Time Tracking for Marketing & Creative Agencies
Retainer clients expect their hours to be tracked - but most agency time walks out the door as unbilled pitches, quick revisions, and internal reviews that never made it into a timer. Sandtime.io makes it easy to log time against the right client or campaign as you go, so retainer conversations are backed by numbers and invoices don’t require memory.
Marketing & Creative Agencies: why they choose Sandtime.io
Track time by client or campaign
Give each client, or each campaign, its own project, and every hour lands where it belongs. Retainer reviews and scope conversations take minutes when the time is already organized.
Capture every billable hour
Log time across strategy, creative, copy, design, and reporting as it happens. No more reconstructing a week from briefs and Slack threads.
Monitor retainer usage
See how many retainer hours each client has consumed in real time. Have the scope conversation before the client goes over - not after.
Your whole team, one account
Track time across account managers, creatives, strategists, and freelancers from one account. Know who worked on what without chasing timesheets.
How a marketing agency sets up Sandtime.io
A marketing agency sets up Sandtime.io with a project per retainer client or campaign, a billable flag that keeps pitches and internal work out of client hours, and cost rates that show what each account costs to serve. Creatives, strategists and freelancers track time from the browser or Slack, and account managers see how much of each retainer is used before the monthly review.
- Separate retainers from one-off campaignsGive each retainer client a project, and add a separate project for a launch or campaign that is billed on its own. New business pitches and the agency’s own brand work go on non-billable projects.
- Add freelancers without a seat feeInvite staff and freelancers by email. They sign in with email, Google, Microsoft or Apple, with no seat fee. An account director can be the Project Administrator for their clients, and a freelancer joins as a User who sees only the projects they are assigned to.
- Track from the browser and SlackMost agency work happens in a browser, so the Chrome extension starts a timer without switching tabs, and a Slack slash command starts or stops one mid-conversation. Late-night revisions go in afterwards with a start and end time.
- Walk into the retainer review with numbersGroup a monthly report by project and member to see who used the retainer hours, and export it to Excel or CSV for the client summary. With cost and revenue rates set, the same report shows which accounts cost more to serve than they bring in.
Step by step in the help center: invite the team with the right role, approve a week from the email, and turn on auto-locking.
The approval chain that gets agency timesheets in
Client billing waits on the last timesheet. Sandtime.io closes the loop without anyone chasing, and every step is free for unlimited users.
- RemindA fill-timesheet reminder email goes out every Friday at 6 PM while auto-locking is on, to each member who switched it on in their notification settings.
- ApproveSubmitted weeks reach the reviewer by email. Approve or reject in one click, with a note on rejection so the fix is obvious.
- LockApproved and past periods lock automatically, so the hours on the invoice do not move after it goes out.
Common use cases
- Log billable hours across strategy, creative, and production work
- Check retainer hours in reports before a client goes over budget
- Separate billable client time from non-billable pitches and internal work
- Track freelancer and contractor hours alongside full-time staff
- Pull a monthly billing summary per client without rebuilding the week
- Export time logs by project and date range for invoicing or reporting
Key features
One-click timers
Start timing the moment client work begins. One click logs to the right client and campaign without interrupting the work.
Retroactive time entry
Add time entries after a creative session, a client call, or a review cycle ends. Nothing slips through because you forgot to start a timer.
Multiple clients at once
Run separate timers for different clients at the same time. Switch between accounts mid-day without losing time on either.
Export and report
Pull time reports by project, team member, or date range. Export to CSV for invoicing or client-facing billing summaries.
Where Sandtime.io stops
Better to know before you invite the team. These are the gaps people in this line of work ask about most.
- No invoicingSandtime.io does not send invoices. The Invoices report template lists time, rate, net revenue, tax, and total per project, and you export it to Excel or CSV for your billing software.
- No project budgetsThere is no budget field or budget alert. A report grouped by project shows hours, cost, and revenue so far, and you compare them with the estimate yourself.
- Reminders are a weekly emailThe fill-timesheet reminder is one email, sent on Friday at 6 PM while auto-locking is on. It is off by default, so each member switches it on in their notification settings.
Keep exploring
Continue with the most relevant Sandtime.io pages for this topic.
Track breaks and other non-billable time
Sandtime.io has no dedicated break timer. Non-billable projects with the Billable switch off keep breaks in your timesheet and out of what you bill.
Open pageBillable Hours
Work hours that can be charged to a client or project. Essential for professional services firms to track revenue.
Open pageCost, revenue, and billable reporting
Use billable flags and rates to understand project profitability without losing the self-reported workflow.
Open pageCost
The expense associated with employee work hours. Calculated by multiplying time by cost rates for profitability analysis.
Open pageCreate a project for reported time
Create projects that people can report against, mark them billable or non-billable, and keep reporting tidy.
Open pageCustom Reports
User-defined reports with flexible groupings, metrics, and filters. Custom reports answer specific business questions.
Open pageTrack your first hour today
Create your free account and see results in minutes.