Knowledge base
Answers about hours, WBSO, invoices, and mileage
How to keep accurate hours, what RVO and the Dutch tax office require, and how to invoice without retyping. Each article starts with the short answer.
Time tracking
Track hours, leave, and mileage: what the rules require and what you do day to day.
- What is automatic time tracking, and how automatic is it really? Collecting signals versus making decisions: which sources are available, why you review, and what stays private.
- Tracking hours: spreadsheet, timer, or app? Paper, Excel, timer, or automatic: real pros and cons, plus the columns you actually need.
- How can you measure productivity without monitoring your employees? Why monitoring backfires, and which team-level numbers actually say something about productivity.
Approve and invoice
Turn logged hours into an accurate invoice.
- What are billable hours, and how do you calculate your utilization? What counts as billable, how to calculate your utilization, and where billable time quietly slips away.
- How do you approve timesheets before invoicing? Who approves hours, what to check, how to decline with a reason, and which pitfalls to avoid.
- How do you create an invoice from logged hours? From timesheet to invoice: period, grouping, breakdown, what not to invoice, and avoiding double billing.
AI and MCP
Log time from Claude, ChatGPT, or Cursor, and see what happens to your data.
- What is MCP, and why can your AI assistant suddenly track your hours? A plain-English guide to the open standard behind AI assistants that work with your software.
- How do you log hours with Claude, ChatGPT, or Cursor? How to connect your assistant, sample prompts, what happens after logging, and habits that help you avoid mistakes.
- How does log_work, the MCP tool an agent uses to log your hours in Half5, work? The fields, the four outcomes, how Half5 selects the client, and what the other five tools do.
- What does an AI agent share when it logs your hours, and how do you keep that limited? What an agent sends, what the AI provider and Half5 see, and how you manage consent and memory.
By industry
What makes time tracking tricky in your field—and what helps.
- How should an accounting or bookkeeping firm set up time tracking? Quick advice, busy seasons, and fixed fees: how to track client hours without working late.
- How do lawyers track time by matter—including those quick client contacts? By matter, down to the minute: short contacts, billing units, fee details, and confidentiality.
- How can installers track hours, job sheets, and drives—without paperwork every night? Job sheets, travel time, urgent call-outs, and van drives: how installation businesses keep their hours organized.
- How can developers and software teams track hours without piecing together the week on Friday? Context switches, support questions, commits, AI sessions, and fixed prices: time tracking that matches how developers actually work.
- How can a marketing, creative, or consulting agency keep project hours on track? Retainers, revision rounds, and scope creep: spot where the budget is going before it’s too late.
