Introduction to Time Tracking
Time tracking is the process of adding time entries to categories. For information on how to define your own categories see Configuring Categories.
Complete Time Tracking Standard 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.
The main tracking window can be made partially transparent, allowing it to be more conveniently positioned over other windows and remain visible and accessible
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.
When using automatic time tracking you can also track idle time. Complete Time Tracking keeps track of the time that you are not using the computer and prompt you with what to do with the idle time or automatically stop the timer and start it again when you return to the computer. See the Automatic Timer Idle Time program options for more details.
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 add the time entry to. The green category links to the left of the main window are used to select the category.
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. If a category more than three levels deep is selected a popup hint displays the hierarchy for the top category if the mouse is positioned over it. This is useful when selecting deeply nested categories to see which higher level Group categories are selected.
In the previous figure 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.
Changing Categories Without Restarting the Timer
If the timer is running in Automatic Time Tracking mode and the control (ctrl) key is held when a category is selected the timer is not restarted and a time entry is not created. The category is simply changed to the new category and the timer continues to run. This is useful when a category is incorrectly selected to change to the correct category without interrupting the timer.
Selecting a Group (Parent) Category
Sometimes you need to add time entries that are not applicable to a specific category. There are two approaches to this:
| 1. | Create "General", "Other", "Misc" or similar categories and add time entries to them. |
| 2. | Add time entries 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 the time to it or alternatively record time to the Systems project Group category.
By default you cannot select a Group category to add time entries 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:
Selecting the Previous Category
The previously selected category is displayed below the currently selected category and can be easily re-selected by clicking it. This makes it easy to temporarily switch to a different category and then back to the original category. A popup hint displays the full category hierarchy if the mouse is positioned over the previous category.
Quick Add New Category
New categories can be added from the popup category selection menu by clicking the <New Category> menu item. The newly created category is then selected.
Time entry details are displayed at the bottom of the main time tracking window. They are optional and are saved when the time entry is added. To show or hide the time entry details on the main window click the Time Details title bar or the down or up arrow to the right of the heading. Time entry details are also displayed when editing time entries and in reports.
Notes
Notes can be used as a reference of work done. They can later be viewed when editing time entries and displayed in detail reports.
Percent Complete
The percent complete marks the progress of work in the selected category. When the time entry is added the category is updated with the percent complete and it is also recorded in the time entry as a historical reference.
Time entries can have user defined tags as a kind of categorization or grouping. Enter these as comma separated values or click the tag selection button to select from previously used time entry tags.
See also: