A method and system for billing for time spent in an instant message session by a service person for a project for a customer. Responsive to the instant message session during which an instant message is received by a user from a sender, (i) retrieving the sender's name from the instant message; (ii) determining that the sender does not exist in a defined project; (iii) determining that the instant message does not contain any keywords associated with a project; (iv) determining that the sender has not been associated with a previous project; (v) determining that the sender has a profile having a keyword that the user has associated with a first project; (vi) associating the first project with the instant message; (vii) determining a charge to the first project for labor of the service person based on a duration of the instant message session. The user is the service person.