For AI agents: a documentation index is available at /llms.txt. A markdown version of this page is available at /guide/cloud/time/time-tracking.md.
Time tracking
Log hours with the timer or manually, and get data that is actually worth having.
Pro and Premium
The timer, timesheets and approvals require Pro Unlimited or above. The Community Edition has manual entry only.
#Decide why you are tracking
This determines everything else, and teams that skip it end up with data nobody uses.
Accuracy matters to the hour. Billable/non-billable matters. Approvals matter.
Rough is fine. You want to know that "two days" tasks take four.
You need coverage, not precision. Where does the team's time actually go?
Do not. Tracking nobody uses produces fiction and resentment.
#Two ways to log
#The timer
Start it from the task, stop when you finish. Most accurate, because it does not rely on memory.
Remember to stop it
A timer left running overnight produces a 14-hour entry. Check for running timers at the end of the day, and correct rather than deleting — the entry still represents real work.
#Manual entry
Add hours against a task with a date and description. Better for people who work in long uninterrupted blocks, or who forget the timer.
#Log daily
The single habit that determines whether time data is worth anything.
Roughly accurate. Five minutes at the end of the day.
Fiction. Nobody remembers Tuesday, so the week gets divided into plausible round numbers.
#Write useful descriptions
"Worked on task" tells you nothing later. "Traced the redirect loop to the session cookie domain" tells you everything — including why it took four hours.
Tip
When a client queries an invoice, the descriptions are what you show them. Write them as if they will be read by someone outside the team, because they might be.
#Log against real tasks
If there is no task for the work, create one. A catch-all "misc" or "admin" task absorbing 30% of the team's hours hides exactly the information you were trying to collect.
#Billable and non-billable
Mark entries billable or not, and set rates per project or per person. Feeds budget and cost and invoicing.
Decide the rules up front — is internal meeting time billable? travel? — and write them down. Ambiguity here produces inconsistent data across the team.
#Making it stick
Explain what it's for
People log time honestly when they understand the purpose and it is not surveillance.
Show them the output
If nobody ever sees a report built from this data, logging feels pointless — and the quality drops accordingly.
Never use it to compare people
The fastest way to get fictional data. Hours logged are not a measure of contribution.
Make it a two-minute habit
End of day, every day. Not a weekly chore.
#Reviewing
Time entries roll into timesheets for approval, and into budget and cost reporting.
The most useful comparison is estimate versus actual. It is how estimates get better, and it only works if the logging is honest.