Project Management

Organize your work in projects with stories, time tracking, and material costs.

Overview

A project in Slonge Billing includes:

• Stories: Tasks or work packages
• Time Entries: Recorded work hours
• Material Costs: Materials purchased for the project
• Invoices: Generated invoices

Permissions

Employees and accountants can record time but cannot create or modify projects.

Creating a Project

There are two ways to create a project:

Manually

1. Navigate to Projects
2. Click on New Project
3. Fill in the form:

4. Click Save

Import from Document (AI)

Create a project automatically from a project proposal, quote, or project plan:

1. Navigate to Projects
2. Click on Import from Document
3. Upload a PDF or DOCX file
4. The AI analyzes the document and extracts:
   • Project name and description
   • Client data (with automatic matching to existing clients)
   • Hourly rate and budget
   • Start and end dates
   • Tasks/work packages as stories
5. Review and edit the extracted data
6. Select the desired tasks
7. Click Create Project

Automatic Client Matching: The system compares the extracted client name with your client database and suggests matching clients. With high similarity (>70%), the client is automatically assigned.

Supported Formats: PDF, DOCX, TXT

Privacy: Sensitive data (emails, phone numbers, IBANs) are automatically anonymized before AI analysis.

Note: This feature requires the Standard or AI Pro plan.

Project Status

Changing Status

1. Open the project
2. Select the new status
3. Save the change

Note: If "Approval for project completion" is enabled in settings, an approval request will be created.

Changing the Hourly Rate

When the contract rate changes mid-project (e.g. from 125.– to 145.– per hour), adjust it directly on the project page.

1. Open the project
2. On the Hourly rate tile, click Change rate
3. Enter the new hourly rate
4. Decide what happens to hours already logged:
   • Re-price existing open time entries on: every unbilled entry moves to the new rate
   • Set Effective from: only entries on or after that date are re-priced — ideal when the new contract starts mid-project
   • Toggle off: the new rate applies to newly tracked hours only
5. The preview shows how many entries are affected and how the project value changes before you save
6. Confirm with Change rate

Hours that are already invoiced never change. Entries with status Billed or Paid, and any entry already attached to an invoice, are never re-priced — otherwise issued invoice totals would silently drift.

Adjusting a Single Time Entry

For exceptions (e.g. a discounted consulting call) you can set the rate per entry: Edit the time entry → Rate field. If an entry's rate differs from the project rate, the list shows it as @ 145 CHF/h.

Once a time entry is invoiced it can no longer be changed — the note included. An invoice renders its lines from the time entries: hours and rate make the amount, the task becomes the line description, and the note becomes the line note printed on the document. A later change would rewrite an already-issued invoice. Edit is therefore no longer offered on invoiced entries; correct the invoice with a credit note instead.

Stories (Tasks)

Stories divide a project into work packages.

Creating a Story

1. Open the project
2. Click on New Story
3. Enter:
   • Story name
   • Description (optional)
   • Estimated hours (optional)
4. Save the story

Story Status

Time Tracking

See Time Tracking for details.

Quick Recording

1. Open a story
2. Click on Record Time
3. Enter date, hours, and note
4. The hourly rate is automatically taken from the project

Time Entries by Month

Within a story, time entries are grouped by month. Each month group can be expanded and collapsed; the header shows the month's total hours and total amount. When you open a story, the current month is expanded and older months are collapsed.

Material Costs

Record materials purchased for the project.

Adding Material Costs

1. Open the project
2. Go to the Material Costs tab
3. Click on Add
4. Fill in:
   • Description
   • Quantity
   • Unit (pcs, kg, m, etc.)
   • Unit price
   • VAT rate (optional)
   • Supplier (optional)
   • Date (defaults to today) – set it to the date you want for recurring costs such as monthly web hosting fees

Editing or deleting material costs

Every row in the material table has Edit and Delete actions – just like time entries.

• Edit opens the form pre-filled with the current values; save your changes.
• Delete removes the row after a confirmation. Material costs that are already billed or paid can't be deleted, because they belong to an issued invoice.

Billing

Material costs can be billed together with time entries when creating an invoice.

Creating an Invoice from a Project

In the Billing overview on the project detail page, Create invoice starts an invoice from the open items.

Next to the button you choose which period to bill:

• All open items (default): every unbilled time entry and material cost.
• A single month: only the open items of that month – ideal for billing an ongoing retainer month by month.

The dropdown lists every month that still has open items (newest first). After you continue, the invoice wizard opens its position picker already filtered to that month. You can still switch months there or deselect individual items before the invoice is created.

A month runs from its first to its last day – what counts is the date of the time entry or material cost, not the invoice date.

Project Overview

On the project detail page you see:

• Summary: Total hours, total amount, unbilled
• Stories: All tasks with progress
• Time Entries: List of all recorded times
• Material Costs: All material items
• Invoices: Generated invoices

Related Features

• Time Tracking
• Invoicing
• Expenses – Project-related expenses

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I copy projects?

Currently not. You need to create a new project.

How do I transfer a project to another client?

That's not possible. Projects are permanently linked to clients.

What happens to time entries when a project is deleted?

All time entries are also deleted. Create an invoice or export first.

Can I have multiple hourly rates per project?

Yes. Every time entry stores its own rate. Change the project rate via Change rate (optionally with an effective-from date), or set the rate directly while editing a single time entry. See Changing the Hourly Rate.