Support
We're happy to help. Send us an email and we'll get back to you as soon as possible, usually within one business day.
Getting help
The answers below are the same ones Hobbs carries in the app, under Settings → Help. If yours isn't here, email us and we'll walk you through it. When reporting a problem, including your iPhone model and iOS version helps us track it down faster. Please don't send us your clients' details or a backup file unless we ask; we can usually help without them.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I get started?
Time is logged against a project, a project belongs to a client, and an invoice covers a client and whichever of its projects you pick. A good first pass: set your prices in Settings → Rate card; add a client; add a project to that client. Your letterhead, the name, address, and contact details printed on every invoice, is in Settings → Business.
How do rates work?
A work type is something you do at a price, such as Design, On-site, or Consulting, and every time entry is logged against one. Rates run down a chain: your rate card, then the client, then the project. Each level can override the one above it, and anything you haven't overridden follows along, so changing what a client pays moves every one of their projects with it. Changing a rate only affects time logged from then on: every entry keeps the rate it was logged at.
How does the timer work?
Start a timer from the Timesheet tab or from a project's own screen. It keeps counting whether or not the app is open, and shows above the tab bar, on the Lock Screen, and in the Dynamic Island. Pause stops the clock without leaving the task. Tapping the running timer opens today's rotation, every task you've timed today, and tapping one switches to it at that instant, so no time is lost between them.
I forgot to pause for lunch. How do I fix it?
Open the entry and split the stretch: pick the time away, and one stretch becomes two, with a gap between them. Gaps never count toward what bills. From the day timeline (tap a day's header on the Timesheet), the same sheet can log that time to another task instead. Forgot to resume after a pause? Swipe the gap on the timeline to merge it back in.
How does rounding work?
Rounding is set once, in Settings → Business, from exact through 1, 6, 15, and 30 minutes to a full hour. A task is one entry per day, and its hours round once, from everything you worked on it that day, so a pause or a switch never changes what bills. Any nonzero work bills at least one increment, and the entry editor shows the worked and billed figures side by side.
How do I make an invoice?
Tap + on the Invoices tab, or New invoice on a client. The period comes from the client's billing schedule (end of month, the 15th, the 1st and 16th, or weekly), and the invoice gathers that client's unbilled time and expenses for the projects you pick. A schedule only suggests a date: Hobbs never issues an invoice on its own. Approving an invoice freezes it, so later changes to a client or a rate never rewrite it.
How are invoices numbered?
A number is a prefix, a year, and a sequence, such as INV-2026-001; the prefix is yours to set. It's claimed the first time the invoice leaves the app, by export, share, or send, and cancelling the mail composer hands it back. The sequence restarts each January, and deleting an invoice leaves a gap rather than reusing its number. Its time goes back to unbilled, ready for the next invoice.
How do I send an invoice?
Two ways. Send to client attaches the PDF to a message in Apple's Mail composer, from your own mail account, with the client's addresses and a standard message filled in; with no mail account on the phone, it opens the share sheet instead. Export PDF (or Approve & export) opens the share sheet whatever your mail setup, so you can AirDrop the PDF to your Mac, save it to Files or iCloud Drive, or send it from another app. A mailed invoice is marked Sent only when Mail reports that it went; for an exported one, use Mark as sent and pick the day it went out. You mark it Paid from its own screen.
Does my data sync? How do I back it up?
Your data syncs across your own devices through iCloud, under your Apple Account, and never goes anywhere else. Settings → Backup exports everything as a single JSON file, readable text rather than a private format. Restoring replaces everything in Hobbs with the file's contents; it isn't a merge and there's no undo, so export first. See the privacy policy for exactly what is stored where.
What does Hobbs cost, and how do I restore my purchase?
Your first invoice is free, whenever you send it. After that, unlimited invoicing is a one-time purchase in Settings → Hobbs Unlock. It's not a subscription, nothing renews, and Family Sharing is included. Bought it on another phone, or reinstalled? Settings → Hobbs Unlock → Restore Purchase. For billing and refunds, see Apple's billing support.