Entering time
There are two ways to log work: run a timer while you do it, or type the hours in afterwards. The bar at the top of the Time Tracker does both — the Timer / Manual switch decides which.
Running a timer
Describe what you’re about to do, pick a project if you want one, and press start. The counter runs until you stop it, and the entry is saved at that point.
If you started ten minutes late — which is most of the time — you don’t have to fix it afterwards: the start time is shown next to the running counter and you can correct it on the spot. The counter catches up immediately. If work began before midnight, the date next to it is editable too.
Only the start can be changed while a timer runs. The end is whatever moment you press stop.
To pick up earlier work again, press Resume (the start button) on an entry in the list. It starts a new timer with that entry’s description, project and “$” marker — the entry itself stays as it was. A timer that was already running is stopped and saved first. The bar switches to Timer, so the counter is in view; any start, end or duration you had typed in Manual is still there when you switch back.
While a timer runs, the browser tab shows it too — ▶ 1:23:45 in front of the page title — on every screen of the app, so you can see it from another tab without switching back.
An entry longer than 12 hours is still saved, but WorkSnap points it out when you stop the timer or add it by hand — most of the time that length means a timer nobody stopped. Check the times, and correct the end if that is what happened.
A reminder for a forgotten timer
If you sometimes leave a timer running overnight, WorkSnap can email you about it. Turn it on in Settings → Defaults, under Reminders: switch on Remind me about a forgotten timer and choose after how many hours — 8 to start with, anything from 1 to 72.
It is off until you turn it on. Once a timer has been running longer than your limit, you get one email saying so, with a link back to the Time Tracker — one per timer, never a second one about the same run. The timer itself keeps running: stop it and correct the end time, so your reports stay accurate.
Filling an entry in afterwards
Switch to Manual and the bar shows a start, an end and a duration. You only ever fill in two of the three — the one you leave alone is worked out for you:
- Type a start and an end, and the duration follows.
- Type a start and a duration, and the end follows.
- Type an end and a duration, and the start follows.
Both ends default to the current time, so a quick entry is often just typing a duration and pressing add. The small × next to a time clears it, if you would rather fill the other two in yourself.
An entry can cross midnight. When it does, the list marks it with a small +1d next to the hours, so a 23:00 – 01:30 entry reads as an hour and a half rather than a negative one.
Reusing a description
Most work repeats. Start typing in What are you working on? and, once you have typed 3 letters, WorkSnap lists up to 5 descriptions from your last 30 days that contain the words you typed, in any order. The ones that start with your first word come first, then the most recent.
Pick one and the description is filled in. If that earlier entry had a project, the project comes with it, and the “$” marker follows that project’s default. A description you have used on two projects appears twice, once with each, so you choose which one you mean.
Suggestions only appear while you are describing a new entry. Once a timer is running, typing in the field renames that running entry, so nothing is suggested.
Choosing a project
The project button in the bar opens a list of the 5 projects you used most recently — or of your projects in alphabetical order, if you haven’t tracked anything yet. Type 3 letters or more to search; the search looks at project and client names, and groups the results by client. The × next to a chosen project removes it again — an entry without a project is fine.
Choosing a project sets the “$” marker to that project’s default, and you can still switch it by hand. On a saved entry in the list, the same project list changes that entry’s project, and the marker follows the new project there too — even if you had set it by hand before.
A project that doesn’t exist yet can be created right there. When a search finds nothing, Create “…” project opens a short form with the name already filled in; Add new project at the bottom of the list opens the same form empty. It asks for three things: the name, a client — optional, and you can type a new client’s name to create it as well — and a colour. The new project is chosen in the bar straight away.
Rates, currency, rounding and the “$” default are not asked for: the new project takes them from its client or from your profile until you set its own under Projects. More on that in projects and clients.
Typing times quickly
On a computer the time fields are plain text, and you don’t need to type the colons or the seconds. One or two digits on their own are hours; three or more are read from the right, in pairs:
| You type | You get |
|---|---|
9 |
09:00:00 |
130 |
01:30:00 |
1530 |
15:30:00 |
153045 |
15:30:45 |
The duration field works the same way, except it counts from hours: 2 means two hours, not two minutes. It also has no ceiling — an entry longer than a day is fine, and you can type 30:00:00 for thirty hours.
On a phone these fields open your usual system time picker instead, so there is nothing to type — except duration once it reaches 24 hours, where the picker has no way to show it and the field switches to plain text there too.
Correcting an entry that’s already saved
Click any value on a row in the list — description, times, project, the “$” marker — and edit it in place. Changes save as you make them; there is no save button and nothing to confirm.
Changing one end of an entry moves only that end and recalculates the length. If that would leave the entry ending before it starts, WorkSnap moves the whole entry instead, keeping its length, and says so underneath — so a 9:00 – 10:00 entry whose start you set to 11:00 becomes 11:00 – 12:00 rather than an error.
That is the one real difference from the bar at the top: the bar is a draft and saves nothing until you press start or add, while a row on the list is a saved record and every edit lands immediately.
Older entries
The list under the bar is a short window on recent weeks, and Load more reaches back a limited way. To review or fix anything older, use Reports → Detailed: it has a date filter, it pages through everything, and rows there are editable in the same way.