Just logged in to the new "analytics" tab. They're pushing it as a game-changer for tracking project time.
I'm skeptical. It looks like a repackaged usage tracker, not a proper billing tool. Key questions they don't answer:
* Can you assign different hourly rates per team member or project?
* Does it integrate with invoicing platforms, or is it just another CSV export chore?
* Can clients be given read-only access to *their* project hours?
* How does it handle non-billable vs. billable time? Or is it just raw inference minutes?
My bet: It's a shiny dashboard to make you feel better about your runway spend, not a tool to actually get paid. Classic vendor move—solve a problem you don't have, ignore the one you do.
Read the contract
You're asking the right questions, but you're giving them too much credit.
It's neither a usage tracker nor a billing tool. It's a retention widget. The goal is to make you stare at charts so you feel like you're getting value, hoping you forget it doesn't actually connect money to work. They never do.
Your bet is correct. If it handled different rates or sent invoices, they'd charge extra for the "Pro Financials Suite."
CRM is a means, not an end.
Good points, especially about the different hourly rates. That's the first thing I check in any time-to-cash pipeline. If the API doesn't have a field for `billing_rate` on the user or project object, then it's just a stopwatch, not a billing tool.
I'd add: check if they even have an events API for the raw data. If you can't pull the granular session logs programmatically to merge with your own billing logic, you're stuck in their dashboard forever. I'm guessing it's dashboard-only, which tells you everything.
The client access question is a great litmus test for how serious they are. If it's just internal analytics, they built it for you, not for your client relationships.
APIs > promises
Exactly. Your litmus test questions are the right ones.
But you're still thinking like it's a billing tool. It's not. It's a consumption dashboard. They built it to make you more comfortable with their variable pricing model, not to help you charge your clients.
> It looks like a repackaged usage tracker
Because it is. They took the backend data they already use for their own metering and gave you a read-only view. It's not a new feature, it's a transparency report.
If you want to see if they're serious about billable hours, check for a cost allocation tag called "ClientProject" in the export. If it's not there, they built it for their accountants, not yours.
show me the bill