Know which client projects actually make money
Manage client projects, track the hours behind every task, move approved work into billing and see which projects and client relationships are actually profitable.
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What agencies know, and what they have to guess
Most agencies know what they charged the client and roughly how many hours were planned. The harder questions come later:
- How many hours did the team actually spend?
- How much of that work is billable?
- Has the project gone past its hour budget?
- Which client projects are low-margin?
- Which hours have not been invoiced yet?
- Which clients are actually profitable?
- How much revenue depends on a few clients?
TimeMagick is time tracking software for agencies that ties those answers to the client projects the team is already working on. The same projects carry the tasks, the tracked hours, the client's view, the billing and the margin:
Client project created. With its client, budget and due date.
Tasks created. For example discovery, UX, design, development, review and revisions.
The team tracks time. Against the client project and the specific task.
Budget use is visible. On the project card, overview, Gantt and dashboard.
Delivery is planned. On the Projects board and the Gantt.
The client follows along. In the client workspace and the project channel.
Billable time is decided. The approver sets a billable percentage per entry.
Billing and invoice. Project Billing shows what is billed; the invoice is created.
Profitability. Shows the commercial result by project and client.
Task names are examples; you create your own tasks in each project.
Every client project has real hours behind it
In agencies, one person often moves between several client accounts in the same day. TimeMagick records each entry against a client, project, task and member, which is worth far more commercially than a day total:
A day total
Worked 8 h
No client, project or task behind it.
Client, project and task
- Client A → Website Redesign → UX Review → 2.5 h
- Client B → Campaign Launch → Creative Revision → 1.75 h
Illustrative entries; each also carries its member.
Those entries become the agency's timesheets, budget burn, billable hours and client margin without being re-keyed.
How time tracking worksSee budget burn while the project is active
A fixed-fee project should not first reveal its overrun after delivery.
Each project has a budget, and TimeMagick compares it with the time spent while the work is still going on: on the project card with completion % and allocated hours, in the project overview, on the Gantt, beside the billable total in tracked-time approval, and in the admin dashboard's Project Budgets table. Projects Over Budget is also one of the profitability KPIs.
Manage many client projects on one board
Website redesigns, product launches, brand refreshes and app updates for different clients run side by side. On the Projects board, your team drags cards between your own statuses, and two columns update automatically: a project moves into In Progress or Inactive based on whether time is being tracked.
- Active, Archived and Completed tabs, with search and filters
- Due date, tasks, budget and completion % on every card
- Client, assigned members, chat and attachment indicators
- Custom statuses alongside the automatic ones
Plan delivery with the Gantt
Lay out discovery, design, review, revision and delivery as tasks under the project, then drag a bar to reschedule or resize it to change the duration. The Gantt shows progress in each bar, with assignees, budget, spent and status beside it, in Day, Week or Month view. A portfolio Gantt shows every client's projects together.
Keep client and project conversations with the work
A client's revision question should stay attached to the project it affects, not sit in another system away from the tasks, hours and delivery dates. Every TimeMagick project has its own channel; your team also has direct messages and groups, and Client Members use Message Channels with project channels and groups.
Files shared in a channel are attachments to the conversation; TimeMagick is not a version-control or sign-off system.
How project communication worksGive clients their own workspace
Clients can follow their projects without joining your internal team's workspace. Client Members are external accounts linked to one or more of your clients, with access to a Dashboard, Timesheets, Projects, Report, Message Channels and Sensai.
Their Dashboard shows Total Projects, Total Tasks, Completed, Weekly Hours Logged and Overdue Tasks, plus Project Status, a Task Status Breakdown, a weekly hours chart, Team Members & Hours and Overall Due Tasks. It gives the client visibility; your team keeps control of the projects.
How the client portal worksDifferent people need different access
An agency team might need access like this:
- Owner
- Everything, including financial data.
- Account / project manager
- Client projects, approvals and reports.
- Employee
- Assigned projects, tasks and their own time.
- Contractor
- Only the projects they deliver.
- Finance / admin
- Billing, invoices and expenses.
- Client
- The client workspace, through the locked CLIENT role.
These are examples you would set up yourself, not presets. Custom roles are built from 40 permission modules with View, Create, Update and Delete where they apply; some modules only offer the actions that make sense for them. Report export is its own permission, and Projects and All Projects, like Project Channel and All Project Channels, are separate modules.
How roles and permissions workDecide what is actually billable
Worked time and billable time are not the same thing. In tracked-time approval, entries wait under Pending until someone approves them, and the approver sets a billable percentage that gives each entry its billable time, with the project budget shown alongside. Bulk actions handle many entries at once.
Example: a team member records 5 hours. The project manager approves it at 80%, so 4 hours are billable. TimeMagick stores that distinction before billing.
The percentage is always the approver's decision; TimeMagick does not decide what is billable.
Move approved hours into client billing
Project Billing shows billable hours against billed hours for each client and project, so you know what remains billable without reconstructing the hours from a spreadsheet.
Invoices carry the client, project, currency, issuing entity and billing account, with duration-based and quantity-based items, taxes and notes. Each invoice has a due date and a status, and downloads as PDF. TimeMagick takes the work as far as the invoice; it is not accounting software.
How billing and invoicing workTrack project costs beyond employee hours
Agency projects also cost money outside the team's time: subcontractors and freelancers, stock and media assets, travel, software and services, external production. Record them as expenses linked to the project, with your own categories and an approval step.
Costs that repeat, such as software subscriptions, go in Recurring Expenses, with their own approval queue and a payment history.
How expenses workSee which projects and clients actually make money
A large client is not necessarily a profitable client. A busy team is not necessarily a profitable team. A project delivered successfully may still have consumed too many hours.
TimeMagick's KPI module works from the tracked time, budgets, client rates, expenses and billing already in the system. It shows Revenue, Profit, Avg Client Profit, Avg Client Margin, Effective Rate, Utilisation, Projects Over Budget, Repeat Client %, Retention %, Avg Project Gap and Revenue Concentration %, along with Uninvoiced Hours, Low-Profit Projects, the Most and Least Profitable Clients and Client Health.
Illustration (demo data, fictional projects and clients).
Reports clients and internal teams can use
Reports explain the work. Profitability explains the commercial result. TimeMagick's client, project and member reports show who worked on which client, project and task, for how long and on which days, with worked or billable time depending on the report. Timesheets cover each member's hours, and reports export as formatted Excel files.
How reports workExample workflow · fictional
Example: a fixed-fee website redesign
A client signs a fixed-fee website redesign. In TimeMagick, the agency would:
- Create the project with its client, hour budget and due date, and add tasks such as Discovery, UX, Design, Development, Review and Revisions.
- Have the team track hours against those tasks.
- Let the project manager follow budget use and task progress on the board, the project overview and the Gantt.
- Keep the client's questions and revision requests in the project channel.
- Attach external production and subcontracting costs as project expenses.
- Review the tracked hours and set what is billable.
- Use Project Billing to see what has and hasn't been billed, and create the invoice.
- Check the project's commercial result in the Profitability module.
This is an illustrative example, not a customer case study.
Ongoing clients and retainers
Many agency relationships continue long after the first project. TimeMagick tracks ongoing client and project work the same way as a one-off job: hours keep flowing through approval and Project Billing, and KPIs such as Repeat Client %, Retention %, Avg Cooperation and Client Health show how each relationship develops. Recurring business costs belong in Recurring Expenses.
TimeMagick does not automate retainers or create recurring invoices. Each invoice is created from the approved work. For plans and per-user pricing, see Pricing; for project-based engineering and CAD teams, see TimeMagick for engineering studios.
TimeMagick for agencies: key facts
- TimeMagick records time against specific clients, projects and tasks.
- TimeMagick includes project budgets and budget-versus-spent visibility.
- TimeMagick includes a drag-and-drop Projects board with custom statuses.
- TimeMagick includes interactive Gantt planning per project and across the client portfolio.
- Every TimeMagick project has its own project channel.
- TimeMagick supports Client Member accounts with a client-facing workspace.
- TimeMagick includes tracked-time approval with a billable percentage set by the approver.
- Project Billing shows billable and billed hours per client and project.
- TimeMagick creates invoices with duration-based and quantity-based lines, downloadable as PDF.
- TimeMagick supports project-linked expenses and recurring expenses.
- TimeMagick includes project and client profitability analytics.
- TimeMagick exports reports as formatted Excel files.
- TimeMagick's project, time and billing workflow fits project-based agencies; it is not accounting software.
Frequently Asked Questions
Time tracking, budgets, client access, billable hours, invoicing and profitability for agencies.
Is TimeMagick suitable for agencies?
TimeMagick is not built only for agencies, but it fits project-based agencies and professional-service teams well: the team's work, tracked hours, client access, billing and profitability all come from the same client projects.
Can agencies track time by client, project and task?
Yes. Time is recorded against a specific project and task, and every entry carries its client, project, task and member, so a person moving between several client projects in a day leaves a record of each one.
Can TimeMagick track fixed-fee project budgets?
Yes. Each project has a budget, and budget against time spent appears on the project card, in the project overview, on the Gantt, in tracked-time approval and in the admin dashboard's Project Budgets table. Projects Over Budget is also a headline KPI.
Can clients access their projects?
Yes. Client Members are external accounts linked to one or more of your clients. They get their own workspace with a Dashboard, Timesheets, Projects, Report, Message Channels and Sensai, separate from your internal team's experience.
Can agencies distinguish worked time from billable time?
Yes. In tracked-time approval, the approver sets a billable percentage for each entry, which gives its billable time. For example, 5 tracked hours approved at 80% become 4 billable hours. TimeMagick stores the decision; it does not make it.
Can TimeMagick invoice tracked project work?
Yes. Project Billing shows billable hours against billed hours per client and project. Invoices have a client, currency, issuing entity, billing account, duration-based and quantity-based lines, taxes, notes, a due date and a status, and can be downloaded as PDF.
Can agencies track project expenses?
Yes. Company expenses can be linked to a project, given your own categories and sent through approval. Recurring expenses have their own schedule, approval queue and payment history.
Can TimeMagick show which clients are profitable?
Yes. The KPI module shows the most and least profitable clients by profit and margin, along with average client profit and margin, effective rate, low-profit projects, uninvoiced hours, revenue concentration and a Client Health ledger.
Does TimeMagick support contractors with restricted access?
Yes, through custom roles. You create a role and set View, Create, Update and Delete across 40 permission modules where they apply, so a contractor role can be limited to the projects and functions you choose.
Does TimeMagick replace accounting software?
No. TimeMagick handles project work, time, billing and profitability. It is not general accounting or bookkeeping software.
Find out which client work pays
Start a 1-month free trial and track your first client project against its tasks and budget.