Stint

Guide

How to invoice for hours worked

October 17, 2026

An hourly invoice is a list of time, a rate, and a total. The arguments start when the list is reconstructed from memory a month later. This is the sequence that keeps the bill boring, which is what you want.

Agree the rate before the timer starts

Write the hourly rate in the same place you confirm the work. If the rate changes by project, say so in that note, not in the invoice. A client who sees a number for the first time on the bill will treat the bill as a negotiation.

Round the way you said you would. Many freelancers bill to the nearest tenth of an hour, or to the minute. Either is fine. Switching methods between invoices is what looks sloppy.

Track the hour while you are in it

Start a timer when you start, and stop it when you stop. A note of one line is enough: what you did, and which project it belongs to. Reconstructing a week on Friday is how two hours become "about a day" and then a discount you did not mean to give.

Keep client work separate from the work you do not bill. A single running clock with a client attached is easier to defend than a spreadsheet of guesses.

Turn the entries into lines

Each line on the invoice needs four things:

  • When the work happened, or the period it covers.
  • What it was, in the client's words if you have them.
  • The hours.
  • The rate, and the line total.

A summary line is fine when the client asked for one ("Website redesign, 5.75 hours at $140"). A line per session is better when they have asked what the time was for. Do not invent detail you did not record.

The invoice total is hours times rate, plus any amount you agreed that is not hourly. Show tax only if you actually charge it. A number that appears from nowhere is the line people dispute.

Say how you want to be paid

Put the due date and the way you get paid on the invoice: bank transfer, check, or whatever you already use. Name the account the way your bank shows it. Send a link or a PDF, and keep a copy of what you sent.

When the money arrives, mark that invoice paid and leave it. Chasing is a separate message, sent after the due date, with the same link. Do not rewrite the hours because a reminder feels awkward.

A short version

  1. Rate agreed before the work.
  2. Timer on while you work, with the client attached.
  3. Invoice lines copied from those entries, not from memory.
  4. Due date and payment instructions on the same page.
  5. Marked paid when the money is in.