For freelancers
Time tracking for freelancers who invoice in Wave
If you bill clients by the hour and send invoices from Wave, the slow part of the month is moving hours from your tracker into Wave. Swell tracks your time by client and project, applies your rate and rounding, and creates the Wave invoice draft for you to check and send.
What is the best way for a freelancer to track billable hours?
Start a timer, or log the time the same day, against the client and project, and mark it billable or not. Keep one rate per client or project and one rounding rule. At the end of the period, build the invoice from those entries rather than retyping totals. If you invoice in Wave, a tracker that creates the Wave invoice for you removes the copying step.
Where freelance hours go missing
Most freelancers under-bill in small pieces, not big ones.
The small stuff
A ten-minute fix, a call that ran over, an email that took half an hour to write. If it is not logged when it happens, it rarely makes the invoice, and over a month those pieces add up to real money.
Copying hours into Wave
Your timer app knows the hours and Wave sends the invoice. In between, you total each client, multiply by the rate, round, and type the lines again. It is an easy evening to put off, which delays when you get paid.
Clients asking what they paid for
When a client asks what a line covered, the detail has to match the invoice. If entries have been edited since, you end up reconciling instead of answering.
How Swell fits freelance work
Swell does one job: getting your billable hours onto an accurate Wave invoice.
Track as you work
Start a timer from your browser or phone, or log a date and duration afterwards. Assign it to a client, project and task, and mark it billable or not. Saved timer shortcuts restart regular work in one click, and Swell emails you if a timer is left running.
Your rates and rounding
Set a rate per client project with a default underneath. Choose rounding, nearest or up to 6, 15 or 30 minutes, if your agreements bill in increments. Reports, CSV exports and invoice lines use the same numbers.
Review, then create the draft
Pick a client and date range, check each outgoing line with the hours, rate and notes behind it, and create the draft in Wave. You approve and send it from Wave, so nothing reaches the client before you have seen it.
No double billing
Entries on a Wave draft are linked to that invoice and locked, so they cannot be edited, deleted or billed again in a later invoice.
Invoicing a client in Swell
- 1
Connect Wave
Connect your Wave business once. Swell brings in your Wave customers, and you match each one to a client or add it.
- 2
Track the work
Log billable time against the client's projects as you work, from a timer, a shortcut or manual entry.
- 3
Review the lines
Open the invoice review for the client and period, and check the hours, rate and descriptions.
- 4
Create and send
Create the draft in Wave, then approve and send it from Wave as usual.
What to look for in time tracking for freelancers
The features that decide whether tracked time turns into an accurate invoice with little effort:
- Fast capture
- A one-click timer and quick manual entry, so short tasks get logged instead of forgotten.
- Billable flag and rates
- Billable and non-billable time kept apart, with your rate applied automatically per client or project.
- Invoices without retyping
- Invoices built from your tracked entries in the tool you already invoice from.
- A record that matches the invoice
- Invoiced entries locked to the invoice, so you can always show a client what a line covered.
When Swell is not the right fit
Swell is built for one workflow. Look elsewhere if any of these apply:
- You want to stay on Wave's free Starter plan. Connecting Swell needs Wave Pro, so the total is Swell's $15 plus Wave Pro each month.
- You invoice from somewhere other than Wave, or you only need a free timer with no invoicing.
- You need native mobile or desktop apps, or offline tracking. Swell is a web app that works in a phone browser.
- You bill in a currency other than US dollars. Swell's rates are in USD and it will not create a Wave invoice for a business in another currency.
- You mostly bill fixed project fees and rarely invoice hours.
Questions from freelancers
How much does Swell cost for a freelancer?
Solo is $15 a month for one person, with a 14-day trial. There is no free plan. Creating invoices in Wave also needs Wave Pro, which Wave's pricing page lists at $19 a month or $190 a year, so check that the time you save covers both.
Can I use Swell on Wave's free plan?
You can sign up and explore Swell during the trial, but you cannot connect Wave or create invoice drafts. Wave lets third-party apps connect only to businesses on Wave Pro or with a Wave Advisors subscription.
Can I charge different clients different rates?
Yes. Set a rate on each client's projects, with an account default for everything else. The most specific rate applies to each entry.
Can I track time from my phone?
Yes, in your phone's browser. Swell is a responsive web app, so you can start and stop timers and log time on the go. There is no app to install and no offline mode.
Related: Time tracking for Wave Accounting · Does Wave have time tracking? · How tracked hours become a Wave invoice · How to track billable hours · Plans from $15/month
Send your next invoice from tracked time
Connect Wave, track a few days of client work and create your first invoice draft during the 14-day trial.