Instead of building an invoice field by field, you can start from the work itself. Create invoice takes a selection of tasks or time entries, works out which client it belongs to, and opens the new invoice form already filled in.
Where the action lives
There are two entry points, and each of them appears in more than one place.
From tasks:
- The Tasks list — select rows and the bulk toolbar offers Create invoice.
- The same list's row actions, for one task at a time.
- A card's action menu on the kanban board.
- The Create invoice button on a task's own page.
From tracked time:
- The Time tracker list — select entries and the bulk toolbar offers Create invoice.
- The same list's row actions, for one entry at a time.
There is no separate "invoice the running timer" action. The entry points are always a selection of tasks or of time entries. A running entry is listed with the rest, so it can be part of a selection; its hours are counted up to the moment you act.
An invoice line bills a task
This is the part most likely to catch you out: a line bills a task, never a stopwatch reading.
From the task list, each selected task becomes one line. From the time tracker, the selected entries are first grouped by their task — ten entries across three tasks make three lines, with the hours summed — and the entries themselves never appear on the invoice.
An entry linked to several tasks contributes its full duration to each of them, the same way per-task totals work everywhere else in Ceum. The lines can therefore add up to more hours than you actually sat there, which is why the dialog lists the hours per row rather than one headline figure. Check them before confirming.
What cannot be billed
A task is billable only through a project that has a client. That single rule produces three reasons a selected row is left off:
- No client — the task is in no project, or only in projects that have no client. Nothing points at anyone to bill.
- No task — a time entry linked to no task. There is nothing to bill it against, so all such entries fold into one row that says how many were left out.
- Belongs to another client — the row is perfectly billable, just not to the client you picked. Change the client and it swaps places with the rows that then belong to somebody else.
Excluded rows are always shown, greyed out with the reason spelled out, never dropped quietly. They cannot be restored, because no amount of clicking puts them on this invoice. That is different from a row you take off yourself, which stays restorable.
What happens when you click
The selection resolves one of three ways.
One client, nothing left off. The dialog is skipped and the prefilled form opens straight away. Acting on a single row usually ends up here, since one task normally reaches one client.
More than one client, or something left off. A dialog opens first. It has a Bill to picker (a plain label when only one client is in play), a table of every row with its client, tracked hours and reason, and a Remove / Restore action per row. Under the table are the line count, the tracked total, the count of rows you removed and the count that can never go on this invoice — kept as separate numbers on purpose. An estimated total appears only while every line has a price; one unpriced line and the estimate is hidden rather than stated wrongly. Create invoice confirms.
Nothing billable. The action is greyed out with the reason on hover, rather than hidden.
What the form arrives with
- Description — the task name.
- Quantity — the tracked hours, rounded to two decimal places. A task with no tracked time still gets a line, at a quantity of 1 for you to price.
- Unit price — the resolved hourly rate. When nothing in the chain sets a rate, the price and the line amount are left blank for you to fill in, rather than written as zero — zero is a real rate meaning "not billed". See Hourly rates for how the rate is resolved.
- Tax rate — your default tax rate from Brand invoicing, when you have one.
- Currency — resolved once for the whole invoice, not per line, since an invoice is issued in a single currency.
- Client — its name, email and address are copied across.
- Project — filled in only when every billed line shares the same one.
- Invoice number — never generated. The form opens with that field empty.
Nothing is saved until you save
This is a prefill flow and nothing else. Confirming the dialog navigates to the new-invoice form with the fields filled in — it creates no invoice, changes no task, and touches no time entry. Leaving the form without saving leaves your workspace exactly as it was, and the tasks or entries stay selected on the page you came from.
Plan limits
Creating an invoice this way counts against your plan's invoice limit like every other route to one. At the limit the action shows a padlock and the click opens the plan page instead of the form. See Plans and billing.
Tips and edge cases
- Changing the client on the form clears the task links. Those lines were priced against tasks belonging to the previous client's projects, so the links go rather than point somewhere wrong; the project is cleared with them. Changing the project alone drops the task links too — re-picking the project already selected does not.
- A rate override keeps applying after a downgrade. Resolution reads whatever is saved at each level, on any plan; only setting a client or project override is a paid action.
- If tracked time cannot be loaded, the flow continues. A message says so and the lines arrive with the hours for you to type in, rather than the action failing.
- Removals reset when you switch client. A row that was another client's work under your first pick becomes billable under the second, so the dialog starts the removal list fresh rather than hiding a row you never took off.