You wait tables three nights a week and do bookkeeping for two clients on the side, each at a different rate. Put all of those hours in one list and payday turns into a puzzle: which hours were for whom? This guide covers what to keep for each job, then how to keep your jobs apart with Hours Cat, our work hours tracker for iPhone.
What to keep for each job or client
- A name you'll recognise on a timesheet or invoice.
- Its hourly rate and currency, if it pays by the hour.
- Every shift tagged with the right job: date, start, end and breaks.
- A total for each job, kept apart from the others.
- One timesheet per employer or client, so nobody sees another client's hours.
The simplest habit: pick the job when you start a shift, not at the end of the week from memory.
Set up your jobs
- Open the More tab and tap Jobs.
- Tap New job and type the Job or client name.
- Add an Hourly rate if you want to see earnings (it's optional), and pick the Currency.
- Pick a Colour. While there are colours to spare, each new job starts on one your other jobs don't use, so they're easy to tell apart.
- Tap Save.
Your first job is free. Each job after that is part of Hours Cat Pro, so without Pro the button reads New job (Pro). Once you have more than one job, tap Edit to put them in the order you want.
A job's rate is used for new shifts. If you change it later, past shifts keep the rate they were worked at, so a raise doesn't rewrite last month. If you rename a job, its past shifts take the new name.
Clock in to the right job
On the Clock tab, the job's name sits at the top, above Start. Tap it, pick the job, then tap Start. Hours Cat remembers your pick for the next shift. With no jobs yet it says Choose a job, and New job… in that menu adds one.
Only one shift runs at a time. To switch from one job to the next, tap Stop, pick the next job and tap Start again. Break and Resume work the same for every job.
Started on the wrong job? While the shift is running, tap the job name and pick the right one. The shift moves to that job and takes that job's rate and currency.
Fix a shift's job later
Tap + to add a missed shift by hand, or tap a shift on the Clock or Timesheet tab to open it. The Job picker at the top lists your jobs and No job. Pick a different job, and the shift's Hourly rate and currency switch to that job's. You can still change the rate for that one shift underneath.
See your hours by job
Open the Timesheet tab. The top shows the week's hours worked and, once a shift has a rate, what you earned. When the week has shifts for more than one job, a By job section lists each job with its number of shifts, its hours and its earnings. The arrows take you back to earlier weeks.
Paid in two currencies? Hours Cat never adds them together. Each currency's total is shown on its own, joined with a +.
One timesheet per job or client
- On the Timesheet tab, tap Export.
- Pick the Period (such as this week, last week, this month or last month) or set your own From and To dates.
- Under Job, pick one job, or leave it on All jobs.
- Check the preview, then tap Share PDF, Spreadsheet (CSV) or Print.
With one job picked, the timesheet shows only that job's shifts, with its name at the top. With All jobs, every shift is listed with its job, and a By job list under the total adds up each one. The CSV has a Job column too. For the rest of the export, see how to make a timesheet on iPhone.
Bill your clients by the hour? Export one client's PDF or CSV and you have the hours for that invoice. Our guide on how to invoice a client as a freelancer covers what goes on the invoice.
Overtime with more than one job
The overtime you set in More › Rounding, overtime and breaks counts the hours from all your jobs together. With Hours Cat Pro, a job can have its own rule: open the job and, under Overtime, pick Its own rule. Its hours then count towards its own limits only. Hours Cat only does the sums you set up, so check your own rules for how overtime works across your jobs.
When a job ends
In More › Jobs, swipe a finished job and tap Archive. It drops out of the job menu, but every shift stays in your timesheets. To bring it back, swipe it under Archived and tap Restore, and it counts as one of your jobs again (without Pro, you can restore it only when you have no other job). Archived jobs don't count towards your one free job, so if you only ever work one job at a time, you can archive the old one and add the next for free.
What it costs
Clocking in and out, breaks, notes, your history, editing and Undo, one job with its rate and currency, rounding, the automatic break, the general overtime setting, and the PDF and CSV timesheet for any dates are free, with no limits on shifts or history. There's no watermark, no ads and no account. Hours Cat Pro is an optional one-time purchase that adds several jobs, each with its own rate, currency and colour; overtime per job; pay every two weeks or twice a month, with a pay stub of regular and overtime pay per job; and your job's colour on the widget and Lock Screen. More on the Hours Cat page.
Your hours are kept on your device and in your own backups unless you share, save or print them. Hours Cat is your own record of your hours, not payroll or a payslip.
Quick answers
Can I clock in to two jobs at the same time?
No. One shift runs at a time. Stop the first, pick the next job, then tap Start.
Can I make a separate timesheet for each client?
Yes. In Export, pick the client under Job. The PDF and CSV then hold only that client's shifts.
What if I logged a shift under the wrong job?
Open the shift and pick the right job. Its rate and currency switch to that job's.
Do I lose my hours when a job ends?
No. Archive the job and its shifts stay in your timesheets.
Try Hours Cat
Try Hours Cat: free, no watermark, no sign-up → iyio.com/apps/hours-cat