How to Track Billable Hours in Asana: A Step-by-Step Guide

From freelancers and agencies to businesses, time spent on projects should be tracked correctly for proper invoicing and profitability. Asana is great for managing a project, and adding time tracking really completes the experience of logging billable hours efficiently. Integrate time tracking for Asana into your workflow, manage projects with the assurance you bill your clients for exactly how much time you spent on tasks.
The following steps describe tracking billable hours in Asana using time-tracking integrations, which makes it easier to track used time, manage budgets, and invoice clients correctly.

Step 1: Select the appropriate time-tracking tool

Asana does not have an inbuilt feature for tracking time but easily integrates with some of the best time tracking tools out there that will let you keep track of billable hours. Some of the best Asana time tracking tools include:

• Harvest: Being mainly an invoicing tool, Harvest is great for freelancers or businesses that rely on billable hours and deal with projects.
• Livetecs: Free Time Tracker with Asana Integration, which allows you to log hours, visualize workload, and track time across different projects.
• Toggl Track: A very simple, lightweight time tracker pretty well integrated with Asana. One-click timer for tasks is included.
• Everhour: It is a great tool that natively integrates with Asana, features an easy-to-use UI, where time on tasks, projects, and project budgets are tracked with ease.

All of these listed tools integrate nicely with Asana and offer billable hours tracking functionality. Choose the best one based on features and pricing that fit your needs.

Step 2: Integrate Time Tracking Tool with Asana

Once you have chosen your time tracking tool, you have to set it up with Asana. Most time tracking integrations in Asana are out-of-the-box and setting them up includes a few easy steps:

Open the settings of Asana and click either on Integrations or an Add-ons section.
Create a search for your favorite time tracker - Harvest, Livetecs, Toggl Track, or anything.
Complete the on-screen instructions to connect the tool using your account in Asana.
Enable the integration by signing in with your account to the time tracking tool.

Once set up, you'll be able to track time directly from your Asana tasks.

Step 3: Commence with the tracking of time on tasks.

With the embedded time-tracking tool in Asana, you can now start logging hours. Here's how one can do that:

Open any task in Asana.
You shall see an option for time tracking via a button or timer provided by your integrated tool.
Click the timer to log time spent on that task.
If you have finished the task, then you can stop your timer. It will automatically record this on the time tracking tool.

This will ensure the right tracking of time for each and every task, hence knowing how to track billable hours for projects.

Step 4: Categorize time into either Billable or Non-Billable

Immediately after logging time, hours have to be differentiated as billable or non-billable to correctly invoice them. Most of the time tracking tools give options under the interface to label the hours as billable or non-billable. Ensure that all time associated with client work is marked as billable, while internal meetings or other non-client tasks are considered non-billable.

Step 5: Report Generation for Billing and Invoicing

One of the major advantages of using Asana time tracking tools, such as Harvest or Livetecs, is the detailed reporting. This allows you to break down exactly how much time was spent working on specific tasks and projects for clear insights into billable hours.

To generate a report for invoicing:

Go to the reporting section of your time tracking tool.
Then select for which of your projects or clients you want to develop the report.
Select the period for which you want the report, such as weekly, monthly.
Click to download or export the report that will give a breakdown summary of all billable hours logged.

These reports are also critical in terms of the billing-related processes as they are transparent and enable you to bill your clients correctly about time that has been worked.

Step 6: Invoice Client

Once you've got the report of billable hours, invoicing a client is really quite straightforward. By using one or more of these tools, such as Harvest, you will have the capability to invoice a client directly from the logged time. Just overview and make sure the time entries are accurate, then send the invoice to the client.

Conclusion

A key part of running projects and work for clients is tracking billable hours within Asana. Integrate a trustworthy time tracking tool to make your workflow simple, enhance the accuracy of billing, and remain updated on how much time goes into various projects. Be it Harvest, Livetecs, Toggl Track, or Everhour, every one of these integrations with Asana makes it seamless to track, manage, and report billable hours in a manner that keeps you organized and profitable.