Where your data is stored

TimeBill is offline-first by design. Everything you enter stays on your Mac. There is no TimeBill account, no server, and no cloud sync of any kind.

What lives where

• Projects, tasks, time entries, customers, and cost items are stored in a local database inside the app's sandboxed container on your Mac.
• Archived invoices, including the actual PDF and XML documents, are stored inside that same local database and shown in the Invoice Vault.
• Company details, payment information, and e-invoicing settings from the Your Details sheet are saved as app preferences on your Mac.
• Custom invoice templates are stored as self-contained files in the app's Application Support folder. You can export any of them as a .timebilltemplate file to share or archive it.

No cloud, no tracking

TimeBill has no iCloud or cloud sync, no analytics, no tracking, and no ads. Your data never leaves your Mac. The app only goes online for things like App Store purchases and opening web links from its menus. You can read the full policy any time via Help > Privacy Policy in the app, or on the privacy policy page.

What this means for backups

Because nothing syncs anywhere, there is also no automatic backup: if your Mac is lost or its disk fails, TimeBill cannot recover your data for you. The built-in safety net is the JSON Project Export. See Backing up and moving to a new Mac for a step-by-step routine, and Exporting your data for all export formats.

If you see "Your Data Could Not Be Opened"

This critical alert means TimeBill could not open its local database, typically after a failed migration or when your disk is full. Two things are important:

1. Your existing data is not deleted. It just cannot be shown in this session.
2. This session will not be saved. The app is running on a temporary in-memory store, so anything you enter before quitting is discarded.

To fix it, quit TimeBill, free up disk space if your drive is nearly full, and relaunch. If the alert keeps appearing, choose Help > Contact Support in the app (the email is pre-filled with your app and macOS version) or use the contact form.