The Subcontractor Hours I Trusted Without Checking

I brought in a subcontractor for a design project. She came recommended, her work was good, and I was busy enough that I didn't look too closely at her hours until I'd already built the client invoice.

She sent me a timesheet. I looked at the total. I added my markup. I sent the invoice.

A week later I actually opened her detailed log and read through it.

What Was in There

The total was roughly right, give or take thirty minutes. But inside the total were some things I hadn't expected.

There were three hours labeled as research that I couldn't connect to any deliverable. There was an hour and a half for a client call that lasted forty-five minutes, which I knew because I was on it too. And there were two separate entries on the same afternoon that overlapped in time, which meant she'd logged both of them as billable but could only have done one.

None of it was dramatic. I'm not saying she was trying to take advantage of anyone. But the hours I billed the client included hours I couldn't verify, couldn't explain, and in one case couldn't have been real.

I'd already sent that invoice.

The Position That Puts You In

When you invoice a client for subcontractor time, you're vouching for it. If the client ever questions the hours, you're the one who has to explain them. You can't point at the subcontractor. You're the one they hired.

I got lucky. That client paid without questions. But I spent two weeks dreading a follow-up email that never came, because I knew I couldn't defend every line if I had to.

That's not a position I wanted to be in again.

What I Changed

I now require any subcontractor I work with to track inside the same system I use. When they log into Time-Trak and track against the project, I can see the entries in real time. I can see the screenshots. I can see when the timer ran and for how long.

That's not about distrust. It's about shared accountability. If a client asks me to explain any hour on any invoice, I need to be able to answer without making a phone call.

The screenshot feature matters here more than I expected. Not because I need to police what a subcontractor is doing minute to minute, but because a screenshot every fifteen minutes is a record of what the session actually looked like. That's documentation I can stand behind.

The Direction Nobody Talks About

Here's the part that surprised me. After I tightened up the process, I noticed something in the other direction too.

My subcontractor was sometimes logging fewer hours than she'd actually worked. Not drastically, but she'd round down on uncertain tasks or skip logging short sessions because she didn't want to seem like she was padding.

So I was occasionally not paying her for work she'd done, and occasionally billing a client for time I couldn't verify. Both problems. Both invisible without clean logs.

The fix was the same in both directions: a shared tracking system where everyone can see what's in and what's out before money changes hands.

Before the Invoice, Not After

I now review subcontractor hours before I build the client invoice, not after. It takes about ten minutes. I go through the entries, check for anything that doesn't match what I know about the project, and ask questions while the work is still recent enough to explain.

Most of the time everything is fine. But those ten minutes are the difference between an invoice I can defend and one I'm hoping no one looks at closely.

If you're billing for anyone's time but your own, that review is not optional. The invoice you send is the invoice with your name on it.

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