parallel naming system that makes submission harder.
If the required system already captures the detail you need, use it as your main record. An additional personal tracker earns its place when it helps you capture work that is otherwise forgotten, keep useful project context or review your own working patterns. It should reduce reconstruction effort rather than create a second timesheet to maintain.
Make each entry recognisable later
The following entries are fictional examples of a personal work log, not customer data or a FlowQuota interface.
| Client | Project | Activity | Work note | Recorded time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Northstar | Website discovery | Research | Reviewed interview findings for discovery summary | 50 minutes |
| Northstar | Website discovery | Client meeting | Discussed discovery findings and next actions | 30 minutes |
| Elm Studio | Campaign launch | Analysis | Compared campaign results for launch review | 40 minutes |
| Own business | Business development | Proposal | Drafted scope for a prospective assignment | 35 minutes |
A useful note identifies the work without copying confidential material into your tracker. Client work is too vague to help a week later. A complete account of every action adds unnecessary effort. Aim for a short description that lets you recognise the task and relate it to the project.
Keep your own business development and administration separate from client work. These activities use time too, but their commercial treatment may differ.
Record when the work changes
A timer can help you capture work as it happens. Choose the project before starting, then stop or switch when you move to another client's work. Pause when the activity stops. A call about a different account belongs with that account, even if you were already working on another project.
Manual timekeeping can also mean entering time afterwards. If you use that method, record it while the detail is fresh and identify estimates honestly. Check the approach your client or employer accepts before relying on it for a submitted timesheet.
For a required timesheet, your record needs to cover the work and reporting period that requirement specifies. Recording only your most focused sessions may leave out meetings, administration or other time you are expected to account for. A personal focus record and a complete commercial timesheet may therefore have different coverage.
Check gaps before you submit hours
Review entries regularly enough to recognise mistakes. Look for a timer left running, work assigned to the wrong project or a note that no longer explains the activity.
If you missed a recording, use reliable evidence to establish what you can. A meeting invitation shows planned time; it does not prove attendance or the time actually spent. Where the duration remains uncertain, follow the required process for estimates or corrections. Do not present a guess as a measured entry or count overlapping work twice.
Keep these three ideas distinct:
- Recorded time: the time represented in your work log.
- Billable time: the portion that qualifies to be charged under the relevant agreement.
- Invoiced time: the time actually included in an invoice.
They may differ. Check required project codes, breaks, rounding and approval before transferring or submitting your record. Use the official submission system when one is required.
Use the record to understand the work behind the hours
A structured record can also help you examine your own workload. Did revisions take longer than expected? How much of a fixed-fee project went into coordination? Did business development receive any recorded time?
Those questions can inform your next estimate, a scope discussion or the way you plan an assignment. A time total still needs context: more hours do not establish better work, and fewer hours do not establish less value.
For a practical review routine, see how to review your working week.
Where FlowQuota fits
FlowQuota lets you deliberately record sessions with your own projects, activity categories and notes. A project name can include the client and engagement, while the category describes the activity. You control when a session starts, pauses and stops, then return to history and reporting. You can correct a recorded session's project, category or note afterwards.
This gives you a personal record of the work you choose to capture. Check that its coverage and detail meet your needs alongside any required client or employer timesheet. The capabilities described here do not establish an invoicing or timesheet approval workflow.
FlowQuota also adds a second perspective: Focus Score describes patterns in recorded focus behaviour, and FlowQuota AI offers weekly interpretation and coaching when enough meaningful data is available. These insights can help you reflect on how you work; they do not determine billable hours or assess the value of your output.