# Time tracking for freelancers who want to know what each client is worth.

Source: https://www.tracktimer.app/for/freelancers

When you sell your own time, every unbilled call and every underpriced project comes out of your income. TrackTimer tracks work against each client and project, prices it at your rate as you go, and turns reviewed hours into an invoice in Mercury.

## At a glance

- Track client work on the web, on iPhone with a Live Activity, in Raycast, or by asking Claude or ChatGPT.
- On a Mac, AI Auto Track keeps a private timeline of your day, so work you forgot to time can still become an entry.
- Hourly projects show billable value while the timer runs; fixed-price projects show the fee against your time.
- Set your pay rate to the hourly income you aim for, and every fixed-price project shows whether it beat that target.
- Create an unsent invoice in Mercury from reviewed hours or an agreed fee, then send it from Mercury.
- Free during early access. Planned pricing for one seat is $8 a month billed yearly, or $10 month to month.

## Where freelancers lose time and margin

### Hours that never reach an invoice

The quick call, the follow-up email, and the ten-minute fix add up to hours each month. If they are not recorded when they happen, they are not billed.

### Fixed prices you cannot evaluate

A $4,500 project sounds good until it takes 58 hours. Without tracked time, you cannot tell which clients and project types pay well and which only feel busy.

### Rebuilding the month at invoice time

Reconstructing hours from a calendar and browser history is slow and incomplete, and it happens exactly when you would rather be doing paid work.

### Clients who ask where the time went

An hourly invoice invites questions. A record of completed hours by project and day, available to the client whenever they want it, answers most of them before they are asked.

## How TrackTimer works for freelancers

### One workspace, every client

Add each client and a project per engagement: Hourly for work billed by the hour, Fixed fee for a quoted price, and Non-billable for your own marketing and admin. Starting a timer stops the previous one, so switching between clients takes one step.

### Your rate, applied as you work

Set a default billing rate and override it for a client or project that pays differently. On hourly projects, billable value updates while the timer runs. Rates are saved with each entry, so raising your rate next month does not change last month’s totals.

### Know whether a fixed price paid off

Set your pay rate to the hourly income you are aiming for. A fixed-fee project then shows labor cost at that target and fee less cost: positive means the project beat your target, negative means it did not. Divide the fee by the tracked hours for your effective hourly rate.

### Capture the time you forgot to track

On a Mac, AI Auto Track keeps a private timeline of your day, with a title and summary for each block. Turn any block into a time entry, summary included. If you started a timer late, stop it and correct its start time with a reason.

### Invoice from reviewed hours

With Mercury connected, choose a client and dates, review billable hours at saved rates, select any agreed fees, and create an unsent invoice in Mercury. Each project becomes one line. Review and send it from Mercury.

### Let clients check the hours themselves

Invite a client to a free, read-only dashboard of completed hourly billable time by project and day, so they can check progress whenever they like.

## Example: did the quoted price pay your rate?

A freelancer who normally bills $100 an hour quotes $4,500 for a small website. They set their pay rate to $100, the income they want per hour, so the fixed-fee project compares the fee with their time at that target. When the site launches:

| Figure | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Agreed fee | $4,500 |
| Tracked time | 58h |
| Labor cost at $100/h | $5,800 |
| Fee less cost | −$1,300 |

Illustrative example with hypothetical figures. $4,500 over 58 hours is $77.59 an hour, $22.41 below the target. Next time, the quote could assume about 58 hours at the full rate, $5,800, or the scope could be narrowed to fit the price. With a pay rate of $0 instead, fee less cost would simply equal the fee.

## Set up your first week

1. **Create your workspace.** Set a default billing rate and a pay rate. Use your target hourly income as the pay rate, or $0 if you only want billing totals.
2. **Add clients and projects.** Create a project per engagement and choose Hourly, Fixed fee, or Non-billable.
3. **Choose where you track.** Use the web app, the iPhone app, the Raycast extension, or an AI assistant connected through MCP. Add AI Auto Track on a Mac.
4. **Track a normal week.** Switch timers as you switch clients, and correct any mistakes with a reason.
5. **Invoice at month end.** Connect Mercury, preview the month’s billable hours and fees, create the invoice, and send it from Mercury. Invite clients to their dashboards if they want to follow along.

## Frequently asked questions

### Is TrackTimer free for freelancers?

Yes, during early access, with every feature included. Planned pricing is $8 per seat per month billed yearly, or $10 month to month, and a one-time $200 lifetime option is planned for launch. No paid-plan launch date has been announced.

### Can I invoice clients from TrackTimer?

Yes, through Mercury. TrackTimer creates an unsent invoice in your Mercury account from reviewed billable hours at saved rates or an agreed fixed fee. You review and send it in Mercury.

### What if I forget to start a timer?

On a Mac, AI Auto Track keeps a private timeline of your day that you can turn into entries. Anywhere, you can correct a completed entry’s start and end times with a reason.

### Can my clients see my hours?

Yes, if you invite them. A client viewer sees completed hourly billable time for their own projects by project and day, free. They never see notes, rates, or your other clients.

### Can I track time from ChatGPT or Claude?

Yes. Connect your assistant to TrackTimer’s MCP server and ask it to start, switch, or stop a timer, review your entries, or summarize the month’s tracked time and earned pay.

### Can I raise my rate without changing past totals?

Yes. Rates are saved with each entry when its timer starts, so a new rate applies to new work and last month’s totals stay exactly as they were.

## Guides and tools

- [How to calculate billable hours](https://www.tracktimer.app/blog/calculate-billable-hours)
- [Billing timer](https://www.tracktimer.app/tools/billing-timer)
- [From billable hours to a Mercury invoice](https://www.tracktimer.app/blog/time-tracking-to-invoice-workflow)
- [Project profitability calculator](https://www.tracktimer.app/tools/project-profitability-calculator)
- [TrackTimer vs Toggl Track](https://www.tracktimer.app/compare/toggl-track)

Reviewed 2026-09-25 by TrackTimer. Examples are illustrative. [Start tracking free](https://www.tracktimer.app/login) · [Pricing](https://www.tracktimer.app/#pricing) · [Who TrackTimer is for](https://www.tracktimer.app/for)