Introduction to Time Tracking
Time tracking is the process of recording time to categories. For information on how to define your own categories see Configuring Categories.
Complete Time Tracking Std has two time tracking modes, automatic and manual. You can easily toggle between the two time tracking modes by selecting the appropriate mode from the Edit menu or by clicking the 
button on the toolbar to change to automatic mode or the 
button to change to manual mode.
Note: You must first stop time recording to switch from automatic to manual time tracking mode.
For an overview of the three main time tracking methods see the First Steps section.
Automatic Time Tracking
Automatic time tracking uses a start/stop "stopwatch" system to record your time. When you commence work on a particular category you start the timer and when you finish work you stop the timer.
Continuous recording means that instead of stopping and starting the timer for each category you can leave the timer running and simply select a different category. Time will automatically stop recording on the original category and start recording on the new category.
For detailed information see Automatic Time Tracking.
Manual Time Tracking
With manual time tracking you enter the start time and the end time or duration.
For detailed information see Manual Time Tracking.
To track your time using either the automatic or manual time tracking mode you must first select the appropriate category to record the time to. The green category links to the left of the main window are used to select the category. Example category links are shown in the following figure:
This list of category links shows the category tree "branch" for the selected category, showing up to three category levels. The selected category is shown last, with its Group categories above it. In the previous example the selected category is Web Server, a task for a Systems project for customer Energex Inc.
When a category link is clicked a popup menu appears allowing you to select the appropriate category. An example popup menu is shown in the following figure:
The categories that appear in the popup menu depend on which category link that you click:
First category link: All categories from the top level.
Second category link: All categories from the same level as the category clicked.
Third category link: All categories from the same level as the category clicked.
For example in the previous category links screen shot clicking the Systems category link will display the categories General, Management, Sales and Systems and allow you to select them or their sub categories.
Sometimes you need to record time not applicable to a specific category. There are two approaches to this:
| 1. | Track the time to special "General"/"Other"/"Misc" categories which you create. |
| 2. | Track time to the Group category. |
For example, you may be working on the Energex Inc, Systems project and need to record some general time spent on the project. You could create a General subcategory and record time to it or alternatively record time to the Systems project group category.
By default you cannot select a Group category to record your time to. You can enable or disable Group category selection from the program options dialog. When enabled the Group category is displayed at the top of the subcategory list. This is demonstrated in the following screen shot to select the example Systems Group category:
Time Details: Notes and % Complete
You can optionally enter notes for the recorded time and set a percent complete status for the selected category. The notes can be viewed when editing previously recorded time or displayed in the Full Details report.
The time details are displayed at the bottom of the main time tracking window. To show or hide the time details click the Time Details title bar or the down or up arrow to the right of the heading.
The notes and percent complete are saved when the time recording is stopped or a new category is selected in automatic time tracking mode, or when adding time in manual mode.
See also: