Configuring Categories

Complete Time Tracking Professional allows you to track your time to user-defined categories. Categories are optionally grouped into categories and sub categories. An example grouping would be customer categories containing project categories and the project categories containing task categories. You might also create a single top-level category to track personal time.

Note: Only Users who have security access to View Categories will be able to access the Configure Categories window.

Before you can effectively use Complete Time Tracking Professional you will need to add some categories to track your time against. Categories are shared by all users.

To configure categories select Configure Categories from the Tools menu or select the

button on the toolbar. The category configuration window looks like this:

When first run Complete Time Tracking Professional contains the following example categories:

The organization of your categories is entirely up to you. Unlike most other time tracking tools you define what the categories mean, and you can create category groups containing sub categories to any level that you wish.

If for example you only want to track time separately for each customer and do not need to use projects and tasks you can simply create one category for each customer at the top level. If you need to track time to specific projects for customers, create sub categories in each customer for each project. If you do not need to track time for different customers at all just create top-level project (or other) categories.

If you are planning to track time billing or income then set the hourly rate of the top-level ALL category so that newly created categories use this hourly rate by default.

The category tree on the left of the category configuration window represents the hierarchy of categories and subcategories. Two tabs are displayed above the category tree:

By default only categories visible for category configuration are displayed in the category list. You can optionally show categories that have been previously marked as hidden (the category configuration visibility area is unchecked) by checking the Show hidden categories check box at the bottom of the category tree. When shown, hidden categories are displayed in colored text.

A category that has a symbol next to its category name in the category tree has subcategories. Click the symbol to expand or collapse the subcategory list.

You can optionally use codes with your categories in addition to referring to them by name. This is common in a formal project management environment. For example, you may know a customer more readily as CUS001 rather than Aardvark Printing Services and can therefore assign CUS001 as the code for the customers category.

The category code is displayed above the category description and is hidden by default. You can enable category codes from the program options window. When enabled, category codes will appear in reports.

The category description will be displayed in the category tree and in the popup menu for category selection on the main time tracking window. The description must be unique within its category group.

The charge hourly rate is used to track billable amounts or to see income. The amount earned is displayed for the current time in the main time tracking window, when editing time and in reports. The source of the charge hourly rate can be the category or the user depending on the Charge Rate Source system setting.

The charge hourly rate of newly created categories defaults to the charge hourly rate set for the Group category (the categories parent category), therefore it is good practice to set the charge hourly rate of the Group category before creating sub categories.

The charge hourly rate and amount earned can be hidden if desired from the program options window.

You can track completion of categories by setting the percentage complete (0-100 in 1 percent increments). You would normally set the percent complete as you create time entries for the category from the main time tracking window by showing the Time Details section. Alternatively you can edit it in the category configuration window, such as when creating a new category that is already partially complete.

When categories are marked as 100 percent complete they will be automatically hidden from selection, category configuration and when editing time entries (see category visibility). You can disable the automatic hiding of categories marked as 100 percent complete from the program options window.

The four visibility options for categories determine where the categories are displayed and available for selection. This is useful for example when you have completed a project and no longer wish for the project and its tasks to be displayed when tracking time. This reduces the size of the category list displayed and therefore makes it easier to select the remaining projects. The visibility settings are summarized as follows.

Visibility	Description
Selection for Time Recording	The category can be selected on the main window to create time entries for.
Category Configuration	The category appears when configuring categories.
Edit Time Entries	The category appears when editing time entries.
Reports	The category appears in reports.

Tip! If you will be creating time entries for both work and personal categories then you can set the reports visibility of the personal categories to hidden so that personal time is not displayed in reports.

You can display hidden categories in the Category Configuration, Edit Time Entries, and Reports windows by checking the Show hidden categories check box at the bottom of the category list.

When categories are marked as 100 percent complete they will be automatically hidden from selection, category configuration and when editing time entries (see category visibility). This can be disabled from the program options window.

When set this category will be included in the Project Status and Project Risk reports (if applicable).

Enter an estimate of the time expected to be spent to complete all tasks for the project or category. The time estimate can be specified as a number of hours, days (assumed 8-hour days), weeks (assumed 5-day weeks) or months. This is reported and tracked in the Project Status and Project Risk reports.

Enter an estimate of or the quoted charge amount for all work to be performed for the project or category. The user charge hourly rate or category charge hourly rate is used to calculate actual charge amounts. This is reported and tracked in the Project Status and Project Risk reports.

Enter the budgeted staff cost for all work to be performed for the project or category. The user cost hourly rate is used to calculate actual cost amounts. This is reported and tracked in the Project Status and Project Risk reports.

Documents the expected or actual start date for the project or category. This is reported and tracked in the Project Status and Project Risk reports.

The expected completion date for all work for the project or category. This is reported and tracked in the Project Status and Project Risk reports.

Documents the actual completion date of the project or category. This can be manually entered but is also automatically set if the category is marked as 100% complete. This is reported and tracked in the Project Status and Project Risk reports.

You can add some notes about each category to record details such as a contact person, expected completion date, summary of the work involved and so on.

Categories can have user defined tags as a kind of cross-categorization. Enter these as comma separated values or click the tag selection button to select from previously used category tags.

Two customizable data fields are provided to allow you to record specific information applicable to categories in your organization for future reference. The Notes field should be used for general information. The name of the custom fields can be customized in the System Options.

Two external reference data fields are provided to assist integration with other systems when using direct database access by proving a method to match categories in Complete Time Tracking with categories, clients, projects, tasks or other entities in the external system. Enter the external systems unique identifier for the category.

The date, time and user that created the category and that last updated the category are displayed with the category details.