Tracking time

Start and stop timers right from the board or a task, watch reported time tick up live, and see your daily total in the header.

Overview

Every task tracks two numbers: the estimated time and the reported time (how much has actually been logged). You build up reported time either by running a timer or by adding a manual entry. This page covers the timer; for the weekly roll-up and client reports, see Timesheet & Reports.

You can run one timer at a time. Starting a timer on a different task (or subtask) automatically stops the one already running and logs its time.

Starting and stopping a timer

You can control the timer from wherever the time numbers already live — no need to dig into a tab.

From the board. Each task card has a small play button next to its estimated / reported numbers. Click it to start the timer without opening the task.

From a task. Open a task and use the Start button in the header bar, to the left of the reported / estimated figures.

From a subtask. Hover a subtask in the list and click the play button that appears on its row — no need to open it. You can also start or stop from inside the subtask, next to its Reported figure. The button stays visible while a timer is running there, so you can always reach Stop.

Stop. Click the same button again (now showing Stop) — or use the stop button in the header widget. Stopping writes the elapsed time to the task as a time entry.

A finalized subtask can't be timed — its play button is disabled until you reopen it. The same holds for any task or subtask that's finalized or blocked: those are read-only, so the timer won't start.

Time can't be logged on a task whose project is closed (status Completed or Cancelled) — closed projects are outside the billing cycle, so those hours would never be invoiced. This applies to timers and manual entries alike, and to tasks that were linked before the project closed. A timer already running when the project closes can still be stopped, and an entry logged there can still be deleted. To log more time, reopen the project.

The rule works both ways: a task can't be finalized while a timer is running on it — whether the timer is on the task itself or on one of its subtasks. Dragging the card to the finalizing stage, or using Finalize, tells you to stop the timer first. When you hit this by dragging a card, the message names the teammate holding the timer — only they can stop it. This is what keeps time from piling up against a task that's already done.

The task or subtask with the running timer is highlighted with a colored tint and a small pulsing dot, so you can always tell at a glance what's being timed.

Stopping a timer after less than a minute records nothing — an accidental start-then-stop won't leave a near-zero entry behind. You'll see a brief "too short" note instead. From one minute onward, the time is logged normally.

Seeing who's timing now

You can also see who else has a timer running on a task — useful for spotting that a teammate is already on something, or for coordinating when you decide to work together.

On the board. When someone has a timer running on a task, their avatar appears in a small timing-now cluster on the card, marked with a timer icon and a pulsing ring. If several people are timing the same task, you'll see each of them, with a +N once the cluster is full.

In a task. Open the task and look for the Timing now row, which lists everyone currently timing it by name.

On a subtask. In a task's subtask list, any subtask being timed lights up with the pulsing avatar of whoever's on it (a +N shows when several people are), so you can tell which subtask is active and by whom without opening it. Open that subtask to see the full Timing now list by name.

The cluster updates on its own within a few seconds as people start and stop — no need to refresh. Your own avatar appears or disappears the instant you start or stop. The timing-now cluster is kept separate from the assignees on a task: someone shows up here whenever they have an active timer, whether or not they're assigned.

You'll only see timers on tasks you can already open. Timers on tasks in projects you don't have access to stay hidden, just like the tasks themselves.

Watching reported time grow

While a timer runs, the reported figure on the card, in the task header, and in the subtask panel ticks up minute by minute — you don't need to refresh or stop the timer to see progress. Time is always shown as HH:MM; seconds are never displayed. When you stop, the figure settles on the committed total without jumping.

Your reported total today

The header shows a today figure: the total time you've reported today, in your timezone, as HH:MM. While a timer is running it includes the current session and advances every minute, and it sits next to a link to the active task and a stop button. A timer left running past midnight only counts the part that falls in today.

"Today" follows the timezone on your profile. If you haven't set one, your browser's timezone is used as a best guess until you save one in Profile → Settings.

Adding time manually

If you forgot to run a timer, open the task's (or subtask's) Time tab and use Add entry. This opens the Log time panel — the same side panel used on the Timesheet — where the date starts on today (and can't be left blank), you type a duration, and optionally describe the work in a rich editor (see Rich descriptions). When you open it from a task, the task is pre-filled and locked; opening it from a subtask shows the subtask name underneath so you know exactly where the time lands. Manual entries and timer entries roll up into the same reported total.

There is at most one entry per task (or subtask) per person per day. Logging more time on a task you already logged today — by timer or by hand — adds to that day's entry instead of creating a second one: the hours are summed, and your new note is stacked on top of the description, each block headed by the time it was recorded (e.g. 🕐 14:32). The day's entry reads as a short running history rather than a pile of separate rows.

Editing an existing entry opens the same panel: you can change the date, duration, and description. Moving an entry onto a day that already holds your entry for the same task is blocked — edit that day's entry instead. To move an entry to a different task or person, delete it and create a new one.

In a task's Time tab, clicking the duration on any row opens that entry — as well as the ⋯ menu at the end of the row. On the Timesheet's day view, clicking anywhere on the row does the same.

Reading an entry you can't edit

Descriptions are truncated in the lists, so every entry can be opened in full even when you're not allowed to change it. The row's menu offers View instead of Edit whenever editing isn't available to you — on someone else's entry when you aren't an organization owner or admin, or on any entry belonging to a finalized task. View opens the same panel with every field frozen and no save button, so you can read the whole description.

Edit and View never appear together. If you can edit an entry you already see the full description through the edit form, so the row offers Edit and Delete; otherwise it offers View on its own.

You can't log time for a future date — the date is judged by the calendar day in your timezone.

Rich descriptions

The description in the Log time panel is the same editor used for task descriptions, so a time entry can read as clearly as a task:

Format the text — bold, italic, bullet and numbered lists, and links, from the toolbar or the / menu.
Paste or drop a screenshot straight into the description. It's saved as an attachment on the task and shown as a named chip (not an inline image), exactly like images in a task description.

Whatever you write is saved with the entry and shown faithfully every time you reopen it. In the lists that summarize entries — a task's Time tab and the Timesheet day view and week popover — the description shows as a compact plain-text preview; open the entry to see the full formatting, whether you open it for editing or read-only.

Older entries written as plain text keep working unchanged. Open one for editing and the text loads into the editor, ready to format.

Logging on behalf of someone else

Sometimes a teammate forgets to log their time and you need to fill it in for them. The Logged by field at the top of the panel lets you do that, within these rules:

Anyone can log time for themselves (the field is hidden when that's your only option).
Organization owners and admins can log time for any member.
Project managers can log time for members of the projects they manage.

On the Timesheet, the person comes first: the Logged by field offers everyone you may log for, and the person you pick drives the task list — choosing a person reloads the tasks to show only the ones they can access, so you never log their time against a task they can't see. If a task you'd already selected isn't available to the newly chosen person, the selection clears and you pick another. (When you open the panel from inside a task, the task stays fixed instead.) However it's logged, the time counts for the chosen person, and the system records who actually logged it for traceability.

Typing a duration

Every time field works the same way — the Add entry form, the estimated-time field, the Timesheet's day cells, and the Log time panel all use one HH:MM input:

Type the digits and the colon appears on its own. 130 becomes 1:30, 0930 becomes 09:30. You can also paste 1:30.
Only numbers are accepted. Letters and other characters are ignored as you type.
Minutes never go above 59. Typing 199 lands on 1:59.

Timers are capped at 8 hours. If one runs longer — for example, left on overnight — it's stopped automatically and the time (up to 8 hours) is logged as a normal entry. An email goes out so the entry can be double-checked: to the person who started the timer, the organization's owners and admins, and the managers of the task's project.

When a timer is stopped — by you or by the 8-hour cap — after running across midnight, its time is split into one entry per day, each landing on the day it actually happened in your timezone. A timer started at 10:00 PM and stopped at 1:00 AM shows as 2 hours on the first day and 1 hour on the next, so a single overnight session can appear as two entries.

Tracking time

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