Change Historical Rates

Changing Historical Rates and Audit Log explains how to apply new Billing Rates and Cost Rates to existing time entries, and how your Security and Audit Log settings control these changes. Use this guide whenever you need to update rates retroactively and want to understand the impact on reporting.

Where this applies: Billing Rates (Default and per Person/Project/Task/Client), Cost Rates (hourly), and cost adjustments for salaried employees (Adjust Salaried Costs). Some options require specific plans or modules.

Jump to a section:

• What counts as a historical rate change?
• Default Billing Rate (company-wide) changes
• Billing Rates on People, Projects, Tasks, and Clients
• Cost Rates (hourly) on people
• Salaried employees: Adjust Salaried Costs
• Security, Audit Log, and Company Lock Date
• Monitoring progress and verifying changes
• Troubleshooting

What counts as a historical rate change?

A historical rate change is any change that updates the rate stored on time entries that were already saved. Examples include:

• Updating the Default Billing Rate and applying it to existing entries that used the default.
• Changing a person’s Billing Rate and applying it to their past entries from a certain date.
• Changing a project, task, or client Billing Rate table and applying the new values to existing entries.
• Changing a person’s hourly Cost Rate and applying it to their existing, unlocked time entries.
• Running Adjust Salaried Costs to recalculate hourly costs on completed timesheets.

These updates can change past billable amounts, costs, and profitability in your reports and exports.

Default Billing Rate (company-wide) changes

The Default Billing Rate is set in Company > Preferences > Billing Rates. When you change this default, you can optionally apply it to existing time entries that currently use the default.

Change the Default Billing Rate and update existing entries

• Go to Company > Preferences > Billing Rates.
• In the Default Rate section, enter the new default billing rate.
• Check the option to apply the new default to existing time entries that use the default (you can choose unlocked only, or locked and unlocked entries, depending on your permissions and policies).
• Select how far back to apply the change (for example, all entries on or after a certain date).
• Confirm the warning dialog and save your changes.
  

ClickTime will update only those entries that currently use the Default rate. Entries that already use a Custom or Flat rate are not changed.

Billing Rates on People, Projects, Tasks, and Clients

When you edit Billing Rates on a specific Person, Project, Task, or Client, ClickTime can apply the new rate or rate table to existing time entries for that entity.

Where you can apply historical changes

• Person-based rates: Company > People > Person Details > Billing Rates – change the person’s rate or exceptions and choose to apply to existing entries.
  
• Project-based rates: Company > Projects > Project Details > Billing Rates – update the project’s rate table (Default/Custom/Flat per person or task) and apply to existing entries.
  
• Task-based rates: Company > Tasks > Task Details – change the Billing Rate and choose whether to apply to existing entries.
  
• Client exceptions (Advanced models): Company > Clients > Client Details > Billing Rates – update Default/Custom/Flat rows and apply to existing entries.
  

Typical workflow

• Open the relevant details page (Person, Project, Task, or Client).
• Click Edit in the Billing Rates section.
• Update the rate(s) or table values as needed.
• Use the option at the bottom of the section to apply the Billing Rate changes to existing time entries. You can usually choose:
  • Whether to affect unlocked entries only, or locked and unlocked entries.
  • A starting date (for example, apply to all entries on or after a specific date).
• Save your changes and confirm the warning about historical updates.

Note: In accounts with DCAA-related restrictions, you may be limited to changing only unlocked time entries. In that case, you may need to un-approve timesheets before changing rates, then re-approve them afterward.

Cost Rates (hourly) on people

Hourly Cost Rates are stored on the Person Details page. Changing a Cost Rate affects new time entries going forward, but you can also apply the new rate to existing, unlocked entries.

Apply a new Cost Rate to existing time

• Go to Company > People and open the person’s Person Details page.
• Edit the Cost section and enter the new hourly Cost Rate.
• Check the option to apply the cost rate to all new and existing unlocked time as far back as… (or similar wording in your account).
• Select the date from which the new rate should apply.
• Click Update and confirm the warning dialog.

ClickTime updates the Cost Rate on all matching time entries that belong to unlocked/unapproved timesheets. Locked or approved timesheets are not changed.

Salaried employees: Adjust Salaried Costs

For salaried employees using the Cost per Timesheet model, historical cost changes are handled by Adjust Salaried Costs rather than a direct “apply to existing entries” checkbox.

• Configure Cost per Timesheet and Projected Cost per Hour on the person’s Person Details page.
• Ensure their timesheets are approved/locked.
• Go to Company > Timesheets, select eligible timesheets, and click Adjust Salaried Costs.
• Review the preview, then confirm to distribute Cost per Timesheet across all hours in each timesheet.

This process recalculates and updates the cost stored on each time entry for the affected timesheets. For details, see Cost Rates (Salaried): Adjust Salaried Costs.

Security, Audit Log, and Company Lock Date

Historical rate changes are governed by several controls:

Security settings

• In Company > Preferences > Security, there is an option to allow changes to Billing and Cost Rates for existing time entries.
  
• If this is disabled, you may not see options to apply rate changes to existing entries.
• If this is enabled, administrators can apply historical changes.

Audit Log

• When the Audit Log module is enabled, ClickTime records that a historical rate change occurred (who changed which rate, and when).
• The Audit Log does not list every individual time entry that was affected. It tracks the rate-level change, not every downstream entry.

Company Lock Date

• The Company Lock Date prevents changes to time entries on or before a specific date.
  
• If you attempt to apply rate changes that would affect entries before the lock date, you may see an error and the change will be blocked.
  
• To proceed, a ClickTime administrator can temporarily move the lock date earlier, apply the rate change, and then reset the lock date.
   

Monitoring progress and verifying changes

Historical updates and bulk adjustments can take time, especially if many entries are affected.

• After you confirm a bulk change, a status or dollar-sign icon may appear near your name, indicating that updates are in progress.
• Avoid starting another large rate change while the current one is still running to prevent conflicts or confusion.
• Once the status message confirms that changes are complete, re-run relevant reports to verify results.
  

To confirm individual entries, you can use the Customizable Data Export (CDE) to inspect Billing Rate, Cost Rate, Billable Amount, and Total Cost for a specific date range, project, or person.

Troubleshooting

• “I don't see an option to apply changes to existing entries.” Check your Security settings in Company Preferences and verify whether the Audit Log module is restricting certain changes. You may also lack permission to change locked entries.
• “I get an error about the Company Lock Date.” Your change would affect entries on or before the lock date. Ask an administrator to temporarily move the lock date, apply the rate change, and then restore the original lock date.
• “Reports still show the old rate.” Confirm that you selected the correct scope (locked vs unlocked) and date range when applying the change. Re-run reports after the update completes and ensure your report filters include the affected entries.
• “Only some timesheets were updated.” For Cost Rate changes, verify whether the missing entries belong to locked/approved timesheets or are outside the date range you selected.
• “Our auditors require a record of changes.” Use the Audit Log to show who changed which rates and when, and consider exporting CDE data before and after major changes for your records.