Time Tracking
Introduction
There are many reasons that you might want to track time for a task. Perhaps it is so you can bill a client for the work that you did for them. It could also be so you can always know how much effort a task or project has left before it is complete. Whatever your reason, OnePlace's time tracking feature will work for you.
Tracking time is optional in OnePlace. You can learn more about how to set up time tracking in a section below. If you do not wish to track time, you still can set the percent complete for projects and tasks. This allows you to still have an idea how much effort is left to complete a task or project without having to track all your time.
Once you are tracking time, OnePlace will provide you additional statistics in several places. The workplace and project dashboards contain statistics that reflect the effort for all the tasks within the workplace/project. Also, assuming you have the 'Show a summary of my scheduled work on the Home page' preference enabled, OnePlace will display summary statistics on the home page. Knowing how much effort is remaining on your scheduled work is a good way to manage your time. There is also a very good project report within OnePlace. This report provides time tracking information for the project and the tasks and sub-projects contained within it. You also can export this information for use in other applications, such as an invoicing system. See the export section of this help for more information on exporting tasks.
Setting up Time Tracking
Time tracking can be selectively turned on or off for each top level project or task. However, sub-projects and tasks must adhere to the time tracking setting of the top level project. Because of this rule, OnePlace does not display the time tracking checkbox on the sub-project and task Add/Edit dialogs. If you wish to track time for a project and it is contained within a project that is not tracking time, you will need to make it a top level project.
For your convenience, the Add/Edit Workplace dialog has an option that controls the default time tracking setting for new projects and tasks created within that workplace. This is only the default, and can be overridden when on top level projects and tasks. See below:
For top level projects, turning on time tracking is as easy as checking the time tracking checkbox on the Add/Edit Project dialog. See the image below:
For tasks, the same checkbox is on the Add/Edit Task dialog. However, if you are tracking time, then there are extra fields on the dialog for entering the estimated effort for the task.
See below:
For the tasks that you are not tracking time for there is a single field, percent complete, on the dialog. This field is not computed and it is entirely up to the user to maintain this field. Below is a screen shot of the task dialog with time tracking off and with the percent complete field.
When adding a new task, or editing an existing task, if you set the task's status to completed, the time tracking fields on the dialog change to allow you to enter an actual time and a time entry description if you want (see below). This is a very convenient way to enter a task, complete it and apply time all in one step.
Time Tracking and Task Statuses
OnePlace has the ability to keep track of the elapsed time on a task. The status of the task determines whether the elapsed time timer is running or stopped. If the task status is set to 'in progress', OnePlace will begin keeping track of the elapsed time for the task. The browser does not need to be open for this to occur. When the user changes the status of the task from 'in progress' to any other status, OnePlace will stop the elapsed time timer. The time that has elapsed is effort that has not yet been applied to the task (un-applied effort). This 'un-applied effort' is saved with the task and the next time the time tracking dialog is displayed this un-applied effort is used as the default effort for the new time entry. Once a time entry is saved, this saved un-applied effort is cleared.
When a task status is changed to 'paused', 'waiting for' or 'completed', OnePlace will automatically display the time tracking dialog. This allows the user to apply the current un-applied effort to the task at that time. If the user wishes to not apply the un-applied effort at that time then they can dismiss the dialog by either clicking the close button or pressing the ESC key. The un-applied effort will be saved for later application to the task.
If the task is subsequently restarted (set to 'in progress') then the un-applied effort will be used to compute the starting elapsed time for the task. For example, you could have a task that you plan on working on for the entire day. However, you may not want to count your lunch as part of the effort for the task. So, you pause the task while you go to lunch and then restart it when you get back. This eliminates the need to manually remember how long a task took. Another use would be for an accumulator task, such as time spent doing customer support. In this case, you start the task when a customer calls and pause it when the call is complete. When the time tracking dialog pops up, you can enter a note and apply the elapsed time on the call to the task.
The time tracking controls shown when viewing a task have an additional button when you are tracking time on that task. The buttons resemble those that are commonly found on a DVD player or VCR. See the image below. When a task is started (in progress), the current status and the elapsed time are displayed and updated every second. This allows the user to see at a glance the elapsed time for the task. When a task is paused or marked as 'waiting for', the current elapsed time is displayed.
Note: Every effort was taken to make the elapsed time displayed very accurate. However, if there is a difference between the server time and the user's computer time, the elapsed time displayed will be incorrect. Rest assured that even though the elapsed time displayed may be off, OnePlace is actually keeping tracking of the elapsed time on the web server and therefore does not depend on the user's computer. If you wish to ensure that the elapsed time displayed is correct, we recommend that you set up your computer to synchronize your clock with a time server on the internet. Also, the time it takes from the point at which you click on one of the buttons and the point at which the web server processes the request could lead to the elapsed time being slightly longer than what it was when you clicked on the button.
Adding Time
Entering time for a task is easy. OnePlace works very hard to make this as straight forward as possible. If a task is set up to track time and you complete the task via the checkbox next to the task or the 'finish line flag' button on the task details page, OnePlace will automatically display the time entry dialog. If you would like to display the time entry dialog manually, then click on the time tracking icon in the task actions. You can access the task actions by hovering your mouse over the task title. Once the action icons are displayed, move your mouse over to the time tracking icon. See below for a screen with the time tracking icon called out.
The top half of the dialog is used to enter a new time entry. To enter new time, you need to pick the user the time entry is for (by default, the user who is assigned to the task, or the current user if the task is unassigned, will be listed), the effort (expressed in hours) and an optional description. You then either press the Save button or the Enter key. You can enter as many time entries as you need. Fractions of an hour are entered as a decimal. For example, 1.5 is one and a half hours.
The lower half of the dialog is where all past time entries are displayed. You can remove an existing time entry by clicking on the red 'X' next to the appropriate entry. You can also edit
a time entry by clicking on the pencil icon next to the appropriate entry. When you do this OnePlace will replace the text for the entry with editable fields. Make changes to the necessary
values and click the 'Save' link on the right of the fields to save your changes. If you change your mind, just click the 'Cancel' link to the right, and your changes will be discarded.
Below is a time entry dialog with an existing time entry in the edit mode.
Note that when you apply time, as long as you are not applying time as part of marking the task complete, the task will be automatically marked as in-progress.