Time Tracker

Sound familiar?

You finish a project, go to send the invoice… and realize you have no idea how many hours you actually put in. So you guess. And you almost always guess low. Whether you bill hourly or charge a flat rate — that guessing is costing you money on every single job.

🆕 Just updated — v1.03

A full redesign of the tracker window (Studio). Same engine, same data, same invoices — it just looks and reads far better while you're working in it.

• A timer you can read across the room — large, centred and monospaced, so the digits stop twitching as they count
• Running state at a glance — a green dot and "Tracking" beside your project name, and the button turns red while you're on the clock
• Settings tucked away — rate, currency and idle timeout now sit behind a Settings button, so the window opens on your timer instead of on a form
• Today and This week — clear, separate lines in the overview instead of one squashed row
• Room to breathe — cleaner spacing throughout, plus a restyled session history and per-page graph

Also in recent updates

• Fully automatic tracking — resumes by itself after an idle stop and switches with you when you jump projects (Studio)
• Crash-proof sessions — your running session saves every second and recovers itself after a crash, quit or restart
• Compact mode — shrink the tracker to a tiny floating timer widget beside your timeline (Studio)
• Render time counts — exports credit the Deliver page and the clock keeps running through them
• Speed Editor friendly — review passes on a control surface register as activity instead of triggering idle stops
• Currency dropdown — pick from 20+ currencies, and new projects inherit your last rate

Free update for existing customers — just re-download from your purchase link. Your existing time, rates and history carry over untouched.

Two editions in the box — works on free and Studio

DaVinci Resolve restricts script windows to Resolve Studio, so the tracker ships in two editions and you install the one that matches your Resolve. Your time tracking, billing and invoices work either way.

• Free Edition — runs on DaVinci Resolve free (19.1+). One-click start/stop, per-project time and billing, session notes, and one-click CSV invoices.
• Studio Edition — for DaVinci Resolve Studio. Adds the newly redesigned live window with its big on-screen timer, the live per-page bar graph, automatic idle stop and resume, and Compact mode.

Built for how you actually charge. Hourly freelancers stop leaking billable time. Flat-rate creators finally see their real effective rate. Either way, it pays for itself on the first project.

1 · The Tracker

Everything described above.

The time tracker in both editions (free & Studio), the illustrated Mac & Windows manuals, and free lifetime updates. The complete tool for knowing exactly what every project costs you in hours.

2 · The Tracker + Price Like a Pro

Everything in Option 1, plus the negotiation playbook.

Price Like a Pro is an 18-page companion guide that answers the harder question the tracker can't: what should those hours actually be worth, and how do you get paid that? Tracking your time only pays off if your rate is right and you can defend it in the room.

• The four ways editors get paid — hourly, flat, day rate, retainer — and which one quietly underpays you
• Know your number — the floor-rate math that builds a rate that actually covers your life
• 2026 U.S. rate benchmarks — hourly by experience level and flat ranges by deliverable
• The hidden line items — usage rights, whitelisting, exclusivity, raw files and rush fees most editors give away free
• Word-for-word negotiation scripts — exactly what to say when a client says "that's more than we budgeted"
• A one-page cheat sheet & rate-setting worksheet — print them, keep them by your inbox

Delivered as a clean, ready-to-read PDF (Mac & Windows).

3 · The Complete Kit + Rate Calculator

Everything in Option 2, plus the Rate Calculator spreadsheet. Best value.

The full system: the tracker, the Price Like a Pro playbook, and the Rate Calculator — a fill-in-the-blanks spreadsheet that turns the playbook's advice into your actual numbers. Fill in the blue cells; everything else calculates itself.

• Rate Calculator tab — enter what you need to earn and your real billable hours, and get your three numbers to price from: Floor, Target and Reach
• Quote Builder tab — build a real client quote, toggle on rush, usage rights and raw files, and it totals the job and checks your effective hourly against your Floor
• Benchmarks tab — 2026 U.S. market ranges and standard add-on uplifts, so your numbers stay grounded

Pair it with the tracker and the loop closes: log your hours, divide the fee by the time it really took, and watch your rates only ever move one direction.