Time Tracking & Timers
Track time with live task timers or manual entries, manage billable hours, approve time, and flow entries directly into invoices
What You'll Learn
- How to use task timers to track time automatically
- How to log time manually for past work
- How hourly rates are determined for time entries
- How to approve time entries and send them to invoicing
Two Ways to Track Time
WorkCentral gives you two methods for recording time. Both produce the same type of time entry that flows through approval and into invoicing.
Task Timers
Start a live timer directly on any task. The timer tracks your time in real time with support for pausing and resuming. When you stop it, a time entry is automatically created.
Best for: Active work you're doing right now
Manual Entry
Log hours after the fact by entering the date, duration, project, task, and a description. Useful for time you forgot to track or work done outside of WorkCentral.
Best for: Past work or time tracked externally
Using Task Timers
Task timers are a state machine with three states: Stopped, Running, and Paused. Here's how each action works.
Start a Timer
Open any task and click the Start Timer button. The timer begins counting immediately and the task is automatically moved to In Progress on the Kanban board.
What happens behind the scenes: The task records when the timer started, sets your hourly rate based on the rate hierarchy, and assigns the task to you if it wasn't already.
Pause the Timer
Click Pause to temporarily stop tracking. The time accumulated so far is saved to a draft entry. You can pause and resume as many times as needed — the system tracks each session and adds them together.
Resume the Timer
Click Resume on a paused timer to continue tracking. The new session's time will be added to the same draft entry, giving you one combined time entry when you stop.
Stop the Timer
Click Stop to finalize the timer. You'll be prompted to add a description and confirm whether the time is billable. The draft is finalized into a time entry and the task's actual hours are updated.
Tip: You can stop a timer from either the Running or Paused state. If paused, the already-accumulated time is used without adding more.
Automatic Timer Stops
Timers are automatically stopped in these situations:
- •Task completed — moved to "Done" on the Kanban board or marked complete
- •Task blocked — the blocking reason is saved in the time entry description
- •Task deleted — the time entry is still preserved
Active Timer Limits by Plan
The number of timers you can have running or paused at the same time depends on your plan:
| Plan | Active Timers |
|---|---|
| Free | 1 at a time |
| Professional | 3 at a time |
| Business | Unlimited |
When you hit your limit, you'll see a prompt to upgrade your plan. Paused timers count toward the limit when starting a new timer, but not when resuming an existing one.
Manual Time Entry
For work you forgot to track or time spent outside of WorkCentral, you can log hours manually.
Navigate to Time Entries
Go to Time Entries from the main navigation and click New Time Entry.
Fill in the Details
Complete the form with the following fields:
| Field | Details |
|---|---|
| Date | The date the work was performed (cannot be in the future) |
| Hours | Duration in decimal hours (e.g., 1.5 for 90 minutes). Minimum 0.01, maximum 24 |
| Project | Select from your accessible projects (required) |
| Task | Optionally select a specific task (loads automatically when you pick a project) |
| Description | What you worked on (up to 500 characters) |
| Billable | Whether this time is billable to the client (checked by default) |
Save the Entry
Click Save. Your hourly rate is automatically determined based on the rate hierarchy (see below). If you selected a task, the task's actual hours are updated to include your entry.
How Hourly Rates Are Determined
WorkCentral automatically assigns an hourly rate to every time entry using a fallback hierarchy. The system checks each level in order and uses the first rate it finds:
Your Rate for This Project
If a per-user rate has been set for you on this specific project, that rate is used. This allows different team members to have different billing rates on the same project.
Project Default Rate
The hourly rate set on the project itself. This is used as the default for all team members who don't have a user-specific rate.
Task Rate (Legacy)
If a rate was set directly on the task, it serves as a final fallback. This is a legacy option — we recommend using project or user rates instead.
$0.00
If no rate is found at any level, the entry defaults to $0.00. This effectively makes the time non-billable.
Pro Tip
Set up user-specific project rates in your project settings to ensure accurate billing when team members have different hourly rates. Rate changes can be applied retroactively to unapproved, uninvoiced time entries.
Billable vs. Non-Billable Time
Every time entry has a billable flag that determines whether it can be included on invoices.
Billable
- • Default for all new time entries
- • Included in invoice suggestions
- • Must have an hourly rate greater than $0 to be truly billable
- • Billable amount = hours × hourly rate
Non-Billable
- • Uncheck "Billable Time" when creating an entry
- • Excluded from invoice suggestions
- • Still tracked for internal reporting and project insights
- • Auto-unchecked for projects marked as non-billable
Note: A time entry marked as billable but with a $0 hourly rate is effectively non-billable. It won't appear in invoice suggestions. Make sure your rates are configured properly to avoid missing billable time.
Approval Workflow
Time entries move through three states before they appear on an invoice. This ensures all logged time is reviewed before billing.
Pending
Every new time entry starts as Pending. In this state, the entry can be freely edited or deleted by the user who created it.
Action: A manager with full time tracking permissions can approve individual entries or use bulk approve to approve multiple entries at once.
Approved
Once approved, the entry is locked for editing. It's now eligible to be included in invoice suggestions.
Need to make changes? A manager can unapprove the entry to return it to Pending, allowing edits before re-approving.
Invoiced
Once the entry is included on an invoice, it's permanently locked. It cannot be edited, unapproved, or deleted.
Important: If the invoice is later deleted, the linked time entries return to Approved status and become available for invoicing again.
Connection to Invoicing
Approved, billable time entries with an hourly rate greater than $0 are automatically surfaced as invoice suggestions. This is the bridge between time tracking and getting paid.
Entries Become Suggestions
When you create an invoice using Smart Invoicing, WorkCentral queries for all time entries that are billable, approved, not yet invoiced, and have an hourly rate above $0.
Choose a Grouping
The system offers five ways to group your time entries into invoice line items:
By Project + Task
Each project-task combination becomes a line item
By Project
All entries for a project become one line item
By Team Member
Group by who did the work
By Date Range
Entries grouped by calendar week
Individual Entries
Each time entry becomes its own line item for maximum detail
Create the Invoice
Select which suggestions to include and submit. WorkCentral creates the invoice with pre-populated line items — each with the total hours, weighted average rate, and amount calculated from your time entries.
Entries Are Marked as Invoiced
Once the invoice is created, all linked time entries are automatically updated to "Invoiced" status. They're permanently linked to their invoice line item and can't be double-billed.
Good to know: If you need to delete an invoice, all linked time entries are automatically released back to "Approved" status so they can be included on a future invoice.
The Complete Time-to-Invoice Cycle
You now understand the full lifecycle of tracked time in WorkCentral:
- 1.Track — Use task timers or manual entries to log your work
- 2.Rate — WorkCentral automatically applies the correct hourly rate
- 3.Approve — Review and approve time entries for accuracy
- 4.Invoice — Use Smart Invoicing to turn approved time and billable expenses into client invoices