Timesheet to invoice: a plain-English path for UK freelancers

If you bill by the hour, the awkward bit is rarely the work itself. It is stitching a week of hours into something a client can pay: a clear, numbered invoice with your details, theirs, the lines of work, a total, and (when it applies) VAT. Search results for “timesheet template” often stop at a blank sheet. Suites like Wave, FreshBooks, or Harvest can do the job — and a lot more you may not need yet.

This guide walks through a practical UK freelancer workflow: hours → timesheet → numbered invoice. It is written for sole traders and tiny agencies in the UK. It is not accounting, VAT, or Self Assessment advice. Check GOV.UK on VAT and your own accountant when you are unsure.

What “hours to invoice” actually means

In practice you need four pieces that stay in sync:

1. Who you billed — client name, address, and usually an email.
2. What you did — date, hours (or days), a short description, and a rate.
3. A document number — sequential invoice numbers so you and HMRC can follow the trail later.
4. How to pay you — bank details or other payment notes, plus a due date.

A weekly timesheet is just the middle piece organised by client and date. The invoice is that timesheet turned into a client-facing document with a number, totals, and (optionally) VAT.

A simple manual path (spreadsheet)

Many freelancers start here, and it works until it does not:

• Log hours in a sheet (date, client, description, hours, rate).
• Filter one client and one date range.
• Copy the lines into a Word/Google Doc invoice template.
• Hand-type the next invoice number, due date, and bank details.
• Export PDF and email it.

The failure modes are familiar: duplicated invoice numbers, a rate that changed mid-week, VAT left off when it should be on (or the reverse), and no clean archive when your accountant asks for last quarter. Templates help with layout; they do not keep your numbering or history straight.

What a typical UK freelancer invoice includes

Requirements depend on your situation (sole trader vs limited company, VAT-registered or not). In plain terms, clients and bookkeepers usually expect:

• Your business name and address
• Client name and address
• A unique sequential invoice number
• Issue date and payment due date
• Line items with description, quantity/hours, rate, and line total
• Subtotal, and if you charge VAT — VAT amount and rate, plus your VAT number when you have one
• How to pay (sort code / account number, or other notes)

VAT is optional in the tool sense, not in the legal sense. If you are not VAT-registered, you generally do not add VAT to invoices. If you are, the rules about what must appear on a VAT invoice are set by HMRC — BillHours can show optional VAT fields, but you remain responsible for getting registration and wording right. This page is not tax advice.

Where BillHours fits (and where it does not)

BillHours is built for one job: turn a weekly timesheet into a numbered UK-style invoice (PDF, print-ready HTML, plus CSV for your accountant). You add a client and their £/hr rate, log hours, then generate an invoice with sequential numbers, optional VAT helpers, a payment-details block, and a due date.

It is deliberately not a full accounting suite. There is no live timer marketing stack, no expense receipt inbox, no multi-currency maze, and no claim to file Self Assessment or Making Tax Digital for you. If you already live inside Xero or FreeAgent for bookkeeping, you may only need CSV export and a clean PDF for the client. If you are still bouncing between a timesheet tab and a Word template, a narrow tool can be enough.

Compared with “free forever” tiers on larger products, BillHours stays small on purpose: fewer screens, UK-facing defaults (GBP, en-GB copy), and a free tier you can actually finish the flow on — 1 client and 5 invoices — before deciding whether paid is worth it.

A practical workflow with BillHours

1. Register at /register and fill Settings with your business name, address, payment notes, and VAT number only if you use one.
2. Add a client with their default rate and payment terms (for example 14 or 30 days).
3. Log time as you work — date, hours, description — or batch it at the end of the week on the timesheet view.
4. Create the invoice from those entries: pick the client and period, review lines, set issue/due dates, toggle VAT only if it applies to you.
5. Download PDF or print-ready HTML for the client, and CSV if your accountant prefers a sheet.

That is the whole “timesheet to invoice” loop. Upgrade unlocks unlimited clients and invoices when you outgrow the free limits. Pricing is on the homepage pricing section: recommended £29/year, or £4.99/month. Payments for BillHours itself run through Stripe Managed Payments; collecting money from your clients stays on your bank details on the invoice.

Checklist before you hit send

• Invoice number is next in your sequence (no gaps you did not mean, no duplicates).
• Hours and descriptions match what the client expects for that week.
• Rate and totals look right in pounds and pence.
• VAT is either correctly applied with your VAT number, or correctly omitted.
• Payment details and due date are present.
• You have kept a copy (PDF/HTML/CSV) for your own records.

Free limits and when to upgrade

The free plan is meant for a real trial of the full path: one client, five invoices, with PDF, HTML, and CSV. When a second ongoing client arrives, or you need more than five numbered invoices in history, paid removes those caps. There are no invented “trusted by thousands” claims here — it is a small UK tool. See Privacy and Terms for how data and subscriptions work.

Disclaimer: BillHours is not accounting software or tax advice. You remain responsible for VAT registration, Self Assessment, invoice accuracy, and HMRC record-keeping.