Overview
Time tracking is how organizations record the working hours of employees and ensure those employees are compensated accurately for their time. Link your customer churn to implementation time while:
Tracking internal implementation efficiency.
Gaining insight to implementation cost, revenue, and profitability.
Allowing for more accurate project forecasting for external users.
Analyzing project health.
User Access
Admin can create Time Tracking Categories & Billing Profiles in Company Details' Settings, enter time across all projects, and see Time Tracking reports tied to all projects. Managers can enter time across all projects and see Time Tracking reports tied to all projects. Guides, Task Owners, and Contributors can enter time on their assigned projects and see time tracking reports tied to their own projects. Observers & Third Parties do not have any visibility into Time Tracking. Customers can see allotted hours on a project, should that visibility be provided.
Time Tracking Categories
Time Tracking Categories allow Organizations to see how their team members are spending their time. Categories can be designated as Billable--tying a rate to these Categories or Non-Billable with no rates being assigned to these Categories .
Why Do Categories Matter?
Three primary reasons why Categories add value:
If you are running projects and billing hourly based on the work being done, Categories are how the system knows what rate to use for what work. This allows you more billing flexibility.
If you want to understand your costs, so need to track any and all time spent on projects, but don’t necessarily want all of that time to be billed and/or visible to customers, choosing a category that is non-billable will allow you to track the time and not have it show to customers.
If you want to get a better understanding of where your team is spending their time – Categories will allow you greater granularity and insight in reporting (see Time Reporting).
How to Create Categories
Admin can navigate to Company Details
Select the "Settings" tab
Select "+ADD CATEGORY"
Provide an optional brief description and decide whether it is Billable (assign a rate) or Non-Billable
Set expectations with your team about choosing the right Categories when entering time across the platform
Non-Billable categories – Any time logged with a non-billable time category will NOT count towards billable hours or allotted hours used.
Billable categories – When creating a billable category, you will be asked to provide a rate that should be used for time logged in this category. Billable time logged will count towards billing totals (if the project has an hourly billing type) and allotted hours used.
Note: The specific category rates will only be used for billing calculations IF the billing type for the project is set to Hourly-Categorized Rates. Any changes made to Categories will be immediately effective for both new and in-flight projects. Existing time records using the Categories will not be changed, but any new time entries made with the Categories will reflect the changes and whatever the current state is at the time of time entry.
Billing Profiles
Setting up a Billing Profile allows you to set how & what you are charging as well as allotted hours for the projects you run in GUIDEcx. You can setup multiple Billing Profiles for your organization, and during Project creation, you will select the applicable Billing Profile for that project.
How to Create Billing Profiles
You can create Billing Profiles by following these steps:
Access COMPANY DETAILS by clicking on your company logo OR the 3 "dots" next to your company name.
Click on Settings
Click "+ADD BILLING PROFILE"
Name the Billing Profile
Assign a Billing Type
Choosing the Right Billing Type
Flat Fee: Select this option if you set a fee in advance for projects. If you do not charge anything for projects, select this type and enter $0 for the fee amount.
Note: The dollar amount you set for your billing profiles will be the default value when you select the billing profile on your project, but you can modify the dollar amount per project as needed in project setup.
Hourly – Single Rate: Select this option if you charge a standard hourly rate for time logged on your projects. Enter the dollar amount you use for your standard hourly rate. You cannot edit this amount at the project level.
Hourly – Categorized Rate: Select this option if you charge based on time spent but the rate varies based on the type of work being done. The specific rates used for projects with this billing type will be determined by the rates you set when creating Time Categories.
Allotted Hours
Enter Allotted Hours when setting up Billing Profiles to designate the amount of billable hours you expect a project to take. This can be calculated using your estimated hours set at the task level.
Overages can be calculated by selecting "Use separate billing type for overages" and inputting an hourly rate for time spent beyond the allotted hours.
Pro-Tip: Provide your customer with transparency during an active project by displaying your allotted hours & billable hours logged throughout the project duration. Set expectations with customers for how many hours they will receive as part of the project. This visibility can be toggled on during project creation.
Time Entry
Users can enter time in GUIDEcx at the task level and project level. During Project Creation, decide whether to "Require Time Entry for all Tasks". This will prompt internal users to enter time on each task before being able to mark the task as 'Done'. Users may still enter time on tasks and projects even if time requirement is not enabled.
How to Require Time Entry for All Tasks in a Project
Select "+Add a Project"
Scroll to Time Preferences
Toggle on "Require Time Entry for all Tasks"
Pro Tip: If you want to start tracking your time to value, turn this feature on for every project, ensuring that your team remembers to track time. Toggle this feature on/off "In-Flight" Projects by selecting the 3 vertical dots on the top right of a Project Plan and selecting "Project Details". Follow steps 2 & 3 above.
How to Enter Time at the Task Level:
Select the 3 dots on a task card
Select "Enter Time on Task"
Enter the time you spent completing the task
Choose the Category of work you completed for added transparency and data
Pro-Tip: Internal users can enter time on tasks not assigned to them. This is great for users who may need to collaborate on a task assigned to another internal team member.
Users can continue to enter time on tasks before marking them as done using the above steps. This is useful for tasks that may be worked on over the course of several days.
How to Enter Time at the Project Level
Select the 3 dots on the Project Plan page
Select "Enter Time on Project"
Enter the time you spent completing work related to the project
Choose the Category of work you completed for added transparency and data
Pro-Tip: Enter time at the project level when you are completing project related work not tied to any one task. It is best practice to leave a comment noting the work that was completed for the purpose of providing a paper trail. Set expectations with your team around if/when to enter time on the Project level.
Global Time Entry
Many users enter time on a weekly basis at the end of the week. Global time entry is optimized for quickly entering that time.
Filters exist for team member, project, task, date, and project status.
Pagination occurs after five projects.
Projects You Will See in the Time Entry Log
Projects in which you are assigned to at least one task
Projects in which you have logged time on a task, even if you're not the assignee
Projects in which you have logged time in the overall project, even if you are not assigned to any tasks
You will only see five projects at a time. To find others, either search in the project pull-down menu, or click the button at the bottom of the screen to scroll through
Projects You Will NOT See in the Time Entry Log
- Projects in which you are NOT assigned to or have time logged on any tasks.
- This includes Projects in which you have been invited as:
The Project manager
Watcher on a task
A group/event task participant
A team member
Tasks You Will See in the Time Entry Log:
Tasks that you are the assignee of. This applies to Admin, Manager, & Guide Users.
Tasks You Will NOT See in the Time Entry Log
Group/Event tasks for which you are only a participant
Tasks for which you are only a watcher
Note: From the project plan view, you can open a task you are not assigned to and log time. You will now see that task in the time entry page.
Any subsequent time logged to that task from the project plan will be associated with the user who logged the time.
Any subsequent time logged to that task from the the Time Entry page will be associated with the user who is the task's assignee. This indicated by the task assignee's name appearing after the phrase "Manage Time".
Reporting & Insights
Reporting helps you identify how efficient your team is, where most time is being spent, and project profitability factoring in load cost.
Project Overview
You will find the following information by scrolling to the bottom of the page in the ‘Overview’ tab of your projects:
Hours: The Hours card gives you a summary of the hours estimated, logged and forecasted for your project. This will help you understand how efficiently your project is progressing compared to what you expected.
Estimated: Total of the estimated hours across all tasks in the project.
Logged: Total of ALL time logged for this project, by any user.
Forecasted: Projected total hours for the project based on hours logged so far and remaining estimated hours.
Note: an error icon is displayed if any tasks do not have estimated hours entered as this may mean totals for Estimated and Forecasted hours are incorrect. To remove this error icon simply add estimates to each task. Save time by doing this at the template level so that it is applied to all future projects using this template.
Cost: The Cost card gives you a summary of budgeted, accrued, and forecasted cost for your projects. Cost is calculated by multiplying hours logged by the fully loaded cost amount for the users who logged that time. Admins can set fully loaded cost for your users in Company Details by clicking on any internal user name and editing their Fully Loaded Cost.
Accrued cost – the total cost accrued based on time logged in the project
Budgeted cost – the expected cost based on the estimated hours for tasks and the users assigned to those tasks
Forecasted cost – The expected total cost for the project considering time logged thus far as well as remaining estimated time.
Billing: The Billing card will show you the billing amount accrued for the project as well as the total allotted hours compared to billable hours.
Charges accrued: This number is calculated based on the billing type for the project – if Flat Fee, the number will not change, if Hourly, this number will increase based on the number of hours logged, etc.
Allotted hours – this is the number of allotted hours you set for the project. This is the total that you may decide to show to customers, which may be different from the total estimated hours.
Billable hours – this is the number of hours that have been logged in a billable category. Only billable hours count towards allotted hours.
Note: If you enable the ‘visible to customers’ toggle for the project, Allotted and Billable hours will show for customers. Charges accrued will never show for customers.
Profit: The profit card represents the current billing total minus the current accrued costs.
Advanced Time Tracking Report
The Advanced Time Tracking Report is found in Reports, and features five key cards:
Total Hours Worked by Task: this will show you what tasks are the most time-consuming for your team. You will see two columns for each task:
Actual Hours Project – This represents the total number of hours spent on this task across all projects where the task exists.
Average Hours – This represents the average hours spent on that task across all the projects where that task was included.
For example: If you have a task in a template called “Integration”, and it is included in three projects, with 4, 5, and 3 hours logged on it in each project, you would see an average of 4 hours for this task, and a total of 12 hours.
You can click on any task to drill down into details of which projects the task was in and how many hours were logged for each project.
Total Hours Worked Trended: this will show you the total hours logged by your team over time, across all projects. You can adjust your filters on the page to see this trend by any of the following:
User
Category
Project
Template
Task
This report can give you a good sense for how efficient you are, where most of the time is being spent, and whether you’re improving over time.
Total Hours Worked by Category: this is similar to the task report above, but instead of breaking time down by task, this report will break time down by category, with columns for both Average hours and Actual Project Hours. You might use this report to discover that a lot of time is being spent on things like follow-up work, which might not be clear if you’re only looking at time by tasks since follow-up work is done for a lot of different tasks.
Total Hours Worked by Person: this will tell you how many hours have been logged by all the users on your team across all their projects. You can click into any specific user to see more detail about their time on specific projects or tasks.
Total Hours Worked by Project: this will tell you how many hours have been logged by project, across all users and tasks. You can click into any specific project to see details about time spent on specific tasks within that project.
Time Tracking Reporting + Exporting
Time Tracking reporting allows you to understand organization profitability.
To export a CSV of the data, click the export button that's to the right of the filter button on the top-right corner of the screen. Only Admin, Manager & Guide users can export this data.
There are four different types of reports that are exported.
Two of the options you're able to click on are:
Summary report. This summarizes basic information. Here's everything that's captured:
Project
Milestone
Task
Generic [Y/N]
Estimated hours
Billable hours
Non-billable hours
Total hours
Cost
Bill rate
Profit/Loss
Detailed report. This report has more data. It includes everything in the summarized report, but also contains:
Time Record ID
Created at
Project ID
Milestone ID
User ID
User name
User email
Date worked
Category name
Category description
Task due date
Task estimated hours
Comment
The other two types are by projects and users. The export will reflect what you're currently viewing.
If you want the "projects" export, click the clipboard icon to view projects, then click the export button. If you want the "users" export, click the icon with the two individuals next to the clipboard, then click the export button.
Project summary doesn't contain individual time entries, therefore won't have any dates. You can view:
Total hours logged on the project across all users.
Total project-level (or "generic") hours logged on the project across all users.
A row for each milestone with the total hours logged on that milestone across all users.
A row for each task with the total hours logged on that task across all users.
Users summary doesn't contain individual time entries, therefore won't have any dates. You can view:
A row with their total hours logged across all projects.
For each project, a row with their total hours logged on that project.
For each project, a row with their total project-level (or "Generic") hours logged on that project.
For each project, a row for each task they are assigned to or logged time on, with their total hours on that task.
When the CSV is finished downloading, GUIDEcx will send you an email where you can access the download link.
Bonus Functions
Fully Loaded Cost
The Fully Loaded Cost is the $/Hour rate at which you arrive when you take into account a user's full compensation and benefits package. For example, if a user's compensation is $100,000.00 / year, and we assume 2000 work hours / year (50 work weeks x 40 hrs/week), then the $/Hour Fully Loaded Cost for that user would be $100,000.00/2000 = $50/Hour.
Admins can manage this within the Company Details Page on a per user basis.
Time Tracking in the Project Overview page
The Project Overview page provides a dashboard allowing you to view the following:
Progress bar to match task statuses.
Task status UI change.
A list of hours to fit the new time tracking addition.
Billable hours
Non-billable hours
Estimated hours
Logged hours
Remaining purchased hours
This dashboard will change according to the selected billing paradigm.
Plan-View Hover
Hovering over a template view on a project's Plan page opens a new time entry pop-up. This pop-up contains different fields depending on which time tracking billing paradigm is selected on a project.
Fields include...
Estimated hours
Logged hours
Non-billable hours
Purchased hours remaining
Actual hours (if time tracking is disabled)
Sync Time Tracking Data to Payment Platform
You can also pull time tracking data to the payment platform of your choice (or vice versa) with our open API. Read more here.
FAQs
How to edit/delete time logged?
How to edit/delete time logged?
To edit time entered at the project or task level you have to go to the time tracking section of GUIDEcx and under the time entry tab you can see the project name then in the "logged column" of the line item of the project you can click on the total number of hours and it will open up a page where you can view/edit/delete the time entered on the project.
You may also remove the entry on a task by going into the task and deleting that particular entry by clicking on the bin symbol!
What if I make Category changes, what projects will be affected?
What if I make Category changes, what projects will be affected?
Any changes made to Categories in your Company Settings will be immediately effective for both new and active projects. Existing time records using the categories will not be changed, but any new time entries made with the categories will reflect the changes and whatever the current state is at the time of time entry.
Note: Deleting a category will not delete old time but it WILL make it unavailable going forward.
Also, things like backdating, or updating old entries would potentially prove harder so before deleting make sure that all current time entries are in as desired.
If I turn on the Allotted Hours visibility for customers, will they see ALL hours logged against a project?
If I turn on the Allotted Hours visibility for customers, will they see ALL hours logged against a project?
The hours logged that will be visible to customers will ONLY reflect the billable hours logged. Non-billable hours logged do not count against allotted hours.
Can Customers or Third parties log time?
Can Customers or Third parties log time?
Customers and Third Parties do not have the ability to log time.
Did all of your questions get answered? If not, reach out to us in the chat bubble!