Question

I am new to using Notion.
I want to build a timesheet template to log and track my work hours and billing rate such that i can calculate my earnings based on the tracker.
I don't need to track clock-in/clock-out. But simply how much regular/over-time hours per day
I want to track for multiple clients/projects
I have built a form that looks like this (screenshot below)

This is where I need help:- I am not sure how to create a relational database such that i can perform calculations using the data captured through this form

I was thinking of this database structure to capture the master data that will be used for calculation but i am not sure if Notion databases work like normal relational databases.

Example, Once i setup this database with the client, project, billing rate and over time rate per hour, then i would like in the form to capture hours, i should be able to associate each table entry to a client-project and track the hours to that specific client-project such that I can later calculate the earnings per month or per year

Your help is much appreciated

Answer 1

I hate to say this, but I bet the reason there hasn't been an answer yet is multi-fold:

1. Your structure shown above won't scale and won't actually work (you're already finding this)
2. Based on your wanted feature set, you're going to need quite a few more related DBs.
3. The Relationships and Rollups required will be a lot more complex than you've mentioned.

As a DBA for the past 27 years and a high-end Notion dev for the past 6 years, I can tell you this would be a complicated build in order for it to be scalable and provide the features you listed.

If you were one of our clients, I would provide the following 3 options since you said you're new to Notion:

1. Keep plugging away at it to get something usable (but probably won't be scalable) while you learn Notion along the way.
2. Hire a professional, experienced Notion dev. And they should be fully aware of the feature set requests because this won't be a small project.
3. Use an excellent, affordable, feature-rich, dedicated time tracking and invoicing service like Clockify: https://clockify.me/