Welcome to Billable Island

Billable Island helps you track the time you spend on client work. Whether you're a lawyer, consultant, designer, or anyone who bills by the hour, this app makes it simple to know exactly how much time you've spent—and what it's worth.

The app shows your current billing session right in your iPhone's Dynamic Island (that pill-shaped area at the top of your screen), so you can always see how long you've been working without opening the app.

Your First Session

Starting to track time takes just a few seconds:

1. Open the app and you'll see a text field asking for a label
2. Type a name for what you're working on (like "Smith Matter" or "Contract Review")
3. Tap Start Billing

That's it. The timer starts running, and you'll see it appear in your Dynamic Island at the top of the screen.

When you're done, just open the app and tap Stop. Your session is saved automatically.

Tracking Time

Starting a Session

Every time you start billing, you'll give the session a label. This helps you identify it later when you're looking through your history or preparing an invoice.

The app remembers your recent labels, so if you work on the same matters regularly, you can just tap a recent label instead of typing it again.

Pausing and Resuming

Need to take a break? Tap Pause and the timer stops. The app keeps track of your pauses separately, so you'll only bill for actual working time.

When you're ready to continue, tap Resume and the timer picks up where you left off.

Stopping a Session

When you're finished working, tap Stop. Your session is saved with:

• The total time worked (excluding pauses)
• The billable amount (if you've set a rate)
• The date and time
• Any notes you've added

Adding Notes

While a session is running, you can add notes about what you're working on. This is helpful for creating detailed invoices later, or just remembering what you did.

Unit-Based Billing

Many professional firms bill in units rather than exact time—commonly 6-minute increments (10 units per hour) in the United States, or other intervals like 3, 10, or 15 minutes. Billable Island supports unit-based billing as an alternative to traditional timers.

What is Unit-Based Billing?

Instead of watching a clock count up, unit mode shows you how many billing units you've accumulated. This reframes time tracking as awareness rather than policing—you simply see "You are currently at 5 units" instead of "You have been working for 32 minutes."

This approach is particularly useful for:

• Firms that bill in 6-minute increments (the US legal standard)
• Professionals who want to stay aware of billable time without clock-watching
• Anyone who finds the units model more intuitive than raw time

Setting Up Unit Mode

1. Go to Settings
2. Tap Unit Billing
3. Select Units as your billing mode
4. Choose your unit interval:
   • 3 minutes — 20 units per hour
   • 6 minutes — 10 units per hour (US standard)
   • 10 minutes — 6 units per hour
   • 15 minutes — 4 units per hour
   • Custom — Set your own interval
5. Optionally set your Rate per Unit to see earnings

Using Unit Mode

In unit mode, the interface changes to focus on units:

• The main display shows your current unit count (e.g., "5 units")
• A progress bar shows how close you are to the next unit
• Visual dots represent accumulated units at a glance
• Quick label switching lets you change matters without stopping

The Dynamic Island also updates to show units instead of elapsed time when you're in unit mode.

How Units Are Calculated

Units use ceiling rounding—any partial unit counts as a full unit. For example, with 6-minute units:

• 0–6 minutes = 1 unit
• 6–12 minutes = 2 units
• 35 minutes = 6 units

Exporting with Units

When you export sessions while using unit mode, the exports include unit information:

• CSV — Includes a "Units" column alongside duration and amount
• JSON — Contains units and unitSecondsUsed fields
• PDF — Shows total units in the summary and per-session in the table

The Dynamic Island

On iPhone 14 Pro and newer models, your billing session appears in the Dynamic Island—the pill-shaped area at the top of your screen where the camera is.

What You'll See

While billing, the Dynamic Island shows:

• A small coloured indicator (green when billing, orange when paused)
• Your elapsed time

Expanding for More Detail

Press and hold on the Dynamic Island to expand it. The expanded view shows:

• Your session label
• The full timer
• Your running total (if you've set a rate)
• Buttons to pause/resume or stop

This means you can control your billing without even opening the app.

On Mac

On Mac, the app lives in your menu bar (the row of icons at the top right of your screen). Click the Billable Island icon to see your current session and control the timer.

Viewing Your History

Tap the History tab to see all your past sessions. They're organised by date, with the most recent at the top.

Finding a Session

Use the search bar to find sessions by label. For example, searching "Smith" will show all sessions with "Smith" in the label.

Session Details

Tap any session to see its full details, including:

• Start and end times
• Total duration
• Any pauses you took
• Notes you added
• The billable amount

Exporting for Invoices

When it's time to bill your clients, you can export your session data.

1. Go to Settings
2. Tap Export Data
3. Choose a date range (Today, This Week, This Month, or All Time)
4. Choose a format (CSV works with Excel and most accounting software)
5. Tap Export

You can then share the file via email, save it to Files, or open it directly in another app.

Weekly & Monthly Reports

The Reports tab gives you a clear overview of your billing activity over time. See how much you've worked and earned at a glance.

Accessing Reports

1. Tap the Reports tab at the bottom of the screen
2. Choose between Weekly or Monthly view
3. Swipe left or right to navigate between time periods

What You'll See

Each report shows:

• Total Hours — The total time tracked in that period
• Total Earnings — Your billable amount (based on your rate)
• Session Count — How many sessions you completed
• Daily Breakdown — Hours worked each day
• Per-Label Summary — Time spent on each client or matter

Exporting Reports

Tap the share button in any report to export it as a PDF. The formatted report includes your branding and is suitable for sending to clients.

Charts & Visualization

Visual charts help you understand your billing patterns at a glance.

Available Charts

• Daily Bar Chart — See hours worked each day of the week/month
• Label Distribution — Pie chart showing time across different clients
• Trend Line — Track how your billing has changed over time

Calendar Sync

Connect Billable Island to your calendar to see your billing sessions alongside your appointments, or to import calendar events as time entries.

Setting Up Calendar Sync

1. Go to Settings
2. Tap Calendar Integration
3. Grant calendar access when prompted
4. Choose your preferred calendar for synced sessions

Sync Options

• Export Sessions to Calendar — Create calendar events from your completed sessions. Useful for seeing your work in your calendar view.
• Import from Calendar — Create time entries from calendar events. Great for logging meetings or appointments as billable time.
• Auto-Sync — Automatically sync completed sessions to your calendar without manual intervention.

Privacy Note

Calendar sync only reads and writes to calendars you explicitly select. Your calendar data is never sent to our servers—all syncing happens directly on your device.

Practice Management Integration

If you use practice management software like Clio or LEAP, you can export your time entries directly to your PMS without manual data entry.

Supported Systems

• Clio — Full integration with matters, clients, and time entries
• LEAP — Export time entries to matters
• Generic API — Connect to other systems via API

How to Connect Clio

1. Go to Settings → Practice Management
2. Tap Clio
3. Tap Connect to Clio
4. You'll be redirected to Clio's login page in your browser
5. Sign in with your Clio credentials
6. Review the permissions and tap Authorize
7. You'll be returned to Billable Island with the connection active

Once connected, you'll see a green "Connected" status and your Clio matters will be available for mapping.

How to Connect LEAP

1. Go to Settings → Practice Management
2. Tap LEAP
3. Enter your LEAP domain (e.g., yourfirm.leap.eu)
4. Enter your API key (find this in LEAP under Settings → API)
5. Tap Connect

How to Export Time Entries

Once connected, follow these steps to export sessions to your PMS:

1. Go to the History tab
2. Tap Select in the top right
3. Choose the sessions you want to export (or tap "Select All")
4. Tap Export to PMS at the bottom
5. For each session, select the matching matter from your PMS
6. Review the export summary showing all entries
7. Tap Send to [PMS name]

You'll see a confirmation when the export completes. Each exported session is marked so you don't accidentally export it twice.

Label to Matter Mapping

When exporting, you'll map your session labels to matters in your PMS:

• The app suggests matches based on similar names
• Once you map a label to a matter, it's remembered for next time
• You can set up default mappings in Settings → Practice Management → Mappings
• Mappings sync across your devices via iCloud

Disconnecting from Your PMS

1. Go to Settings → Practice Management
2. Tap your connected PMS
3. Tap Disconnect
4. Confirm the disconnection

Your exported sessions remain in your PMS—disconnecting only removes the connection from Billable Island. Your label mappings are kept in case you reconnect later.

Export Formats

Billable Island supports multiple export formats to fit your workflow.

CSV (Spreadsheet)

The most flexible format. Opens in Excel, Google Sheets, Numbers, or any spreadsheet app. Includes all session data in rows and columns for easy filtering and analysis.

JSON (Developer)

Structured data format for developers or automated workflows. Contains the same data as CSV but in a format that's easy for software to read.

PDF (Formatted Report)

A professionally formatted document suitable for sending to clients. Includes:

• Summary totals
• Itemised session list
• Date range and export date
• Clean, printable layout

Direct PMS Export

If you've connected a practice management system, you can export directly to your PMS. See Practice Management Integration for details.

Setting Your Rate

To see your billable amount in real-time, set your hourly rate:

1. Go to Settings
2. Find Default Rate
3. Enter your hourly rate

Once set, you'll see your earnings accumulate as you work. The running total appears both in the app and in the Dynamic Island.

Currency

You can change your currency in Settings. The app supports major currencies including AUD, USD, GBP, EUR, and more.

Focus Mode Automation

If you use Focus modes on your iPhone (like "Work" or "Do Not Disturb"), you can set Billable Island to automatically start or pause billing when you enter or leave a Focus mode.

Setting It Up

1. Go to Settings
2. Tap Focus Mode
3. Choose a Focus mode (like "Work")
4. Select what should happen when that Focus turns on

Options

For each Focus mode, you can choose:

• Ignore — Don't do anything (the default)
• Auto-Start — Automatically start a new billing session
• Auto-Pause — Pause any running session
• Auto-Resume — Resume a paused session

Syncing Across Devices

If you use Billable Island on multiple devices (like iPhone and Mac), your sessions sync automatically via iCloud.

How It Works

• Start a session on your iPhone, and it appears on your Mac
• Stop the session from either device
• Your complete history is available everywhere

Turning Sync On or Off

iCloud sync is on by default. If you prefer to keep your data on just one device:

1. Go to Settings
2. Toggle iCloud Sync off

Requirements

For sync to work, you need to be signed into the same Apple ID on all your devices, with iCloud Drive enabled.

Troubleshooting

The Dynamic Island isn't showing my session

Live Activities need to be enabled on your iPhone:

1. Open the Settings app (the system one, not Billable Island)
2. Scroll down and tap Billable Island
3. Make sure Live Activities is turned on

My sessions aren't syncing between devices

Check these things:

• You're signed into the same Apple ID on both devices
• iCloud Drive is enabled (Settings > [Your Name] > iCloud > iCloud Drive)
• iCloud Sync is enabled in Billable Island's settings
• You have an internet connection

I accidentally deleted a session

Unfortunately, deleted sessions cannot be recovered. If you have iCloud sync enabled, the deletion will sync to your other devices as well.

The app isn't tracking time accurately

The timer tracks time precisely, including across app restarts and device reboots. If you notice a discrepancy, it's usually because of pauses you may have forgotten about.

Check the session details to see a breakdown of all pause intervals.

Privacy & Your Data

Your billing data is personal, and we treat it that way:

• Your data stays yours — All data is stored on your device or in your personal iCloud account. We never see it.
• No tracking — We don't collect analytics about how you use the app.
• No accounts — There's no sign-up, no login, no user accounts. Just download and use.
• Export anytime — You can export all your data whenever you want.

Contact Support

Having trouble or have a suggestion? We'd love to hear from you.

Email us at [email protected]

When reporting an issue, it helps if you can include:

• What you were trying to do
• What happened instead
• Your device model and iOS/macOS version