Tracking billable and non-billable project hours using beancount

[Peter]

Hi there,

up until now I used beancount for my personal finances. I might switch careers and start freelancing. I'm currently evaluating how to manage my time tracking.

Beancount seems like a good pick as it is flexible and the concept of lots (or rather using time as a commodity) lets you track time, too. An example is the section in the docs about vacation hours:

https://beancount.github.io/docs/command_line_accounting_cookbook.html#vacation-hours

That being said, here is what I'd like to achieve:

1. I'd like to track time (both billable, and non-billable) spent on a project on a per project basis.
2. When I'm done with the project I'd like to create some sort of time sheet that lists the billable hours and what I worked on (using the narration field). 
3. Finally, I'd like to book the income against the time spent somehow, if that is possible. My goal is to see how profitable I was. Especially, taking non-billable hours into account.

I have some questions:

• Has anyone done something similar? I'd love to hear experiences and best-practices.
• Which accounts should I book the time against?
• How could I create a PDF time sheet?
• How can I book the time against the income?

I'm looking forward to any input.

Have a great day.

[google...@muisnetwerken.nl]

Hello Peter,

I only track billable hours, but I think this can also work for non-billable hours.

I have defined a currency 'hour' with value of 0 euros.

So a transaction for an outgoing invoice looks like (I use Dutch, I hope I translate it well for this message):
Revenue:Hours:Billable    -12 HOUR @ 0 EUR
Revenue:HighVAT:Audio -100 EUR
Debt:Short:VAT:High:Billed -20 EUR
Assets:Claims:Receivable 120 EUR

This allows me to get reports on billed hours per customer, per period, etc.

Perhaps you could add a line
Revenue:Hours:Non-billable

Kind regards

Maurice

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Beancount" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to beancount+...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/beancount/f6d95048-2323-4e81-97aa-224fe7c8fae2n%40googlegroups.com.

[Peter]

Hi Maurice

thanks for your input. This is very helpful.

How do you create the reports?

Kind regards

[google...@muisnetwerken.nl]

Hi Peter

I use fava, which shows me EUR and HOUR in income and balance reports,
and has the ability of selecting payee, etc.