Quickstart: services, customers & projects

Almost everything in docket hangs off three building blocks. Set them up in this order and the rest of the app — time tracking, budgets, quotations, invoices — falls into place:

1. Services — what you sell, and at what daily rate.
2. Customers — who you sell it to (and their special prices, if any).
3. Projects — the actual work, connecting a customer with your services.

1. Services — your price list

A service is a type of work with a daily rate: "Senior Developer, 1,200 €", "Design, 820 €". Services are grouped into service categories (e.g. Development, Design) that keep pickers and reports tidy.

Manage both under Admin → Services (Admins only). Create the categories first — every service needs one.

Services matter more than they look:

• Every booked time entry needs a service. The service's rate × the booked time is the revenue docket calculates for that entry.
• Every team member has a service as their expertise — their default rate, used for example when time from Jira is imported. Your workspace starts with a "Managing Director" service so the first account works from day one; replace or extend it with your real price list.
• Mark a service non-billable for internal work that shouldn't produce revenue, and archive services you no longer sell (history stays intact).

2. Customers — who you work for

A customer holds the company, its addresses (used on quotations and invoices) and contacts.

The commercially interesting part: customer-specific rates. If you've agreed special prices with a customer, override individual service rates on the customer — every new project for them starts from those prices instead of your defaults.

Customers also carry assignments: a user with the Timetracker role only sees projects of customers (or projects) they're assigned to.

3. Projects — where work and money meet

A project belongs to exactly one customer and gets a project number (PNR) you'll see everywhere from time reports to invoices.

When you create a project, docket sets up the working environment automatically: boards for planning plus a first "General / Briefing" ticket — so time can be booked from minute one, even before you've written real tickets.

On the project you decide two money questions:

• Budget — either in hours or as an amount, and either for the whole project or per month (for retainers). Controlling tracks booked work against it.
• Project rates — override service rates once more for just this project (a fixed-price deal, a discount for this one engagement).

How rates cascade

When someone books time, docket resolves the rate for the chosen service in this order — the most specific wins:

1. Project rate — set on this project?
2. Customer rate — agreed with this customer?
3. Account default — the service's normal daily rate.

Each time entry stores the rate that applied when it was booked, and revenue is calculated from it (daily rate ÷ 8 hours). So Controlling always shows real money, not an approximation — one of docket's core promises.

Suggested first-hour checklist

1. Admin → Services: create your categories and services with real daily rates.
2. Admin → Users: give each team member their expertise (service).
3. Admin → Customers: create your first customer, add the billing address — plus special rates if you've agreed any.
4. Projects → New: create the project, set the budget, check the rates.
5. Book a first time entry on the General ticket — then look at Project → Controlling to see the numbers flow.