Byoxon vs. Timely: True Project Profitability and Client Margin Tracking

This article compares Byoxon (BoB) and Timely for agencies, consultancies and IT teams that price their work on margin. It covers 2026 pricing for both tools, how Timely calculates profit from logged hours and internal cost rates, and what changes when expenses, invoicing and the CRM sit in the same system as the margin.

Timely is one of the best-known automatic time trackers. Its Memory app captures the time you spend in apps and websites, and its AI drafts the timesheet for you to review. It also handles project budgets, billable and internal cost rates, and profit reporting by client, project and person.

Byoxon’s product, BeOnBoard (BoB), is built around a project profit-and-loss report that also carries expenses and projects the current month, with invoicing, a CRM and HR records in the same subscription. So the question is not whether Timely tracks profitability. It does. The question is what goes into the margin figure, and how many systems sit between a logged hour and a paid invoice.

Byoxon vs Timely at a glance

Capability	BoB (Byoxon)	Timely
Entry paid price	$24.95/user/month (1–10 users)	$9/user/month (Starter, billed annually)
Free plan	Up to 5 users, no feature limitations	None; 14-day free trial
Automatic time capture	Not offered — timer and manual entry	Memory tracker and AI timesheets
Billable rates per person	Yes, per project team member	Yes, on every plan
Labor cost per person	Rates, salaries and bonuses per employee	Internal cost rates, Premium and up
Project budgets	Yes	Time or money budgets
Profit reporting	Real-time P&L by project, person, client and category	Profit and profitability % in custom reports
Profit by client	Included in the P&L	Clients & Projects report
What counts as cost	Labor expenses plus tracked expenses	Labor cost at internal cost rates
Forward-looking view	Current-month P&L projection	Planned vs logged cost, Premium and up
Client invoicing	Created and sent in BoB; QuickBooks Online export	Drafts sent via QuickBooks Online, Premium and up
CRM and deal pipeline	Built in, with weighted revenue	Not built in; Salesforce via Zapier
PTO and leave	PTO requests and approvals	Logged as non-billable admin projects

Sources: Timely’s pricing page and help handbook, and byoxon.com, checked in September 2026. Confirm current numbers before you buy.

Where Timely is the better choice

Start with the honest part. Timely beats Byoxon clearly in several areas.

• Automatic time capture. Timely’s Memory tracker records time in apps and websites, and its AI drafts the timesheet. Byoxon’s own feature table lists no automatic tracker; BoB uses timers and manual entry. If incomplete timesheets are your biggest revenue leak, Timely addresses that directly.
• Privacy by design. Timely’s handbook states that Memory activity is visible only to the person it belongs to, not to their employer, which keeps automatic tracking from feeling like surveillance.
• Lower price per seat. Premium, Timely’s first plan with internal cost rates, is $16 per user per month billed annually, against $24.95 for Byoxon’s smallest paid tier.
• Planning-tool sync. Timely lists sync integrations with Jira, Asana, Linear, Trello, ClickUp and monday.com. Byoxon’s feature table says task management is not its focus.

Two corrections to claims you may read elsewhere, including an earlier version of this page. Timely does report profit and profitability, including profit by client. It does create invoices from billable hours, which it sends to QuickBooks Online. The differences are in what the margin contains and where the rest of the workflow lives.

True project profitability and client margin tracking

Profit per client is the number many service firms care about most. Both products produce it, from different inputs.

How Timely calculates profit

Timely values each logged hour twice. Billable hours at the billable rate give logged money, and every hour at the person’s internal cost rate gives logged cost. Timely’s handbook defines profit as money minus cost, and profitability as profit divided by money, in people, project and tag report widgets. The Clients & Projects report totals time, money, cost or profit for each client, with its projects nested underneath.

That is genuine profitability reporting, and it suits time-and-materials work. Three details matter when you rely on it:

• Cost rates start on Premium. Starter has billable rates and budgets but no internal cost rates, which the profit figure needs.
• Cost means labor. Timely describes cost as the internal cost of labor at assigned rates, and expense tracking is not on its feature list. Software, travel and other non-labor costs stay outside the figure.
• Revenue means hours at rate. On fixed-fee work, billable hours multiplied by rates can differ from the fee the client actually pays.

What Byoxon puts into the margin

Byoxon’s P&L summarizes billable hours and expenses. It reports gross sales, labor expenses and average salary, projects the current month, and tracks profit in real time by project, employee, client and category. Project budgets track spending, company expenses are compared with income, and billing can be hourly, monthly or fixed-bid, with an individual rate for each project team member.

Client margin with the client record attached

Timely reports profit per client, but a CRM is not on its feature list. Its handbook shows how to create Timely projects from Salesforce opportunities through Zapier, so deal value and delivered margin live in two products.

Byoxon’s built-in CRM tracks deal value, weighted revenue, probability and expected close dates in the same system as the margin, and clients can get permission-based access to their time records and cost reports. Timely’s Unlimited plan offers live, branded reports you can share with clients.

Where the invoice lives

In Timely, invoices start as drafts built from unbilled hours, by logged hours or by budget. On Premium and Unlimited you push them to QuickBooks Online, send them from there, and payment status syncs back. Timely’s handbook notes that drafts cannot be exported or printed on their own, and that taxes and discounts are handled in QuickBooks Online.

Byoxon creates and sends invoices from the same time records that feed the P&L, exports them to QuickBooks Online if you use it, and bills contractors and vendors from their own time entries.

The tradeoff runs both ways. Timely captures hours with less effort, while Byoxon keeps expenses, invoices, the pipeline and HR records in the system that calculates the margin.

Pricing: what margin tracking costs on each plan

Timely publishes four plans on its pricing page, with up to 22% off for annual billing and a 14-day free trial that includes every feature.

Timely plan	Annual, per user / month	Monthly, per user / month	Users and projects	Margin-related features
Starter	$9	$11	Up to 5 users, 20 projects	Billable rates, budgets, AI timesheets
Premium	$16	$20	Up to 50 users	Adds internal cost rates, recurring budgets, budget alerts, QuickBooks Online invoicing
Unlimited	$22	$28	Unlimited	Adds People dashboard, live and branded reports, multiple currencies
Enterprise	Custom	Custom	Custom	Adds tailored onboarding, training and priority support

Monthly cost for ten seats:

Option, ten seats	Monthly cost	Includes
Timely Premium, billed annually	$160.00	Cost rates, profit reports, QuickBooks Online invoicing
Timely Premium, billed monthly	$200.00	Same as above
Timely Unlimited, billed annually	$220.00	Adds People dashboard and live reports
Timely Unlimited, billed monthly	$280.00	Same as above
Byoxon BoB, 1–10 users	$249.50	P&L with expenses, invoicing, CRM and HR

Byoxon uses volume-based per-user pricing with no add-ons:

Team size	Price per user / month
1–10 users	$24.95
11–49 users	$21.95
50–199 users	$18.95
200+ users	$15.95
Free plan	$0 for up to 5 users, no feature limitations

On price per seat, Timely wins clearly up to 50 users. Ten people on Premium cost $160 a month with annual billing, $89.50 less than Byoxon. Sending Timely’s invoices needs a QuickBooks Online subscription and a CRM is a separate purchase, while Byoxon includes both. If you already pay for QuickBooks Online and a CRM you intend to keep, the gap stays wide.

Very small teams see the opposite picture. Five people tracking margin on Timely Premium pay $80 a month with annual billing, while Byoxon’s free plan covers up to five users with no feature limitations.

Which tool fits your team

Choose Timely if

• Incomplete timesheets are your biggest revenue leak
• You want automatic time capture with private activity data
• Most of your work is time-and-materials, billed from hours
• You already run QuickBooks Online and a CRM you intend to keep
• Per-seat price is the deciding constraint

Choose Byoxon if

• You need client margin that includes expenses, not only labor
• You want invoices built from the same records as the margin
• You sell fixed-bid or monthly work alongside hourly work
• You want the pipeline, PTO requests and recruitment in one system
• Your team has five people or fewer and wants to start free

For other timesheet-first tools, see Byoxon vs Harvest and Byoxon vs Toggl Track, or read how Byoxon handles project cost management.

Frequently asked questions

Does Timely track project profitability?

Yes. With billable and internal cost rates set, Timely reports cost, profit and profitability in custom reports, and its Clients & Projects report shows profit by client. Internal cost rates are on the Premium and Unlimited plans. Timely’s profit is billable value minus labor cost, while Byoxon’s P&L also includes expenses.

Can Timely create and send invoices?

Timely builds invoice drafts from unbilled hours. On Premium and Unlimited it pushes them to QuickBooks Online, where you send them and payment status syncs back. Drafts cannot be exported or printed on their own. Byoxon creates and sends invoices directly.

How much does Timely cost in 2026?

Starter is $9, Premium $16 and Unlimited $22 per user per month billed annually, or $11, $20 and $28 billed monthly. Starter allows up to 5 users and 20 projects, and Premium up to 50 users. Enterprise is priced on request. Timely offers a 14-day free trial, not a free plan.

Does Byoxon track time automatically like Timely?

No. Byoxon’s own feature table lists no automatic tracker, so BeOnBoard records time with timers and manual entry. If automatic capture is your top requirement, Timely is the stronger choice.

Is Byoxon a replacement for Timely?

For teams that want expenses, invoicing, a CRM and HR records in the same system as project margin, yes. For teams whose main need is automatic time capture, no. Timely does that better.

The bottom line

Timely is an excellent automatic time tracker, and more financially capable than its reputation as a timer suggests. With cost rates set, it reports profit by client, project and person.

Byoxon answers a wider question: after labor and expenses, what did this client actually leave us? It keeps that margin, the invoice, the pipeline and the people records in one system. If your hours are already reliable and the harder problem is seeing true margin by client, that is the gap Byoxon closes.

Start free with up to 5 users — no feature limits. Take one client from timesheet to invoice to margin in Byoxon and compare the figure with what your current tools report.