Time-and-materials SOWs that open hourly FreshBooks projects
Selling hours, not a fixed fee? Your client signs the estimate and pays the deposit in QuoteCloud; a Zap opens an hourly FreshBooks project at the agreed rate, so the first hour your team logs is billable at the right price.
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Build a Zap with QuoteCloud's Zapier app, on Essentials and up. Document Signing Complete starts it when the time-and-materials estimate is signed; FreshBooks' Find or Create Client finds the client and Create Project opens an hourly project with the agreed rate and due date. Your team logs time in FreshBooks and invoices it as usual.
Last reviewed by the QuoteCloud team
Two overlapping panels with sample data. Behind, Glasswing Studio's time and materials estimate GS-2731 for Northshore Rowing Club: 128 likely hours at $150 an hour, $21,120.00 including tax. In front, an illustration of the hourly FreshBooks project a Zap opened when it was signed: Members' area rebuild, hourly at $150.00.
What changes when you sell time instead of a fixed fee?
Glasswing Studio quotes some jobs by the hour. The members' area for Northshore Rowing Club is one: the club's data is messy, so project manager Sam Whitford estimated 104 to 168 hours, likely 128, at $150 an hour, with a fixed $3,000 deposit on signing.
Nothing is invoiced on signing except the deposit. What matters is that the project exists, at the right rate, before Ravi logs his first hour of discovery. Then every fortnight Sam invoices the hours from FreshBooks, with the timesheet, and takes the deposit off the first one.
- The estimate shows likely hours and the rate; it's not a cap, and the document says so.
- The deposit is a fixed amount set in the document's payment settings, paid through Stripe or PayPal as the client signs.
- Time is logged and billed in FreshBooks. The Zap only opens the project.
How do I open an hourly FreshBooks project from a signed estimate?
Three steps, one Zap. Every name is the exact event you pick in Zapier.
ZapSigning complete: hourly project in FreshBooks
-
When
QuoteCloudTriggerDocument Signing CompleteFires when Alex signs: one signer, so signing complete.Passes on
- Document title
- Document reference
- Signer email
- Only if Filter by ZapierFilterOnly continue if the document title or a data item marks it as time and materials, so fixed-fee proposals go to the invoice Zap instead.
-
Then
FreshBooksSearchFind or Create ClientSearches on
- Search Value (email)
- Organization
-
Then
FreshBooksActionCreate ProjectHourly, at the rate in the estimate.Mapped in
- Title
- Client ID
- Project Type: hourly
- Rate
- Due Date
- Billable
Filter by Zapier is optional: use it when one QuoteCloud account sends both fixed-fee and hourly work. Make works too, bring your own: QuoteCloud's API beside Make's FreshBooks modules.
Alex Moreau signs GS-2731 at 7:22 pm on Tuesday and pays the $3,000 deposit. At 7:23 the club is a FreshBooks client and the project Members' area rebuild is open, hourly at $150. Ravi logs 6.5 hours of data review against it the next Monday.
Result
Every hour the team logs is on the right project at the agreed rate from day one, with no set-up after the signature.
QuoteCloud's Zapier app: Essentials and up
Fixed fee or hourly: how web studios price itEstimate signed, hours ready to log
The signed time-and-materials estimate, and the hourly FreshBooks project the Zap opened from it.
Estimate in hours, at $150 an hour
| Item | Qty | Rate | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|
| Likely hours | $19,200 | ||
Discovery & data reviewCurrent members' data and renewals
|
10 h | $150 | $1,500.00 |
Members' area designLogin, profile, renewals, crew bookings
|
20 h | $150 | $3,000.00 |
BuildRenewals and crew bookings
|
72 h | $150 | $10,800.00 |
Data migrationFrom the old site, checked twice
|
14 h | $150 | $2,100.00 |
Testing & launchPhones and desktop
|
12 h | $150 | $1,800.00 |
- Subtotal
- $19,200.00
- Tax (10%)
- $1,920.00
- Total
- $21,120.00
- Plus, monthly
- $0.00/mo
Accept and sign
Alex Moreau · Club secretary
Signed online · Tue 20 Oct 2026, 7:22 pm
Signed estimate
- Deposit (fixed)
- $3,000.00 · paid through Stripe
- Likely total
- $21,120.00 inc. tax
- Hours
- Invoiced fortnightly from tracked time
Certificate of authenticity and audit trail attached
Zap
- Document Signing Complete
- Find or Create Client
- Create Project
ProjectMembers' area rebuildNorthshore Rowing Club
- Client
- Northshore Rowing Club
- Project type
- Hourly Updated by a Zap
- Rate
- $150.00 an hour Updated by a Zap
- Due date
- Fri 29 Jan 2027
- Billable
- Yes
- Estimate
- 128 h · GS-2731
Activity timeline
- Invoice for weeks 1–2 sent18.5 h, less the $3,000 deposit · by Sam WhitfordFri 6 Nov · 4:45 pm
- Time logged: 6.5 h · Discovery & data reviewBy Ravi DesaiMon 26 Oct · 5:10 pm
- Client found: Northshore Rowing ClubMatched on alex.moreau@example.comTue 20 Oct · 7:23 pm · Added by a Zap
- Project created from GS-2731Hourly at $150, due date from the signed estimateTue 20 Oct · 7:23 pm · Added by a Zap
Illustration with sample data: a generic accounting record, not FreshBooks’ screen.
The project is our illustration of a generic invoicing app with sample data, not FreshBooks' screen. Every business here is fictional.
Say how you bill, in the document they sign
A time-and-materials job goes wrong when the client thinks the estimate is a price. So Glasswing's estimate shows the likely hours beside the rate and states, in the client's own words, how the hours will be billed.
The client signs that, so when the fortnightly invoice arrives from FreshBooks, it matches what they agreed to.
More on hourly estimatesHow we bill
- This is our estimate, not a cap: we invoice the hours actually worked each fortnight, with a timesheet.
- The $3,000 deposit comes off the first fortnightly invoice.
- Anything outside the members' area is quoted as a change request and signed before we start.
Accept and sign
Alex Moreau · Club secretary
Signed online · Tue 20 Oct 2026, 7:22 pm
Signed estimate
- Deposit (fixed)
- $3,000.00 · paid through Stripe
- Likely total
- $21,120.00 inc. tax
- Hours
- Invoiced fortnightly from tracked time
Certificate of authenticity and audit trail attached
Variations on this recipe
A change request, signed first
Extra work outside the estimate goes out as a QuoteCloud change request. Once signed, the same Zap pattern can add a second hourly project or invoice a fixed extra. See change requests.
Fixed-fee phases instead
Some jobs mix a fixed discovery with hourly build. Use the fixed-price project for the fixed part and an hourly project for the rest.
Tell the developer
Add Send Channel Message for Slack so the team knows the project is open and which hours were estimated.
Build it in Make instead
Bring your own: Make's built-in OAuth connection to QuoteCloud and QuoteCloud's API or Zapier endpoints, beside Make's FreshBooks modules. No ready-made QuoteCloud app on Make.
Sell the hours, then log them
QuoteCloud's Zapier app is on the Essentials plan and up. Start a free 14-day trial and open an hourly project from a test estimate.
Build the hourly project Zap in four steps
Start with Document Signing Complete
In Zapier, choose QuoteCloud's Document Signing Complete trigger and test it with a signed test estimate.
Keep it to hourly work
Add a Filter by Zapier step on the document title or a data item, if fixed-fee proposals come from the same account.
Find the client, open the project
Add FreshBooks' Find or Create Client, then Create Project with the title, client, hourly type, your rate and due date.
Test, then turn it on
Sign a test estimate with an @example.com signer, check the project's type and rate in FreshBooks, then switch the Zap on.
Questions about hourly work
Can a signed QuoteCloud estimate open an hourly project in FreshBooks?
Yes, with a Zap. Document Signing Complete starts it, FreshBooks' Find or Create Client finds the client, and Create Project opens the project with the hourly project type, your rate, a due date and the billable setting. Your team then logs time against it in FreshBooks.
Does QuoteCloud send our time entries to FreshBooks?
No. QuoteCloud holds the estimate your client signed, not your timesheets. Time is logged in FreshBooks, against the project the Zap opened, and invoiced from there. FreshBooks' Zapier app does have time-entry triggers and actions if you track time somewhere else.
How is the deposit handled on a time-and-materials job?
It's paid on the estimate. QuoteCloud's payment settings take a fixed amount or a percentage as the client signs, through Stripe or PayPal. Record it in FreshBooks as a payment with the Document Part Paid Zap, or take it off the first time-based invoice, as Glasswing does.
Can we cap the hours?
In the document, yes: write the cap into the estimate the client signs, as a not-to-exceed figure or a range. FreshBooks' Create Project on Zapier also has a Budget field; check in your test what your FreshBooks account counts it in before you map it.
More on QuoteCloud and FreshBooks
Six use cases with the exact Zapier steps, then how to connect, map the fields and what it costs.
- Invoice the signed proposal in FreshBooksWhen every signer has signed, a Zap finds or creates the FreshBooks client and creates the invoice from the proposal's lines.
- Turn a signed statement of work into a FreshBooks projectThe accepted scope opens the FreshBooks project: title, client, fixed price and due date, with the first payment invoiced.
- Record QuoteCloud deposits and payments in FreshBooksA deposit or payment taken on the proposal through Stripe or PayPal is added to the matching FreshBooks invoice.
- Signed retainers become FreshBooks recurring invoicesA signed monthly retainer or care plan sets up a FreshBooks recurring invoice with the agreed monthly lines.
- Keep QuoteCloud contacts and FreshBooks clients matchedNew QuoteCloud contacts become FreshBooks clients, and new FreshBooks clients are found or created in QuoteCloud.
- Connect FreshBooks to QuoteCloud, step by stepCheck the plan, connect both apps in Zapier, build the invoice Zap, test it and fix the usual problems.
- QuoteCloud to FreshBooks field mapEvery field the FreshBooks Zaps on this site pass, which way it travels and a sample value.
- What QuoteCloud with FreshBooks can and can't doWhat the Zaps do, where they stop, Zapier or Make, and what we haven't confirmed yet.
- What the FreshBooks connection costsEssentials and up for Zapier. The FreshBooks recipes here create no QuoteCloud documents, so no per-document fee.
- FAQAnswers to the questions freelancers and studios ask before connecting QuoteCloud and FreshBooks.
Sold by the hour. Ready to log by the hour.
Start a free 14-day trial and open an hourly FreshBooks project from every signed time-and-materials estimate.