# Quarter-Hour Billing Increment (15-Minute)

> A common billing practice in professional services where all work is rounded to the nearest 15-minute increment for invoicing purposes, typically paired with the 7-minute rounding rule where 1-7 minutes rounds down and 8-14 minutes rounds up to the next quarter hour.

- **URL:** https://www.clio.com/blog/billable-hour
- **Category:** Time Tracking Practice
- **Tags:** Billing, Legal, Rounding
- **Updated:** 2026-03-20 19:58
- **Canonical page:** https://timetrack.works/ar/items/quarter-hour-billing-increment-15-minute

## Details

## Overview

Quarter-hour billing increments are a standard invoicing practice where professional time is billed in 15-minute blocks, balancing administrative simplicity with reasonable precision for both service providers and clients.

## How It Works

All tasks are rounded to the nearest 0.25 hour:
- 0.00 (0 min)
- 0.25 (15 min)
- 0.50 (30 min)
- 0.75 (45 min)
- 1.00 (60 min)

Using the 7-minute rule:
- 1-7 min → 0.00
- 8-22 min → 0.25
- 23-37 min → 0.50
- 38-52 min → 0.75
- 53+ min → 1.00+

## Industry Usage

**Legal Services**: Most common billing increment
**Accounting**: Widely used for client work
**Consulting**: Traditional standard
**Engineering**: Professional services billing

## Advantages

**For Service Providers**:
- Simpler calculations
- Standardized across industry
- Reduces administrative overhead
- Easier mental math

**For Clients**:
- Predictable rounding
- Industry-standard practice
- Easier to estimate costs

## Alternatives

**6-Minute Increments (Tenths)**:
- More precise (0.1 hour = 6 min)
- Common in legal billing
- Also called "tenth of an hour"

**1-Minute Precision**:
- Most accurate
- Enabled by modern software
- Growing trend

## Pricing

N/A - This is a billing practice.

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