Better Invoice splits time entry display into two layers: a services summary on the main invoice page and a time detail page with the full entry-by-entry breakdown. Both are independently configurable, and every setting can be set differently for each invoice type.
For guidance on when to use which settings, see How Much Time Detail Belongs on MSP Invoices?.
Per-invoice-type control
Every time entry setting can be toggled independently for four invoice types:
- Standard (time and materials)
- Fixed Fee
- Project
- Agreement
This means you can show full time detail on T&M invoices while hiding it entirely on agreements. Or show hours on project invoices but hide hourly rates on fixed fee. Each type gets its own configuration.
Better Invoice ships with sensible defaults per type. Fixed fee invoices hide hours, rates, and amounts by default since they are not relevant. Project and agreement invoices hide ticket numbers and summaries since those types do not use tickets. You can override any of these defaults.
Time detail page
The time detail page is a dedicated page appended to the invoice with the full entry-by-entry breakdown, grouped by ticket. It is controlled by 13 toggles:
| Setting | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Show Time Detail | Master toggle. Turns the entire detail page on or off. |
| Dates | The date of each time entry. |
| Notes | The description or notes on each entry. When off, falls back to the work role. |
| Ticket Number | The ticket reference (e.g. #1042). |
| Ticket Summary | The ticket title. Entries are grouped under their ticket heading. |
| Hours | Hours logged per entry. |
| Hourly Rate | The billing rate per hour. |
| Member | The technician who logged the time. |
| Work Role | The role assigned to the entry (e.g. Solutions Architect). |
| Work Type | The type of work (e.g. Remote, Onsite, Travel). |
| Billable | A billable or no-charge indicator per entry. |
| Extended Amount | The calculated total (hours multiplied by hourly rate). |
| Subtotals | A subtotal row at the bottom of each ticket group. |
The billable column labels are customizable. By default, billable entries show Y and no-charge entries show NC, but you can change these to whatever text fits your invoices.
Entries flagged as Do Not Bill in ConnectWise are automatically filtered out before rendering. They never appear on the invoice.
Services summary
The services summary appears on the main invoice page as an aggregated table. Instead of showing every individual time entry, it groups time by work role, work type, and rate into summary rows.
The services summary has its own column toggles:
| Column | Default |
|---|---|
| Member | Visible |
| Work Role | Visible |
| Work Type | Visible |
| Hours | Visible |
| Rate | Visible |
| Amount | Visible |
| Subtotal | Visible |
Work type merging
If your technicians log time under multiple work types (Remote, Onsite, Travel), the services summary can consolidate them into a single line.
Turn on Merge Work Types, then select which work types to merge from a list pulled from your ConnectWise instance. Better Invoice combines entries that share the same work role and hourly rate into one row, summing the hours and totals. The merged row’s work type column renders blank, so you get a clean summary without the per-type breakdown.
Entries with work types you did not select are left unchanged. Entries with different hourly rates or work roles are never merged, even if their work types are selected.
Work type merging only affects the services summary on the main invoice page. The time detail page continues to show individual entries with their original work types.
A common setup is to merge Onsite, Travel, and Communications into a single line. Your technicians still log time under the correct work type for internal reporting, but the client sees one clean row instead of three.
Customizable labels
Every column header and section heading is editable:
- Section headings (default: Services / Time Entries and Time Entry Detail)
- Column headers for member, work role, work type, hours, rate, amount
- Description column header
- Subtotal row label
- Billable column header and values
Markdown in time entry notes
Time entry notes support markdown formatting. Bold, italic, lists, links, and inline images render directly on the invoice. This is controlled by a separate toggle under Page > Markdown > Time Entries.
For a full reference on markdown support, see Using Markdown in Your Invoice Templates.