Time tracking

Time tracking is a running timer and the record it produces. Start it when you begin, stop it when you finish, and the entry lands under the day it belongs to. Below the timer is the last fourteen days grouped by calendar day with a total against each, and the total for the last seven days in the card header. Everything is stored in universal time on the server and shown in your own time zone, and the duration is derived by the server from the start and stop times rather than counted by the browser, so a backgrounded tab or a laptop that slept shows the correct elapsed time when it wakes. A timer left running counts every hour until you stop it, so edit the entry if you forgot.

• A live timer with the elapsed time recomputed from when it started, so a backgrounded tab shows the truth on return
• The last fourteen days grouped by day, with a per-day total and the total for the last seven days in the card header
• Entries you can edit, add by hand, or remove, for the session you forgot to start
• Export of the last fourteen days as a CSV file, for taking the record somewhere else
• Project totals for the last fourteen days beside the list

• The server derives the duration from the start and stop times and does not trust a duration sent by the browser. The elapsed time on screen is recalculated from the start time, so a backgrounded tab or a sleeping laptop shows the right figure. A running timer counts the whole time it runs, so edit the entry if you forgot to stop it.
• One timer runs at a time. The screen asks you to stop the running timer before you start another, and a timer started through the API stops the one that was running.
• The list and the export cover the last fourteen days. Older entries are kept but are not shown on this screen or included in its export.
• Times are displayed in your time zone. A colleague in another one sees the same entry at their own local time, which is correct and can look surprising.

1. 1Start the timer when you begin. The elapsed time runs from the moment it started.
2. 2Stop it when you finish. The entry lands under today with the duration the server derived.
3. 3Add an entry by hand for the session you forgot to start, and edit one that ran too long.
4. 4Read the last fourteen days below, and the seven-day total in the card header, to see where the time actually went.
5. 5Export the last fourteen days as a CSV file when the record needs to go somewhere else.

I left the timer running overnight. Is the record wrong?

It records what the clock says, which is the honest answer to what happened. Edit the entry to the time you actually worked; that is what editing is for.

Does a sleeping laptop lose time?

No. The duration comes from the start and stop times on the server, not from a counter in the browser, so a sleeping or backgrounded tab shows the correct total when it wakes.

Can I run two timers at once?

No. One runs at a time, deliberately, because two simultaneous timers produce a record that cannot be reconciled with a day that has only so many hours in it. The screen asks you to stop the running timer first.

Where are my older entries?

They are kept, but this screen and its export both cover only the last fourteen days, which is the window people act on.