Everhour puts Basecamp to-do estimates, logged billable time, and project cost review in one trackable workflow.
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One click and you're timing. Start a timer, add an entry, edit the details. This is exactly how it feels in Everhour.
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Track your budget through time or costs
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Tracked hours flow straight into a polished invoice — no copy-paste, no manual math.
A billable hours estimate gives each Basecamp to-do a clear labor expectation before work starts. The useful number is effort, not a due date. A to-do due on Friday can still need 30 minutes, 4 hours, or 2 days of focused work. Keep the estimate tied to the to-do title, notes, assignee, subtasks, and due date so the person doing the work sees the same scope the manager priced.
Use estimates at the to-do level when the work can be assigned, reviewed, and billed as a specific unit. A list-level estimate works for early planning, but it hides overruns until too late. A design revision estimated at 3 hours and logged at 5.5 hours gives you a real variance. A whole list estimated at 30 hours only tells you that something moved.
Basecamp projects organize work through to-do lists, to-dos, assignments, subtasks, due dates, schedules, messages, and files. Dates show timing. Estimates show labor. Treating a due date as an hours estimate creates bad plans because calendar time includes waiting, review, dependencies, and availability. A to-do with a 5-day date range still needs a separate billable hour estimate.
Hill Charts can show human progress at the to-do list level, from uncertainty toward execution, but they do not calculate time or cost. Use them for status conversations, then use estimated hours and logged hours for billing decisions. A client update can say the list is moving well while the estimate review still shows one to-do running over plan.
The clean comparison is planned hours against actual logged hours for the same Basecamp to-do. Everhour's Basecamp reporting can carry project, to-do, list, task ID, and task status into reports, which keeps the variance tied to the original work item. A 2-hour estimate with 1.75 hours logged means the plan held. A 2-hour estimate with 6 hours logged needs review before billing or future planning.
Read every variance before judging it. Extra hours can mean the work was under-scoped, the notes were unclear, a subtask should have been its own to-do, or time was logged against the wrong item. Fewer hours can mean the estimate was padded, the work was incomplete, or someone forgot to record time. The report starts the review; the project notes explain the reason.
A one-project estimate is enough for a quick proposal check or a small client request. It stops being enough once the same team repeats similar work, bills by project or task, or needs to explain project cost. At that point, logged time, billable status, task estimates, expenses, and budget thresholds need to live in a durable record.
Everhour connects Basecamp projects and to-dos through the browser extension, syncs renamed projects and to-dos, and supports hourly rate, fixed fee, and non-billable project setups with budget emails at 50%, 80%, or custom thresholds. That creates a track record: estimated hours, actual hours, remaining or over-estimate hours, and related project costs for the next budget.
This content is for general information only, may not be fully up to date, and is provided without any warranty or liability.
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Estimate to-dos that affect client billing, project budget, or staffing. Small administrative items can stay unestimated when they do not change the invoice or plan. A useful estimate belongs on work that has a clear owner, defined scope, and a likely cost impact. Subtasks need separate estimates only when they represent billable work that should be reviewed on its own.
A variance compares the estimated hours with the time logged to the same to-do. Over-estimate hours point to extra effort beyond the plan. Under-estimate results need review too, because they can show efficient work, incomplete work, or missing time. Review the to-do notes, subtasks, and comments before changing the next estimate.
A due date cannot replace an hours estimate. The date tells you when the work should be finished. The estimate tells you how much labor the work should take. A Monday-to-Friday task can require 1 billable hour or 20 billable hours, so the project schedule and effort plan need separate records.
The to-do name, list or section, assignee, task status, and task ID protect the meaning of the estimate. Those details keep the planned hours connected to the exact work item instead of a vague project total. Notes and subtasks also matter because they explain the scope that the estimate covered.
Mixing unrelated work under one to-do makes the estimate hard to judge. A single to-do that combines research, implementation, review, and client revisions hides the step that caused the overrun. Split work into to-dos that match real billing and review points, then compare each estimate with the time logged against that item.
Everhour Expenses records project costs with receipt images or PDFs and unit-based categories such as per-mile travel or per-copy printing. Expense reports can be filtered by project, client, member, category, date range, and billable status, so estimate reviews include labor variance and related costs.
Everhour can compare tracked time against task estimates and show remaining or over-estimate hours in reports. The Basecamp integration brings project, to-do, list, task ID, and task status into Everhour reports, so the estimate review stays tied to the Basecamp work structure.
Track Basecamp billable work, compare estimates with actual hours, and attach project expenses before the next budget decision. Everhour turns repeated estimates into cost history.
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