Tracking times

Learn how to track times in awork, via the timer, or by using your day view from appointments.

Merle Hecht avatar
Written by Merle Hecht
Updated over a week ago

General information about time tracking in awork

For every project-based service provider, time tracking is an essential part of billing customers. Therefore it is important that every employee, who is working on the projects, tracks their time. Time tracking is often just a necessary unpleasantness for the employee. That's why time tracking in awork is fully integrated with task management and is so fast, simple and versatile that it is as little of a burden as possible for anyone.

What is a time in awork?

A time in awork is an entry with

  • a date

  • a duration

  • and a reference to a user.

In addition, further information can be added, such as:

  • start and end time

  • project and task

  • a comment

  • the type of activity

  • the info if the time is billable

Who can track time?

Every user can track time in awork. However, it is only possible to track time for projects and tasks that can be seen by the user (taking permission management into account).

☝️Hint: In the Enterprise plan, admins have the option of disabling time tracking for all users.

How can I track time?

There are many ways and places to track time in awork. The main difference is that time can be tracked following the task or live by using a start-stop timer. In the following sections, the different possibilities are described in detail.

Time tracking by means of start-stop timer

Only one timer can run at a time. If you start a new timer, e.g. on another task or on another project, the previous time is automatically stopped.

The global timer at the bottom right of the screen

You will be able to operate the global timer from anywhere in awork. Just click on the stopwatch to start, edit, pause, stop or abort it.

The timer is especially useful when you need to start a time entry spontaneously and add more details later, e.g. when you answer a call.

By clicking on the incrementing time, details will open, and you will be able to add projects, tasks, etc. here.

Search function

You can use the search function to search for a project or task.

Select project and task

In the Recently tab, you can see your last time entries and can transfer the details of these to the current time tracking by clicking on them.

☝️Hint: The time entries displayed here initially focus on the task. If you have not selected a task, the project will be highlighted in bold. If you have not selected a project either, the time tracking note will be in the foreground. In any case, the task, the project and the time tracking note are displayed here, if available.

☝️Hint: If you have selected a project, the tab will automatically change to Task, and the suggested tasks will be displayed. Initially, you will see the tasks that you are assigned to, in the same order as they appear in the project. Please note that the task status is not taken into consideration during this selection process.

You can also create a new task via the tab Task > Add task. The project you have just opened in awork will automatically be added as a project. Of course, you can also change the project. If you do not select a project here, you will automatically create a private task.

Editing the start time

Even if the timer is still running, you can edit and adjust the start time in the meantime. The tracked time is then adjusted accordingly.

Pausing the timer

It is now also possible to pause the timer and restart it at a later time. If the timer is paused, it will be highlighted in blue and flashes so that you do not forget to restart it. Clicking on the paused timer opens it again, and you can then continue tracking time via the play icon.

If you go to edit in the time entry via the action button, you can then see how long the tracked time was paused for. By clicking on the "x" you can delete the paused time and the paused time is then added to the total tracked time.

☝️Hint: It is not possible to edit the paused time afterwards, it can only be deleted. However, if the recorded time has already been billed, the pause can no longer be deleted.

Stopping the timer

If your timer is running and you want to end your time recording, click on the timer and then on the icon with the square. This will stop and end your time recording.

Aborting the time tracking

If you click on the current timer and then on the icon with the trash can, you can cancel and delete the time tracking. It will then not appear anywhere in awork.

Start timer on tasks

You can find the timer in the actions of the task list if you move the mouse over a task line. Click on the play icon to start the timer.

If the timer has been started on the task, you will see the running timer in the list view on the task. If you hover over the display with the mouse, you can pause or stop the timer.

The timer can also be started from the task details. You can find it in the upper right corner above the task details if the task is not completed.

Start timer on projects

You will also find the timer in the top right corner of the project details if the project is not yet completed.

Start timers on times, projects and tasks via the action menu

Wherever you reach the action menu of tasks, projects or times, you'll be able to start the timer.

If you start a timer at an already tracked time, the new timer takes over all settings of the existing time except date and time.

Hide timer

If you don't use the start & stop buttons, you will be able to hide them in the account settings.

☝️Hint: This only hides the timers - but does not turn off time tracking.

Can multiple timers run at the same time?

No, only one timer can run at a time.

Will the timer be stopped automatically after some time?

The timer keeps tracking until max. 24 hours (even if the browser has already been closed). The timer will be automatically stopped after 24 hours, unless you have activated the maximum time tracking of 10 hours per day in the time tracking settings. In this case, the timer will of course be stopped automatically after 10 hours.

☝️Hint: The timer will also be stopped automatically if it has been paused for 10 or 24 hours.

Time tracking via entries

You can create a new time in all time overviews and also via the purple action button at the top right of the app header.

This opens a popup for tracking the time, in which you can enter all the information.

Using the slider you can quickly and easily select the desired duration. You can also enter it manually by clicking on the hours at the bottom left of the popup and editing the value.

Using the Add details button you can add more information and select e.g. a project and/or a task.

Even easier is to use the slash commands. Just tap "/" to launch them and select or tap the action you want to perform. For example, you can search directly for the project or task.

Use the slash command "/now" to set the end of the time tracking to "now". If the duration of the time entry is set to one hour, the start time is set to one hour ago. If the duration is then adjusted again, the start time is adjusted, but the end time of the time tracking remains the same.

With Shift + Enter you can also add multi-line descriptions of your time in the text field.

☝️Hint: If you have selected a project, the tab will automatically change to Task, and the suggested tasks will be displayed. Initially, you will see the tasks that you are assigned to, in the same order as they appear in the project. Please note that the task status is not taken into consideration during this selection process.

Time tracking in the day and week view

Click on the menu item Times to find different views with an overview of your tracked times.

With Click & Drag, times can be created in the Day View. The selected Start & End times are then preselected in the window.

The Week View allows you to enter times for specific days by clicking on the dashed boxes on the weekdays.

Here you will find more information about the My Time Tracking section.

Duplicate times

By clicking on the action menu, time entries can be duplicated. The duplicate opens and can be adjusted if necessary.

Can I enter times for other users?

Yes, you can do this by simply selecting another user when creating new times, where your profile picture is displayed. It is always possible to create (or change) times for other users if you have write permissions for the times on the project.

If you move a time of another user to a project where you don't have write permissions for times, the selected user will be moved to your own project.

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