Hourly rates and project costs
Hourly rates turn project time into money: what a project costs and how much of it you can bill. Rates and project costs are part of the Pro and Premium plans.
Rates, cost amounts and invoices are visible only to owners and admins. Rates are close to salary information, so team admins, managers, project managers and employees see hours in the projects and in the reports, never rates or amounts, and the support team cannot see them either.
Where to set rates
Section titled “Where to set rates”- Projects → Rates lists every rate, in three tabs: Person, Project and Person on project.
- The Rates tab of a project shows the rates of that project and its people.
A rate has an hourly amount, a currency and the day it is valid from (and, if you like, the day it ends). To change a rate from a date, add a new rate from that date: the previous open-ended rate of the same person or project ends the day before. Past time keeps the rate that was valid on its day, so a raise does not change last month’s costs.
Which rate applies: the three layers
Section titled “Which rate applies: the three layers”Every time entry gets one rate. Focus looks for it from the most specific layer to the least specific one and takes the first rate that is valid on the day the time entry starts:
| Order | Layer | Set for | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Person on project | One person on one project | Ali on Website redesign: 200 TRY |
| 2 | Project | Everyone on one project | Website redesign: 150 TRY |
| 3 | Person | One person on every project | Ali: 100 TRY |
So the precedence is person on project, then project, then person.
- A more specific rate always wins, whatever its amount. 0 is a valid rate: a person-on-project rate of 0 means that this person’s time on this project is free, and it wins over the project and person rates.
- When a layer has no rate valid on that day, Focus moves to the next layer.
- When no layer has a rate, the time is unrated: it counts in the hours but not in any amount, and the report
shows it in the Unrated column. An invoice cannot include unrated billable time (
rate_missing).
With the example rates, and the person-on-project rate valid from 10 October:
| Time entry | Rate | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Ali on Website redesign, 5 October | 150 TRY | The person-on-project rate is not valid yet, so the project rate applies |
| Ali on Website redesign, 12 October | 200 TRY | The person-on-project rate applies |
| Ayşe on Website redesign, 12 October | 150 TRY | Ayşe has no person-on-project rate |
| Ali on an internal project without a project rate | 100 TRY | Only Ali’s person rate is left |
| Ayşe on that internal project, without a person rate | Unrated | No layer has a rate |
Which rate applies? on the rates page shows, for a person, a project and a day, which rate applies and the candidates of every layer.
Currencies
Section titled “Currencies”Project and person-on-project rates are in the project’s currency (rate_currency_mismatch otherwise). A person rate
can be in any of TRY, USD or EUR. Amounts are never converted: when a project’s time is priced in two currencies, the
report shows one amount per currency, and an hours budget is not affected.
The same rates are used for costs and for invoices; there is no separate cost rate.
Billable time
Section titled “Billable time”Whether a time entry is billable is decided in three steps: the entry’s own setting, else the task’s, else the project’s. The cost amount counts all time of a project; the billable amount counts only billable time.
How amounts are calculated
Section titled “How amounts are calculated”For each group of time with the same rate, the hours are added up and rounded to four decimals, then multiplied by the rate and rounded to the cent (kuruş), with halves rounded away from zero. A report row adds up its groups.
The projects report
Section titled “The projects report”Open the Projects report under Reports in the menu, or the Report tab of a project.
- Choose a date range (up to 366 days) and group by one or two of project, task, person, client and day.
- Filter by project, client, team, person and billable or non-billable time.
- Each row shows the tracked, billable, non-billable and unrated hours. Owners and admins also see the cost amount and the billable amount per currency; for everyone else these columns are not shown.
- A time entry belongs entirely to the day it starts, even when it goes past midnight.
- You can also show the productive time inside the project time. It takes longer to calculate.
- Budget cards show how much of each project’s budget is used, over all time: an hours budget against all tracked hours, an amount budget against the cost in the project’s currency (owners and admins only).
Export on the report page offers the Projects template, part of the Pro and Premium plans, with the person, team, client, project, task, period and hours. Owners and admins can include the rate and amount columns with Include rates and amounts; without it, or for anyone else, those columns stay empty (exports and e-mail reports).
Error messages
Section titled “Error messages”| Code | What it means |
|---|---|
rate_overlaps | Another rate of the same layer, person and project is valid on some of these days; change the dates |
rate_currency_mismatch | A project or person-on-project rate is not in the project’s currency, or on an invoice a rate’s currency differs from the invoice currency |
rate_missing | Billable time on the invoice has no rate on any layer; add a rate and try again |
rate_not_found | The rate does not exist any more |