How to Set Up Time Rounding for Clean Invoices

Most professional services don't bill in seconds. Lawyers go in six-minute increments, consultants in fifteens, contractors in halves and hours. An invoice that reads "2:17:43" looks like the output of a debugging session. "2.25 hours" looks like an invoice.

Timesheet's rounding feature does this for you. Set the increment once in Settings, choose the rounding direction, and the math is consistent across every invoice. Free on every plan, including Basic.

#Why Round at All

Industry norms. Most professional services have established increments. Walking into a market with non-standard rounding makes clients squint at the invoice.

Cleaner invoices. "2.25 hours at $90 = $202.50" reads. "2 hours 17 minutes 43 seconds at $90" doesn't.

Predictable billing. Clients want to know the minimum unit. Anything below the increment falls into the next one. No surprises, no questions.

Easier downstream math. Round numbers go through accounting systems, audit reviews, and your own spot-checks more cleanly.

#The Increments

Timesheet supports these rounding intervals:

#How Rounding Behaves

The rounding direction is a separate setting: round down, round up, or round to nearest. The default is round down. The table below shows round up, where any work begun in an increment bills for the full increment.

Entries shorter than the increment are never rounded away: 0:07 becomes 0:15 in all three modes, because a started increment always counts as at least one full increment. One thing to understand: rounding is applied to the start and end times as the timer starts and stops, so the rounded times are what gets saved. If you need minute-exact records, use the exact setting.

#The Global Setting

Rounding is configured once, globally, and applies to every entry. There is no per-project rounding setting.

1. Open Settings
2. Find Timer Rounding
3. Pick the interval (exact, 5, 6, 10, 15, 30, or 60 minutes)
4. Pick the rounding type (down, up, or nearest)
5. Save

This applies to all new timer entries as they are saved, and the rounded times flow from there into reports, statistics, exports and PDF invoices.

#What Reports Show

#Statistics

Statistics work from the saved times. With rounding active, the charts and totals show the same rounded durations your invoices are based on. One source of truth, no reconciliation.

#Exports

CSV and Excel exports use the same saved times, so the exported durations match what you bill. If you want minute-exact records instead, set the interval to exact (no rounding).

#Choosing the Right Interval

#5 minutes

Best for: high-volume, short-task work like technical support. Choose if clients expect granular billing.

#15 minutes

Best for: most professional services, consulting, knowledge work. The most common increment in the market, the safest default if you're not sure.

#30 minutes

Best for: trades, on-site service, anywhere there's travel time or a minimum engagement.

#60 minutes

Best for: retainers, training sessions, workshops. Work that naturally occurs in hour blocks.

#6 minutes (tenth of an hour)

Best for: legal practice, which often bills in tenths of an hour. Timesheet offers a 6-minute interval natively, so 0.1-hour increments work out of the box, no manual conversion needed.

#Ethics, Briefly

Rounding is standard. Rounding badly is not.

• A 1-minute email becoming a 15-minute charge looks like it. Group small tasks instead.
• If you handle many small interactions for the same client, batch them into a single entry per day.
• Be ready to explain your rounding policy if asked. "Standard 15-minute increments, documented in the contract" is a complete answer.

#Documenting It

Tell clients the policy in writing.

In contracts and engagement letters.

Time is billed in 15-minute increments. Any portion of an increment is rounded up to the full increment.

On invoices. A single footnote line: "Billed in 15-minute increments."

Verbally during rate conversations. "Standard 15-minute rounding" should be part of the initial pricing conversation, not a surprise on invoice number one.

#Handling the Awkward Cases

Very short tasks. A two-minute phone call at 15-minute rounding becomes a 15-minute charge, and switching the direction doesn't help: a started increment always counts as at least one full increment. Fix it by grouping with other tasks for the same client that day, or by choosing a smaller global interval (or exact mode).

Many small tasks on the same day. Two sensible patterns: a single daily entry with a summary description, or per-task with rounding only at the daily total. Pick one and stay consistent.

Non-billable work. Rounding doesn't matter for billing, but it does affect productivity reports. If you track non-billable time and want exact figures, set the global interval to exact (no rounding) so you see actual time.

#Common Questions

Does rounding change my tracked time? Yes. Rounding is applied to the start and end times when the timer starts and stops, and the rounded entry is what gets saved. If you need minute-exact records, set the interval to exact.

Can I see both rounded and actual? No. Once an entry is saved, the rounded times are the entry. To keep exact times, track with the interval set to exact (no rounding).

What if a client objects to my rounding? Discuss it. You can switch to exact (no rounding), a smaller interval, or a gentler rounding type. The rounding setting is global, so a change applies to everything you track from then on.

Is rounding up standard? In professional services, rounding up is a common convention ("any started increment is billed"). In Timesheet it is one of three rounding types, and round down is actually the default.

Can I round down? Yes. Round down is a configurable rounding type, and it is in fact the default. You can also choose round up or round to nearest under Settings > Timer Rounding.

#Summary

The model:

• Pick an increment that matches your industry (15 minutes is the safe default)
• Set the global interval and rounding type once in Settings (down is the default direction)
• Rounding happens as entries are saved, so pick exact mode if you need minute-exact records
• Document the policy in contracts and on invoices
• Be consistent, change with notice and not in the middle of a project

#Where to Go Next

• Bill clients with custom rates to pair rounding with per-project rates
• Generate PDF invoices that show rounded times cleanly
• Export to Excel with clean, rounded durations in every row