Billable Hours Template: Free Spreadsheet for Time Tracking and Invoicing

You do not need software to start tracking billable hours. You need seven columns and the discipline to fill them the same day you do the work. This page gives you both: a free template with the right columns, and the working rules that make it produce clean invoices instead of guilt.

Download the free billable hours template (CSV) — opens in Excel, Google Sheets or LibreOffice. No email required.

Quick answer

• One row = one work session. Log it the same day — reconstructed time always comes up short.
• The columns that matter: Date · Client · Matter/Project · Description · Hours · Rate · Amount · Billable · Invoice #.
• Hours in decimal (1.5, not 1:30) — they multiply by rates cleanly.
• The Invoice # column is the engine: empty = not yet billed. Filter by it to build every invoice.
• Track non-billable time too, at rate 0 — it shows where your week leaks.

What's in the template

Column	What goes in it	Why it exists
Date	2026-08-04	Sorting and monthly totals
Client	Dawson	Invoice grouping
Matter/Project	Estate plan	One client, several workstreams
Description	Draft revocable trust	The line your client reads on the invoice
Start / End	13:00 / 15:24	Optional; feeds the Hours formula
Hours	2.4	Decimal, rounded to your increment
Rate	300	Per client or per matter — it varies, so it is a column
Amount	720	Hours × Rate
Billable	Yes / No	Non-billable time at rate 0 shows the leaks
Invoice #	2026-014 or empty	Empty means unbilled — this is your to-bill list

The file ships with five example rows so you can see the pattern; delete them and start typing.

Setting it up (5 minutes)

1. Open the CSV and save it as a real workbook (.xlsx or a Google Sheet) so formulas and formatting survive.
2. Add the Hours formula if you use start/end times: =(F2-E2)*24 (with Start in E and End in F), formatted as Number. 2:24 of work becomes 2.4.
3. Add rounding to your increment: =CEILING((F2-E2)*24, 0.1) rounds up to the next 6 minutes. Use 0.25 if you bill quarter-hours — and use whatever your engagement letter says, consistently. (More on increments in our billable hours guide.)
4. Amount: =G2*H2. Totals: =SUM() over the columns, or a SUMIF by client: =SUMIF(B:B,"Dawson",I:I).
5. Freeze the top row and turn on filters. The filter is not cosmetic — it is how you will invoice.

The workflow that keeps it honest

During the day. After every call, meeting or work block over a few minutes, add a row. Verb-first descriptions your client will recognize: "Call with opposing counsel re: deposition scheduling," not "phone call." If you cannot log live, do it before you close the laptop — Friday reconstruction is where billable hours go to die.

Invoicing (monthly, or per matter). Filter Client = Dawson, Invoice # = (blank). What remains is exactly the unbilled work. Copy those lines into your invoice document, total them, send it — then write the invoice number into each row. That single habit prevents the two classic spreadsheet disasters: billing the same hours twice, and never billing them at all.

Friday, 15 minutes. Check the week against your calendar for missing entries; look at the unbilled total per client; glance at the billable-versus-total ratio. Three numbers, one coffee.

Where the spreadsheet breaks

We will be straight with you, because we sell the thing that replaces it. The template above genuinely works — thousands of solo professionals bill this way for years. But its costs arrive on a schedule:

• Rates multiply. Standard rate, negotiated rate for the old client, flat-fee matters, a zero rate for pro bono — the Rate column starts needing footnotes.
• Invoice numbering is manual. Miss one number and the audit trail forks.
• The invoice itself is separate work. The spreadsheet holds the data; you still assemble a presentable PDF elsewhere, every single month.
• Unbilled tracking depends on you remembering the filter trick — on every client, every month, forever.
• One broken formula fails silently. The classic: a Hours formula overwritten by a typed number in March, discovered during a client dispute in June.

None of this is fatal at two clients. At five clients and forty entries a week, you are spending a billable hour a month running your billing system by hand.

The next step up (when you're ready)

HourAndBill is this template, grown up into a Windows program: the timer and same-day entries, clients and matters with their own rates, descriptions that flow onto a numbered PDF invoice, payment tracking, and the Friday report — with the "what's unbilled?" question answered on one screen instead of by filter discipline.

It is free — not a subscription, not a trial — and your data stays in a file on your PC: the same ownership deal as the spreadsheet, with the bookkeeping automated. The Early Access Preview shows the real screens, and your CSV imports, so the history you build in this template comes with you.

Until then: download the template, fill it in today, and bill every hour you actually worked this week. That habit — not any tool — is the whole game.