How to Use Clockify for UK Client Billing

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The Plan You Need Is Standard, Not Pro

If you bill clients by the hour, Clockify handles the whole chain — clients, projects, rates, tracked time, a client-facing report, an invoice. The question everyone wants answered is which plan you have to buy, and the usual answer sends you a tier too high.

Invoicing is on the Standard plan. Clockify’s own documentation puts it there, “on Standard plan and above” — not Pro. And billable rates sit lower still, on Basic. What Pro adds is labour cost and profit analysis, which is a different thing from charging a client a rate.

So for a sole trader billing multiple clients at different rates, Standard at $5.49 per seat per month on annual billing is the practical minimum, not Pro at $7.99. That is about £4.13 before VAT, against £6.01 — roughly a 46% difference, or around £23 a year on a single seat, for a feature set you would not be using.

One more thing before the setup: Clockify’s free plan is capped at five users including you, from around April 2026, and billable rates are not in it. The free tier is a good place to build the habit. It is not a billing tool.

Setting Up for Client Billing

Get the structure right before logging a minute, because sloppy setup means reports you cannot use.

Workspace and Timezone

Signing up gives you a default workspace, and everything lives inside it — clients, projects and tasks are layers within one workspace. You do not need an account per client.

Go to Workspace Settings and set your timezone to UK time. Clockify’s defaults are global and a mismatched timezone puts entries on the wrong day, which matters when an entry straddles midnight or a billing period ends mid-week.

Add Your Clients

Clients in the left-hand menu. Add each by name — free and unlimited on every plan. This is what lets you filter a report by client in one click, which is the whole basis of invoicing from tracked time and checking a retainer.

Create Projects, Linked to Clients

Under Projects, one project per engagement, each linked to a client. Name them so they mean something in six months: “Website Redesign – Q3” beats “Web Project 1”.

At project level you can set a colour and mark the project billable by default, so time logged against it is flagged billable automatically. You can still override per entry.

Add Tasks Inside Projects

Tasks are your line items — “Discovery Call”, “Copywriting”, “SEO Audit”, “Revisions”. They are available on all plans, and they are what turns a client report from a number into something that justifies an invoice.

Billable Rates, and Which Plan Gates Them

The Rate Hierarchy

Clockify lets you set billable rates at several levels, with the more specific overriding the more general:

• Workspace or organisation default — applies unless overridden
• Client
• Project
• Task — the most granular
• Per member, where team members bill at different rates

A designer charging £60 an hour for standard work and £90 for rush jobs creates a “Rush” task at the higher rate, and the override does the rest.

Clockify’s own documentation lists these levels slightly inconsistently across pages, so check what your workspace actually exposes once you are in.

Which Plan

Here is the corrected position, from Clockify’s own feature documentation:

	Plan	Annual (USD)	~GBP	~GBP inc VAT
Billable rates	Basic	$3.99	£3.00	£3.60
Invoicing	Standard	$5.49	£4.13	£4.95
Labour cost and profit	Pro	$7.99	£6.01	£7.21

Note that these are US dollar prices. Clockify bills in USD, so quoting it as “£3.99 per seat” or “£7.99 per seat” treats a dollar figure as a sterling one and overstates the cost by about a third. A dollar price converts to a smaller pound number — then VAT at 20% is added after conversion. Sterling figures above use roughly £1 = $1.33, the rate in late October 2026; it moves, so check when you buy.

What each tier actually adds:

• Basic — billable rates, bulk edit, adding time for others, required fields, project templates, time estimates, time audit, customised report exports, kiosk PIN
• Standard — invoicing, time off, approvals, lock time, time rounding, manager roles, attendance and overtime reporting, the QuickBooks integration
• Pro — labour cost and profit, scheduling, forecasting, expenses, GPS tracking, custom fields, budget estimates and alerts, scheduled reports, and multiple currencies
• Enterprise — SSO, audit log, SCIM provisioning, custom subdomain

Two of those are worth flagging for a UK freelancer. The QuickBooks integration is a Standard feature, not available lower down. And multiple currencies is Pro — so if you invoice overseas clients in their own currency, Pro is the tier that supports it, which is the one genuine reason a solo freelancer might need to go above Standard.

Tracking Time

The Timer

In the time tracker view: pick your project, add a description, choose the task, hit start. Stop when done.

If you forget — and you will — add time manually with the + icon, entering start and end times against the right project and task. Manual entries are only worth anything if you log them the same day. Reconstructing a week on Friday afternoon produces numbers you would not want to defend to a client, let alone HMRC.

Mobile

The iOS and Android apps run the timer and sync across devices, so a timer started on your laptop appears on your phone. Useful for client calls and off-site work.

The Billable Toggle

Every entry has a billable toggle marked with a currency symbol. Entries on a billable-by-default project arrive pre-ticked. Check them — logging your own admin against a client project is the easiest way to overbill by accident.

Client-Facing Reports

Reporting is one of Clockify’s real strengths, and the basics work on the free plan.

Detailed report. Reports > Detailed. Filter by client, date range and billable status. You get every entry: date, description, task, project, duration and billable amount where rates are set. This is your audit trail.

Summary report. Groups by project, task or member. Usually the better thing to send a client — totals rather than every session.

Sharing. Generate a shareable link for a read-only web view, or export to PDF or CSV. PDF for clients, CSV for your accountant or for import. The CSV is what lets someone cross-reference your invoices against logged time, which is exactly what you want if a figure is ever questioned.

Turning Tracked Time Into an Invoice

On Standard and above. Go to Invoices, create one, select the client, and Clockify pulls in unbilled time entries for that client automatically. Review, adjust, then mark the entries invoiced so they do not reappear next time.

You can add your business name, address and logo. Output is a PDF — clean enough to send, not a sophisticated invoice builder.

UK Specifics

If you are VAT registered, add your VAT number in workspace settings and configure the tax rate. Be aware that a valid VAT invoice has required content — your VAT number, an invoice number, the tax point, a description of the supply, the net amount, the VAT rate and the VAT amount, and the customer’s name and address. A time-tracker’s basic invoice template will not necessarily produce all of it, so check the output against the requirements rather than assuming. If it does not, raise the invoice in your accounting software instead and keep Clockify as the time layer.

Payment terms. Set them on the invoice — 14 or 30 days are the common UK terms.

And know what late payment is worth. Under the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998, where no terms are agreed the default payment period is 30 days, and you can charge statutory interest at 8% above the Bank of England base rate plus a fixed sum of £40, £70 or £100 depending on the size of the debt. Check the current base rate for the actual interest figure. You do not have to invoke it, but knowing the entitlement exists changes how a chasing email reads.

Clockify does not connect to HMRC, so invoiced income still has to reach your accounting records.

Using Clockify With Accounting Software

For most UK freelancers the cleaner workflow is:

1. Track and report time in Clockify
2. Move the totals into your accounting software
3. Raise the client invoice from the accounting software, keeping bookkeeping in one place

That matters more than it used to, because quarterly filing means your accounts need to be current four times a year rather than once.

If you use FreeAgent — popular with UK sole traders, and free with NatWest, Royal Bank of Scotland and Mettle business accounts — you will be invoicing there and want Clockify purely as the tracking layer. Clockify lists Xero, QuickBooks and FreeAgent among its integrations, though note the QuickBooks integration is gated to Standard and above, so check your tier supports the one you need.

Our FreeAgent review covers that software, and Zoho Books against FreeAgent compares two options for sole traders.

Self-Assessment, Cash Basis and MTD

Cash Basis Is Now the Default

Worth stating precisely, because it is usually described as merely “common among sole traders”.

Since 6 April 2024, the cash basis is the default for sole traders and unincorporated partnerships. You have to actively opt out to use accruals, via box 8 on the SA103F, and that election is annual rather than carrying forward. The turnover limits were removed entirely — the old £150,000 entry and £300,000 exit thresholds are gone, so any turnover can use it.

On the cash basis your records show when income was received, not when the work was done. Clockify gives you the work-done layer; your accounting software matches it to payment dates. The two are deliberately different views and you need both.

Supporting Your Return

HMRC expects records showing how you arrived at your taxable income. Time logged per client, matched to invoices and payments, is solid evidence if anything is queried. Export detailed reports to PDF or CSV at the end of each tax year and archive them.

Retention: keep business records for at least five years after the 31 January submission deadline for that tax year. So 2024–25 records, filed by 31 January 2026, should be kept until at least January 2031.

MTD for Income Tax Is Already Live

Not rolling out — running.

MTD for Income Tax has applied since 6 April 2026 to sole traders and landlords with more than £50,000 of qualifying income, measured on gross income before expenses. Thresholds fall to £30,000 from April 2027 and £20,000 from April 2028.

And one correction that matters. Quarterly updates do not replace your annual return. In scope, you file quarterly updates by 7 August, 7 November, 7 February and 7 May, and then a Final Declaration by 31 January — the quarterly filings are in addition to a year-end submission, not instead of one. The End of Period Statement that appeared in earlier guidance has been removed, so the year end is the Final Declaration alone.

Clockify is not MTD software and does not file anything. What it does is make the quarterly cycle survivable: accurate time and billing records mean you are not reconstructing January in May. Our guide to MTD for VAT against MTD for Income Tax sets out which regime applies to you.

FAQ

Is Clockify free for UK freelancers?

The free plan handles basic tracking — unlimited time, unlimited projects and clients, exportable reports — within a five-user cap. But billable rates are not on the free plan and invoicing is not either, so it is a time log rather than a billing tool.

Which plan do I actually need to bill clients?

Standard, at $5.49 per seat per month on annual billing — about £4.95 including VAT. That covers invoicing, and billable rates come in a tier below on Basic. You do not need Pro unless you want labour cost and profit analysis, or multiple currencies for invoicing overseas clients in their own currency.

Are Clockify’s prices in pounds?

No. Clockify bills in US dollars, so the sterling cost is lower than the figure suggests, with VAT added after conversion. Standard is $5.49, roughly £4.13 before VAT.

Can I add VAT to Clockify invoices?

You can configure a tax rate and add your VAT number. Check the output contains everything a valid VAT invoice requires — VAT number, invoice number, tax point, description, net amount, VAT rate and VAT amount, customer details. If it falls short, raise invoices in your accounting software.

Does Clockify integrate with UK accounting software?

It lists Xero, QuickBooks and FreeAgent. The QuickBooks integration requires Standard or above, so confirm your tier covers the one you need.

How long should I keep time records?

At least five years after the 31 January deadline for the relevant tax year.

Does Clockify handle Making Tax Digital?

No, and it is not meant to. It feeds accounting software that files. MTD for Income Tax has applied since April 2026 above £50,000 of gross qualifying income.

Do quarterly MTD updates replace my self-assessment return?

No. You file four quarterly updates and a Final Declaration by 31 January.

The Bottom Line

Clockify is a capable UK client-billing tool once it is set up properly — clients, projects, tasks, rates, in that order.

The thing to get right is the plan, and the usual advice overshoots. Standard at $5.49 is what you need, because invoicing sits there and billable rates sit a tier lower on Basic. Pro is for labour cost analysis and multiple currencies, not for billing a UK client in sterling. On a single seat that is around £23 a year you need not spend.

The free plan is worth a month to build the habit, but it caps at five users and withholds billable rates, so it will not bill for you.

And the workflow most UK freelancers end up with is the right one: Clockify for tracking and reporting, a proper accounting package for invoicing and books. That keeps VAT invoices valid, your records HMRC-ready, and the quarterly MTD cycle manageable — and it is now a quarterly cycle, with a Final Declaration still due each January on top.

Our Clockify pricing guide breaks down every tier, Clockify against TimeCamp covers the main alternative, and tracking billable hours as a UK freelancer covers the habit itself.

Pricing and features correct at time of writing, in US dollars; sterling figures are illustrative conversions at $1.33 and exclude VAT unless stated. Clockify changed its free plan in April 2026 and plan features move — confirm current details before purchasing. This article is general information, not tax or legal advice; confirm your MTD position, VAT invoicing requirements and record-keeping obligations with HMRC or a qualified adviser.