For freelancers
Time tracking for freelancers — every hour billed, no timer to watch.
Time tracking for freelancers fails at the same spot every time: the timer. Freelancers rarely lose money on their rate — they lose it on hours they forget to log. The quick call, the late fix, the context switch that never made it onto an invoice. BillNotch tracks your work automatically and adds it up, so the hours you bill match the hours you actually worked.
It tracks while you work
Install the desktop app once. It records the active window second by second — no timer to start, nothing to reconstruct at the end of the week.
It sorts itself by client
Keyword rules map domains, apps, and ticket prefixes to the right client and project. Turn on AI categorization for the fuzzy cases; billable is inherited from the project.
It turns hours into an invoice
Read the billable total, generate a PDF invoice, or export CSV for any date range. Your invoice writes itself from the hours you already tracked.
It catches what you forgot to bill
The Revenue Leak Finder surfaces billable work that never landed on an invoice — the unbilled entries and forgotten projects that quietly cost you money.
Where a freelance week actually leaks
The hours that go missing are rarely the big blocks of work. They are the ten minutes on a client’s bug before lunch, the call you took on the way somewhere, the “quick look” at a repo that ran to forty minutes. Each one is too small to write down and too frequent to remember, and at the end of the month the invoice is short by a day you genuinely worked. A timer cannot fix that, because the timer depends on the same memory that just failed you.
Passive capture inverts the order: the record exists first, so Friday becomes confirming what was caught instead of reconstructing what you did. The revenue leak calculator puts a number on your own gap before you install anything.
How passive capture becomes billable hours
The desktop app records the active application and window title, how long you stayed there, and when. Projects carry keywords you define — a client domain, an app name, a ticket prefix like ACME- — and activity that matches lands in that project, inheriting whether the project is billable and at what rate.
Anything the matcher is unsure about is held as a suggestion rather than written into your timesheet behind your back. You confirm or reject those on the review screen — a two-minute pass — and your corrections become rules, so the same activity files itself correctly next time.
Tracking built for you, not about you
Automatic tracking has an obvious objection: it sounds like surveillance software. The difference here is who it answers to. You install it on your own machine, you issue the API key that connects it, and you revoke that key whenever you like. There are no screenshots, no keystroke logging, and no idea what you were typing — only which application was in front and for how long.
You also choose, per device, whether window titles sync to your account or never leave the machine. The optional browser extension records the domain of the active tab and nothing else; full URLs and tab titles stay off unless you switch each one on yourself. AI categorization is off by default, so a deterministic keyword matcher does the sorting and no activity text reaches a third-party model. Data is processed on EU servers and never sold — the privacy policy is specific about all of it.
Linux is a first-class target
If you work on Linux you know the routine: the automatic tracker you want ships for Windows and macOS, and you get the web timer. BillNotch ships a native Linux tracker in the same release as the other two, from the same code, compiled and tested on all three before it goes out. The state of the field is in the best time tracking software for Linux.
From tracked hours to a sent invoice
Invoicing is part of the same tool, not a second subscription. Choose a client and a period and BillNotch renders a PDF from the billable total it already has, with your logo and terms on it; the same rows export as CSV for an accountant. You see the invoice before anyone else does — nothing is emailed to a client on its own. And the Revenue Leak Finder does the pass you would never do by hand, flagging billable time that never reached any invoice.
Why freelancers pick BillNotch
- Your activity stays yours — sync window titles or keep them on your machine, per device.
- Connect each device with an API key you issue and revoke anytime.
- Data is processed on EU servers and never sold.
- 14-day free trial, no credit card. Pro is $9/mo — less than one billable hour.
- Works on Windows, macOS, and Linux.
Questions freelancers ask
- Do I have to start and stop a timer?
- No. The desktop app records the active window on its own, so a session you forget to start is still tracked. A manual timer and manual entries are there on the dashboard for work that happens away from the screen.
- What happens to my window titles?
- You choose per device whether titles sync to your account or stay on that machine. There are no screenshots and no keystroke logging, and with AI categorization off — the default — none of your activity is sent to a third-party model.
- Can I invoice a client straight from the tracked hours?
- Yes. Pick the client and date range, and BillNotch builds a PDF invoice from the billable total, or exports the same rows as CSV. You review the invoice before it goes anywhere; nothing is sent to a client automatically.
- What happens to my data if I never subscribe?
- It stays. When the 14-day trial ends without a plan, the account turns read-only rather than locked: you can still read your entries, run reports, and export CSV or a PDF invoice. Nothing is deleted for not paying.
Start tracking the hours you can bill.
New to automatic time tracking? Read how to track billable hours accurately — then let BillNotch do it for you.
Curious what those forgotten hours cost? The Revenue Leak Calculator puts a number on it — free, no signup. Working with a team? BillNotch is also for agencies and for consultants.
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