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AI Blocks

AI Blocks › Plan projects and team capacity

Project time and expense planner

Tell it how your team records project hours and expenses today, what tools you use and where it goes wrong. It writes entry rules, approval roles and a billing handoff. You also get fixes for late entries, lost receipts and projects that run over budget.

Set up how your team logs project hours and expenses. You get entry rules, an approval matrix and a checklist for handing time to billing.

Free · No account · MIT licence · Made by erphq · Tested · Updated 28 Oct 2026

What you get

What goes in

  • The tools you use now for time and expenses
  • Your project codes and what counts as billable
  • Who approves time and expenses, and how billing works
  • What goes wrong today (optional)

What comes out

  • Entry rules: What to record, how soon, the smallest time block and what receipts are needed.
  • Approval matrix: Who approves time and expenses, how often, with a backup for each.
  • Billing handoff checklist: Steps from approved time and costs to a draft invoice, each with an owner.
  • Exception list: A fix and an owner for late entries, lost receipts, disputes and budget overruns.
  • Report checks: A few numbers to review each week or month, such as late entries and budget used.
See the full layout

Every run hands it back in this order. Your details fill each gap.

ENTRY RULES
<what to record> | <how soon> | <receipt rule>

APPROVAL MATRIX
<time or expense> | <approver> | <how often> | <backup>

BILLING HANDOFF CHECKLIST
1. <step> - <owner>

EXCEPTIONS
<problem> | <fix> | <owner>

REPORT CHECKS
<number to watch> | <how often>

OPEN QUESTIONS
<items marked MISSING>

Is it for you?

Use it when

  • Hours get logged on Friday for the whole week and nobody trusts them.
  • Approvals pile up and invoices go out late.
  • Client costs such as travel or software are paid by you and never billed.

Skip it when

  • You do not bill clients by the hour, or the team has only a few people: use a simple shared timesheet.
  • You want to check hours before pay day: use the Payroll timesheet checker.
  • You want to sort card transactions by category: use the Expense sorter.
  • You want to chase a client invoice that is already late: use the Unpaid invoice chaser.

Fill it in

Add what this task works from, then copy the request.

  • The tools you use now for time and expenses, or none
  • Your project and client codes, and which work is billable
  • Who approves time and expenses today
  • How billing works, for example hourly or retainer
  • What goes wrong now, such as late entries or lost receipts (optional)
  • Source text (optional)

Run it

Download the complete instructions and supporting files. Add them to Claude, ChatGPT or Gemini once, then ask for it by name in any chat. Pasting the instructions into a chat works too.

Download all files

Before and after this skill

Choose the steps you need. Bring your own material when you have it.

Before

Bring the material listed under Fill it in.

This skill

Project time and expense planner

Open builder

After

Specialists who do this

Each one uses this as one of its methods for a bigger job. Hire one for free and give it the job in your own AI.

Details

From erphq. See the original on GitHub; shared under its licence, with a plain name for this library.

What it does

If you bill clients for time and costs, the money depends on a plain chain. People log hours. Someone approves them. The hours reach the invoice. When one link is weak, hours go unlogged, receipts go missing and invoices go out late. This skill builds a project time tracking and expense process for a team under 100 people. It starts from what you do now, then sets what to record, how soon, who approves and how approved time reaches billing. It also lists what to do for each common failure. It plans the process. It does not log time, scan receipts or send invoices. Tools it names, such as Harvest, Toggl or Expensify, are examples, and most have paid plans.

What goes in and out

You give it

  • The tools you use now for time and expenses, or none
  • Your project and client codes, and which work is billable
  • Who approves time and expenses today
  • How billing works, for example hourly or retainer
  • What goes wrong now, such as late entries or lost receipts (optional)
  • Source text (optional)

You get

  • Entry rules for time and expenses, with receipt rules
  • An approval matrix with a backup approver
  • A checklist for handing approved time to billing
  • A list of exceptions with the fix and owner for each
  • A short list of report checks for each week or month

Use it when

  • Hours get logged on Friday for the whole week and nobody trusts them.
  • Approvals pile up and invoices go out late.
  • Client costs such as travel or software are paid by you and never billed.
  • A project goes over budget before anyone notices.

More for Plan projects and team capacity

Every plan projects and team capacity skill

How the task works

  • Map today's process. Lists how hours and costs are recorded now and where entries go missing.
  • Set entry rules. Defines project codes, billable flags, entry timing and receipt rules.
  • Assign approvals. Sets who reviews time and expenses, how often, and the backup if they are away.
  • Plan the billing handoff. Maps the steps from approved time to a draft invoice, including costs passed on to clients.
  • List the exceptions. Sets the fix and owner for late entries, lost receipts, disputes and budget overruns.

Full instructions

  • Open Claude, ChatGPT or Gemini. No code or paid tool is needed.
  • Paste the skill text. Then paste your answers to the items above. Short notes are fine.
  • Read the approval matrix first. Make sure each approver is a real person who can do it on time.
  • Mark any rule that does not fit your business. Ask for a fix. Targets it suggests are rules of thumb, not facts about your firm.
  • Share the entry rules with the team. Put the billing checklist where whoever bills can find it.
  • Run one billing cycle. Note which exceptions came up, then ask the AI to tighten those rules.

Words used in this task

  • Billable: Work you can charge to a client.
  • Billing handoff: The step where approved hours and costs move into an invoice.
  • Pass-through cost: A cost you pay first and then bill to the client.

Full instruction file

Time & Expense — Under 100 People

Before you start

Use the material below to do this job. If facts or tool access are missing, explain what you can finish and what must wait.

What you need (use your own material or the linked skill):

  • Your question (yours): the decision or problem, and what a good outcome looks like.

Makes it better (optional):

  • Source text (yours): a long source in full: an article, a video or talk transcript, or notes from a book, with its title, author and link.

How to start:

  1. Look first. Use what they've already attached, pasted or put in their about-me note. In a coding assistant with file access, look in the project too for these by name.
  2. Check what's missing. Look for your question, source text. They can attach files, paste the details, or share a file path your assistant can read. Ask only for missing facts that change the result. If they ask you to start with what they have, complete the parts you can and mark the gaps.
  3. Do the job. Follow the skill below with the facts and tools you have. Mark each gap with MISSING: where it belongs and never invent a fact to fill it.

Tools that do this best:

  • Any good chat AI: It plans from your text. It does not need to read your time tool.
  • Your time and expense tool, such as Harvest, Toggl or Expensify: Export a sample of entries to show what really happens. Most have paid plans.
How to run this skill in a chat

Added by AI Blocks. The method below is the original. This part sets the answer shape and what to do when facts are missing.

Use it when: a team under 100 people records project hours and expenses and bills clients for them (time and materials or retainers) and wants one clear process from entry to invoice. Skip it when: you do not bill by time, or the team is under about five people (a shared timesheet is enough). Also skip it to check a pay run (use the Payroll timesheet checker) or to sort card transactions (use the Expense sorter).

Ask once for: the tools you use now for time and expenses (or "none"), your project and client codes, who approves what, how billing works, and what goes wrong today (late entries, lost receipts, slow approvals). Mark gaps as MISSING. Never invent a rate, threshold or policy. Targets named below (such as 90% on time) are rules of thumb from the original, not facts about your business. Label them "suggested".

Produce this plan:

  1. Entry rules. Table: what to record (client, project, billable or not, notes), how soon (suggest daily), minimum block, and receipt rules.
  2. Approval matrix. Who approves time, who approves expenses, how often, the backup approver, and any auto-approve limit you suggest.
  3. Billing handoff checklist. The steps from approved time to a draft invoice, and who does each.
  4. Exception list. Late entry, lost receipt, over-budget project, disputed entry, out-of-policy expense, each with the fix and the owner.
  5. Report checks. The few numbers to look at each week or month.
  6. Open questions. The MISSING items.

Paid tools: Harvest, Toggl, Hubstaff, Clockify, Expensify, Ramp, Brex, Pleo and Concur are named below as examples. Most have paid plans. Suggest only the tools the team already has, unless asked, and say to check the price. Hubstaff can record screenshots and activity, so mention that staff should be told. Draft only. Never change a live system.

Skip these parts: the "ERP•AI Templates" and "ERP•AI & Proto" sections are the original author's notes about their own products, and the Scale and By Industry sections are background. Do not put them in the plan unless asked. The Related links point to files that are not included here.

What This Process Does

Time + expense at this size is the foundation of services-business unit economics — capturing who worked on what, what they spent, and turning it into invoices + payroll + analytics. Time tracking via Harvest, Toggl, Hubstaff, Clockify (or PM-tool-native — Asana Time, Monday Time); expense tracking via Expensify, Ramp, Brex; PM-led approval workflows; sync to billing + payroll + accounting.

The work: make tracking easy enough to actually happen, validate quickly, get to billing fast, and use the data to improve project + business decisions. Mistakes: tracking-fatigue (people don't enter hours); approval-bottleneck (PM doesn't review); manual reconciliation (data scattered); no analytics (data captured but not used).

Start Here: ERP•AI Templates

ERP•AI's Small Business Time & Expense template provides time entry (mobile + desktop + integration), expense capture with receipt scanning, approval workflows, project + client + activity coding, weekly/monthly reporting, and integration to billing + payroll. Pair with Project Budget Tracking for budget-vs-actual visibility.

Build — Setting It Up
With Agents
  • Friction-light time entry: Mobile + browser + desktop + Slack/integrations. Daily prompts. Auto-suggest from calendar + recent entries.
  • Smart project + client coding: Auto-detect from calendar event title, recent project assignment.
  • Receipt scanning + categorization: Photo of receipt → expense entry; AI categorization.
  • Approval workflows: Time to PM (weekly batch) or auto-approve below threshold; expenses to PM/manager.
  • Budget tracking: Hours vs. budget per project; alert when 75%, 90%, 100%.
  • Utilization reporting: Per person, per team, per period; billable vs. non-billable.
  • Realization tracking: Billable hours actually billed; write-offs identified.
  • Sync to billing: Approved time → invoice draft for time-and-materials clients.
  • Sync to payroll: Approved time + expenses → payroll for hourly/contractor pay.
  • Sync to accounting: Expenses → AP; client-billable expenses → AR pass-through.
Key Decisions

  1. Time-tracking tool:

    • Harvest: Popular for agencies + consultancies; strong project + client structure
    • Toggl Track: Modern UX; great mobile; team or individual
    • Hubstaff: Includes screenshots + activity tracking (controversial)
    • Clockify: Free tier substantial; team-friendly
    • Everhour: Integrates with Asana / Trello / ClickUp
    • PM-tool-native: Asana Time, Monday Time, ClickUp Time

  2. Expense-tracking tool:

    • Expensify: Mature; receipt-scanning; QuickBooks integration
    • Ramp: Spend-management + virtual cards + receipts; modern + free
    • Brex: Similar to Ramp; corporate cards + spend mgmt
    • Pleo: European alternative
    • Concur: Enterprise-grade; usually overkill at this scale

  3. Time-entry granularity:

    • Daily entry: Best practice; people remember accurately
    • Weekly entry: Common but less accurate
    • Real-time entry: Ideal but requires discipline (start/stop timers)
    • Minimum block: 15-minute or 30-minute blocks; sub-block tracking impractical

  4. Approval cadence: Weekly batch most common; daily for tight-budget projects; auto-approve for trusted senior staff.

  5. Coding structure:

    • Client + Project: Required
    • Activity / Phase: Optional but useful for analytics
    • Billable / non-billable flag: Essential
    • Notes: Required for billable; optional otherwise

  6. Expense categories: GL-aligned chart; common categories (travel, meals, software, supplies, contractor-services).

  7. Client-billable expense pass-through: Markup policy (typical 0–10% markup); receipts shared with client.

  8. Mileage + per-diem policies: IRS standard mileage rate; per-diem caps.

Common Mistakes
  • Time-tracking-as-afterthought: Hours captured Friday for entire week; inaccurate; resentment.
  • PM-approval-bottleneck: PM busy with delivery; approvals 2-week-late; billing delayed.
  • No budget alerting: Project goes 50% over budget before noticed.
  • Expense-receipt loss: Manual receipt-keeping; receipts lost; expenses not reimbursed.
  • Misclassified billable vs non-billable: Realization rate hidden; project margins misread.
  • No utilization measurement: Can't tell who's over/under-utilized.
  • Tool-mismatch with project tool: Time tracked in Harvest, projects in Asana; data fragmented.
  • No client-billable-expense process: Expenses paid by company, never billed to client.
  • Pass-through markup ignored: Hours billed at rate; expenses passed through at cost; revenue + margin loss.
Maintain — Keeping It Healthy
The Daily / Weekly Rhythm
  • Daily: Team members enter time + expenses; ideally end-of-day prompt.
  • Weekly (Monday): PM reviews + approves prior-week time per project.
  • Weekly (Tuesday): Approved time → billing draft for T&M clients.
  • Monthly: Utilization + realization reports; budget-vs-actual per project.
  • Quarterly: Tooling + process review; rate-card calibration.
What to Watch
  • Time-entry timeliness: % of time entered within 2 days of work. Target 90%+.
  • Approval timeliness: PM-approval within 3 business days of submission.
  • Utilization rate: Billable / available hours per person. Target 70–85% billable.
  • Realization rate: Billed / billable hours. Target 90%+.
  • Budget-vs-actual per project: Track + investigate variances.
  • Write-off volume: Hours billed but not collected (services discount); track.
  • Expense-reimbursement aging: Expense submitted → reimbursed. Target <30 days.
  • Receipt-compliance rate: % of expenses with required receipts.
Exception Handling
  • Person consistently late time-entry: Manager conversation; coaching.
  • PM not approving on time: Backup approver; escalation.
  • Project significantly over-budget on hours: Client conversation; descope, add budget, or extend.
  • Disputed time entry: PM + worker resolve; document.
  • Expense outside policy: Reimburse if approved exception; deny if non-approved; document.
  • Lost receipt: Affidavit per company policy; threshold for non-receipt reimbursement.
  • Personal expense charged to company card: Reimbursement to company; possibly disciplinary.
  • Client-billable expense missed: Identify; bill retroactively if within client billing window.
Scale — Growing It
Automation Opportunities
  • AI-suggested time entries: From calendar + recent activity + project assignments.
  • Receipt OCR + auto-categorization: Photo → fully-coded expense entry.
  • Predictive budget alerts: Project approaching budget based on velocity not just hours.
  • Smart approval workflows: Auto-approve trusted patterns; escalate anomalies.
  • Pass-through expense automation: Client-billable expenses auto-flow to invoicing.
When You Outgrow This Tier

Move to the 100–1k org playbook when:

  • Headcount > 50; tooling complexity grows.
  • Multi-currency / multi-region / multi-entity.
  • Compliance + audit requirements (SOX, regulated).
  • Dedicated PSA platform (Kantata, Certinia) replaces Harvest/Toggl.
  • Spend-management at scale (Coupa, SAP Concur).
By Industry (at this scale)
  1. Marketing / Creative Agencies: T&M + retainer mix. Harvest popular; pass-through expenses common.
  2. Software / IT Services: Sprint-based time tracking. Linear/Jira + Toggl integration.
  3. Consulting: Engagement-based; retainer + project. Tied to billing tightly.
  4. Architecture / Engineering: Long projects; multi-month time tracking. Industry-specific tools.
  5. Construction (small): Crew time + materials. Construction-specific tools (CoConstruct, Buildertrend).
  6. Healthcare (small practice): Provider time + procedure coding (specialized).
  7. Legal: Billable-hour discipline tight; specialized legal-billing tools.
  8. Nonprofit Programs: Grant-funded time allocation; time-by-funding-source.
ERP•AI & Proto

ERP•AI: Use Small Business Time & Expense + Project Budget Tracking. Integrate Harvest / Toggl / Hubstaff / Clockify + Expensify / Ramp / Brex + accounting (QuickBooks / Xero) + payroll (Gusto / Rippling).

Proto: Single Proto agent handles entry-prompts, approval-orchestration, budget-tracking, billing-handoff, payroll-handoff.

Related
  • Project Planning (source reference: ../project-planning/SKILL.md) — projects + budgets that time tracks against
  • Resource Management (source reference: ../resource-management/SKILL.md) — utilization from time data
  • Billing (source reference: ../billing/SKILL.md) — approved time → invoices
  • Payroll (source reference: ../../../human-resources/01-org-under-100/payroll/SKILL.md) — hourly + contractor pay from time
  • Accounts Payable (source reference: ../../../finance-accounting/01-org-under-100/accounts-payable/SKILL.md) — expense reimbursements
  • Accounts Receivable (source reference: ../../../finance-accounting/01-org-under-100/accounts-receivable/SKILL.md) — client invoices from billable time + expenses
  • Enterprise Time & Expense (1k+) (source reference: ../../03-org-1k-plus/time-expense/SKILL.md)
After this

When you've handed it back, suggest what they could do next in one short question. It's a suggestion: if they're done, that's fine. Offer these, and say they can type their own:

  • The Studio producer agent. If they pick one and that skill is added here, carry straight on with what you just made. If not, give the link and say what to bring.