Time Entry and Timers

A time entry is one person’s hours on one date against one project, task and project code. It records the hours, a description, whether the time is billable, whether it falls on a flagged weekend, the entry method (Web, Mobile, Timer or Import), whether it is locked, any overtime flag and who last edited it. Every entry belongs to the person’s weekly timesheet.

People enter time in four ways. On the web they type hours into the week. With a timer they start, pause, resume and stop; each action is kept as a timer event, and stopping the timer finalizes one entry with the elapsed time rounded to the policy increment. On a phone, entries captured without a signal wait in a sync queue and become time entries when the phone reconnects. Imports bring in time from other tools.

• Project codes on every entry. Each entry carries a project code that sets its category, billable flag and rate.
• Timers that leave a trail. Starts, pauses, resumes and stops are kept as events with their source (Web, Mobile or API), so the finalized hours can be explained.
• Mobile entries that sync. Each queued entry shows Pending, Synced, Failed or Discarded, with the failure reason when a sync does not go through.

Agree which entry methods each team may use and whether mobile entry is allowed under each time policy. Decide the rounding increment for timers. Load project codes before go-live so nobody logs time to a free-text project. Agree what goes in the description for billable work.

A consultant starts a timer at 09:10 for a client workshop, pauses it for a call at 10:30, resumes at 10:45 and stops at 12:05. The timer keeps four events and finalizes one entry of 2.75 hours against the client’s delivery code, rounded to the 15-minute increment in her policy.

That afternoon she logs 1.5 hours of travel from her phone on the train with no signal. The entry waits in the sync queue as Pending and syncs into a time entry when the train reaches the station. Both entries appear on her week, ready for Friday’s rollup.

• My Time Entries — The signed-in person’s entries with date, project code, hours, billable flag, entry method and lock state.
• Running Timers — Timers currently running, with start time, last event and accumulated time.
• Mobile Sync Alerts — Mobile entries still pending or failed, with device and failure reason.

• Time entry to payroll export: From a logged hour to billing and payroll.
• Timer and mobile capture: How timers and offline entries become time entries.

Review the implementation plan and the data model before importing historic time.