As a freelancer billing short sessions, how do I charge by the exact minute instead of rounding to quarter hours?
Log each session as a row with its start and end; the calculator never rounds minutes. It adds them as they are, multiplies by your hourly rate and rounds the amount only once, to the currency's decimals. Two sessions of 45 and 55 minutes at 200 AED an hour come to 1:40 and 333.33 AED.
Rounding versus exact time
Plenty of freelancers round each session to the nearest quarter hour because it is easier to add up. A 55 minute call becomes an hour, a 22 minute fix becomes half an hour. Some contracts allow that. But if you agreed to bill actual time, rounding either adds minutes you did not work or drops minutes you did, and a client who reads the log will notice.
Take a session from 10:00 to 10:45 and another from 14:10 to 15:05. The real total is 100 minutes, 1:40, and at 200 AED an hour that is 333.33 AED. Round the second session up to a full hour and you get 1:45 and 350.00 AED: 16.67 AED more for five minutes you did not work.
How to log your sessions
- Open the Timesheet calculator and give each session a row: date, start time, end time. Leave the break at zero; short sessions rarely have one.
- Type your rate into 'Hourly rate' and choose the currency, for example AED.
- Leave 'Overtime after' empty; a freelancer usually has no use for it.
- Read the total hours in h:mm and decimal, then the total pay.
Add a short third session from 21:30 to 21:52 and the total becomes 2:02 and 406.67 AED. The amount is not built by adding up rounded per-session amounts; it comes straight from the total minutes, so fractions of a fils do not pile up as the sessions multiply.
From the summary to the invoice
The calculator does not issue invoices; it gives you the log and the amount. Download the PDF summary and attach it so the client sees every session with its times, or the CSV if you keep your own spreadsheet. Then open the Basic invoice generator and add a line with a description of the work and the total from the calculator.
If you want the time on the invoice itself, put it in the description, such as '1:40 hours of work', and enter the amount as it is. Avoid entering a quantity of 1.67 hours at 200, because the decimal column is rounded to two places for display, and 1.67 x 200 is 334.00, not 333.33.
Limits worth knowing
- Times are read in hours and minutes as typed. There are no seconds and no start/stop timer.
- There is no optional rounding setting, so if your contract says quarter hours, round those yourself.
- A session that crosses midnight, such as 23:40 to 00:25, is counted correctly and marked '+1 day'.
Common questions
Can I bill in currencies other than riyals?
Yes. Pick the currency from the list, such as AED, USD or EGP, and the amount is rounded to that currency's decimals.
Why is 1.67 times 200 not the amount shown?
Because 1.67 is a rounded display figure. The amount is worked out from the full 100 minutes, which is the exact figure.
Will the site remember today's sessions tomorrow?
No. The table is not saved once you close the page, so download the CSV at the end of each day if you want to keep the log.