Unbilled hours start with 15-minute tasks.
A quick call, a two-line fix, a reply in Slack. Nobody logs them, so nobody bills them, and the next quote leaves them out again.
"It's just a 15-minute thing."
A client calls with a quick question. A designer fixes a typo on the live site. A developer answers three Slack messages about last week's release. Each one feels too small to open the time tracker for.
So nobody logs it. Hourly clients never see it on the invoice. On fixed-price and retainer work it eats the margin, and nobody can say where the hours went.
Then you quote the next project from the hours you logged. The small work is missing from those numbers, so the new estimate misses it too, and the contract is signed before anyone notices.
Our founder lost a couple of hundred euros a month this way as a freelancer. Tidpunkt is what they built to stop it.
Where unbilled hours come from
Small, unplanned work that lands between the planned tasks.
Quick calls
The client "has a minute". The call takes twenty, plus the notes afterwards.
Small fixes
A broken link, a new headline, a button that moved. Done in minutes, logged by nobody.
Chat and email replies
Slack threads and "can you just…" emails. You answer them between tasks, and each answer takes time.
Questions from the team
A colleague asks how the client's staging server works. That is ten minutes of client work that sits on no client.
Why a 5-minute task takes 15
Count the work around the work.
Before a five-minute fix you read the message, open the project, find the file and work out what the client means. Afterwards you switch back to what you were doing and find your place again.
If anyone logs the task at all, they log the five minutes of typing. The rest disappears.
The lost-hours calculator has a second step for this. It counts every short entry as at least 15 minutes. That minimum is our assumption, not a study, so leave the step off if your short tasks are shorter.
What it adds up to: a worked example
These are example numbers, the calculator's defaults. They are not data from real agencies.
5 people each skip logging 2 tasks a day.
× 21 working days = 210 unlogged tasks a month.
× 15 minutes each ÷ 60 = 52.5 hours a month.
× €50 an hour = €2,625 a month, or €31,500 a year.
How Tidpunkt gets the small things logged
Logging has to be quicker than the task, or nobody does it.
Log from the menu bar in 2 clicks
Tidpunkt sits in the menu bar on macOS and in the system tray on Windows and Ubuntu. Save an entry or create a new one in two clicks, without opening a browser.
Continue the last entry
The call ran over, or the fix came back? Continue the entry you already have instead of starting a new one.
Log it while it happens
Log the call when you hang up. Friday-afternoon guesses round small tasks down to zero.
See the hours per contract
Reports show actual hours per project and contract, fixed-price or retainer, broken down by task. Export them as CSV, and quote the next project from them.
No screenshots, ever
Tidpunkt is for finding lost time. It does not watch people.
Read next
Fixed-price projects running over
How unlogged work turns a fixed price into a loss, and how to quote the next one.
Time tracking for small agencies
For teams of 5 to 20, where the founder still runs operations.
Pricing
Free for up to 5 people, plus a 14-day trial of the Team plan. No card needed.
Questions about unbilled hours
What are unbilled hours?
Hours your team spent on client work that never made it onto an invoice. On hourly work they are lost revenue. On fixed-price and retainer work they are cost you never planned for.
How do I calculate what unbilled hours cost?
Multiply people × unlogged tasks per day × 21 working days × minutes per task, divide by 60, then multiply by your hourly rate. The lost-hours calculator does the maths for you.
Should we log tasks under 15 minutes?
Yes, if they are client work. One short task is nothing, but two a day across a team come to dozens of hours a month. Make a short entry quick enough that people bother.
Why don't small tasks get logged?
Logging usually means opening a browser tab and finding the project, which takes almost as long as the task. People skip it and plan to add it on Friday. By Friday they have forgotten.
Does Tidpunkt log time automatically?
No. You log entries yourself, but it takes two clicks from the menu bar or system tray, and you can continue the last entry instead of starting from scratch.
Is this a way to watch my team?
No. Tidpunkt never takes screenshots and does not record activity. People log their own time.
What does it cost?
There is a Free plan for up to 5 people with no time limit. Every new account also gets a 14-day trial of the Team plan, no card needed. After it, stay on Free or pay. Nothing you logged is lost.
Log the next 15-minute thing
Set Tidpunkt up today. In a month the small tasks show up in your reports, and you can compare them with the calculator.
Free plan · no card required