WorkMonitor · Projects, Billing & Payroll
See project burn, margin and what is left.
Most teams learn a project is over budget from the invoice. Hours land against their project as the work happens, so the overrun shows in week two — and the bill comes off the same ledger.
Every invoiced hour is backed by recorded work, and can carry a certificate.
| Project | Hours | Rate | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|
| Northlight redesign | 56.6 | $120 | $6,797 |
| Client review | 23.6 | $120 | $2,832 |
| QA and handover | 20.1 | $120 | $2,407 |
| Internal, not billed | 17.7 | — |
Projects
Where a project’s money actually goes
Pick one and the screen it lives on opens beside it, so you judge Projects on what it puts in front of a manager rather than on a list of nouns.
- AKProjectsRun client work.Search or ask…
- Projects
- Timesheets
- Time reports
- Invoices
- Payouts
- Billing
Northlight StudioProjectsBudget burn and margin, liveTOTAL BUDGET$486,5006 projectsBURNED59%$286,200HOURS TRACKED2,382hOVER 90% BURN1projectPROJECTBUDGET BURNHOURSMARGIN- AKBrand systemHarbour Foods · Fixed fee93%$78,100 of $84,000Over 90%648h12%
- JMNorthlight redesignKestrel Labs · Time & materials74%$45,500 of $61,500379h34%
- RPMobile app buildOrbit Retail · Fixed fee66%$84,500 of $128,000704h41%
- LMPackaging refreshHarbour Foods · Time & materials52%$19,800 of $38,000165h29%
- SDDesign retainerVela Health · Retainer41%$29,500 of $72,000246h46%
- TVData platform UXRidgeway Group · Time & materials28%$28,800 of $103,000240h38%
Burn is computed from tracked hours, so it is current rather than reconstructed at month end.6 projects · 5 clients
- Projects
- Timesheets
- Time reports
- Invoices
- Payouts
- Billing
- AKBrand systemHarbour Foods · Fixed fee93%$78,100 of $84,000Over 90%648h12%
- JMNorthlight redesignKestrel Labs · Time & materials74%$45,500 of $61,500379h34%
- RPMobile app buildOrbit Retail · Fixed fee66%$84,500 of $128,000704h41%
- LMPackaging refreshHarbour Foods · Time & materials52%$19,800 of $38,000165h29%
- SDDesign retainerVela Health · Retainer41%$29,500 of $72,000246h46%
- TVData platform UXRidgeway Group · Time & materials28%$28,800 of $103,000240h38%
How it works
From a tracked hour to an invoice with proof attached
- 1
Model the commercial shape
Clients, projects, tasks and budgets with rate cards per client and per role. A blended rate is where margin goes to hide.
- 2
Attribute time as it happens
Time tracked in the PM tool ties every hour to the ticket it belongs to, so you know where a project stands on Tuesday rather than at month end.
- 3
Approve, then invoice
Approved hours flow into an invoice through the shared rate engine, with burn-down and billing analytics reading off that same ledger.
- 4
Finalize and hand over the proof
Finalizing seeds a Verified Work Certificate, so the bill and the evidence are one object rather than two documents that have to agree.
A month-end reconciliation vs. margin you can see today
workmonitor.vsSpreadsheet billing
Where the hours come from
With WorkMonitor
Captured hours attributed to a project and a task as the work happened, then approved through a separation-of-duties chain.
Spreadsheet billing
A timesheet assembled at month end from memory and a calendar.
When you learn about the overrun
With WorkMonitor
While it is happening. A burn-down against the rate card, with time left to move people before the budget goes.
Spreadsheet billing
At month end, when the budget is already gone.
The client’s first question
With WorkMonitor
A certificate link the client checks themselves, so the question is never asked.
Spreadsheet billing
"What is this line?": followed by a week of email.
Margin visibility
With WorkMonitor
Realisation, write-off and effective rate, read off the same ledger the invoice came from.
Spreadsheet billing
Revenue in one system, hours in another, and a quarterly reconciliation.
Pay rates vs. bill rates
With WorkMonitor
One shared rate engine serving billing and payroll, so a rate change lands on both at once.
Spreadsheet billing
Two spreadsheets implementing the same rule slightly differently.
Next year’s audit
With WorkMonitor
WORM-anchored, timestamped certificates that still verify on a URL that still resolves.
Spreadsheet billing
A folder of PDFs whose numbers nobody can reproduce.
- Projects
- Timesheets
- Time reports
- Invoices
- Payouts
- Billing
- AKBrand systemHarbour Foods · Fixed fee93%$78,100 of $84,000Over 90%648h12%
- JMNorthlight redesignKestrel Labs · Time & materials74%$45,500 of $61,500379h34%
- RPMobile app buildOrbit Retail · Fixed fee66%$84,500 of $128,000704h41%
- LMPackaging refreshHarbour Foods · Time & materials52%$19,800 of $38,000165h29%
- SDDesign retainerVela Health · Retainer41%$29,500 of $72,000246h46%
- TVData platform UXRidgeway Group · Time & materials28%$28,800 of $103,000240h38%
Every capability in Projects, and exactly where each one stands
- Projects, clients, tasks & budgets (rate cards, burn)
Ask AI
Ask AI about your projects
Project time, budgets and invoices, answered in plain language. Nothing is invented; every figure traces back to tracked work.
Pick a question above and WorkMonitor AI will answer from your team's real numbers.
By team
Who runs on this ledger
Use cases
Where the hours end up
Each one opens on the page written for that job — the same capabilities, read from the work rather than from the product.
- Bill defendable client hoursBudgets that burn down while you can still move somebody, rate-card billing off captured hours, and an invoice the client verifies without asking you for anything.
- Prove work with certificatesA finalized invoice mints a signed certificate the client checks for themselves. Selective disclosure proves the work without handing over the work.
- Track time automaticallyNo timer to start, no Friday reconstruction. Idle is split out rather than estimated, and approved hours reach payroll and invoicing without a re-key.
- Run payroll from approved hoursApproved timesheets seed the run, one rate engine prices pay and billing, an integer-cent pre-flight has to balance, and the export is gated to the owner.
Straight answers
The questions we would ask in your position
Every answer here is the one you would get on a call. Open as many as you like; they stay open, so two can be held side by side.
Yes. Projects, clients, tasks and budgets are first-class objects, and time lands against them from the PM tools your team already works in. In-context PM timers (beta) go further: start and stop tracking without leaving the task itself, so the attribution is made by the person doing the work, at the moment they do it.
Each project carries a budget and rate cards, and burn updates as tracked time is priced against them. Budget reports show consumed against remaining at project and task level, so an overrun becomes a mid-project conversation with time to rebalance rather than an end-of-project surprise.
By joining both sides of the ledger: tracked hours priced through rate cards on the cost side, invoicing and billing analytics on the revenue side. Out comes an effective rate and a margin per project and per client, built from tracked time rather than from estimates. A blended rate is where margin goes to hide, and this is what pulls it back out.
Projects gives you the TIME view: hours tracked against tasks and priced against budgets, which is what tells you whether a project is on plan. The OUTCOME view, verifying what actually shipped, lives in Proof Ledger. Between them they answer both questions a client asks: how long did it take, and what did we get for it.
Yes. Approved project hours flow into invoicing with no re-entry, and billing analytics track revenue across clients from there. Finalize an invoice and it can seed a Verified Work Certificate: cryptographic, client-checkable proof of the work behind the bill, on a link that still resolves next year.
Take these with you
The software is the easy part of a rollout
Here is what we would send a manager doing one for the first time: how to read a productivity number, what to say to a remote team before anything is installed, and a policy you can adopt as written.
Point it at one team for a week.
Create the account, put the agent on a handful of desks, and leave it alone. On Friday you read the week instead of reconstructing it: hours against their projects, focus and idle per person, and the timesheets already filled in.
Free for two seats. No card, and no sales call to sit through.