Shared language creates shared understanding.

A company is the organizational account that owns and governs its Telometris users, clients, projects, assignments, policies, operational records, invoices, and reports.

The company establishes the tenant boundary. Records belonging to one company remain separate from records belonging to another company.

Company roles define broad authority within that organizational context.

A user is a person with access to a Telometris company account.

A user may record work, submit expenses, participate in projects, review records, approve records, prepare invoices, administer the company, or perform another permitted function according to company role and project assignment.

Company membership does not automatically grant access to every project or every record.

A company role defines broad authority within a Telometris company.

Roles may govern access to company administration, users, clients, projects, approvals, invoices, reporting, profitability, and other company-level functions.

Project assignments and project-specific permissions may further refine what a user may do within a particular project.

A client is the person or organization for whom the company performs work.

Projects are associated with clients so that work, expenses, billing settings, invoices, and profitability retain the correct commercial context.

A client may have one project or several distinct projects.

A project is the operational and financial context for a defined body of work performed for a client.

A project may organize participating users, tasks, approval requirements, rates, travel treatment, billing method, fixed-fee obligations, invoice grouping, expenses, reporting, and profitability.

The project connects the work performed to the client relationship and the company's internal cost and billing rules.

A project assignment connects a user to a project under project-specific terms.

The assignment may carry the user's project role, permissions, cost rate, billable rate, travel classification, and access to project work.

A user may belong to a company without being assigned to every project.

A project role describes a user's function or authority within a specific project.

A project role may affect what the assigned user can view, record, review, or approve for that project, according to the implemented permission model.

A project role is distinct from the user's broader company role.

A task is a defined category of work within a project.

Tasks allow time to be recorded with more precision than the project alone. A task identifies the kind of activity performed while retaining the larger client and project context.

Available tasks are governed by the project structure and the user's access.

An operational record is the persistent representation of a business event inside its organizational context.

In Telometris, operational records include time entries, expenses, and supported travel-compensation records. They describe what happened before downstream processes determine whether a record is approved, invoiced, reported, paid, or included in profitability analysis.

The operational record remains the source history even when it later supports several legitimate business purposes.

A source record is the underlying operational record or billing obligation from which a downstream financial record is derived.

A time entry may be a source record for contractor invoicing, client invoicing, or both. An expense may be a source record for client billing. A fixed-fee obligation may be a source for a client invoice even though it is not calculated from hours.

Source relationships support traceability and duplicate-billing protection.

An active timer is the current running time-tracking state associated with a signed-in Telometris user.

The desktop interface and installable mobile web app access the same active timer system. A user may begin timing on one signed-in device and later view or stop the active timer from another.

Stopping the timer creates or completes the permanent time entry according to the implemented workflow.

A time entry is an operational record of work performed by a user for a duration, date, project, and task.

A time entry may be created through the active timer or manual entry. Depending on policy and eligibility, it may later support approval, contractor invoicing, client invoicing, reporting, and profitability.

The time entry is not itself an invoice.

A manual time entry is a time entry created by directly entering the applicable date, duration, project, task, and description rather than by running the active timer.

Once recorded, manual and timer-created entries participate in the applicable operational workflow according to company policy and project configuration.

An expense is an operational record of a cost associated with work.

An expense may contribute to project cost, worker reimbursement, client billing, or more than one of those relationships. It may include a receipt attachment or other supporting detail where the implementation permits.

Billable and reimbursable treatment are separate business decisions.

A receipt attachment is a supporting file associated with an expense record.

The attachment provides evidence or context for the expense. It does not replace the structured expense information or independently determine whether the expense is billable, reimbursable, approved, or eligible for invoicing.

Travel compensation is an amount or measure the company owes a worker under its configured travel policy.

Travel compensation may be determined by a fixed amount, time, mileage, classification, or another supported method. It may appear as a separate contractor-invoice line.

Travel compensation is distinct from an expense reimbursement and from client-billable travel.

A travel policy defines how qualifying travel is classified and compensated by the company.

The policy may establish categories, thresholds, methods, or amounts that determine the worker-side travel obligation. Project assignments may provide the travel classification used by the policy.

A travel policy does not automatically determine what the client is charged.

A travel classification is the project-assignment designation used to apply the appropriate company travel policy to a user's work on a project.

The classification may correspond to distance, duration, geography, or another supported company-defined category.

Review is the act of examining a recorded or submitted item before accepting, revising, approving, issuing, or rejecting its downstream use.

Review does not necessarily change the original operational record. It provides the organizational checkpoint at which accuracy, eligibility, rates, supporting detail, and policy may be considered.

Approval is the organization's acceptance of a record or financial document for its permitted downstream use.

Approval is distinct from recording. A user records what happened; an authorized person approves the record according to company and project policy.

Approval may affect eligibility for invoicing, delivery, reporting, payment processing outside Telometris, or profitability analysis according to the implemented workflow.

Approval authority is the permission to approve a particular record or document.

Authority may arise from company role, project role, project assignment, workflow settings, or another implemented permission rule.

Not every user can approve every record.

Time-entry approval is the organization's acceptance of a recorded time entry for the downstream purposes governed by company and project policy.

Approval does not replace the time entry. It changes the organization's treatment of the existing record.

A revision request returns a submitted contractor invoice for correction before approval.

The request preserves the distinction between correcting the financial document and casually erasing the work history from which it was prepared.

A cost rate is the internal rate used to value labor as a cost to the company.

The cost rate contributes to the cost side of project analysis. It is not automatically the amount paid to the worker, and it is not the amount charged to the client.

Cost-rate visibility is governed by role and permission rules.

A billable rate is the rate used to value eligible work for client billing.

A project-assignment billable rate provides project-specific client value for a user's work. Where the implementation permits, another configured billable rate may serve as a fallback.

The billable rate is distinct from the cost rate.

Time and materials is a client billing method in which eligible work and expenses are charged according to the applicable quantities and rates.

Approved time may be valued using the project-assignment billable rate. Eligible billable expenses may be added according to project and invoice settings.

The cost of the work remains separate from the client charge.

A fixed fee is a client billing method in which the client charge is determined by configured obligations rather than directly by recorded hours.

Time may still be recorded so the company can understand effort, cost, and profitability.

A fixed-fee obligation is a configured amount eligible for client billing under a fixed-fee agreement.

An obligation may represent an upfront amount, start payment, milestone, installment, completion payment, or another supported billing event.

The obligation determines the client charge. Recorded time helps explain delivery cost.

A billable expense is an expense eligible to be charged to a client.

The expense remains the original operational record. When included on a client invoice, the invoice line presents the eligible charge without creating an unrelated duplicate expense.

Billable does not automatically mean reimbursable.

A reimbursable expense is an expense the company owes back to a worker according to company policy.

Reimbursable does not automatically mean billable to the client. The worker-side obligation and the client-side charge are separate business relationships.

Client-billable travel is a travel-related amount the client owes the company under the applicable client and project agreement.

It is distinct from travel compensation owed by the company to a worker. The two values may differ.

An invoice preview is a non-committing view of the eligible records, obligations, rates, and conditions that may form an invoice.

A preview allows the user to identify available work, missing rates, purchase-order requirements, or other conditions before creating or submitting the financial document.

A contractor invoice is a financial record of what the company owes a worker.

It may draw from eligible approved time and configured travel compensation. The contractor may preview and submit the invoice; the company may review it, request revisions, approve it, and mark it paid.

The financial direction is: Contractor → Company.

A client invoice is a financial record of what a client owes the company.

It may draw from eligible approved time, project-assignment billable rates, billable expenses, and fixed-fee obligations. The company may preview, draft, approve, download, send, and record payments against the invoice according to the implemented workflow.

The financial direction is: Company → Client.

An invoice line is a financial presentation of a source record, billing obligation, manual charge, discount, or other permitted invoice component.

The invoice line belongs to the invoice. Where it derives from an operational record, it retains the source relationship without becoming the original record.

A consolidated client invoice combines compatible charges from more than one project for the same client into one delivered invoice.

Consolidation combines delivery, not project identity. The contributing projects remain distinguishable inside the invoice.

Duplicate-billing protection prevents the same eligible source record from appearing on more than one active invoice of the same applicable financial direction at the same time.

The protection depends on preserving the relationship between invoice lines and their source records. Voiding an invoice may release eligible sources for later use where appropriate.

Draft status means an invoice has been created but has not yet completed the applicable approval or delivery process.

A draft may be reviewed and adjusted within the permitted invoice workflow without rewriting the underlying operational records.

Submitted status means a contractor has presented a contractor invoice to the company for review.

The submitted invoice may be approved or returned for revision according to company workflow.

An approved invoice is an invoice the authorized organization has accepted for its next permitted financial step.

For a contractor invoice, approval confirms the company's accepted obligation to the worker. For a client invoice, approval may make the invoice eligible for delivery.

Approval does not mean payment has occurred.

An issued client invoice is a client invoice that has completed the applicable approval process and has been delivered or treated as delivered according to company workflow.

The invoice represents an amount charged to the client. It does not by itself prove that payment has been received.

A payment record documents an amount received against a client invoice.

Telometris currently records client payments manually. A partial payment reduces the outstanding balance; a full payment closes the balance.

The payment record is separate from invoice creation and delivery.

A partial payment is a recorded client payment smaller than the invoice's remaining balance.

It reduces the outstanding balance without closing the invoice as fully paid.

Paid status indicates that the applicable financial obligation has been completed.

For a contractor invoice, paid status records that the company has paid the worker. For a client invoice, full recorded payment closes the client balance.

Payment in one financial direction does not imply payment in the other.

An outstanding balance is the unpaid amount remaining on a client invoice after recorded payments are applied.

The balance may equal the full invoice amount or a reduced amount after partial payment.

Void status indicates that an invoice is no longer active as an issued or payable financial document.

Where appropriate, voiding may release eligible source records so they can be included in a later valid invoice.

Voiding the invoice does not erase the underlying operational history.

Reporting is the organized presentation of selected operational and financial records for a defined business question.

A report may summarize time, approvals, costs, invoices, payments, projects, users, or other supported measures. The meaning of the report depends on which records and statuses it includes.

Reporting does not create or replace the source records.

Labor cost is the value assigned to recorded work as a cost to the company using the applicable cost-rate logic.

Labor cost contributes to project profitability analysis. It is distinct from billable value and from the amount charged on a client invoice.

Project cost is the supported combination of labor cost, expenses, travel compensation, and other implemented cost measures associated with a project.

Project cost describes resources consumed by the work. It is not the same as contractor invoices paid, client revenue invoiced, or cash received.

Billable value is the calculated client value of eligible work or expenses before or apart from final invoice status, according to the implemented reporting logic.

Billable value is not necessarily identical to invoiced revenue. A company may adjust, defer, consolidate, or omit eligible items during invoice preparation.

Invoiced revenue is the value presented on issued client invoices according to the implemented reporting logic.

It is distinct from billable value and from paid revenue.

Paid revenue is the value of client payments recorded against client invoices.

Paid revenue reflects recorded receipt of payment rather than merely the creation or delivery of an invoice.

Profitability is the relationship between supported project revenue measures and supported project cost measures.

Telometris derives profitability from connected operational and financial records. The exact result depends on which measures are included—for example, billable value, invoiced revenue, paid revenue, labor cost, expenses, or travel compensation.

Profitability is not a manually entered label and should not be presented as though all revenue statuses mean the same thing.

Project margin is the difference between the selected project revenue measure and the selected project cost measure, expressed as an amount or percentage according to the implemented report.

The margin is meaningful only when the underlying cost and revenue bases are identified.

A downstream use is a later business process that relies on an existing operational record or financial record.

Examples include approval, contractor invoicing, client invoicing, reporting, payment recording, and profitability analysis.

A downstream use should preserve its relationship to the source record without replacing the source record.

Financial direction identifies who owes whom.

Telometris preserves two principal invoice directions:

• Contractor → Company: the company owes the worker.
• Company → Client: the client owes the company.

The same work may support both directions without making the invoices equivalent.

Role-based access limits information and actions according to a user's company role, project role, assignment, and permissions.

Role-based access helps ensure that users see and act on records appropriate to their responsibilities. Sensitive internal values, such as cost rates, should not be assumed visible to every user.

Multi-company tenant separation is the boundary that keeps each company's users, clients, projects, assignments, records, invoices, and reports separate from those of other Telometris companies.

A user's access must remain scoped to the company context authorized by the application.

Mobile time tracking is the installable Telometris mobile web experience for recording time from a supported mobile browser.

It uses the same Telometris account, project assignments, projects, tasks, permissions, and active timer system as the desktop interface. It is not a separate native application or a separate timekeeping system.

An installable mobile web application is a web application opened in a supported browser and added from that browser to a device's home screen.

The Telometris mobile experience remains part of the same web platform and account system. It should not be described as a native iOS or Android application, as fully offline, or as available through an app store.