Set Up Rates

The Company > Preferences page controls how Billing Rates and Cost Rates behave across your account. Use it to enable time billing, choose a rate structure, decide how billable status is set, define a Default Billing Rate, and configure the Default Cost Rate for new people.

Where to find it: Company > Preferences > General Information (Enable Time Billing Features), Billing Rates, and Person Defaults (Default Cost Rate).

Jump to a section:

• Enable time billing features
• Billing Rates section (rate structure, billable status, default)
• Default Cost Rate for new people
• Security & historical changes
• Best practices
• Troubleshooting

Enable time billing features

Billing settings appear only when Time Billing Features are enabled in the General Information section.

• Go to Company > Preferences > General Information.
• Enable Time Billing Features and save.
• After saving, the Billing Rates section will be available in Company Preferences.

For more details, see Company Preferences: General Information.

Billing Rates section (rate structure, billable status, default)

The Billing Rates section controls how hourly billing rates are chosen for time entries and how billable status is set.

For a full walkthrough of this section, including screenshots, see Company Preferences: Billing Rates. At a high level, you will:

• Choose a Rate Structure:
  • Basic – Billing by Person, by Project, or by Task.
  • Advanced (Team plan or higher) – Start with a Person or Task rate and make exceptions for specific Clients, Projects, or People.
• Decide how Billable vs Non-Billable is set:
  • By Project – Billable status lives on the Project Details page and Project list.
  • By Task – Billable status lives on the Task Details page and Task list.
• Set a global Default Billing Rate that can be reused across People, Projects, and Tasks that are configured to "Use Default" instead of a custom rate.
• Optionally update existing time entries that currently use the Default Billing Rate, with controls for date range and whether locked entries are included. Only entries using the Default rate are updated; entries with Custom or Flat rates are not changed.

Tip: Align your chosen rate structure with how you invoice (per person, per project, per task, or with exceptions). For detailed configuration steps, see Company Preferences: Billing Rates and the separate Billing Rate model guides.

Default Cost Rate for new people

The Person Defaults section defines the Default Cost Rate for new people. Cost Rate represents your estimated staffing cost for a person.

• Go to Company > Preferences > Person Defaults.
• Set the Default Cost Rate. This value is pre-filled when you create a new person.
• When adding a person, you can accept the default or override it on the Person Details page. You can also change an individual person’s Cost Rate later.

Scope: Changing the Default Cost Rate here does not change Cost Rates for existing people or historical time entries. To update costs for a specific person, edit their Person Details page. For more details, see Company Preferences: Person Defaults and Cost Rates (Hourly).

Security & historical changes

Some rate changes can affect existing time entries. Use Security settings in Company Preferences to control whether administrators and managers are allowed to apply historical changes.

• Go to Company > Preferences > Security and locate the option that allows historical changes to billing and cost rates.
• If enabled, administrators can apply rate changes back to existing non-locked time entries (and, depending on your settings, locked entries as well).
• The Audit Log does not record historical rate changes.

Important: Historical rate updates can affect past invoices, exports, and profitability reports. Coordinate changes with Finance and consider timing updates between billing cycles. For more guidance, see Changing Historical Rates and Audit Log.

Best practices

• Design your rate structure with Finance: Confirm whether billing should primarily depend on Person, Project, or Task, and where exceptions will be needed.
• Use defaults for consistency: Set sensible company-wide defaults for Billing Rate and Cost Rate, then override only when needed for specific clients, projects, or people.
• Test before wide historical updates: If you plan to update existing entries, start with a narrow date range and review reports or exports before scaling up.
• Document exceptions: When you create special rates for certain clients or projects, capture the rationale in your internal documentation so future admins understand the intent.

Troubleshooting

• “Billing options are missing in Preferences.” Check that Time Billing Features are enabled in General Information.
• “Billable status is not where I expect.” Confirm whether billable is set by Project or Task in the Billing Rates section; the billable field appears on the matching Details page and list view.
• “The Default Billing Rate changed, but my entries did not.” Only entries using the Default rate are affected, and only if you choose to apply changes to existing time entries when updating the default.
• “New people are using the wrong Cost Rate.” Check the Default Cost Rate in Person Defaults, and review each person’s Cost Rate on the Person Details page.
• “I cannot update locked entries.” Review the scope options when applying historical changes (locked vs unlocked) and your Security settings. You may need to adjust locks or approvals before updating.