Get Started
Introduction
What Consultainer is and how these docs are organized
Consultainer runs client engagements for consultancies: clients, projects, tasks, time, milestones, expenses and invoices in one place, self-hosted on your own server. It connects to the tools you already use (Linear, your calendar, Slack, QuickBooks, Stripe, Google Drive and others, AI agents) instead of being one more app to keep updated by hand.
It's open source (Apache-2.0) and self-hosted only: no per-seat pricing, no plan limits, no telemetry.
Get started
From an empty server to your first sent invoice.
Self-hostingInstall, HTTPS, scheduled jobs, storage, upgrades, backups and restore.
Team & securityRoles, invites, SSO, two-factor authentication and API keys.
Running engagements
Clients with contacts, links and access-controlled documents, and the projects under them: hourly, flat-fee or milestone-based, with per-person bill rates, hour budgets and client share links.
TasksA task list per project and across all of them, with due dates, comments, @mentions, watchers and timers.
Time trackingLog hours by hand, with a timer, or from calendar meetings, with optional weekly timesheet approval.
Milestones & deliverablesMilestones you bill for when they're done, and deliverables you track without billing, with evidence attached.
CalendarYour meetings and every deadline in one month view, reminders, and a feed for your own calendar app.
ExpensesExpenses with receipts, approval above a threshold, and billing to the client.
InvoicingInvoice unbilled time, milestones and expenses; email a tracked link; retainers and billing cycles on a schedule; overdue reminders.
ReportsUtilization, profit by project, unbilled work and receivables.
Alerts & audit logSlack and email alerts you choose, a weekly digest, and a record of every change.
Integrations
Link documents from Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive and Notion, and file invoices and documents into a folder automatically.
LinearTwo-way sync of a project's tasks and comments with Linear.
CalendarsTurn meetings from your calendar into time entries.
PaymentsPayment methods on invoices, and online payment with Stripe or Mercury.
QuickBooksPush invoices to QuickBooks Online and sync their status back.
Build with Consultainer
Log time, run timers and draft invoices from Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Cursor or any MCP client.
REST APIRead and write clients, projects, tasks, time, invoices and the audit log with an API key.
Who can do what
Organizations have three roles. Members work on clients, projects, tasks and their own time. Admins also manage settings, people, reports, approvals and sending invoices. The Owner, who set the organization up, can also change instance-wide settings. The full list is in Team & security. Setup guides in these docs say which role each step needs.