Track time

Time Tracking records time you spend on work. Entries and projects belong to Personal or the selected team, and each entry belongs to the person who recorded it. Every member of a team can record time and change their own entries. Team admins manage projects, tags, rates and team reports, and add time to invoices.

Start and stop a timer

On Today, enter what you are working on, and choose a project and Contact if you want, then choose Start timer. The timer is saved in Magpie, so it keeps running if you leave the page or close the browser. You can have one running timer across Personal and all your teams.

The running timer is the large control at the top of Today, showing the elapsed time; select it to stop. On other pages its elapsed time is in the page bar beside your account menu, including after you switch to another team. Stop it there or on the entry's page; you stay on the page you were using.

When a timer has been running for several hours, Magpie asks whether to stop it or keep it running. It asks once for each timer, and never changes the recorded time by itself.

From a Contact, Issue, To-do or Calendar event

A Contact, Issue, To-do or Magpie Calendar event can start a timer linked to that record, and you stay on its page. From an event's Calendar drawer, choose Start timer. Magpie uses the event title as the entry description; the entry records the actual start and stop times, separately from the event's scheduled time. The link appears on the time entry and opens the record. No entries are made from calendar events by themselves, and Google or Outlook events are not imported.

Add time already spent

Choose Add time, enter a description and either a duration such as 1h 30m, 90m or 1:30, or a start and end time in your account time zone. A duration counts forward from the start time when you enter one; otherwise it ends at the current minute. A project, tag, Contact, hourly rate, rate currency, billable and notes are optional. Choose Add time.

Day and week

Today lists the day's entries and its total. Use the arrows beside the date to see the previous or next day, select the date to choose another one, and select Today to return. Day and Week switch between the two views, as in Calendar.

Week shows time by project and day. Select a cell for an active project to open that day with its project ready for a new entry. A cell for an archived project opens the day without adding time.

Change an entry

Select an entry to open its page. Description, start, end, project, tag, Contact, billing and notes save as soon as you change them. A running timer's times cannot be changed until it is stopped. Team admins manage hourly rates; members see rates only when the team allows it.

In the entry's More menu, Split entry splits a completed entry into two at a time inside it; both keep the description, project, tag, Contact, rate and links. Delete time entry deletes it.

An entry on a draft invoice cannot be changed until its line is removed from the draft. Invoiced time cannot be changed.

Billable time and invoices

A billable entry with a Contact, an hourly rate and a rate currency can be added to an invoice for that contact by a team admin, from Add unbilled time in the invoice editor. Issuing the invoice marks the entry Invoiced. See Create and track invoices. The rate a new entry starts with comes from its project, its Contact or the Invoicing default; see Time Tracking projects, rates and tags.

In the mobile app

In the native mobile app, open Time Tracking from Home or More to see today's total, run or stop a timer, and review completed entries. Choose an active project when starting a timer. Add time accepts a duration or start and end times in your account time zone. A duration without a start time ends at the current minute. Select Week to see seven daily totals and time grouped by project. Use Previous week or Next week to change weeks. Select a day to see its entries, or select a day under a project to add time with that date and project filled in. An archived project cannot be used for new time. Select an entry to change its description, start, end, project, billing status or notes. Today returns to the current day. The running timer continues if you leave the screen or close the app.

If an entry does not appear, check Personal or the selected team and the date. For more help, Contact support.