Time Tracking

Log time on a task as an entry: how many hours, the day you did the work, and a note about what you did. Each entry is credited to the person who logged it, so you can see who worked on what, and when.

New in v4.215.0. Before this release a task held one overwritten number of hours. Time already on your tasks was carried over when you updated, so no totals changed.

How Time Tracking Works

  • Entries, not one number. A task keeps a list of time entries. Each has hours, a work date and an optional note, and belongs to the person who logged it.
  • The total is the sum. A task's Time Spent is always the sum of its entries. Reports, invoices and the client's Hours tab all read the same entries.
  • The task's client decides where the time counts. Time on a task tagged with a client counts toward that client's hours. Change the task's client and its entries move with it, unless they are already on an invoice.
  • Only your team logs time. Clients can see their tasks but cannot log time or change a task's time.

There is still no start/stop timer. You log hours after the work, as you go or at the end of the day.

Logging Time

Logging time works the same in both places you edit a task in My Tasks: the expanded task on the My Tasks page, and the task editor in the side panel.

  1. Open the task. The Time section shows the task's total and its entries, newest first.
  2. Enter the Hours. Decimals are fine (1.5 is an hour and a half). One entry can be up to 24 hours.
  3. Check the Date. It defaults to today. Pick an earlier day to back-fill time you forgot to log. Future dates are not allowed.
  4. Add a Note if you like, for example what you worked on. Notes show on the client's Hours tab.
  5. Select Log time. The entry appears in the list and the task's total updates.

Log time separately each time you work on something. Three short entries on three days tell a clearer story than one entry at the end of the week, and each lands in the right period of the client's budget.

Changing or Removing an Entry

  • Your own entries: use the pencil or trash icon beside an entry to change its hours, date or note, or to remove it. Deleting asks you to confirm.
  • Other people's entries: only people who manage tasks can change or remove them.
  • Invoiced entries are locked. Once an entry is on an invoice it can't be changed or removed, so the invoice and the time always agree. To correct it, log a new entry, or permanently delete the invoice first. See Invoicing Tracked Time.

Hours Left This Period

When a task's client has a budget of included hours, staff see a chip next to the task's time with the client's name and what's left, such as Acme · 12.5 h left, or Acme · over by 2 h once the budget is used up. Hover it to see the period. It updates as you log time. For a client without a budget it shows the hours used this period instead.

Clients never see this chip. The budget and period come from the client's Hours tab.

The Quick Time Box on a Task Row

The time and date shown on a task row in the My Tasks list still work: hover the row, click the time, type a new total and press Enter or click away.

Typing a new total there doesn't replace the task's entries. The difference is recorded as an adjustment entry for you, dated the task's completion date (or today if it isn't completed yet). Typing 4 on a task that has 3 hours adds a 1-hour adjustment; typing 2 adds a −1-hour adjustment. Adjustments show on the client's Hours tab marked Adjustment to the task total.

For anything more than a quick fix, use Log time in the task's Time section instead, so the time gets its own date and note.

Time From Before Entries

When you updated to v4.215.0, every task that already had time got one entry for its total, so nothing was lost:

  • It belongs to the task's owner.
  • It is dated the task's completion date, or the date the task was last changed if it has none.
  • Its note reads Logged before time entries, and the Hours tab marks it Carried over.

Because each carried-over entry holds a task's whole earlier total on a single date, a period that contains one may be counting work done earlier. The billing usage shown on tickets says so when that's the case.

Quick Stats and Time by Client

The My Tasks sidebar works as before:

  • Total Hours Logged — the sum of the time on all your tasks.
  • Time by Client (managers) — one row per client with the hours on every team member's tasks for that client.

For a client's hours in a particular period, broken down by person and by task, use the client's Hours tab.

Sharing and Exporting Time

To deliver a time report, filter My Tasks to the tasks you want (for example a client, Completed, last month), then select Share Tasks. The share window can email a snapshot of the filtered tasks or export it, depending on the export options your portal has turned on.

Notes & Gotchas

  • Set a client on every task you log time on. Time on a task without a client doesn't count toward any client's hours. Tasks created from tickets and projects usually get the client automatically.
  • Who can tag a task with a client: staff who manage clients or tasks, and people assigned to that client. Technicians and contractors must be assigned to a client to tag a task with it, including when creating a task from a ticket, a routine or the calendar.
  • Recurring tasks start at zero. Each new occurrence has no entries; the completed one keeps its time.
  • Project cards don't sync time. Time logged on a personal task created from a project card stays on that task.
  • Billable or not, it all counts. All time on a client's tasks counts toward their hours. Whether it gets invoiced is decided when you invoice; billable tasks are pre-selected there.
  • The API. Integrations that write a task's total time still work, and each change is recorded as an adjustment.

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