Project Management

Organize your work in projects with stories, time tracking, material costs, and expenses.

Overview

A project in Slonge Billing includes:

• Stories: Tasks or work packages
• Time Entries: Recorded work hours
• Material Costs: Materials purchased for the project
• Expenses: Costs incurred for the project, optionally rebilled to the client
• Invoices: Generated invoices

Permissions

Employees and accountants can record time but cannot create or modify projects.

Creating a Project

There are two ways to create a project:

Manually

1. Navigate to Projects
2. Click on New Project
3. Fill in the form:

4. Click Save

Import from Document (AI)

Create a project automatically from a project proposal, quote, or project plan:

1. Navigate to Projects
2. Click on Import from Document
3. Upload a PDF or DOCX file
4. The AI analyzes the document and extracts:
   • Project name and description
   • Client data (with automatic matching to existing clients)
   • Hourly rate and budget
   • Start and end dates
   • Tasks/work packages as stories
5. Review and edit the extracted data
6. Select the desired tasks
7. Click Create Project

Automatic Client Matching: The system compares the extracted client name with your client database and suggests matching clients. With high similarity (>70%), the client is automatically assigned.

Supported Formats: PDF, DOCX, TXT

Privacy: Sensitive data (emails, phone numbers, IBANs) are automatically anonymized before AI analysis.

Note: This feature requires the Standard or AI Pro plan.

Project Status

Changing Status

1. Open the project
2. Select the new status
3. Save the change

Note: If "Approval for project completion" is enabled in settings, an approval request will be created.

Changing the Hourly Rate

When the contract rate changes mid-project (e.g. from 125.– to 145.– per hour), adjust it directly on the project page.

1. Open the project
2. On the Hourly rate tile, click Change rate
3. Enter the new hourly rate
4. Decide what happens to hours already logged:
   • Re-price existing open time entries on: every unbilled entry moves to the new rate
   • Set Effective from: only entries on or after that date are re-priced — ideal when the new contract starts mid-project
   • Toggle off: the new rate applies to newly tracked hours only
5. The preview shows how many entries are affected and how the project value changes before you save
6. Confirm with Change rate

Hours that are already invoiced never change. Entries with status Billed or Paid, and any entry already attached to an invoice, are never re-priced — otherwise issued invoice totals would silently drift.

Adjusting a Single Time Entry

For exceptions (e.g. a discounted consulting call) you can set the rate per entry: Edit the time entry → Rate field. If an entry's rate differs from the project rate, the list shows it as @ 145 CHF/h.

Once a time entry is invoiced it can no longer be changed — the note included. An invoice renders its lines from the time entries: hours and rate make the amount, the task becomes the line description, and the note becomes the line note printed on the document. A later change would rewrite an already-issued invoice. Edit is therefore no longer offered on invoiced entries; correct the invoice with a credit note instead.

Stories (Tasks)

Stories divide a project into work packages.

Creating a Story

1. Open the project
2. Click on New Story
3. Enter:
   • Story name
   • Description (optional)
   • Estimated hours (optional)
4. Save the story

Story Status

Time Tracking

See Time Tracking for details.

Quick Recording

1. Open a story
2. Click on Record Time
3. Enter date, hours, and note
4. The hourly rate is automatically taken from the project

Time Entries by Month

Within a story, time entries are grouped by month. Each month group can be expanded and collapsed; the header shows the month's total hours and total amount. When you open a story, the current month is expanded and older months are collapsed.

Material Costs

Record materials purchased for the project.

Adding Material Costs

1. Open the project
2. Go to the Material Costs tab
3. Click on Add
4. Fill in:
   • Description
   • Quantity
   • Unit (pcs, kg, m, etc.)
   • Unit price
   • VAT rate (optional)
   • Supplier (optional)
   • Date (defaults to today) – set it to the date you want for recurring costs such as monthly web hosting fees

Editing or deleting material costs

Every row in the material table has Edit and Delete actions – just like time entries.

• Edit opens the form pre-filled with the current values; save your changes.
• Delete removes the row after a confirmation. Material costs that are already billed or paid can't be deleted, because they belong to an issued invoice.

Billing

Material costs can be billed together with time entries when creating an invoice.

Expenses

Expenses are costs incurred for this project – a train ticket, a hotel, a courier. The Expenses section on the project detail page mirrors the material section: a table on desktop, card rows on a phone, and an inline form to record new ones.

Recording an expense

1. Open the project
2. In the Expenses section, click Add expense
3. Photograph the receipt (Take photo) or upload it – amount, vendor and date are recognized automatically (AI features from the Standard plan)
4. Check description, amount, currency and date
5. Optionally turn on Rebill to client and set a different billable amount
6. Save

Every expense shows its receipt as a thumbnail; click it to open. A billable expense without a receipt is flagged explicitly.

Editing or deleting

Edit and Delete are only available while the expense is still Open. Once it sits on an invoice it is locked – exactly like time entries and material costs.

Everything about rebilling, the billable amount, the currency rule and the accounting treatment: Rebilling expenses to the client.

Billing overview

The Billing overview on the project detail page collects every billable item of the project – time entries, material costs and billable expenses – and splits them across four states:

The progress bar below shows the same four states as segments. The four tiles together add up to the total project value – Scheduled included.

A fifth tile, This month, sits alongside them. It counts the current calendar month and is not part of the four-way split.

Under each tile you see what the figure is made of, for example 12.5 h · material CHF 340 · expenses CHF 180.

Explaining "Open"

Show breakdown expands the Open tile into a table of open items by month (newest month first): per month the hours and their amount, the material costs and the expenses. The footer sums the months and states that this total matches the Open tile. If it does not, the breakdown says so explicitly – so you see the discrepancy immediately instead of on the invoice.

Creating an Invoice from a Project

In the Billing overview on the project detail page, Create invoice starts an invoice from the open items. The button appears as soon as anything is open – even if that is only expenses.

Next to the button you choose which period to bill:

• All open items (default): every unbilled time entry, material cost and billable expense.
• A single month: only the open items of that month – ideal for billing an ongoing retainer month by month.

The dropdown lists every month that still has open items (newest first) – expenses count with their expense date. After you continue, the invoice wizard opens its position picker already filtered to that month. You can still switch months there or deselect individual items before the invoice is created.

A month runs from its first to its last day – what counts is the date of the time entry, material cost or expense, not the invoice date.

Project Overview

On the project detail page you see:

• Summary: Total hours, total amount, unbilled
• Stories: All tasks with progress
• Time Entries: List of all recorded times
• Material Costs: All material items
• Expenses: All project expenses with receipt and billing status
• Billing overview: Open / Scheduled / Billed / Paid
• Invoices: Generated invoices

Related Features

• Time Tracking
• Invoicing
• Expenses – Project-related expenses and rebilling

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I copy projects?

Currently not. You need to create a new project.

How do I transfer a project to another client?

That's not possible. Projects are permanently linked to clients.

What happens to time entries when a project is deleted?

All time entries are also deleted. Create an invoice or export first.

Can I have multiple hourly rates per project?

Yes. Every time entry stores its own rate. Change the project rate via Change rate (optionally with an effective-from date), or set the rate directly while editing a single time entry. See Changing the Hourly Rate.