Adding cost items and the Cost Item Catalog

Cost items are extra charges on a project (expenses, materials, licenses, travel) that get added to your earnings on top of tracked time (or on top of the fixed price). They live on the Cost Items tab of each project and are picked from a shared, reusable Cost Item Catalog.

Adding cost items to a project

1. Open the project and click the Cost Items tab heading.
2. Click the + button next to it, or Browse Catalog if the tab still shows the No Cost Items Yet empty state.
3. The Cost Item Catalog opens: a searchable list (Search cost items...) of every item you've ever created.
4. To create a new item, click New Item. In the Add Cost Item sheet, fill in Item Name and Price (the name is required; the price must be 0 or more). The item is saved to the catalog for reuse.
5. Select one or more items (use the arrow keys, hold Shift for a range, press Space to toggle a selection), then click Add N Item(s) to Project.

Quantities and totals

The project's cost item table has the columns Item, Units, Unit Price, and Total. Click the value in the Units column to edit the quantity inline; it must be greater than 0. Total is units × unit price, and the sum of all cost items is added to the project's Total Earnings, for hourly and fixed-rate projects alike. A zero-rate "Non-profit" project starts showing an amount as soon as cost items add value.

Deleting cost items: no confirmation

Hover a row and click the trash button to remove a cost item from the project. Unlike deleting projects, tasks, or time entries, this happens immediately, with no confirmation dialog, and there is no undo. The same applies inside the catalog: the hover trash button there removes the item from the catalog right away. Click carefully.

Free plan limits

Without TimeBill Premium you can have at most 5 cost items per project and 5 entries in the Cost Item Catalog. Reaching either limit opens the Premium screen instead of adding the item. See Free vs. TimeBill Premium.

When you're ready to bill the project, cost items count toward what you charge (see Creating your first invoice).