Invoice tracked project time without billing it twice

In OrdoGrid, hours tracked on a project become invoice lines in one step: set the rates first, record the work with the timer or manual entries, then click Bill time. As soon as you save the resulting invoice, its time is marked Invoiced and can no longer be billed again or changed.

This guide is for freelancers and small agencies who bill by the hour; Projects are part of the Business plan (pricing page, October 2026). For a monthly invoice you type yourself, for days or a fixed fee, see Invoice your client for a month of freelance work. The Peppol send itself is covered in Send your first Peppol invoice in OrdoGrid.

What Belgian law requires for an invoice of hours

When the hours must be invoiced

The deadline depends on how the work is organised, not on when you click Bill time (Royal Decree no. 1, art. 4).

What the invoice must show

Since 1 January 2026, if you are established in Belgium and bill a client registered for VAT in Belgium, the invoice must be a structured e-invoice, normally sent over Peppol, unless your services are VAT-exempt under Article 44 of the VAT Code; a PDF is only an optional copy. If the client technically cannot receive invoices over Peppol, you must still issue the invoice by the deadline in another form, such as a PDF by email (art. 53 §2bis VAT Code, as amended by the Law of 10 February 2026); see Customer not on Peppol: how to send a valid invoice.

The law does not require client approval of your hours, a timesheet or a purchase-order number: those come from your contract or the client's procedures. We recommend getting the hours approved in writing before billing them; it turns most disputes into a simple check and avoids credit notes.

How the Bill time button turns sessions into invoice lines

Captured rate

The hourly rate OrdoGrid stores on a session when it is recorded (when a timer is stopped or a manual entry is saved): the task's own hourly rate if it has one, otherwise the project's hourly rate at that moment. Changing a rate later does not change sessions already recorded.

Bill time takes the completed sessions of every team member on the project that are not yet invoiced or reserved. A timer that is still running and time recorded outside the project are left out. The Billing mode (Fixed, T&M or Mixed) is only a label for your own follow-up: Bill time works the same in every mode.

Set up the project before you log time

1. Go to Projects → All projects and click Nouveau projet (new project; this button is in French in every language).
2. In Essentials, enter the Project name and select the client under Clients.
3. In Planning, choose the Currency, enter the Hourly rate excluding VAT and pick a Billing mode.
4. Click Create project and add your tasks. Give a task its own Hourly rate only when it differs from the project rate; an empty field shows Project default.

Track time so the hours are right

• Timer. Start it from the project header, from the project's Time tab (choose a task or Project (no task), then Start) or from Projects → Timer. Pause and Resume exclude the paused minutes; Stop completes the session. Each person runs one timer at a time: starting another stops the first ("Previous timer stopped automatically.").
• Timer without a project. Link it with Associate to a project while it is still running; OrdoGrid offers this only for the running timer, and time outside a project cannot be billed.
• Manual entry. In the Time tab, click Manual entry, fill in Hours, Minutes, Date, Task and an optional note, then Save. The entry is recorded as starting at 09:00 that day, at the rate valid when you save it.
• Corrections. The pencil changes a session's Start, End and note; the bin deletes it. Both appear only on your own completed sessions that are not on an invoice.
• Status. Sessions show Billable, Billing in progress (reserved by an invoice being saved) or Invoiced. Tick Unbilled only to see exactly what Bill time will take.
• Internal work. No switch excludes a single session from billing: log internal or non-chargeable work in a separate internal project.

Create the invoice from tracked time

1. Stop any running timer. In the Time tab, tick Unbilled only and compare the hours with what the client approved. Correct sessions now: they are locked after the first save.
2. Click Bill time in the project header or in the Time or Documents tab. To bill one task only, open the task, go to Linked documents, click Lier document (link a document), choose Factures (invoices), then Nouveau (new).
3. Check the client, the proposed N° (number), the Date (today) and the Échéance (due date, today plus 30 days). If the billed work or period ended before today, click Delivery / service date below Échéance in the Récapitulatif panel and enter its last day.
4. Review every line: rewrite descriptions the client would not recognise, especially "Temps projet", keep the dates, check quantities and unit prices. Add a fixed fee or expenses with Ajouter un article (add an item).
5. Keep 21% for a Belgian client under the normal VAT regime. For a client abroad or a special regime, choose the regime under Options de TVA (VAT options; see VAT regimes on Belgian invoices: which applies and what to write).
6. If the client works with purchase orders, tick Exiger un bon de commande pour les factures (require a purchase order) on the client record, then enter the number in N° bon de commande (PO number) under Documents et Références (documents and references). On Peppol, OrdoGrid sends it as the buyer reference; without one, it sends the payment communication or the invoice number, because Peppol requires a buyer or order reference (rule PEPPOL-EN16931-R003).
7. Replace the project name in Notes with your payment terms if you normally print them.
8. Attach the approved timesheet if the client wants it: PDF, CSV or XLSX, up to 2 MB in total. Attachments travel inside the Peppol invoice, as the FPS Finance expects; do not email them separately.
9. Click Save (Enregistrer in French). From now on the sessions show Invoiced, although the invoice is still a Brouillon (draft).
10. Click Envoyer (send), keep Envoi électronique via Peppol (electronic sending via Peppol) ticked and confirm with Sauvegarder & Envoyer (save & send). Check the result in Peppol → Outbox.

Worked example: September hours for a logistics client

Sofie Claes, a freelance UX designer in Ghent under the normal VAT regime, works for Verhaeghe Logistics NV in Kortrijk on the project "Webshop redesign" (EUR, project Hourly rate €85). The task "User research" has its own rate of €95. For the second phase, from 15 September, the parties agreed €90, so Sofie changed the project rate that day. The client approved the September timesheet on 1 October, with purchase order PO-2026-1187.

On 2 October she clicks Bill time. Invoice F-2026-0042 is dated 2 October 2026, due 1 November 2026:

Sofie adds PO-2026-1187, enters 30 September 2026, the end of the billed month, in Delivery / service date, attaches the approved timesheet as a PDF, saves and sends over Peppol, well before the 15 October deadline for monthly statements. In the project header, Unbilled drops to €0.00 (0h 00m) and Invoiced shows €2,808.71. Note that Invoiced includes VAT, while Unbilled value in the Time tab is hours times rate, excluding VAT.

What happens to billed time

Only owners and administrators can delete, and only a draft without payments, Peppol transmission, linked documents or payment link. If that draft held the last number of the series, OrdoGrid proposes the number again for the next invoice.

Correcting time after the invoice is issued

Do not rewrite an issued invoice. In Factures, select it and click Note de crédit to create a credit note that refers to it; when the invoice went over Peppol, the credit note must go the same way. The full procedure is in Correct, cancel or credit an issued invoice in Belgium.

A credit note created from the invoice is not linked to the project automatically. To keep the project's Invoiced figure right, link it: project Documents tab → Lier document → Notes de crédit → select it.

Example, continued: in October, Verhaeghe points out that coordination is included in the contract. Sofie issues credit note NC-2026-0007 for 1.5 hours: €135.00 plus €28.35 VAT, €163.35 in total, referring to F-2026-0042. Once linked, Invoiced shows €2,645.36 (€2,808.71 − €163.35). The session of 29 September stays Invoiced, which is right: it must not come back in October.

Edge cases and common mistakes

Evidence to keep

• The agreement: hourly rates, dated rate changes, the rounding rule, any purchase-order number.
• The client's approval of the hours, as an email or signed timesheet. OrdoGrid has no timesheet export, so keep the version you sent.
• The invoice as sent: the XML and PDF from Peppol → Outbox (one by one or as a ZIP), with its attachments.
• Each credit note, with the reason for it.

Belgian law requires invoices to be kept for seven years from 1 January of the year after issue (VAT Code art. 60, as amended by the Law of 18 December 2025). OrdoGrid does not provide a legal archiving service, so keep your own copies.

FAQ

Can I invoice only part of a project's hours?

Bill time always takes all completed, unbilled time of the project. To bill one task, start from that task under Linked documents. Deleting lines in the draft does not keep the time for later.

Why can I no longer edit a time entry?

The session is on an invoice (Invoiced or Billing in progress), or it belongs to a colleague. If the invoice is still an unissued draft, delete the draft first; otherwise correct the invoice with a credit note.

I deleted the draft invoice. Can I bill the time again?

Yes. Once the deletion succeeds, the sessions return to Billable. Check with Unbilled only, then click Bill time again.

Why does the same task appear on two lines?

The sessions captured different hourly rates, for example after a rate change during the month. Each rate keeps its own line, so the client sees which hours were billed at which price.

Do I have to attach a timesheet to the invoice?

Belgian law does not require one: the invoice must describe the services and show quantities, unit prices and VAT. If your contract or client asks for a timesheet, attach it to the invoice so it travels with the Peppol message.

Does a credit note make the time billable again?

No. Credited sessions stay Invoiced and never return in Bill time. To bill corrected hours, create the new invoice yourself with Nouvelle facture or Dupliquer.

Does OrdoGrid send the hours or reminders to my client automatically?

No. OrdoGrid sends nothing to your client until you send the invoice yourself, for example with Envoyer, and there are no automatic payment reminders.