Quick glossary

Tracking time with the built-in timer

Finding the timer

The timer can be accessed from your todo.vu Workspace’s fixed header bar, which is found at the top of every page in your todo.vu Workspace.

Starting the timer

You can start the timer:

1. From your Workspace’s fixed header bar on any page

Simply click ‘Start timer’ or the timer icon. The timer will begin, and you can start working straight away. Every minute until you choose to stop the timer will be tracked by todo.vu.

If you start the timer from the Workspace header while there is no task open, the time you are tracking will not yet be connected to any task; this is called a ‘floating time entry‘. This allows you to track time quickly without worrying about the details right away.

If you start the timer from the fixed header while you have a task open in your Workspace (in full-screen, window or side-by-side view), todo.vu will automatically track and record your time on that specific task. See the image below.

See below for more on why you may want to track time on tasks.

You can also start your timer:

2. Directly on a task from the listings on the Task Dashboard page

There’s no need to open the task itself. Time will be tracked directly to that specific task.

3. From within todo.vu’s Calendar

Simply right click on any time record (called a ‘time entry‘) on the calendar. Choose ‘Start timer on this task’ to continue tracking time to that same task. Note you will not have this option on time entries marked as billed.

You can also achieve this same result by selecting the time entry, then clicking on the three-dot menu at the top right of the pop-up Time modal that appears, and selecting ‘Start timer on this task’. (See the second image below.)

Note:

Because it is unlikely you will complete all your tasks in one sitting, and you may have several team members working on the same task, todo.vu allows you to add multiple time entries to a task.

This means:

• any number of team members can log their own time entries to the same task, even if their time entries overlap.
• a single user can record multiple time entries on the same task; for example, each time they start and stop the timer, or if they manually record time later.

Stopping the timer

To stop todo.vu’s timer, all you need to do is hit the timer icon again within the Workspace header (or the What are you working on? field, which appears if you’re not tracking time to a task).

If your timer was already running on a task, you don’t have to do anything else; your timer will be stopped and time will be automatically recorded to that task.

If your timer wasn’t running on a task, after you select the timer icon or header field, todo.vu’s pop-up Time modal will appear. You can select the Stop timer, log [time] button at the top of the modal to stop time and record a floating time entry. Or, you can connect the time to a task before stopping your timer from the Time modal.

And that’s it, you’ve created a time entry! For more information on editing time entries, including connecting tasks to time entries, see our Time tracking: advanced Support article.

Why track time on specific tasks?

Tasks, time tracking, and billing — and how these work together — are central to how todo.vu helps you manage and bill for client work.

When your time entries are recorded on specific tasks, todo.vu can automatically roll that data into clear, itemized billing reports for each client. These reports show time-based billing charges per task, making it easy to see exactly where time was spent, who did the work, and at what rate.

For example, in the animation below, time is being tracked in real time on a specific task (New Support Request) under the project Sales App 2.0. This time will flow into the billing report for that client, itemized under that task and calculated at the correct hourly rate ($150 per hour in our example).

This ensures your billing reports are always detailed and transparent — and you don’t have to juggle separate systems.

Note: You can still use todo.vu to create itemized billing reports even when no time entries are involved, by using fixed-price projects or adding fixed charges.

Where is tracked time recorded?

Tracked time is recorded in todo.vu: (Click on the images to expand them.)

e) You can also see tracked time details within your workspace’s Activity audit, which is found by clicking on your Workspace’s name/logo (at the top left-hand side of your Workspace) and selecting Activty audit.

(Your access to the audit depends on your user role in todo.vu.)

Disable time tracking

You can choose to disable time tracking in todo.vu, which means you won’t see the timer and you won’t be able to track and record your time on tasks. Any time already logged to tasks will remain stored, but will not be shown.

That way, if you want to use todo.vu to organise and manage your tasks only, rather than to track your time, you will have a clean and clear platform to do just that.

On your Time & billing settings page, toggle off the option ‘Show time tracking controls to all Staff’ under ‘Time tracking’.

Customise time tracking increments

todo.vu’s time tracking increment setting allows you to adhere to your unique billing and business reporting requirements.

You can choose to round your recorded time to the nearest 1 minute, 5 minutes, 6 minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes or 30 minutes. You can also choose to round up your recorded time to the nearest minute; simply select ‘Always round time up’ from beneath the increment icons.

You can also set how recorded time is displayed across all areas of todo.vu, including in your billing reports. Simply select the drop-down menu beneath the time unit icons.