Help · Clients and projects

Rates

owntime keeps two rates per project, and they never get confused with each other.

The billable rate

What the client pays per hour. It sits on the project, with a default you can set per client so new projects inherit it.

Raising a rate without rewriting history

When you raise a rate, you set the date it takes effect rather than replacing the old number. Invoices use the rate that was in force on the day the work happened, so last quarter’s invoice does not silently change when you put your prices up. Reports do the same. There is no reconciliation step and no double entry.

The cost rate

What an hour costs you, which for a solo consultant is often your own time and for a studio is what you pay the person who did the work. It powers the margin column in Reports.

This one is internal, local, and never printed. It does not appear on an invoice, in an invoice PDF, or in the Xero export. It exists so you can answer the question every studio eventually asks, which client actually makes money.

Fixed fee instead of hourly

A project can carry a fixed fee instead of an hourly rate, which is common for a defined piece of work. The fee prints on the invoice as a line. Note that a fixed fee is not a budget, and a budget is not a fee. See the budgets page for that distinction.

Not sure what to charge?

Reports will tell you your effective hourly rate per project, which is usually more useful than a list price for deciding what to quote next.

Next: reports and margin · budgets · invoices