How BillyKnows Works and What It Offers Web Designers

What BillyKnows is and who it's for

BillyKnows is a web design platform built for freelancers and small agencies who want to manage client projects, track time, and handle invoicing without switching between multiple tools. It combines project management, time tracking, and billing in one interface, so you can move from planning a site to invoicing the client without leaving the platform.

The platform is designed for solo designers and teams up to about 10 people. If you're working with clients across different industries—e-commerce sites, service businesses, nonprofits—BillyKnows lets you organize each project separately while keeping your overall workflow consistent. You can invite team members to specific projects, set their permissions, and see who's working on what in real time.

Key Takeaways

• BillyKnows combines project management, time tracking, and invoicing so you don't need separate subscriptions for each function.
• You can create project templates to speed up setup for similar client work, and assign tasks to team members with clear deadlines.
• Time tracking is built in—you log hours directly against tasks, and those hours feed into invoices automatically.
• The platform generates invoices from tracked time and expenses, and you can customize them with your branding before sending to clients.
• BillyKnows integrates with Stripe and PayPal, so clients can pay invoices directly through the platform.

Setting up a project and organizing your workflow

When you start a new project in BillyKnows, you begin by naming it, setting a budget if you want one, and choosing a project template if you've created one before. Templates save time if you do similar work repeatedly—for instance, a standard website redesign template might include tasks like discovery call, wireframes, design mockups, development, testing, and launch.

Once the project exists, you break it into tasks and assign them to yourself or team members. Each task can have a due date, a description, and a priority level. You can also link related tasks together, so if one task depends on another being finished first, that dependency is visible to everyone working on the project. This prevents confusion about what's blocking progress.

Clients can be invited to view their project in a limited portal—they see progress, can leave comments on tasks, and receive updates without needing full access to your internal workflow. This transparency often reduces back-and-forth emails about status.

Tracking time and connecting it to billing

Time tracking in BillyKnows works at the task level. When you start work on a task, you can start a timer or manually enter the hours you spent. The platform records who logged the time, when, and how long they worked. If you're billing hourly, this is your source of truth for what to invoice.

You can also add expenses to a project—things like stock photos, hosting fees, or third-party tools you bought for the client's site. Each expense is tagged with a category and a date, so when you generate an invoice, you can include both time and expenses in one document.

The connection between time tracking and invoicing is automatic. Once you're ready to bill, BillyKnows pulls all logged hours and expenses for that project and builds an invoice draft. You review it, adjust line items if needed, add your payment terms, and send it to the client. No manual data entry between timesheets and invoices.

Creating and sending invoices

Invoices in BillyKnows are generated from your tracked time and expenses, but you control how they look. You can add your logo, choose a color scheme, and customize the language and line-item descriptions. Some designers use detailed breakdowns (e.g., "Homepage design: 12 hours"), while others group everything under a single line like "Web design services."

Before you send an invoice, you set payment terms—net 15, net 30, or a custom date. You can also mark whether the invoice is due on a specific date or a number of days after the client receives it. BillyKnows will remind you if an invoice goes unpaid past the due date.

When you send the invoice, the client receives it by email with a link to view it online. If you've connected Stripe or PayPal to your BillyKnows account, the invoice includes a "Pay Now" button, and the client can settle the bill directly without you having to send a separate payment link or invoice them again.

Team collaboration and permissions

If you work with other designers, developers, or project managers, you can add them to BillyKnows and control what they can see and do. You might give a developer access to the technical tasks on a project but not to billing information. A project manager might see all tasks and timesheets but not client contact details.

Team members log their own time against the tasks assigned to them. You can see a summary of hours logged by person, by project, or by date range. This makes it easy to spot if someone is consistently over or under the hours you estimated for a task, which helps you refine estimates for future projects.

Communication happens within the platform through task comments, so there's a record of decisions and feedback tied to the work itself rather than scattered across email threads.

Reporting and understanding your business metrics

BillyKnows includes reports that show you how much time you've logged, how much you've invoiced, and how much has been paid. You can filter by project, date range, or team member to see where your time is going and whether you're staying within budget on projects.

These reports help you answer questions like: Are you consistently underestimating how long design work takes? Which clients are most profitable? Are there projects where you logged way more hours than you budgeted? Over time, this data makes your estimates more accurate and helps you price your services better.

You can also see which invoices are overdue and which clients tend to pay on time, so you know who to follow up with and who you can trust to pay quickly.

Pricing and getting started

BillyKnows offers a free tier that lets you create one project, track time, and send invoices—useful if you want to test it out before committing. Paid plans start at a monthly subscription and scale based on the number of projects and team members you need. The exact pricing varies, so check their website for current rates.

To get your free guide, you sign up with your email, create your first project, and begin adding tasks. You don't need to set up integrations right away—you can start with basic time tracking and invoicing, then connect Stripe or PayPal later when you're ready to accept online payments.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I use BillyKnows if I work with a team in different time zones?

Yes. Team members log their time whenever they work, and the platform records timestamps. You can see activity across time zones in your project dashboard and reports. Communication through task comments is asynchronous, so people don't have to be online at the same time to collaborate.

What happens if a client disputes an invoice?

You can adjust an invoice before it's paid—change line items, add notes, or issue a credit. If an invoice has already been paid, you can create a new invoice for a refund or credit toward future work. BillyKnows keeps a history of all invoices, so there's a clear record of what was charged and when.

Can I export my data from BillyKnows?

Yes. You can export project data, timesheets, and invoices as PDFs or CSV files. This is useful if you want to back up your records or move your data elsewhere. Check the platform's documentation for the specific export options available.

Does BillyKnows work on mobile?

BillyKnows has a mobile-friendly web interface, so you can log time and check project status from your phone. There may also be a dedicated mobile app—check their website to see what's currently available for your device.

Can I set up recurring invoices for retainer clients?

Some versions of BillyKnows support recurring invoices for ongoing work. If you have clients who pay a monthly retainer, you can set up an invoice to generate automatically each month. Confirm this feature is available on your plan before relying on it.