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Time Tracking & Project Billing

A focused, freelancer-friendly addon for logging billable time and turning entries into invoice line items. No external integrations, no separate timer app — log time inside Easy Invoice, click a button, get an invoice.

When to use it

• You bill hourly for projects, retainers, or support
• You currently keep time in a spreadsheet, Toggl, Harvest, or "in your head"
• You want the invoice line item to include date + hours + rate automatically

If you bill fixed-fee only, you probably don't need this addon — use the regular invoice builder instead.

Enabling

1. Open Easy Invoice → Addons
2. Find Time Tracking & Project Billing
3. Click Activate
4. The "Settings →" link on the card takes you to the addon page: Easy Invoice → (sidebar) → Time Tracking & Project Billing (slug: easy-invoice-addon-time-tracking)

On first activation the addon creates one custom table:

{prefix}_easy_invoice_time_entries

Schema:

Column	Type	Notes
id	BIGINT PK
client_id	BIGINT	Nullable. References a WordPress user (Easy Invoice stores clients as users, not posts).
project	VARCHAR(255)	Free text — your own project label.
description	TEXT	What you did.
minutes	INT	Round-to-nearest-minute (no float drift).
rate	DECIMAL(10,2)	Hourly rate at the time of entry.
entry_date	DATE	When the work was done.
billed_invoice_id	BIGINT NULL	Set when entry is rolled into an invoice.
created_at, updated_at	TIMESTAMP

Indexed on client_id, billed_invoice_id, entry_date. Deactivating the addon keeps the table so you don't lose entries if you re-enable later.

Quick start

1. Log time

On the addon page, the Log time form takes:

Field	Required	What it does
Client	optional	Pick a WordPress user (the same list that powers the rest of Easy Invoice).
Project	optional	Free text — e.g. "Website redesign", "Q3 retainer".
What did you do?	required	Becomes the line-item description on the invoice.
Hours	required	Fractional. Stored as round(hours × 60) minutes.
Hourly rate	optional	If empty, the entry has zero monetary value (you can still use it for time reporting).
Date	required (defaults to today)	When the work was done.

Submit. The entry appears in the table immediately and counts toward the hours/value tiles at the top.

2. Filter the list

Two filters across the entries table:

• Client — show only entries for one client
• Status — Unbilled (default) / Billed / All

The summary tiles (Entries / Hours / Value) reflect the filter set, not just the visible page — totals are computed via SQL SUM() across every matching row, so a 5,000-entry account still shows the right total.

3. Invoice from entries

1. Filter the list to the client you want to bill (and Unbilled).
2. Tick the checkboxes on the entries you want to invoice (the header checkbox selects all visible).
3. In the table header, choose the Bill to… client.
4. Click Invoice selected.

The addon creates a draft Easy Invoice with:

• One line item per time entry. Description includes the entry's date, hours, and rate. Quantity = hours; Unit price = rate.
• Customer snapshot (name + email) copied from the WordPress user's profile.
• Subtotal + total set to the sum of the entries' values (tax / adjustments applied later when you open the invoice).
• Status = draft so it doesn't email anyone yet.
• Sequence number assigned via the existing InvoiceNumberService so it respects your invoice-number prefix and counter.

A success banner shows up with an Open draft invoice → link. The invoiced entries are immediately marked Billed #{invoice_id} in the entries list.

Behaviour details

Clients are WordPress users

Easy Invoice stores clients as WP users with the customer role, not as a post type. The addon's client picker:

1. First tries EasyInvoice\Repositories\ClientRepository::all() (preferred — handles legacy data paths)
2. Falls back to get_users(['role__not_in' => ['Administrator']]) if the repository class isn't available

If your client picker is empty, see Troubleshooting → empty client list.

Dual-write of customer / client id

When the addon creates an invoice from entries it writes both meta keys:

_easy_invoice_customer_id  (canonical, used by InvoiceRepository)
_easy_invoice_client_id    (legacy, used by some AJAX listing endpoints)

This is a defensive choice because the rest of the plugin uses both keys inconsistently. Without it, the new invoice might be invisible to certain listing filters.

Pagination

The entries table is paginated at 50 / page with proper OFFSET/COUNT(*) queries. The Hours and Value tiles always reflect the entire matching set (via SQL SUM), not just the current page.

Permissions

By default any user with manage_options (Administrator) can use the addon. If you also have the Team Members & Audit Log addon enabled, every action through Time Tracking is recorded in the audit log under the actions:

• time_entry_added
• time_entry_deleted
• time_tracking_invoice_created

Hooks for developers

Hook	Type	When
easy_invoice_time_tracking_invoice_created (invoice_id, client_id, entries)	action	Just after a draft invoice is created from selected entries.

Example — auto-mark the new invoice as Sent:

add_action('easy_invoice_time_tracking_invoice_created', function ($invoice_id, $client_id, $entries) {
    update_post_meta($invoice_id, '_easy_invoice_status', 'available');
}, 10, 3);

Troubleshooting

Empty client list

The addon shows users from the same source as the rest of Easy Invoice. If empty:

1. Confirm at least one user exists who isn't an Administrator (Users → All Users)
2. Confirm EasyInvoice\Repositories\ClientRepository is loadable — disable Easy Invoice Pro briefly to rule out a Pro side-effect

"Invoice selected" returns to the form with no draft

Check:

1. Bill to… is set (the button is disabled until a client is chosen)
2. The selected entries' rows actually have checkboxes ticked (only Unbilled rows have checkboxes; Billed rows show a green pill instead)
3. PHP error log — if wp_insert_post failed, the addon redirects with tt_notice=create_failed

Hours look wrong after editing

The addon doesn't currently support inline edit — delete the entry and log it again, or use SQL to update the row. Editing is on the short-list for the next addon iteration.

Roadmap

Features deliberately deferred from the initial release:

• Inline edit (today: delete + re-create)
• CSV import from Toggl / Harvest (today: manual entry)
• Per-task hourly rates (today: per-entry only)
• Built-in start/stop timer (today: manual hours field)
• Auto-link recurring time entries to a recurring invoice

If you want one of these prioritised, open an issue or contact support.

See also

• Invoices walkthrough
• Smart Reminders & Late Fees — pair with Dunning to chase those generated invoices
• Team Members & Audit Log — track which staff member logged which time
• Addons overview