Media teams juggle retainers, fixed fees, and production timecards, and Everhour keeps work hours tied to projects and budgets.
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.
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Media teams usually need more than a weekly total. Agencies need hours tied to clients, campaigns, roles, and deliverables so billing, retainer burn, and profitability stay visible. Production teams need crew timecards that supervisors can approve before payroll. The practical outcome is a clean record that explains who worked, where the time went, whether it was billable, and which project or payroll workflow uses it.
For U.S. payroll, the record also has to respect wage-and-hour basics. The FLSA requires covered employers to keep accurate records for non-exempt workers, and records for employees covered by the FLSA minimum wage or overtime provisions must include hours worked each workday and total hours worked each workweek. The law does not require one specific app, form, or clock-in system, so completeness matters more than format.
Advertising and media engagements use several compensation models: input-based hourly or cost-plus work, output-based fixed-price deliverables, outcome-based incentives, and hybrids. Hourly billing needs actual time on specific tasks or projects, often with blended or role-based hourly rates from the contract or rate card. Fixed-fee and retainer work still need time records because the quoted price comes from estimated time and resources.
Fixed fee deserves extra discipline. A 4As Q1 2024 survey of 149 agencies reported fixed fee as the most utilized compensation model in both project-based and retainer-based relationships. Time entries show whether the estimate was realistic, whether a retainer is being consumed too quickly, and whether new requests belong in a change-order process because they fall outside the agreed scope, deliverables, or timeline.
A usable media entry identifies the person, date, client, project, work category, billable status, and time worked. Add the rate basis only when billing needs it, such as a blended agency rate or a role-based rate from the rate card. A sample line can read: video editor, Client A launch cutdown, revision pass, 3.25 hours, billable, role-based rate, notes: revised 30-second edit after client feedback.
Production timecards need a different emphasis. Crew entries should move to a supervisor or approver before payroll processing, and approved timecard data should carry the coding payroll requires. In film and television production, that coding may account for union contracts, overtime, meal penalties, and state tax criteria. Keep notes factual and limited to the work performed because time records can contain employee personal information.
A free, one-off tracker is enough when you need a quick record for one freelancer week, a small client recap, or a short production day. Use it to capture the essential fields, export or save the result, and attach it to the invoice, approval packet, or payroll backup. This approach breaks down when several people edit time, managers approve entries, or rates and budgets need ongoing review.
Media teams need a managed workflow once tracked time feeds recurring retainers, fixed-fee budget checks, client invoices, production approvals, or payroll review. Everhour supports that ongoing process by keeping project time in a shared system, routing timesheets for approval, and turning logged hours into reports that show billable work, labor costs, budgets, and invoice status by client or project.
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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Track all three when client billing or profitability matters. The client identifies the commercial relationship, the campaign or project shows the budget container, and the task explains the work performed. A production crew may substitute job, episode, shoot day, or department for campaign, but the entry still needs a clear work unit and a person tied to the hours.
Yes. Monthly retainers and fixed project fees are commonly scoped from estimated time and resources, even though the invoice price is fixed. Time records show burn against the estimate, reveal margin problems, and support change-order conversations when requests fall outside the contract's scope, deliverables, or timeline.
Digital crew timecards should capture the time worked, move to the supervisor or approver, and transfer approved timecard data into payroll processing. Film and television payroll workflows may need coding for union contracts, overtime, meal penalties, and state tax criteria, so a missing approval or unclear code can delay payroll review.
Under the federal FLSA baseline, Saturday, Sunday, holiday, or rest-day work does not require overtime premium pay by itself. Covered non-exempt employees must receive overtime pay for hours worked over 40 in a fixed 168-hour workweek at not less than 1.5 times the regular rate, unless a state rule, contract, or policy gives more.
Use enough detail to explain the billable or payroll reason for the work, and avoid unnecessary personal or sensitive information. U.S. businesses handling personal information must avoid unfair or deceptive practices under Section 5 of the FTC Act, and FTC guidance tells companies to collect only what they need, protect it, and dispose of it securely.
Everhour Reporting lets media teams build reports with 45+ columns, then group or filter logged time by project, client, member, billable time, labor costs, profit, budget metrics, or invoice status. Teams can export reports as CSV, Excel/XLSX, or PDF, or schedule recurring email delivery for review.
Everhour Time Tracking can run standalone or inside supported project tools such as Asana, ClickUp, Jira, Monday, Notion, Trello, and Basecamp. Team members start a timer or add manual time against tasks, so media work stays tied to the project record already guiding the assignment.
Track client, campaign, and production hours continuously, then use Everhour Reporting to group work, compare billable time with costs, export summaries, and schedule delivery for clear media project control.
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