Timesheet software that turns billable time into invoices
Short answer: Alori is building time and billing: your team logs hours against a client or project, and those billable hours become invoice lines, with retainers tracked along the way. It is coming soon, and you can join the waitlist at the bottom of this page. Today, Alori already logs your team's hours from jobs onto timesheets, and makes, sends and collects invoices, with card payments, automatic reminders and QuickBooks Online sync. The missing link is hours filling invoice lines.
The problem: hours that never get billed
For consultants, agencies and accounting firms, time is the product. Yet the path from hours worked to money in the bank is often three tools and a lot of retyping:
- Hours go into a timesheet app, or a notes file, or someone's memory.
- At month end, someone copies them into an invoice by hand.
- The invoice is then typed again into the accounting software.
- Retainer clients ask how many hours are left, and nobody knows for sure.
Every copy is a chance to lose hours. Small firms often find that some work never gets billed at all.
How it will work in Alori (coming soon)
The time and billing app will connect time to the rest of Alori. What we are building:
- Log time where the work is. Hours logged against a client, a project or a task, by each person on the team.
- Billable or not. Mark what is billable, so internal time stays out of invoices.
- Time becomes invoice lines. Pick a client and a period, and the billable hours turn into lines on an invoice, ready to send.
- Retainers that count down. Prepaid hours per client, with what is used and what is left.
The details may change before launch. Joining the waitlist is the best way to tell us how your firm bills.
What you can do in Alori today
You can already cut most of the retyping between work and payment:
-
Hours logged from jobs. Put people on a job's crew. When the job starts, they are clocked in on it; when it is finished, their clocks stop. Each line on the timesheet is tied to its job, under Employees › Timesheets. See jobs.
-
Labour cost per job. The owner sees the hours on each job, what they cost at each person's hourly rate, and the margin left.
-
Timesheet export. Approve the week and export every entry (day, job, start, end, hours) to CSV, to know what to bill. See employees.
-
Invoices without a job. In Invoices, click New invoice, then Bill something else, without a job, pick the client, add your lines and create it. See invoices.
-
A price list. Save your services and rates once in Settings › Catalog, then add them to quotes and invoices with Add from catalog.
-
Card payments. Every invoice you email has a Pay by card link through Stripe, and the invoice turns Paid by itself.
-
Payment terms and reminders. Set your payment terms in days, and turn on the unpaid invoice reminder: late invoices get up to 3 reminders.
-
QuickBooks Online. Customers and invoices sync both ways, so you stop typing invoices twice.
-
Recurring amounts on deals. Add lines billed monthly, quarterly or yearly to a deal, and Alori adds up the monthly amount, the yearly amount and the first year. Useful to track a retainer's value while time tracking is on its way.
-
Projects. Group the tasks of an engagement in a project, then link its quotes and invoices to see the money next to the work. See tasks.
Who it is for
- Management consultants who bill by the hour or by the engagement. See Alori for consulting firms.
- Accounting firms with monthly clients and extra work billed on top. See Alori for accounting firms.
- Marketing agencies with retainer clients. See Alori for marketing agencies.
FAQ
Can my team log hours in Alori today? Yes, on jobs: the crew is clocked in when a job starts and out when it is finished, and the hours land on timesheets you approve and export. What is coming soon is marking hours billable and turning them into invoice lines. Join the waitlist at the bottom of this page.
Will time tracking work with QuickBooks? Invoices made in Alori already sync with QuickBooks Online. Invoices made from billable time will be regular Alori invoices, so they are meant to follow the same path.
Can I track retainers today? You can record a retainer's monthly value on a deal and send its invoices from Alori. Counting hours used against the retainer is part of what is coming.
What does it cost? Starting with Alori is free, no card needed, and every plan has unlimited users. See pricing for plans.