Time Tracking in Projects

In this article, you'll learn how to use time tracking in your project. You'll discover how to manage budgets, create time entries, use different views and filters, and export time data.

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Key Benefits and Use Cases

With project time tracking, you keep an eye on effort, budget, and billing:

• View all tracked time - directly in the project

• Monitor budget and billing - including billability

• Compare plan vs. actual - adjust planned efforts and see progress

• Check retainer budgets - development per month as a bar chart

• Edit multiple time entries at once - in the project or in reports

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How to Access Time Tracking in Your Project

1. Open a project.
2. Click Time in the header. (If you don't see the tab, first click the More dropdown menu.)

In the Time tab of your project, you'll find all time entries recorded on the project (or the project's tasks).

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Project KPIs

• Total tracked time - broken down into billable and non-billable

• Budget - project budget and tracked time; you can adjust the project budget directly via Edit

• Billable - time to be billed and already billed time; use + Invoice to go to Time Reports and create an invoice (the current month is automatically selected there and can be adjusted)

• Actual vs. Plan - tracked time vs. sum of planned efforts for all tasks

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Switch Views

Above the chart, you'll find a toggle with two options:

• Plan vs. actual: Shows a comparison between planned and actually tracked hours as a line chart.
• Retainer: monthly bar chart showing how the budget has developed over the months.
• Time: Shows tracked time as a bar chart by time period.

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Plan vs. Actual

The line chart in the Plan vs. Actual view lets you quickly see your project budget progress. The line shows tracked time compared to your project budget. Once tracked time approaches the project budget, the line turns red.

Configure display options
Click the settings icon to the right above the chart. A settings menu opens with these options:

• Show completed tasks: Show or hide completed tasks
• Show lists and tasks without planned effort: Also displays entries without plan values
• Show only billable tracked time: Filters the display to billable time only

Click the respective toggle to enable or disable the option.

Navigate by time period: Use the arrow icons in the top right of the chart.

Below the line chart, you'll find a comparison of tracked and planned time.

Expand task lists
Time entries are initially grouped by list. Click the arrow to the left of a list name to show the tasks it contains.

Edit planned effort
In the expanded list view, you can click the hour values in the column to adjust the planned effort for individual lists or tasks.

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Time

In the Time view, you'll see all tracked time for your project over the entire time period. The bar chart gives you an overview of how tracked time breaks down by criteria. When you hover over bars with your mouse, you'll see additional information (depending on the grouping).

Adjust time period
Click the dropdown to the right above the chart to change the displayed time period. These options are available:

• Day: Daily view
• Week: Weekly view
• Month: Monthly view
• Quarter: Quarterly view
• Year: Yearly view
• All time: All tracked time

Use the back arrow and forward arrow to the left and right of the time period dropdown to navigate to the previous or next time period.

Change grouping
Click the grouping icon in the toolbar to group time entries by different criteria:

• Activity
• Billability
• User
• Day, week, month, quarter, or year

Configure the time table

• Drag and drop columns to reorder them
• Sort time entries ascending or descending per column using the dropdown arrows that appear when you hover over the column header
• Resize columns using the column handle

Apply actions to selected entries

In the time table, you can select individual entries using the checkbox on the left side of each row. Selected rows are highlighted in color. Click the checkbox in the table header to select or deselect all visible entries.
When entries are selected, an action bar appears at the bottom of the screen. It shows the number of selected entries and offers various actions:

• Delete entries using the trash icon
• Via the action menu: Mark as billed, Mark as billable, Mark as unbilled, Mark as non-billable, Set activity, Set project, Set task, Set user, Delete

Action button per time entry

In the left User column, there's an action button where you can edit, duplicate, or delete the time entry, as well as restart the timer.

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Retainer

Monitor your project's monthly retainer budget in the Retainer view.

There you'll find a monthly bar chart showing how the budget has developed over the past months. For future months, the currently configured budget is displayed.

The chart shows:

• a light gray line - monthly base budget

• a purple line - actually tracked hours that were applied to the budget

If carryover is enabled, the current month's area is striped. When you hover your mouse over the line points or bars, the monthly budget and used budget are displayed.

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Track, Search, and Export Time

Track Time in the Project

Click + Time above the chart to create a new time entry. The project is already pre-selected.

Search Time Entries by Task

Using the line at the top left with the magnifying glass icon to the right of + Time, you can search for main and subtasks within the project.

Export Data

1. Click the action button to the right above the chart. A dropdown menu opens.
2. Select the Export option to download the time data.

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FAQ

Are running timers shown in the project Time tab?

No. Running time entries (timer started but not yet stopped) are not displayed there yet.

Can I adjust the project budget directly in the Time overview?

Yes. In the Budget tile, you can adjust the project budget directly via Edit.

Why is the + Invoice button grayed out?

The + Invoice button is grayed out when there's no billable time.

Can I edit all time entries in a project at once?

Yes. You can do this in the Time tab in the project as well as in Time Reports. You can select multiple or all time entries using the checkboxes on the left and edit them collectively.