Time tracking for consultants whose day happens between meetings.
Consulting time is scattered: a workshop, two calls, an hour of analysis, a deck finished on the train. TrackTimer makes recording it quick from your phone, Mac, or AI assistant, keeps hourly and fixed-fee engagements apart, and lets clients see the hours without seeing your rates.
At a glance
- Run hourly advisory work and fixed-fee engagements side by side, each with its own billing mode.
- Start and switch timers from iPhone, with the running time on the Lock Screen, or from the web, Raycast, or an AI assistant.
- Associates and subcontractors get their own pay rates and see only their own hours and earnings.
- Clients can have a free, read-only dashboard of completed hourly billable time by project and day.
- Fixed-fee engagements show labor cost to date and fee less cost, so you can compare them with your hourly rate.
- Every correction keeps a reason and the before and after, so an invoice is easy to explain.
Where consultants lose time and margin
Days broken into fragments
Consulting work rarely comes in long blocks. Calls, workshops, travel, and short analysis sessions blur together, and the fifteen-minute pieces are the first to go missing.
Engagement prices set by instinct
A strategy sprint or diagnostic is often priced from experience rather than data. Without tracked hours, you cannot tell whether fixed-fee engagements earn more or less than your hourly work.
Associates at different costs
Small firms bring in associates and subcontractors. When the principal and an associate bill the same client at different rates, the firm needs both rates on every hour to know what an engagement earned.
Invoices that need explaining
Clients paying by the hour want to understand what they paid for. Waiting for the invoice to explain it invites a difficult conversation.
How TrackTimer works for consultants
Engagements as projects
Create a client for each organization and a project for each engagement: Hourly for advisory work, Fixed fee for a scoped sprint or diagnostic, and Non-billable for business development and proposals.
Record time wherever the work happens
Start a timer as a call begins, from iPhone, where a Live Activity keeps the time and earnings on the Lock Screen, or from the web, Raycast, or an AI assistant. Starting a new timer stops the previous one, so back-to-back meetings need one tap each.
Catch the work between meetings
On a Mac, AI Auto Track keeps a private timeline of your day and summarizes each block. Turn the analysis you did between calls into a time entry with its summary as the description.
Associates with their own rates
Invite associates and subcontractors as contractors, with their own pay rates and the billing rate each client pays for their time. They see their own hours and earnings, never your billing rates or the firm’s margins.
Compare fixed fees with your hourly rate
A fixed-fee engagement shows the agreed fee, tracked time, labor cost at saved pay rates, and fee less cost to date. Divide the fee by the tracked hours to compare what the engagement earned per hour with your advisory rate.
Transparent hours, invoices in Mercury
Invite a client contact to a free, read-only dashboard of completed hourly billable time by project and day. With Mercury connected, create an unsent invoice from reviewed hours or an agreed fee and send it from Mercury.
Example: a strategy sprint versus hourly advisory
A two-person consultancy sells a six-week operating-model review for a fixed fee of $18,000. The principal’s pay rate is set to $120 an hour and the associate’s to $70. When the final report is delivered:
| Person | Tracked | Pay rate | Labor cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Principal | 40h | $120/h | $4,800 |
| Associate | 70h | $70/h | $4,900 |
| Total | 110h | $9,700 |
- Agreed fee
- $18,000
- Tracked time
- 110h
- Labor cost
- $9,700
- Fee less cost
- $8,300 · 46%
Illustrative example with hypothetical people, hours, and rates. The sprint brought in $163.64 per tracked hour ($18,000 ÷ 110h). If the firm’s hourly advisory rate is $250, the fixed fee priced this work well below it, useful to know before quoting the next sprint.
Set up your first week
Add clients and engagements. Create each client and a project per engagement with the right billing mode and, for fixed-fee work, the agreed amount.
Set your rates. Set your billing rate, overriding it for clients who pay differently, and a pay rate for each person.
Invite associates. Invite associates and subcontractors as contractors and assign them to their engagements.
Track from your phone and desk. Use the iPhone app between meetings, and the web app, Raycast, or AI Auto Track at your desk.
Review each engagement. At the end of each month or engagement, compare fee less cost and billable time, invoice through Mercury, and invite clients to their dashboards.
Frequently asked questions
Can I track time during meetings from my phone?
Yes. Start or switch a timer in the TrackTimer iPhone app, where a Live Activity keeps the running time and earnings on the Lock Screen, or in any phone browser.
Can I see which engagements pay best?
Yes. Fixed-fee engagements show fee less cost, and hourly work shows billable value. Divide a fee by its tracked hours to compare what each engagement earned per hour with your advisory rate.
How should I handle a day rate?
If you bill by the day regardless of hours, use a fixed-fee project for the engagement. If you bill partial days, set an hourly billing rate equal to your day rate divided by your standard day.
Can my associates see my billing rate?
No. Associates invited as contractors see their own hours, pay rate, and earnings only.
Can clients see my hours?
Yes, for hourly work. A client viewer sees completed billable time by project and day on a free, read-only dashboard, without notes, rates, or names.
Can I send invoices from my tracked time?
Yes. Connect Mercury, choose a client and dates, and TrackTimer creates an unsent invoice from reviewed hours or an agreed fee. Review and send it from Mercury.
See what your time earns.
Set up your first client and project in a few minutes. Free during early access.
Written by TrackTimer about its own product and reviewed . Examples use hypothetical people, hours, and rates. Features and planned pricing can change; the pricing section has the current terms.