Timesheet to Invoice

Invoicing for hours is two jobs that people do in the wrong order. First they keep a timesheet, in a notebook or a sheet, with a date and a description and a number of hours. Then they open a blank invoice and type a single line that says consulting, and a total they added on a calculator. The client approves the timesheet in their head and questions the invoice, because the invoice threw the dates away. A timesheet invoice keeps the dates. Each entry is a line. The line has its own amount. The total is the sum of the lines, at one rate.

The rate sits once, at the top. Every row uses it. If Tuesday was 2.5 hours and the rate is $85, Tuesday is $212.50. You do not retype the rate on the row, and you do not round the day to a number that feels tidy. The invoice date is the day you build the PDF. The dates on the lines are the days the work happened. Those are different dates, and both belong on the page. A client who asks for a breakdown is asking for the line dates, not for a second email with a screenshot of your calendar.

• ●One row per day or per task, with its own date
• ●Hours times the rate, rounded to the cent on each line
• ●The total is the sum of the lines, plus a count of the entries

Paste works when the timesheet already exists. Copy the rows from the sheet. Put the date in the first column, the description in the middle, and the hours in the last column. Tabs from a spreadsheet are the cleanest split. Commas work when the description has no comma of its own, and quoted commas are kept inside the description. A header row that mentions date and hours is ignored. If you have already typed a real entry, the paste is added under it. If the form is still blank, the paste becomes the invoice.

Dates can be typed as 2026-10-01, or as a spreadsheet date such as 10/01/2026. A date written with dots, such as 01.10.2026, is read as day, month, year. If a row has a description and hours but no date the line still appears, and the date cell stays empty until you fill it. An hourly invoice with a missing date is weaker than one with the day on every line. Fill the gap before you send the PDF. Hours can be whole numbers or decimals. A trailing h is ignored, so 1.5h still counts as an hour and a half.

How many lines is a judgment. One line per day is enough for most retainers and for support work. One line per task on that day is better when the same day mixed a call, a draft, and a revision, and the client will ask which hours were which. A whole month collapsed into one line, March, 40 hours, is the line that comes back with a question. If the agreement truly was a monthly cap with no breakdown, say that in the description. Do not pretend a lump was a timesheet.

The PDF shows the invoice date, the rate, the total hours, the number of entries, and every entry with its date and amount. That is the file you attach. Keep your original sheet as well, in case they ask for the source. The invoice should match the sheet. If you edit an hour after you download, download again. Two versions of the same week, with two totals, will be the thing they pay the smaller of.

The PDF is free. It downloads with no account and no email. You can send a copy to yourself if you want the file in your inbox, and that step does not gate the download. Nothing you type is stored on a server. When you are ready to put the same lines on a fuller invoice, with your address and theirs, the entries can move across so you are not typing Thursday a second time.

A timesheet that says "consulting, 8.5 hours" is a total, not a record. The version worth invoicing has the day, the work, and the hours: 3.0, 1.5, and 4.0, at $85. If a row has hours and no date, fill the date before the PDF exists. An empty date is the line they will ask about.

The invoice date is the day you bill. The line dates are the days you worked. Collapsing the week into one amount throws away the thing the client already approved. $722.50 is easier to pay when October 7 is still on the page.