A Hubstaff retainer report your client can bookmark.
Hubstaff exports your Time & Activity CSV from Reports. HourTab turns it into a public URL your retainer client opens any time — no Client Hub seat, no login, no invitation that gets stuck in their spam. “How many hours do I have left this month?” answered before they ask.
Free forever for your first retainer · no credit card · CSV in, URL out.
What your client sees
- Oct 3 API sync debug 3h
- Oct 7 Onboarding call 1h
- Oct 12 Landing copy revisions 2h
- Oct 18 DB migration review 4h
- Oct 22 Weekly status 2h
One URL per retainer. Bookmarked once, always current. The item rows come straight from Hubstaff’s Time & Activity export — Date, Task (or Notes), and Time.
Why HourTab instead of Hubstaff’s Client Hub
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Hubstaff Client Hub is a login. HourTab is a URL.
Client Hub asks your client to register an account, click a confirmation email, and remember a password. Half of them never log in twice; the other half ping you anyway because it’s easier than digging out the credentials. HourTab is just a link — open in any browser, no account, no friction. Bookmark once, never re-authenticate.
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Built around the question, not the screenshot dashboard.
Hubstaff’s reporting view is dense by design — activity %, screenshots, app/URL tracking, idle time. None of it answers your client’s actual question. HourTab leads with one number (“8 hours remain”) and a progress bar. The line items are underneath, as evidence, not as the headline.
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Hubstaff measures a date range. A retainer is a cycle.
A Hubstaff report is whatever date range you picked when you generated it. A retainer resets — 20 hrs every month, the 1st, automatically. HourTab understands that shape and rolls the number over for you. Your client sees this month, not last month’s leftover view.
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One URL per retainer, not one Client Hub per workspace.
Different clients on different retainer shapes (20 hrs / 10 hrs / 40 hrs, monthly / quarterly resets). Each gets their own permanent URL, scoped to their cycle. No accidental cross-client visibility, no “wait, can they see the other retainer too?” question.
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Stays useful even if you ditch Hubstaff later.
If you switch to Toggl, Harvest, Clockify, FreshBooks, a Google Sheet, or hand-typed entries, HourTab takes that CSV too. The URL your client bookmarked doesn’t care which tool generated the data. Toolchain mobility is built in.
The flow, start to finish
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1. Export from Hubstaff
Reports → Time & Activity → pick the cycle date range and the project (or member, if you’re solo) → Export → CSV. Two screens. Available on every paid Hubstaff plan, including Hubstaff Solo.
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2. Paste into HourTab
Drag the CSV into your HourTab retainer or paste its contents. We auto-map Hubstaff’s standard time-export columns (
Date,TaskorNotes,Time) — no field mapping, no template setup. -
3. Send the URL once
One Slack/email/text to the client: “Bookmark this — it’s your live retainer page, always current.” They do. They stop emailing you mid-month. You stop writing “you have 6 hours left” replies on a Tuesday afternoon.
Hubstaff + HourTab FAQ
Which Hubstaff plan do I need?
Any plan that includes the Time & Activity report export — that’s every paid tier (Hubstaff Solo, Starter, Grow, Team, Enterprise) and the free tier’s built-in reports for a single user. Hubstaff Solo is the cheapest path if you only need time tracking + the CSV; HourTab does the rest.
What columns do you actually need?
Three: Date, a description (Hubstaff calls this Task; if you don’t use Tasks, the Notes column on the Detailed report works the same way), and Time (Hubstaff exports h:mm:ss by default; we accept that and decimal hours). Hubstaff exports more columns — Project, Member, Activity %, Idle time, Screenshots count — we ignore them. Filter the report to one client / project before exporting and every row in the CSV belongs to one retainer cycle.
I run Hubstaff for screenshots and activity tracking. Do clients see those?
No. HourTab only ingests the time-and-task columns from the CSV. Screenshots, activity %, idle time, and app/URL tracking never leave Hubstaff. Your client sees the durations and the descriptions you wrote — same data they’d see if you sent a manual status email, just always current.
Doesn’t Hubstaff already have a Client Hub? Why a second URL?
Client Hub is a great invoice-and-approval inbox — sent invoices, paid invoices, time approvals, project budgets. What it doesn’t answer cleanly (without your client logging in and clicking around) is the in-cycle question: where are we right now, halfway through the month? HourTab is the “halfway through the month” view. The two coexist; if anything HourTab reduces Client Hub logins, because the routine status question is already answered before they think to ask.
Can I run a retainer in Hubstaff AND have a HourTab page for the same client?
Yes — that’s the standard setup. Hubstaff owns the time tracking, the project budget, and the invoice the client pays. HourTab owns the public “hours used vs hours bought” URL the client looks at between invoices. They never need to cross.
How does the client see updates?
Re-export the Time & Activity report (same two screens), paste the new CSV into HourTab, done. The public URL updates instantly — same link, new numbers. Most retainer-running freelancers do this once a week during their Friday admin block; some refresh after every billable session. Either is fine — the URL always reflects the last paste.
Your Hubstaff time. A URL your client actually opens.
One email when we launch. That’s the only one you get.