Everhour turns design-agency time into reports and billing inputs, while creative work still needs clear phase and scope tracking.
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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Design agencies need time records that show where creative labor went across branding, packaging, advertising, signage, identity, and other visual communication projects. The useful outcome is a record you can review by client, project, and phase, not a loose weekly total that hides concept work, revisions, production management, and internal coordination.
A practical setup starts with the way the project was sold. AIGA's design-services framework treats the proposal as the document that defines scope of work, process, schedule, and total price, often as a fixed fee. Time tracking should mirror that structure so budget review, client questions, and future estimating use the same project language.
A design-agency time entry should identify the client, project, task or phase, person, date, hours, billable status, and notes when the work needs explanation. A branding project can separate discovery, concept development, logo exploration, presentation preparation, revision rounds, production files, and project management so the agency sees effort by step.
Rates need the same discipline. AIGA describes a standard hourly rate as an internal budgeting tool shaped by overhead, client-project hours, and target profit margin. Even fixed-fee work benefits from rate-backed tracking because the agency can compare budgeted hours with actual hours and learn which project phases protect margin or consume it.
Design projects lose clarity when revision time sits in a generic bucket. A client-approved milestone, a late copy change, and a production correction have different meanings for budget control. Labeling the phase and adding a short note gives account leads enough context to decide whether time belongs inside the agreed scope or should trigger a change discussion.
Expense records matter for the same reason. AIGA's standard terms recognize out-of-pocket and approved travel expenses, including shipping, presentation materials, service bureaus, parking, meals, and lodging. Some clients request receipts or project-record audit rights, so a design agency should keep reimbursable expenses tied to the project record that explains the work.
A one-off tracker is enough when a solo designer needs a clean weekly record for one client or a small agency wants a quick project-hours check. It breaks down once multiple designers, account leads, freelancers, fixed-fee budgets, and client approvals share the same workstream.
A managed workflow gives the agency a durable record: tracked time by client and project, reports by phase, approval review before billing, and exports for accounting. Everhour fits this stage by turning logged project time into customizable reports, scheduled summaries, and billing inputs without forcing the team to abandon its project workspace.
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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G2
Summer 2026
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Summer 2026
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A design-agency time record should show client, project, phase or task, person, date, hours, billable status, rate context, and a short work note when the entry affects scope. That structure supports fixed-fee budget review, hourly billing, client questions, and future estimates without forcing account managers to reconstruct the project from memory.
Fixed-fee projects still need time tracking because the agreed price does not show actual effort. Logged hours reveal whether discovery, concepts, revisions, production, or project management consumed the budget. That record improves future proposals, rate planning, and conversations when a client requests work outside the approved scope.
A U.S. design agency with covered nonexempt employees must keep accurate FLSA records, including hours worked each workday and total hours worked each workweek. The FLSA does not require one specific timekeeping system, but the method must be complete and accurate for the covered worker records the employer must preserve.
A common mistake is tracking all creative work under one general project label. That hides whether the agency spent time on planned concept work, extra revisions, production management, or client communication. Separate phases and clear notes make the report useful for billing review, budget control, and future scope estimates.
Expenses should stay connected to the project record before they reach the invoice. Design-service agreements can involve reimbursable costs such as shipping, presentation materials, service bureaus, approved travel, meals, and lodging. Keeping those items near the related project work supports client review, receipt requests, and internal margin analysis.
Everhour Reporting turns logged design time into customizable reports with 45+ columns, filters, grouping, date ranges, and exports in CSV, Excel/XLSX, or PDF. A design agency can review billable time, labor costs, project budgets, invoice status, and client or project groupings before billing or planning the next scope.
Everhour can run standalone or embed time tracking inside tools such as Asana, ClickUp, GitHub, Jira, Monday, Notion, Trello, Linear, and Basecamp. Designers can track time from the task context, while managers get one reporting layer for budgets, utilization, and billing review.
Track client and project time where the work happens, then use Everhour Reporting to review phases, budgets, billable hours, and exports for cleaner design-agency billing.
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