Everhour gives creative teams structured time tracking, approvals, and capacity controls for client projects and internal work.
Enter your time in and out for each day. Overtime and gross pay are calculated automatically.
| Day | Time In | Break Start | Break End | Break | Time Out | Total |
|---|
The calculator gives you the number — Everhour takes it from there.
One click and you're timing. Start a timer, add an entry, edit the details. This is exactly how it feels in Everhour.
Set a budget, assign rates, and get alerted before you're over.
Measurement
Track your budget through time or costs
Every report you need — configured your way, always up to date.
Tracked hours flow straight into a polished invoice — no copy-paste, no manual math.
This page is for a studio owner, producer, traffic manager, or freelancer who needs a clear record of time spent on creative work. A useful record shows the client, project, task, person, date, duration, billable status, and a short note tied to the deliverable. That structure turns concepting, design, writing, editing, meetings, and implementation into reviewable work logs.
Creative work often moves by brief, phase, round, and deliverable rather than by a single shift. A small design studio may log 2.5 hours to Acme, spring campaign, landing page design, billable, first layout pass. A freelancer may separate approved research from a non-billable sales call. The goal is a record that supports an invoice, a retainer review, or a project-budget check without rewriting notes later.
Start with clients and projects, then add task categories that match the way work is sold. Common creative categories include discovery, concepting, design, copy, production, revisions, client meetings, implementation, reporting, and project management. Each time entry needs billable status because chargeable client work and internal studio work have different uses. Billable time can include deliverable creation, approved research, client meetings, implementation, reporting, and in-scope revisions when the agreement allows it.
Keep notes short and invoice-ready. A note such as "Homepage hero concepts, round 1" explains the work without exposing internal critique or unrelated context. Separate non-billable time for internal meetings, new-business proposals, sales calls, staff training, onboarding, general administration, and internal documentation. That separation keeps client invoices clean and gives managers a clearer view of time spent winning work, running the studio, and delivering paid scope.
Creative-industry tracking has to fit mixed teams. U.S. federal arts statistics report that more than one-third of all artists are self-employed, and the National Endowment for the Arts notes that virtually all U.S. design firms have fewer than 20 workers. A workable setup lets a producer review employee hours, freelancer hours, and owner time under the same client and project structure without treating every person as payroll staff.
Agree on categories before work begins. A brand identity project can split time into strategy, logo exploration, presentation deck, client review, revision round, and file delivery. A retainer can track the same categories every month to show burn rate and staffing pressure. Avoid labels such as "miscellaneous" or "creative work" because they hide scope creep and make budget conversations harder.
A one-off tracker is enough when you need a clean weekly total, a small freelance invoice backup, or a quick recap for a single project. It works best when one person enters time consistently and the client does not require approvals, budget checkpoints, or a detailed audit trail. Export the record, keep it with the invoice, and preserve the source notes used to create it.
Creative teams need a managed workflow once several people touch the same client budget. Everhour Team Management lets admins set project assignments, roles, weekly capacity, tracking limits, lock rules, and timesheet approvals, then correct entries when a billing or payroll review finds an issue. That structure gives producers and studio leads a controlled record before time moves into reporting or invoicing.
This content is for general information only, may not be fully up to date, and is provided without any warranty or liability.
High Performer
G2
Summer 2026
Best Ease Of Use
Capterra
Summer 2026
Rated in the top time trackers across G2, Capterra, and TrustRadius — with consistent praise for ease of use, integrations, and support.
Use categories that mirror client scope: discovery, concepting, design, copy, production, client meetings, revisions, implementation, reporting, and project management. Add internal categories for sales, admin, training, onboarding, and studio documentation. The category list should be short enough for consistent entry and specific enough to explain invoices, retainer burn, and project overruns.
Mark an entry billable only when the project agreement, contract, retainer, or scope of work allows the client to be charged for that work. Chargeable creative time often includes deliverable creation, approved research, client meetings, implementation, reporting, and in-scope revisions. Internal meetings, new-business proposals, sales calls, training, onboarding, and general administration belong in non-billable categories.
Yes. Retainer time records show whether the fixed monthly fee matches the work being delivered. Track each entry by client, project, task, billable status, and note, then compare actual effort with the retainer budget or agreed scope. A common mistake is using one generic retainer bucket, which hides revision volume, meeting load, and unpaid support work.
For employees covered by the FLSA minimum wage or overtime provisions, employer records must include hours worked each workday and total hours worked each workweek. The FLSA requires covered employers to keep accurate records for nonexempt workers but does not require a specific app, clock, or form. Payroll records must be kept at least three years, and basic time and earnings records at least two years.
No. Under the FLSA federal baseline, covered nonexempt employees receive overtime pay for hours worked over 40 in a fixed 168-hour workweek at not less than one and one-half times the regular rate. Saturday, Sunday, holiday, or regular rest-day work does not create federal overtime premium pay by itself unless the weekly overtime rule is triggered or another law or agreement applies.
Everhour Team Management gives producers an approval workflow for weekly time: members submit timesheets, managers approve or reject entries, and approved time stays locked for regular members. Studios can use that control before project time feeds billing or payroll review.
Everhour Project Budgeting tracks hour-based or money-based budgets as people log time, with recurring periods for ongoing retainers. Budget alerts at 75%, 90%, and 100%, or custom thresholds, warn admins before a client account uses its planned time or fee.
Use Everhour Team Management to assign project access, set weekly capacity, lock approved time, and approve timesheets before billing or payroll review, giving creative leads cleaner, controlled time records.
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