Exporting your data: JSON, CSV, and PDFs

Your data is never locked in. TimeBill offers several export paths, each built for a different job. Here is which one to use when.

Project Export (JSON): your full project backup

Choose File > Export > Project Export, then Export All Projects or Export Selected Project. The versioned JSON file contains each project with its tasks, time entries, cost items, deadlines, priorities, and billing states, and can be read back with File > Import Project...; this is the format to use for backups and moving to a new Mac. Note that customer records and the Invoice Vault are deliberately not included.

CSV for Bill: unbilled work as a spreadsheet

Choose File > Export > CSV for Bill, then Export All Projects or Export Selected Project. The CSV lists your open, billable work with the columns Project Name (in multi-project exports), Type, Item Name, Notes, Quantity, Unit Price, and Amount.

By design it contains only unbilled tasks with tracked time, plus cost items. Billed or paid tasks and tasks with zero tracked time are skipped. If the file looks emptier than expected, check your billing states first. This export is one-way: TimeBill does not import CSV files.

Export Timesheet (PDF): a client-ready hours record

Select a project in the sidebar, then choose File > Export > Export Timesheet (PDF). In the save dialog you can set Paper Format: (A4 or US Letter; the default follows your system region) and toggle Round total hours to 5 minutes and Include signature fields (both on by default). Timesheet PDFs are plain PDFs and never carry a watermark, even on the free plan. See Exporting a timesheet PDF for details on the document itself.

Invoice PDFs and e-invoices: from the Invoice Vault

Generated invoices are not saved through a dialog and are not part of the project export. Instead, they are archived in the Invoice Vault. Open it via View > Invoice Vault (Shift-Cmd-I) to share, print, re-export, or bulk-export the actual PDF and XML documents.

Invoice templates: .timebilltemplate files

In Your Details > Configure PDF Invoice Templates, export any custom template as a self-contained .timebilltemplate file. Double-clicking such a file in Finder imports it on another Mac.

Good to know

• Double-clicking an exported .json or .csv file does nothing useful. TimeBill opens but imports nothing. The only import paths are File > Import Project... (JSON) and .timebilltemplate files.
• Stop running timers before exporting. A still-running timer is exported with the current time as its end time.
• Failed exports and imports show an Export Error or Import Error alert explaining the cause; if you get stuck, reach out via Help > Contact Support or the contact form.