Creating and managing projects

Projects are the heart of TimeBill: each one holds its own tasks, time entries, cost items, billing state, and (later) invoices. This article covers creating a project and the day-to-day edits you'll make in the project detail view.

Creating a project

1. In the Projects sidebar, click the Add Project button (the + in the toolbar). If you have no projects yet, click New Project in the empty state instead.
2. Enter a Project Name and, optionally, Notes.
3. Under Billing Information, pick a Wage Type: Hourly Rate or Fixed Rate, and enter the rate. The currency symbol comes from your Mac's system region; there is no currency picker here. Entering 0 shows the hint This will be a non-profit project.
4. Optionally turn on Set Deadline and pick a date and time (the picker defaults to two weeks out).
5. Optionally add tasks under Initial Tasks: type each name into New Task Name and press Return. Hover a task to reveal a trash button if you mistype.
6. Click Add. The button stays disabled until you've entered both a name and a rate. The new project opens automatically.

There is no customer field in this sheet. You assign a customer later from the project's footer bar.

Hourly vs. fixed rate

With Hourly Rate, earnings are your tracked time multiplied by the rate, plus any cost items. With Fixed Rate, the project is worth the fixed amount regardless of tracked time; the earnings block reads Fixed Project Earnings, visible tasks show no earnings, and the billing state is set at the project level.

Behind the scenes, a fixed-rate project stores its price on a hidden task named after the project plus " - fixed price". You'll never see it, but avoid ending your own task names with " - fixed price", because TimeBill would treat such a task as the hidden one.

Everyday management

• Rename: click the project name in the detail view, type, then press Return or click away to save. There is no cancel once the field loses focus.
• Change the rate: click the Total Earnings (or Fixed Project Earnings) amount to edit it inline. The label switches to Hourly Rate while editing.
• Notes: the collapsible Notes section saves as you type.
• Toolbar: set a deadline (calendar button), a priority (flag button), or delete the project (trash button).
• Footer bar: Assign Customer, Archive/Unarchive, Invoices (only shown once the project has archived invoices), and Generate Invoice.

Free plan limit

Without TimeBill Premium you can have at most 10 projects, and archived projects count toward that total, so archiving does not free a slot. Hitting the limit opens the Premium screen instead of creating the project. See Can't create a new project or task if the New Project sheet won't appear.

Next step: add tasks and start the timer (see Tracking time).