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Zoho Books

Project Billing

Project billing in Zoho Books is the capability to track time, expenses, and milestones against a specific customer project and generate invoices…

Project billing in Zoho Books is the capability to track time, expenses, and milestones against a specific customer project and generate invoices from those records, ensuring all billable work is captured and invoiced accurately without manual compilation.

Setting Up Projects in Zoho Books

Create a project by going to Time Tracking, then Projects, and clicking New Project. Name the project, select the customer, and choose the billing method: Fixed Fee (a single agreed amount regardless of hours), Task Based (each task has its own rate), Project Hours (hourly rate for all time on the project), or Staff Hours (each team member has their own billable rate). Add tasks, assign team members, and set task-level budgets or time estimates. All subsequent time entries and expense claims are linked to this project.

Billing from a Project

When you are ready to bill the customer, open the project in Zoho Books and click Invoice. The system presents all unbilled hours and expenses logged against the project. Select the items to include in this invoice (you can bill partially if the project is ongoing) and Zoho Books generates the invoice with all the selected line items pre-populated, the correct customer details, and the applicable GST. Save and send the invoice directly to the client.

Project Profitability Reporting

The Project Profitability Report in Zoho Books compares the revenue billed (invoiced amounts) against the costs incurred (expenses and time logged at internal cost rates). This report helps project managers identify whether a project is profitable, whether it is over-running on hours, and whether all costs are being billed. For service businesses where profitability varies by project, this report is one of the most valuable in Zoho Books.

Industry: IT Consulting — A Pune software consultancy runs 12 active projects simultaneously in Zoho Books. Each project has tasks with individual billing rates. When a sprint ends every two weeks, the project manager reviews the unbilled items and triggers an invoice from Zoho Books. The client receives an invoice showing hours by task, expenses reimbursed, and the total amount due, with GST calculated automatically.
What is Project Billing in Zoho Books?

Project billing in Zoho Books links time entries, expenses, and milestones to a client project, letting you generate invoices with all billable items pre-populated for accurate and complete client billing.

How do I set up project billing in Zoho Books?

Go to Projects, create a new project, select the customer and billing method, assign tasks and team members. Log time and expenses against the project. When ready to invoice, click Bill on the project to generate the invoice automatically.

Need help implementing this in Zoho?

Aaxonix is a certified Zoho implementation partner based in Pune. Architecture-first, no surprises.