Projects and clients

Every hour in Sumhour is logged against a project, and every project belongs to a client. The client sets the currency. The project sets how its time turns into money. Owners and admins create and edit both.

Clients

Press “New client” on the Clients page. A client has:

Name, which must be unique in the workspace.
Currency, as a three-letter code like USD or EUR. Every invoice for the client uses it.
Billing email, optional.
Address, optional and shown on invoices.
Notes, for internal use only.
“Invoice defaults”, optional: “Payment terms” in days, a “Discount” in percent, “Different taxes for this client” with their own tax name and rate (leave the rates empty to bill the client with no tax), and “Invoice notes”. New invoices, retainer invoices and estimates for the client start with these instead of the workspace’s invoice settings. A project’s own payment terms and notes still win.

Press “Create client” to save. From the client list, open a client’s contacts to add people with a name, title, email and phone. Tick “Copy on invoice emails” on a contact and they are copied on every invoice email, next to the billing email.

Contractors do not see Clients.

Projects

Press “New project” on the Projects page. If there are no clients yet, Sumhour sends you to add one first. The form has four parts: Basics, Billing, Budget and rules, and Invoice defaults.

Before saving, new or edited, Sumhour looks for settings that save fine but cost money later, and shows them under “Heads up before you save”:

a rate under what an hour of your team costs (the average of everyone’s cost rate in that currency), including a retainer’s fee per included hour and a fixed fee per budgeted hour,
an hourly project whose new entries are not billable by default,
a retainer set to bill overage with no overage rate and no project rate,
a new project whose rates come from tasks or people, which you set on the project page after saving.

“Change it” takes you to the field; “Save anyway” saves as it is. Nothing here stops you saving.

Project types

Basics holds the client, the project name, an optional “Code” (up to 20 characters, shown on invoices) and the “Type”:

Type	How time turns into money
Hourly	Billable time is billed at a rate
Fixed fee	One price for the project; you track time to see the margin
Retainer	Included hours or a fee per period
Non-billable	Internal work. Nothing is billed and every entry is non-billable

A fixed fee project asks for the “Fixed fee” amount.

Some work on a fixed fee project is billed by the hour on top of the fee, like extra meetings or support. On the project page, in the Tasks section, tick “Hourly, on top of the fee” for that task, give it a rate per hour and press “Save”. Time logged to it from then on, and its time not yet invoiced, is billed at that rate on the next invoice; everything else stays covered by the fee. Untick it to bring the task back under the fee.

A retainer asks for “Included hours per period”, “Retainer fee” and a “Period” (month, quarter or year). “Unused hours” decides what happens at the end of a period: “Expire at period end”, “Carry over”, or “Carry over up to a cap” with a “Rollover cap (hours)”. “Hours over the retainer” can be “Bill at the overage rate” (with an “Overage rate” per hour), “Absorb (do not bill)” or “Alert me, decide later”. The project page lists each retainer period with its hours. See invoicing for billing retainers.

Where the rate comes from

Hourly and retainer projects have “Rate comes from”:

“One project rate”: one “Hourly rate” for all billable time.
“Task rates”: set a rate per task on the project page.
“Person rates”: set a rate per person on the project page, each with a start date.

Each time entry keeps a copy of the billable rate and the cost rate in force when it was logged. Changing a rate later does not rewrite old entries, and a person rate with a new start date leaves older entries at the old rate.

Budgets and rules

“Budget” can be “No budget”, “Total hours”, “Total amount”, “Hours per task” or “Hours per person”. Tick “Budget resets every month” for a monthly budget. The Projects list shows what is spent and what remains. An amount budget counts billable value; on a fixed-fee project, where hours are not billed, it counts the cost of the time instead (hourly extras are left out, since the client pays for them on top).

“Notes required on every entry” makes people write a note on each entry. “New entries are billable by default” sets the starting value of the Billable box. Start and end dates are optional.

Invoice defaults

“PO number”, “Payment terms” (in days) and “Invoice notes” are used when an invoice covers only this project. Leave them blank to use the client’s invoice defaults, or the workspace’s invoice settings when the client has none.

Budget alerts

When a project’s budget passes its warning share (“Warn at”, 80 percent unless you change it) and again when it is used up, owners, admins, accountants and the project’s managers get a notification, and an email unless they turned that off under Preferences. Each alert goes out once, and once a month for a budget that resets monthly.

Phases

Split a project into stages with their own budgets, like Discovery, Design and Build. Under “Phases” on the project page, press “Add a phase” and give it a name and an hours budget, an amount budget (time valued at billable rates, or at cost on a fixed-fee project) or both. Add the fee the phase was sold for to see its margin, and a “Warn at %” if it should differ from the project’s. Then, in the Tasks section, pick the phase for each task: a phase counts the time logged to its tasks, so nobody’s timer changes. Each phase shows its hours and amount against budget, turning amber at its warning share and red past 100 percent, and sends the same alerts as a project. Deleting a phase leaves its tasks and their time on the project.

Tasks

Tasks are the kinds of work people pick when they log time, like Design or Meetings. The task library lives in workspace settings under Tasks. Each task has a “Default rate”, “Billable by default” and “Add to every new project”.

On a project page, the Tasks section adds tasks from the library, or creates a new one with “New task…”, a “Rate / h” and a Billable box. You can change a task’s billable setting and rate for one project without touching the library. Archiving a task in the library hides it from pickers, but it stays on the projects and old entries that use it.

People on a project

The People section of a project page lists who can log time to it. Pick someone in “Add person”, tick “Project manager” if they run it, and press “Add”. Everyone below admin can only log time to projects they are on. Owners and admins can log to any active project.

On a project that bills by person, each row has a rate and a start date. Press “Set” to save a new rate from that date.

Cost rates

A cost rate is what a person costs the agency per hour, and it drives the margin figures in reports. Owners and admins set it on the People page: press “Edit” next to a person, enter a “New rate” and a “From” date under “Cost rate”, and press “Set rate”. Past rates stay listed with their dates. Profitability uses the rate in force on each entry’s date.

Duplicate a project

For the next phase of a retainer, a second site for the same client or a project you run often, open the project and press “Duplicate” (owners and admins). Give the copy a name and pick the client; only clients billed in the same currency are listed, so the rates and fees still mean the same thing.

The copy gets the project’s type, rates, budget and alerts, retainer terms, fixed fee, phases, tags and invoice settings. Tick what else comes along: “Tasks and their rates”, “People and their rates” and the “Payment schedule”. Payments come over not done and not billed, and a payment on a date waits for its new date.

Nothing that happened on the old project is copied: no time, invoices, change orders or % complete. The dates, project code and PO number start empty. The new project opens with a note reminding you to set the dates in Settings.

Archive a project or client

Press “Archive” in the Projects or Clients list. Archived projects drop out of the list and the project pickers, and nobody can log new time to them. “Show archived” brings archived items back into view, and “Restore” makes them active again. Archiving deletes nothing: existing time and invoices stay as they are.

Questions? Ask Pip