Add a client and a project

Create your first client, then a billable project attached to them — name, budget, and team — in about two minutes.

Clients and projects are available on every tier, including Freelancer. You’ll work in the desktop dashboard — press the Dashboard button on the timer bar to open it.

1. 1In the sidebar, open Clients and click New Client. Only Company Name is required — legal name, industry, website, address, and notes can all wait.
2. 2Optionally add a Primary Contact. If you enter their email, that contact gets client-portal access: an invitation email with a link to set their own password goes out automatically. Click Create Client.
3. 3Open Projects and click New Project. The wizard asks what you’re creating — choose Client Project for billable client work (Internal Project and Proposal are the other paths).
4. 4On the Basics step, enter a Project Name and pick your new client in the searchable Client field. Priority, start and end dates, and a project lead are optional, and the project code is auto-generated from the name.
5. 5Pick a budget structure. Fixed Budget is the simplest — one total with payment terms; Team Allocation (role-based hourly rates) and Project Phases are there when you need them. Enter the Total Budget; currency and payment terms auto-fill from the client.
6. 6On the Structure step, add at least one milestone — client projects require one, and milestones are what your client sees on their portal.
7. 7Check the review summary and click Create Project. If you work with a team, open the new project’s Team tab and click Add member to project to build the roster — solo workspaces can skip this.

From here, tracked time, tasks, files, and invoices all hang off the project. See projects and tasks for milestones and day-to-day work, and billing for turning the budget into invoices.