Like many people I work as a contractor, so I need to keep track of my hours and to generate monthly invoices. Org-mode already has a nice way to track hours and a way to export to a PDF. What's missing is a reasonable way to bridge those two functions, to generate invoices, and the way I do this is described in this post.
The main approach here is to maintain a timecard.org file that contains all
the timing information. As I work, I clock in and out of tasks in this file.
Then when an invoice needs to be prepared I simply export this file as a PDF,
and I get out a finished invoice. Before I get into the details, here's a sample
timecard.org:
#+STARTUP: showall #+LaTeX_CLASS_OPTIONS: [letterpaper,10pt] #+LATEX_HEADER: \usepackage[letterpaper,tmargin=0.5in,bmargin=1.0in,lmargin=1.0in,rmargin=1.0in,headheight=0in,headsep=0in,footskip=0.0in]{geometry} #+LATEX_HEADER: \usepackage{lmodern} #+LATEX_HEADER: \usepackage[labelformat=empty,textformat=empty]{caption} #+LATEX_HEADER: \parindent 0in #+LATEX_HEADER: \parskip 0.1in #+LATEX_HEADER: \setlength\LTleft{0pt} \setlength\LTright\fill #+OPTIONS: toc:nil num:nil #+AUTHOR: #+DATE: #+TITLE: INVOICE #+CONSTANTS: rate=100.0 #+BEGIN_LATEX \thispagestyle{empty} #+END_LATEX * Invoice number: 1 * Invoice date: [2014-09-01 Mon] | / | < | > | |---+----------------------+-----------------------| | | *Contractor* | *Client* | |---+----------------------+-----------------------| | | Billy Bob Johnson | WidgetWorks Inc | | | 21 N. First Ave | 12 Main St. | | | Widgettown, CA 91234 | Gadgetville, CA 91235 | | | william@isp.net | | |---+----------------------+-----------------------| #+NAME: summary | / | | | | | *Rate* | *Total due* | | | $100.00 | _$941.67_ | | ^ | ratetarget | totaltarget | #+TBLFM: $ratetarget=$rate;$%.2f::$totaltarget=remote(clocktable, "@II$>");_$%.2f_ *Please make checks payable to _William Johnson_* #+TBLNAME: clocktable #+BEGIN: clocktable :maxlevel 3 :tcolumns 4 :scope file :block 2014-08 :narrow 60 #+CAPTION: Clock summary at [2014-09-01 Mon 09:44], for August 2014. | <60> | | | | | | Headline | Time | | | Amount($) | |--------------------------------------------------------------+--------+------+------+-----------| | *Total time* | *9:25* | | | 941.67 | |--------------------------------------------------------------+--------+------+------+-----------| | Tasks | 9:25 | | | 941.67 | | \__ Foo the bar | | 3:20 | | 333.33 | | \_____ Implementing foo | | | 3:20 | 333.33 | | \__ Frobnicate the baz | | 6:05 | | 608.33 | #+TBLFM: @3$5..@>$5=vsum($2..$4)*$rate;t::@2$5=string("Amount($)") #+END: * Tasks :noexport: ** Foo the bar *** Meeting about the nature of bar CLOCK: [2014-09-07 Sun 00:24]--[2014-09-07 Sun 01:00] => 0:36 *** Implementing foo CLOCK: [2014-08-28 Thu 19:40]--[2014-08-28 Thu 23:00] => 3:20 ** Frobnicate the baz CLOCK: [2014-08-25 Mon 10:55]--[2014-08-25 Mon 17:00] => 6:05 * local lisp stuff :noexport: Local Variables: eval: (progn (set (make-local-variable 'org-time-clocksum-format) '(:hours "%d" :require-hours t :minutes ":%02d" :require-minutes t)) (setq org-latex-tables-centered nil org-latex-default-table-environment "longtable") (local-set-key (kbd "<f5>") (lambda () (interactive) ;; ;; Bump up the invoice number (beginning-of-buffer) (re-search-forward "Invoice number: \\([0-9]+\\)") (let ((n (string-to-number (match-string 1)))) (kill-region (match-beginning 1) (match-end 1)) (insert (format "%d" (1+ n)))) ;; ;; Set the invoice date (beginning-of-buffer) (re-search-forward "Invoice date: *") (kill-region (point) (save-excursion (end-of-line) (point))) (org-insert-time-stamp (current-time) nil t) ;; ;; ;; Update the main clock table (beginning-of-buffer) (search-forward "#+BEGIN: clocktable") ;; ;; Here an advice is needed to make sure the Amount column is added ;; This advice is made unnecessary by this patch: ;; http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/emacs-orgmode/2014-10/msg00002.html (unwind-protect (progn (defadvice org-table-goto-column (before always-make-new-columns (n &optional on-delim force) activate) "always adds new columns when we move to them" (setq force t)) ;; (org-clocktable-shift 'right 1)) ;; (ad-deactivate 'org-table-goto-column)) ;; ;; Update the summary table (beginning-of-buffer) (search-forward "| totaltarget") (org-table-recalculate t)))) End:
As described in the manual, the time-tracking in org works with the user producing an outline of tasks and then clocking in and out of them. Org can then generate a table to summarize the hours spent on various tasks in a particular period.
The timecard.org has
- some Latex commands to determine how the invoices look
- some specific information for that invoice (invoice number, date, totals)
- the clock-table that contains the time and $ summaries
- the task outline that the user clocks in and out of
- some emacs lisp to update all these things in unison
The contracting rate is defined in a #+CONSTANTS at the top of the file. The
task outline itself is not exported, but the clock-table it produces is. The
clock-table that org makes contains only timing information and nothing about
money, so I have a formula in that table that adds a column about how much each
task cost.
Every month before generating a PDF the data all needs to be updated, and the
emacs-lisp at the bottom does that. It's a bit more complicated than I'd like it
to be, but it works well. It exports the new clock-table, updates the totals,
the data, invoice number, etc. Normally I simply hit F5, and this invokes the
lisp and updates everything. The end-result currently looks like this.
Not the prettiest thing in the world, but it serves the purpose just fine. One could fine-tune the org exporter far more to generate prettier invoices if they care enough to do so.