Help Center

Appearance

Specifying Hours for Bills ​

Selectively choose which hours and which team members' time to include when creating bills.

Overview ​

When creating bills in Hidma, you have precise control over which hours to include. Rather than being forced to bill all available hours for a job at once, you can specify exactly how many hours to add and whose time to include. This selective billing capability gives you flexibility to bill incrementally, hold back certain hours for later invoices, or separate different team members' work across multiple bills.

The "specify hours" feature addresses a common billing challenge: what do you do when a job has accumulated hours from multiple team members over several weeks, but you only want to bill for part of that work right now? Perhaps you want to invoice the client monthly but the job spans multiple months. Or maybe you want to bill senior staff time separately from junior staff time. Or you simply want to invoice for a specific deliverable that consumed only part of the logged hours. Selective hour specification makes all these scenarios straightforward.

Why Specify Hours ​

Incremental Billing ​

Many engagements benefit from incremental billing rather than waiting until all work is complete. When you provide ongoing services - monthly bookkeeping, continuing consulting, long-term projects - you want to bill regularly for work completed to date while continuing to log time against the same jobs for future periods.

With hour specification, you can bill for this month's work while leaving next month's accumulated hours for the next invoice. Perhaps a bookkeeping job has 10 hours logged so far this month, but you know another 5 hours will be added next week. Bill for the 10 hours now, and the remaining 5 hours plus next month's work will be available for the following invoice. This approach maintains steady cash flow through regular billing without waiting for engagement completion.

Team Member Separation ​

When multiple team members work on the same job, you might want to bill their time separately. Perhaps partner time bills at a higher rate and gets invoiced immediately, while associate time bills at lower rates and gets invoiced together at month-end. Or maybe you want to show the client separate line items for senior consultant time versus junior analyst time to demonstrate the team composition and value mix.

Selective hour specification lets you expand a job to see each team member's contributions, then add specific individuals' hours to the bill. Add the partner's 5 hours to this invoice, leaving the associate's 15 hours for a different bill or later invoice. Each team member's time can follow its own billing schedule and presentation.

Client Budget Management ​

When clients have budgets or purchase orders limiting how much you can invoice at once, you need to carefully control what you bill. Perhaps a client approved $5,000 for Phase 1, but the team has logged $7,000 worth of time because the scope expanded. You can't bill all available hours without exceeding the authorized amount, but you don't want to wait indefinitely to invoice.

Specify exactly enough hours to reach the approved $5,000 amount, adding partial hours from jobs as needed. The remaining hours stay unbilled until you receive authorization for Phase 2 or negotiate a scope change. This precise control helps you stay within client constraints while still invoicing for the work you're authorized to bill.

Progressive Deliverables ​

Professional services often involve multiple deliverables with payment tied to milestones. You might complete a discovery phase, then analysis, then recommendations - each triggering a separate invoice. The same job codes might be used throughout (Research, Analysis, Documentation), but you want to bill for each phase separately as deliverables are accepted.

Use hour specification to invoice for the hours related to completed deliverables while holding back hours for work still in progress. Perhaps bill the 20 research hours and 15 analysis hours related to the completed discovery phase, while leaving the 10 research hours and 25 analysis hours for the ongoing analysis phase unbilled until that deliverable is ready. Each invoice clearly ties to specific deliverables and their associated effort.

How to Specify Hours ​

The Specify Hours Button ​

When creating a bill and adding hours from unbilled work, you'll see multiple buttons for adding time to the invoice. The standard "Add to Bill" button adds all available hours for a job at once. Next to it, the "Specify Hours" button (represented as a second icon) gives you granular control over what to include.

Click the Specify Hours button for any job with unbilled time. Instead of automatically adding all available hours, a dialog appears letting you choose exactly how much to include on this bill.

Selecting Partial Hours ​

The specify hours dialog shows the total available hours for the job - perhaps 5 hours, or 1 hour 45 minutes, or 23.5 hours depending on what's been logged and not yet billed. You can enter any amount up to the total available.

Perhaps a job has 1 hour 45 minutes available, but you only want to bill 1 hour right now. Enter "1.0" or "1:00" depending on the input format, and only that amount gets added to the bill. The remaining 45 minutes stays unbilled and available for future invoices. You've billed partially for the job without including everything, maintaining flexibility for subsequent billing decisions.

This partial selection works for any job with unbilled hours. If 30 hours are available and you want to bill 10, specify 10. If 2.5 hours are available and you want to bill 0.5, specify 0.5. The system adds exactly what you specify and leaves the rest untouched.

Selecting by Team Member ​

For jobs where multiple team members have logged time, you can specify hours at an even more granular level - selecting specific individuals' contributions. When you click the Specify Hours button for such a job, you see an option to expand the job and view each team member's hours separately.

Perhaps a job shows 15 hours available total, comprised of 5 hours from Justin, 8 hours from Esther, and 2 hours from Maria. Expand the job to see this breakdown. You can then select "Add all hours from Esther" to include just her 8 hours on this bill, leaving Justin's and Maria's time for later. Or select individual amounts from each person - perhaps 2 hours from Justin and all of Esther's time, while leaving Maria's hours unbilled.

This user-specific selection is particularly valuable when different team members' time bills at different rates or follows different billing schedules. Add senior staff time to one invoice and junior staff time to another, or bill each person's contribution as they complete their work rather than waiting for everyone to finish.

Combining Specifications ​

You can use hour specification repeatedly for the same bill, adding hours in multiple increments. Perhaps you specify 5 hours from one job, then later specify 3 more hours from the same job. Both additions appear on the bill as separate line items (or combined, depending on your grouping settings), and the job's unbilled balance reduces by the total 8 hours specified.

You can also mix specified hours with full job additions. Perhaps you specify partial hours for three jobs, then use the regular "Add to Bill" button to add all hours from two other jobs. The bill includes exactly what you've selected - the partial amounts you specified plus the complete amounts from the jobs you added fully.

Viewing Remaining Hours ​

Unbilled Balance After Specification ​

After specifying partial hours from a job, the unbilled work interface immediately updates to show the reduced available hours. If a job originally showed 10 hours unbilled and you specified 4 hours for the bill, the job now shows 6 hours remaining unbilled. This real-time update helps you track what's still available to bill.

The job remains visible in the unbilled work list as long as any hours remain unbilled. Once you've specified hours that total the complete unbilled balance, the job disappears from unbilled work (for that client/project) since nothing remains to bill. Those hours now exist on the bill you created.

Multiple Team Members After Partial Addition ​

When you specify hours for one team member from a multi-person job, the remaining team members' hours stay available. If you added Esther's 8 hours to a bill, the job still shows in unbilled work with Justin's 5 hours and Maria's 2 hours available. You can later specify some or all of those remaining hours for the same bill or a different invoice.

The system tracks exactly whose time has been billed and whose hasn't, preventing double-billing while maintaining clarity about what's available to invoice.

Common Use Cases ​

Monthly Recurring Billing ​

For clients receiving ongoing services billed monthly, use hour specification to separate each month's work into its own invoice. At month-end, generate the bill and specify hours from ongoing jobs that represent this month's effort. Perhaps you specify 10 hours from the Bookkeeping job (this month's work) even though the job has 25 total unbilled hours (including next month's already-logged time).

Next month, specify another batch of hours from the same job. The job persists across multiple billing cycles, and you specify exactly which portion applies to each invoice. This pattern maintains clean monthly invoicing without needing separate job codes for each period.

Phased Project Billing ​

When billing projects in phases tied to deliverables, specify hours associated with each completed phase. Perhaps you complete discovery and analysis phases in the first month but implementation won't finish until next month. Create the first invoice and specify the research, analysis, and documentation hours that relate to the completed phases. The implementation hours logged so far remain unbilled until that phase completes.

This deliverable-based specification ensures each invoice corresponds to accepted work rather than arbitrary time periods or the full accumulated effort.

Mixed-Rate Team Billing ​

For engagements involving team members at different billing rates, consider whether to separate their time across invoices or combine it. If you want separate invoicing, use hour specification by team member - bill the partner's time on one invoice, the manager's time on another, and the staff's time on a third. Each invoice clearly shows the value provided at each level.

This separation can be useful for clients who need to see costs broken down by seniority level, or when different levels' time comes from different budget categories.

Best Practices ​

Hour Specification Tips

Track What You've Billed When specifying partial hours from jobs, maintain awareness of what you've already invoiced versus what remains. Add notes to bills or maintain separate tracking if you're using complex partial billing strategies, so you don't lose track of which hours relate to which deliverables or periods.

Communicate Partial Billing to Clients If you're billing incrementally from ongoing work, make sure clients understand your approach. A brief note on the invoice like "February bookkeeping services - 10 hours" clarifies that this is one month's work from an ongoing engagement, not the complete total. Clear communication prevents client confusion about why they're receiving multiple invoices for the same project or job type.

Use Consistent Patterns If you establish a pattern for a client - perhaps billing senior staff time separately, or invoicing monthly for ongoing work - maintain that consistency. Clients come to expect and understand your billing approach when it's consistent. Changing patterns without explanation creates confusion and questions.

Don't Over-Complicate While hour specification provides flexibility, don't use it unnecessarily. If you're simply billing all available hours, use the standard "Add to Bill" button rather than specifying the exact full amount. Save specification for situations where you genuinely need selective inclusion - the feature's value is in selectivity, not in adding extra steps to standard workflows.

Verify Totals Before Finalizing When you've specified multiple partial amounts across various jobs, review the bill total before finalizing. Make sure you've included what you intended and haven't accidentally under-billed or over-billed. The flexibility of specification requires corresponding attention to accuracy - verify you've selected correctly.

Consider Grouping Settings How hours specified from the same job at different times appear on bills depends on your grouping settings. If you specify 2 hours from a job now and 3 hours later, they might appear as one combined 5-hour line item or as separate 2-hour and 3-hour items. Understand your grouping configuration to predict how specified hours will display on client invoices.

Common Scenarios ​

Scenario: Monthly Services with Varying Hours ​

Situation: Providing monthly bookkeeping for a client, billing at month-end for that month's work, but team members sometimes log hours early for upcoming work.

Solution: At each month-end, create the invoice and use specify hours to add exactly this month's accumulated time. Perhaps the Bookkeeping job shows 15 unbilled hours total, but only 10 belong to the month you're invoicing. Specify 10 hours for this bill. The remaining 5 hours (next month's already-logged work) stay unbilled for next month's invoice. This pattern repeats monthly - specify each period's hours while leaving future periods' work for their respective invoices.

Scenario: Partner vs. Associate Billing ​

Situation: Engagement with both partner and associate time, client wants to see them billed separately to understand value mix.

Solution: Create the invoice and use specify hours with team member selection. Expand the job to see the partner's 5 hours and the associate's 15 hours separately. Add all of the partner's time to this invoice first. Then add the associate's time as a second line item (or on a separate invoice if the client prefers completely separate bills). Each person's contribution appears distinctly, clearly showing the senior versus junior effort allocation.

Scenario: Budget-Constrained Billing ​

Situation: Client approved $10,000 for Phase 1, but work has accumulated $13,000 worth of billable time as scope crept slightly.

Solution: Calculate how many hours at your rates equal $10,000. Perhaps that's 50 hours across various jobs. Use specify hours to add exactly 50 hours to the invoice - maybe 20 hours from Research, 15 from Analysis, and 15 from Documentation, each specified partially from the larger unbilled amounts available. The bill totals exactly $10,000, matching the authorization. The remaining hours stay unbilled until you negotiate a scope change or Phase 2 authorization.

Scenario: Deliverable-Based Invoicing ​

Situation: Three-phase project with payment upon each phase completion. Using the same job codes throughout, but billing each phase separately.

Solution: Upon completing Phase 1, create the invoice and specify the hours that contributed to that phase's deliverables. Perhaps 30 total hours from various jobs relate to Phase 1, even though those jobs have additional hours logged for ongoing Phase 2 work. Specify exactly the 30 hours that belong to Phase 1. When Phase 2 completes, specify the next batch of hours. Each invoice clearly ties to a deliverable phase without requiring separate jobs for each phase.

Need Help?

Hour specification gives you precise control over incremental billing. Use it when you need selective inclusion rather than billing all available hours at once.

Hidma Help Center

Copyright © 2025 Hidma