Zeiterfassung — Time Tracking Guide

What it does

Time Tracking lets every employee log working hours — either by clocking in and out in real time, or by adding entries manually after the fact. Each entry can be linked to a project, task, event, or location. Tracked time feeds directly into client invoicing and payroll, so nothing gets lost between the job and the bill.

An hour balance widget shows each person how their actual hours compare to their weekly target, adjusted for part-time schedules and approved leave.

There is no separate approval step for time entries. Once payroll is run, the entries it processes are locked and become read-only — that's the built-in sign-off.

How to set up

1. Set each employee's default hourly rate — go to Employees, open the employee's profile, and set their default rate. This is the fallback when no project rate applies.
2. Create projects (recommended if you bill clients by the hour) — go to Projects > New. Set a project hourly rate there if it differs from the employee default.
3. Set per-member project rates — inside a project's Team tab, you can override the rate for individual team members. This takes highest priority.
4. Confirm working schedules — each employee's contracted work percentage and weekly hours drive the target shown in the hour balance widget.

You can skip project rate setup entirely if you only track hours for payroll and don't bill clients.

Daily use

1. Open the TimeClock widget, pick a project or task, and click Clock In.
2. Use Break Start / Break End for breaks, or click Clock Out at the end of the shift. Duration is calculated automatically.
3. To add an entry after the fact, go to Time Entries > New and fill in start, end, and break time manually.
4. To import many entries at once, use Time Entries > Import (CSV). A preview screen shows any errors before the import is confirmed.
5. Managers can review their team's entries under Time Entries > Team — useful for catching missing project tags before billing.
6. Admins run payroll monthly, which locks all processed entries so they can't be changed.
7. When creating an invoice, use the Add unbilled hours tab to pull tracked, billable time directly onto the invoice.

Works together with

• Projects — provides the project, task, and rate context for every entry. Required for billable time tracking.
• Invoicing — billable time entries flow into draft invoices via the "Add unbilled hours" tab.
• Hour Balance — reads completed entries alongside contracted hours and approved leave to calculate the running balance.
• Payroll — locks entries when they are processed. Locked entries can only be reopened by an admin.
• Shift Planning — planned shifts and clocked hours should match; managers can spot discrepancies in the team view.

Tips

• Clocked entries can't be edited after clock-out. If a clocked entry is wrong, delete it and re-create it as a manual entry — but only before payroll locks it.
• The hourly rate priority order is: individual project-member rate → project default rate → employee default rate.
• CSV import is all-or-nothing. A single bad row cancels the whole batch. Always run the preview step first.
• GPS location is captured only if the browser has permission. It's for reference only — there's no location enforcement.
• The weekly target adjusts for approved leave. A part-time employee on a week with an approved vacation day will see a proportionally smaller target.
• If a billable entry seems missing from a draft invoice, check whether it was already added to a previous invoice or locked into a payroll run.