Is there a free billable hours tracker for Excel?

Yes. Feestead's free template works in Excel and Google Sheets. You log date, person, client, project, task and hours; rates and billable amounts are calculated automatically, with totals by client, project and person and a utilization rate per person.

How do you calculate billable hours?

Add up the hours spent on client work that your contract allows you to charge, then multiply by the hourly rate for that person, task or project. Billable utilization is billable hours divided by available hours, for example 30 billable hours out of 40 is 75%.

When should I move from a spreadsheet to a time tracking app?

Usually when more than two or three people log time, when you need project budgets and overrun alerts, or when you invoice several clients a month. That is when copy-paste errors and forgotten entries start costing real money.

Billable hours tracker: free Excel template

Q: What is a billable hours tracker?

A billable hours tracker records the time you spend on client work, marks which hours can be charged to a client, and multiplies them by the right hourly rate, so you know exactly what to invoice. It can be a spreadsheet or a time-tracking app.

Updated 2026-10-23 · Written by the Feestead team

Every unlogged hour is money you don't invoice. Here's a free billable hours tracker for Excel and Google Sheets, how to use it, and the simple rules agencies and consultants use to stop losing billable time.

Download the free template

One spreadsheet with four tabs:

Time log: date, person, client, project, task, hours, billable yes/no, invoiced yes/no.
Rates: each person's hourly rate and weekly capacity. Rates apply automatically, with an optional per-entry override.
Summary: total and billable hours, billable amount and not yet invoiced amount, by client, project and person, for any date range, plus each person's billable utilization.
How to use: a one-minute guide. Inputs are the blue cells; everything else calculates itself.

Download for Excel (.xlsx)

Free, no email required. For Google Sheets: open Google Drive, then File → Import and upload the .xlsx.

How to track billable hours (the short version)

Log time daily, not on Friday. Hours reconstructed from memory at the end of the week almost always come out lower than what was actually worked, and that gap is unbilled revenue.
Log against client, project and task. Without a project you can't compare actual hours with the budget; without a task you can't explain the invoice when a client asks.
Decide billable vs. non-billable up front. Client work is billable; internal meetings, sales and admin usually aren't. Mark it on each entry, not afterwards.
Use the right rate. Rates can depend on the person, the task or the project. Keep them in one place so nobody types a rate by hand.
Track what's already invoiced. Marking invoiced hours prevents billing the same work twice and shows what's still waiting to be billed.

The formulas behind it

Billable amount = billable hours × hourly rate.
Billable share = billable hours ÷ total hours logged.
Utilization = billable hours ÷ available hours. 30 billable hours in a 40-hour week is 75%. Many agencies aim for roughly 70–80% for delivery staff. Try our billable utilization calculator to see what each extra point means for revenue.
Effective hourly rate = what the client paid ÷ all hours spent on the project. On fixed-fee work, this is how you see whether a project actually made money.

When a spreadsheet stops working

A spreadsheet is fine for a freelancer or a two-person studio. It starts costing money when:

more than a few people log time, and entries go missing or land in the wrong project;
you need to see a project going over budget before it happens, not at the end of the month;
you invoice several clients every month and copy hours into invoices by hand;
someone needs a timer instead of remembering hours at the end of the day.

That's what Feestead does: a start/stop timer and weekly timesheet, rates by project, task or person, project budgets with overrun alerts, reports by client, project and person, and invoice lines ready for QuickBooks or Xero. $9 per person/month billed yearly ($108/person/year), or $11 monthly, no fees per project, client or invoice. Already on Harvest? Your full history imports in one click.

Move from Harvest without losing a minute

Paste a Harvest token, import everything, and check every project against Harvest's numbers before you cancel. 7 days free, then $9 per person/month billed yearly ($108/person/year), or $11 monthly, with no usage fees.

Start 7-day free trial How switching works 📅 Book a 15-min call

FAQ

What is a billable hours tracker?

A way to record time spent on client work, mark which hours can be charged, and multiply them by the right rate so you know exactly what to invoice. It can be a spreadsheet like the template above or a time-tracking app.

Is this template really free?

Yes. No email, no sign-up. Use it, change it, share it.

Does it work in Google Sheets?

Yes. In Google Drive choose File → Import and upload the .xlsx. Formulas and dropdowns carry over.

How do I calculate billable hours?

Add up the chargeable client hours and multiply by the hourly rate for that person, task or project. The template does this automatically in the Amount column.

When should I switch to an app?

Usually once more than two or three people log time, or when you need budgets and invoicing. See also time tracking for agencies and for consultants.