Free Freelancer Timesheet Template (Excel, Google Sheets): Hours, Rates & Monthly Invoice Totals

Free freelancer timesheet template (Excel & Google Sheets)

Log your hours per client and project, and the timesheet works out the hours worked, the billed hours after your rounding rule and the amount to invoice at each client's hourly rate. A monthly summary shows what you have not invoiced yet and how much of a retainer cap is left. Free to download, with no email required.

Freelancer-Timesheet-Template.xlsx

500 time entries: start and end times with unpaid breaks, or manual hours from a tracking app.

Up to 15 clients or projects, each with its own hourly rate and optional monthly hour cap.

Round every entry up to 6, 10, 15 or 30 minutes (or bill exact time).

Non-billable time is logged but not charged.

Monthly summary per client: hours, billed hours, net amount, not yet invoiced, cap left.

No macros, no sign-up, no tracking. Five example rows to delete.

How to use the timesheet

On Clients, replace the example clients with your own, add each hourly rate (before VAT) and set the rounding rule. Not sure what to charge? Try the freelance rate calculator.
On Timesheet, delete the example rows. For each block of work, enter the date, pick the client, describe the task and type the start and end times (hh:mm) and any unpaid break. Set Billable? to No for time you will not charge.
At the end of the month, open Monthly summary, choose the year and month, and invoice the amounts shown. Then set Invoiced? to Yes and add the invoice number on those rows. Billable rows not yet invoiced are shaded green.

Why keep a timesheet if you bill by the hour

A detailed time log is your evidence if a client questions an invoice: what you did, on which day and for how long. Many clients ask for it with the invoice anyway. It also shows how much of your week is non-billable (quotes, admin, unpaid revisions), which is the number that most often makes a freelance rate too low; see how to calculate your day rate.

Getting paid on time

Invoice promptly and state the payment term on the invoice. Under the EU Late Payment Directive, business clients generally have to pay within the agreed term (normally no more than 60 days unless expressly agreed otherwise and not grossly unfair), and after that you can claim statutory interest plus a €40 recovery fee. Work it out with the late payment interest calculator. What the invoice itself must show is in the Article 226 checklist.

FAQ

Is this timesheet template really free?

Yes. Download the .xlsx file directly, with no email or sign-up. It has no macros and works in Excel, LibreOffice and Google Sheets (upload it to Google Drive and open it with Sheets).

How does the time rounding work?

Set "Round each entry up to" on the Clients sheet. With 15 minutes, a 1 h 20 min entry becomes 1.5 billed hours, and a 4 h entry stays 4 h. Set it to 0 to bill exact time. Hours worked are always kept unrounded next to the billed hours, so you can see the difference. Agree your rounding rule with the client in advance.

Can I log time that goes past midnight?

Yes. If the end time is earlier than the start time, the template assumes you worked past midnight (for example 22:00 to 01:30 is 3.5 hours). Unpaid breaks in minutes are subtracted.

Can I use it with a time-tracking app?

Yes. Leave Start and End empty and type the total from your app in "Manual hours". The template then applies the client rate and rounding in the same way.

Are the amounts with or without VAT?

Without. The rate on the Clients sheet is your net hourly rate, so the amounts are what goes on the invoice before VAT. Whether you then add VAT, apply the reverse charge for a business client in another EU country, or charge no VAT under the small business exemption depends on your situation.

How do I turn a month of hours into an invoice?

Pick the year and month on the Monthly summary sheet. It shows billed hours, the net amount and what is not yet invoiced for each client. Put those figures into the free EU invoice template, then mark the rows as invoiced and add the invoice number.