Billable Session Timer & Pomodoro Focus Timer: Track Work and Send It Straight to Your Invoice

TidyPapers' Billable Session Timer at https://tidypapers.com/billable-timer/ does two jobs on one page: it times a work session against an hourly rate so you know what you've earned as you go, and it can switch into a Pomodoro-style focus timer that automatically excludes your breaks from the billable total. This guide covers every field, button, and setting on the page.

What this tool is for

You start a timer while you work, it logs the session (client, task, duration, and money earned), and when you're done you can copy that session straight into a line item for the invoice generator — or export your whole log as a CSV. Nothing you type is sent anywhere; the page states plainly: "Your data never leaves your browser."

Part 1 — Setting up a billable session

Step 1 — Fill in the session details

1. Go to https://tidypapers.com/billable-timer/.
2. Client / project — type the name of the client or project you're about to work on.
3. Task description — type what you're doing (e.g. "Homepage redesign").
4. Hourly rate — type your rate as a number.
5. Currency selector — choose € Euro (EUR), $ US Dollar (USD), or £ British Pound (GBP).

Step 2 — Set a planned duration (optional)

There's an optional Planned duration field. If you fill it in, the page notes: "We'll nudge you at 80% and 100% of this" — meaning you'll get a reminder as you approach and then reach the time you planned for the session. Leave it blank if you don't want this nudge.

Step 3 — Set a break reminder (optional)

There's a Break reminder every (minutes, 0 = off) field. Enter a number of minutes if you want a periodic reminder to take a break during a plain (non-Pomodoro) session. Set it to 0 to turn this off.

Step 4 — Enable browser notifications (optional)

Click "🔔 Enable browser notifications" if you want the planned-duration nudges and break reminders to appear as actual browser/OS notifications rather than just on-page alerts. Your browser will ask you to grant permission.

Step 5 — Run the timer

Use these buttons as you work:

• "⏱️ Start" — begins timing the session
• "⏸️ Pause" — pauses the running timer (time stops counting, and pausing is also what happens automatically when you enter a Pomodoro break — see Part 2)
• "▶️ Resume" — resumes a paused timer
• "⏹️ Stop & log session" — ends the session and saves it to your session log, with the elapsed time and the money earned at your hourly rate

Part 2 — Using Pomodoro focus mode

Pomodoro mode runs 25-minutes-work / 5-minutes-break style cycles (or your own custom lengths) instead of one continuous session.

Step 1 — Choose a Pomodoro preset

There are three options:

• "25 min focus / 5 min break" — the default preset
• "50 / 10" — a longer deep-focus option
• "Custom" — set your own lengths using two fields:
• Focus minutes
• Break minutes

Step 2 — Run the cycle

• Start the timer as in Part 1 — it will run the focus phase first.
• Use "⏭️ Skip to next phase" if you want to jump straight to a break or back to focus without waiting for the timer to finish naturally.
• When a break phase is active, that time is excluded from what gets billed — TidyPapers' own build notes describe this as the core guarantee of the feature: break time is never billed. Leaving the break resumes the focus/billable clock; entering the break pauses it.

Part 3 — Managing your session log

Once you've logged one or more sessions with "⏹️ Stop & log session", three more buttons appear:

• "📋 Copy all for client" — copies all logged sessions for a specific client, formatted as text, so you can paste them into an email or document.
• "📄 Export CSV" — downloads your session log as a CSV file (for opening in a spreadsheet).
• "🗑️ Clear all saved data" — permanently deletes all sessions stored in your browser. There is no undo, so only use this once you no longer need the log.

Part 4 — Sending a session to the invoice generator

Each finished session's log row offers two ways to get it onto an invoice:

• "Add to invoice" — the automatic route. One click queues the session (task, client, duration, rate) for the invoice generator. Open / and the session is already there as a new line item, with a banner confirming it arrived from the Timer.
• "Copy as invoice line" (and "📋 Copy all for client" for several sessions at once) — still available if you'd rather paste the text somewhere other than TidyPapers' own invoice generator, or review it before it lands anywhere.

For the full path from a timed session to a sent PDF invoice, see the dedicated walkthrough: Track Time and Bill It.

Frequently asked practical questions