Recording time for Projects and Tasks

A company may find it beneficial for their employees to record time worked on projects and tasks for several reasons:

• Time worked is often a direct input into clients invoicing and billing. Accurate time tracking ensures that clients are billed correctly for the work done, reducing disputes and improving client satisfaction.
• It can help track the progress of a project and ensure that it is on schedule. By monitoring the time spent on each task, project managers can identify any potential delays and take corrective action to keep the project on track.
• Time tracking can help to improve project estimation accuracy. By analyzing past projects, managers can gain insights into how long similar tasks take and use this information to provide more accurate estimates for future projects.
• It can help with resource allocation. By tracking the time spent by each employee on different tasks, managers can identify areas where additional resources may be required and allocate resources more effectively.

Starting to record time

To record time worked on a project or task, click the “ Log Time” button located on multiple screens, often at the top right. If the log time screen is accessed from a task then it will directly enter into the edit form which you can than either start the task timer (see instructions below) or enter hours for this task. If it is opened from a place that the program cannot determine the intended task then you will be brought to a project/task selection screen. Choose the task you would like to edit and continue from there.

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Quickly find task for time

Tasks are searched for substrings that match entered text. Pressing will select the first task, and will cancel entering the time.

View total hours worked

Quickly view hours worked for each task

Only active projects are shown

Tasks that are not marked as active will be hidden, as well as projects and tasks that a user lacks permission to view.

Once a task is selected the time entry form is displayed.

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Quick status and actions

Totals, view past entries, task timer. See the [task timer section] below for more information.

The time being recorded

Time can be entered as either a hours:minutes or as a decimal, for instance 1.75 equals 1:45 or one hour and fourty five minutes

Location of work performed

A list of allowed locations can be specified in the system settings, or users can enter their own locations. The select will be pre-filled with either allowed locations or past locations the user has entered. note: this is only a required field when it is set to be so in the settings

Date of entry

Defaults to the current day, but can be modified to back-fill missed entries.

Person who performed the work

Defaults to the current user. Only admins can log time for other users.

Using a timer to track time

Using a timer to record the time worked on a project can greatly benefit employees and companies in several ways. It can promote accuracy and accountability by providing an objective and precise measure of the time spent on specific tasks. By tracking time with a timer, employees can avoid overestimating or underestimating their effort, ensuring accurate project reporting and billing.

Additionally, timers help employees stay focused and improve productivity. By setting specific time blocks for each task and tracking progress, individuals can better manage their time, identify areas of improvement, and eliminate distractions.

Set location where work is performed

Locations can be required to be selected from a list of options in system settings, or the user be allowed to enter anything. If the list is not restricted, the options include past locations that the user has entered time for

Description is free form

The user may enter a description of the work they're planning to perform

Displaying timer

Once timer is started a screen appears that shows the elapsed time as well as allowing modifying the location and description.

This screen may be closed at any time and will be automatically redisplayed when “Task Timer” is once again selected from the menu.

Location and description of timer

The location and description may be updated while the timer is still running. This allows users to refine their description to reflect changes as they work.

Controls of the task timer

The hourglass indicates the timer is running. The cancel button will prompt to make sure the user wants to abandon the log, then return to the earlier screens. "Finish Working" will create a time entry for the elapsed time and display a summary of work to date.