How to Set Up Your First Project in Time-Trak Before You Touch Any Work

Most billing problems start before a single hour is logged. You open a tracker, start a timer, and figure out the structure later. Later never comes. You end up with a pile of sessions attached to nothing, a client waiting on an invoice, and no clean way to sort it out.

Here is how to do it right before the work starts.

Create the Client First

In Time-Trak, everything flows from the client record. Open the app and add your client before you create any project. Use the exact name you will put on invoices. This sounds obvious. It is also the step most people skip when they are in a hurry to start.

If the client has multiple contacts or billing addresses, note that now. You will not remember it when you are rushing to send an invoice at the end of the month.

Create the Project and Name It Clearly

Once the client exists, create a project under them. Name it something you will recognize three months from now, not just "Website" or "Phase 1." Include a short descriptor that tells you what the scope actually was. "Website Redesign Q3" is better than "Website." You will thank yourself when this client comes back for another round.

If the project has a fixed budget, enter it now. Time-Trak can track hours against a budget ceiling and alert you before you blow past it. That only works if the number is in there from the start.

Set Your Billing Rate Before the First Timer Runs

This is the step that costs people the most money when they skip it. Go into the project settings and enter the billing rate. If you have a flat rate per hour for everything on this project, set it at the project level. If different tasks bill at different rates, set defaults now and plan to override them at the task level as you go.

Do not rely on memory. Do not plan to fix it at invoice time. Set it now.

Create at Least One Task Category

Time-Trak lets you organize sessions by task. Before you start working, create at least a rough category structure. Even something simple like "Strategy," "Execution," and "Revisions" is enough. This gives your time log shape. When the client asks what you spent 14 hours on, you will have an answer that makes sense.

Blank sessions with no task category are the ones that turn into invoice disputes.

Enable Screenshots Now

If you are using Time-Trak's automatic screenshot feature, enable it at the project level before work begins. Screenshots taken after the fact are useless. Screenshots taken throughout the project give you a timestamped record of what you were actually doing. That is what you need if a client ever questions a charge.

Choose a screenshot interval that fits the work. For focused, heads-down work, every ten minutes is fine. For work that involves a lot of switching or coordination, more frequent captures give you a cleaner picture.

Run a One-Minute Test Before the Real Work Starts

Once everything is configured, open the floating timer widget and start a test session. Log thirty seconds, stop it, and check that it landed in the right project and task. Look at the session detail. Make sure the rate populated correctly.

This takes sixty seconds. It catches configuration errors before they affect real hours.

What Clean Setup Actually Buys You

When a project is set up correctly from the start, your end-of-project workflow collapses to almost nothing. You hit the invoice button, review the total, and send it. There is no manual sorting, no guessing which sessions belong where, no rate corrections.

Clean setup is not administrative overhead. It is the thing that makes the rest of the project easier.

Start the project right. Your future self, the one sitting down to write that invoice, will notice.

Track your time, bill every minute.

Time-Trak is a native Mac and Windows time tracker with a floating timer, automatic screenshots, and one-click invoicing.

Free during beta.

macOS + Windows · Floating widget · Auto screenshots