Time tracking and invoicing for freelancers, in one workspace
Start a timer on the job. Set the rate once, per client. At month end the unbilled hours become an invoice with a payment link on it, and the invoice lives next to the brief, the intake form and the booking that started the work. The Free plan runs one client end to end. Solo is $19 a month for all of them.
Monthly, cancel any time. The bill moves on seats and nothing else.
How a month runs
Four steps, and the first three happen while you work. The fourth takes a few minutes on the last day of the month.
- 1
Start the timer on the job
The timer runs on the project record itself and keeps going while you move around the workspace. Forgot to start it? Add the time by hand with a date, a duration and a description, against the same job.
- 2
Set the rate once, per client
Each job carries an hourly rate or a lump sum. Rounding to 5, 15, 30 or 60 minutes and a minimum billable duration are set on the job too, so a 7 minute call bills the way you quoted it. The rate is snapshotted onto every entry, which means raising your rate in March does not rewrite February.
- 3
Keep admin out of the invoice
Tag the entries that are yours to carry and filter them out before the invoice is drawn. Time summaries per client and per job show where the week went, with a CSV or PDF export when you want it in a spreadsheet.
- 4
Turn the month into an invoice
Unbilled hours pull into a branded invoice, numbered automatically, with payment terms from 7 to 60 days. It goes out as PDF or DOCX from a Word template you control, with a Stripe or PayPal payment link on it. Each invoice sits as draft, sent, paid or void until the money lands.
What each plan includes
Read from the pricing page. Every plan tracks unlimited time and holds unlimited client records. The lines below are the limits that differ.
- One seat, unlimited time tracking
- One invoice a month
- One published form, 100 submissions a month
- One booking event type, 10 bookings a month
- 25 MB of files
Shared forms and pages carry a small "Powered by Optivation" footer.
- One seat, unlimited clients and invoices
- 100 published forms, 1,000 submissions a month
- Card payments on your booking page
- 1 GB of files, email support
- Footer removed with one click
$190 a year if you would rather pay once.
- Three seats, then $19 a seat
- Team roles and permissions
- Real-time co-editing and comments
- Unlimited published forms
- 5 GB of files
Clients never need a seat. Only the people doing the work do.
The part a time tracker cannot do
The hours attach to the work, because the work is in the same place. A prospect fills in your intake form and lands as a record. They book a call on your booking page. The brief sits on a page against that record, the project is a database you can view as a table, a board or a calendar, and the timer starts on the record itself. The invoice at month end knows which client it belongs to before you open it.
What it does not do
If one of these is how you run the business, this is the wrong tool for you and it is better to know that now.
Moving from the tracker you use now
Export your time entries, clients and projects as CSV and upload them on the import screen. They land as records you can filter and keep for reconciliation. Set the rate, rounding and minimum duration on each job, connect Stripe or PayPal, and the first invoice is drawn from the hours you track from that day. Send the export to hello@optivation.io if you would rather we set the workspace up for you. There is no charge for that.
Coming from Harvest? What moves and what does notQuestions freelancers ask first
Is there a free plan for a freelancer?
Yes, and it is not a trial. The Free plan has one seat, unlimited time tracking, one invoice a month, one published form with 100 submissions a month, one booking event type with 10 bookings a month and 25 MB of file storage. Shared forms and pages carry a small "Powered by Optivation" footer. Solo is $19 a month for one seat with unlimited invoices, 100 published forms and the footer removed.
How does time rounding work?
Rounding is set per job: none, 5, 15, 30 or 60 minutes, so a 23 minute call bills as 30 with 15 minute rounding. A minimum billable duration is set per job as well, for the 4 minute calls that should bill as 15. The rate is snapshotted onto each entry when it is logged, so a rate change applies from that day forward only.
How do clients pay the invoice?
Each invoice carries a Stripe or PayPal payment link. You connect your own Stripe or PayPal account, the client pays from the invoice, and the invoice moves from sent to paid in your list. Draft, sent, paid and void are the four states an invoice sits in.
Can I bill a fixed-price project as well as hourly work?
Yes. A job can be set to a lump sum instead of an hourly rate, and fixed-fee line items sit on the same invoice as tracked hours, priced by quantity. A retainer plus overage invoice is assembled by hand from those two parts each month.
Can I bring my time entries across from another tracker?
Export your time entries, clients and projects as CSV from the tool you use now, whether that is Toggl, Clockify or Harvest, and upload the files on the import screen. They land as records you can filter and keep for reconciliation. Billing runs from the hours you track in Optivation from that point on.
What does it cost when I bring in a contractor?
Studio is $49 a month for three seats, then $19 a month for each seat after that. Clients never need a seat; only the people logging time do. A two-person setup is $49 flat, a five-person one is $87.
Start on the Free plan and run one client through it
Time one job, generate the invoice, see whether the loop fits how you bill. Solo is $19 a month when you want the rest of your clients in there.
Toggl, Clockify and Harvest are trademarks of their owners and we have no affiliation with them. Prices exclude tax.