Items, Hourly Work and Totals

Add what you are charging for, by the piece or by the hour. Then choose a discount and whether tax is added, included or not charged.

5 min read Updated November 2026 Invoicing

The short version

In the editor, open Items and select Add item or Add hourly work. Open Totals to set a discount and the tax mode. The amounts update as you type.

Overview

Adding lines

The Items section has four buttons:

ButtonWhat it adds
Add itemA quantity at a price, such as 3 posters at 40.
Add hourly workHours at a rate per hour.
From your catalogA product or service you saved. Search by name. Only items in the invoice currency are shown.
Add shipping or a feeAn ordinary line named Shipping, Handling fee or Other fee. Set the price yourself.

Press Ctrl+Enter (Cmd+Enter on a Mac) to add a line quickly. An invoice can have up to 100 lines. To save a line for next time, use Save to your catalog. See Products and services.

Hourly work

On an hourly line you type the time the way you think of it. All of these work:

1.51,51:301h301h 30m90m2h

TimelyDo turns them into decimal hours. 1:30, 1h30 and 90m all become 1.5 hours. Minutes that do not divide evenly are rounded to four decimals, so 20m becomes 0.3333. If the text is not a time, the field shows an error.

The invoice prints the hours as 1h 30m under the line. You can switch any line between Quantity and Hours with the toggle on the line.

Setting it up

Options on each line

  • Item name (up to 160 characters). Every line needs one.
  • Add details: text shown under the name, up to 1000 characters, with bold, italic and list.
  • Quantity or Hours, Unit, and Unit price or Rate per hour.
  • Tax rate for the line, or no tax. You choose the rate on each line. TimelyDo does not work out which tax applies. See Tax rates.
  • Receipt: when you have attached files, you can link one to the line.
  • The amount of the line, worked out for you.

Drag the handle at the left of a line to reorder, or use Move up and Move down. Duplicate item copies a line. Remove item deletes it. With more than one line, Compact view shows one line per row. The browser remembers your choice.

The Totals section

Discount. Choose None, Percent or Fixed amount. It is taken off the subtotal before tax is worked out. Switching the kind empties the box, because 10 percent and 10 dollars are not the same thing.

Tax. Three choices:

ChoiceWhat it means
Tax addedYour prices are before tax. Tax comes on top.
Tax includedYour prices already contain the tax.
No taxNothing is charged. Add a Tax note that explains why, up to 300 characters. It prints on the invoice.

If you have no tax rates yet, the section says so and links to Add a tax rate. With No tax you can pick one of your saved notes in one click. Saved notes live in your invoice defaults.

Below that the totals show the Subtotal, the Discount, the tax for each rate, and the Total, exactly as they will print. Under Payment you can choose One payment or In parts. See Let customers pay in parts. For discounts in more detail and for other currencies, see Discounts and currencies.

An example

Design work, 3h 30m at 80 → 280.00
Printing, 2 at 25 → 50.00
Discount 10 percent of 330.00 → minus 33.00
Tax added at 19 percent of 297.00 → 56.43, total 353.43

The discount comes off first. Tax is worked out on what is left.

Help

FAQ

Q

How do I type hours?

Type them the way you think of them: 1.5, 1,5, 1:30, 1h30, 1h 30m, 90m or 2h. They become decimal hours.
Q

What is the difference between tax added and tax included?

With Tax added your prices are before tax and the tax is put on top. With Tax included your prices already contain the tax, and the invoice shows how much of it is tax.
Q

How do I invoice with no tax?

Open Totals, choose No tax, and write a Tax note, for example a small business exemption. The note prints on the invoice.
Q

If I change a catalog item, do old invoices change?

No. Adding an item from your catalog copies it to the invoice. Changing the catalog later never changes an invoice that used it.

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