Productive

A thorough guide to tracking, managing, and optimizing time entries and time tracking tools in Productive.

Time Tracking

Log time manually against a budget or deal and service in My Time. Add entries in the Day, Timesheet, or Calendar view, and use suggestions to speed up your workflow.

Manual Time Tracking

Learn how to enable and use automatic time tracking to simplify your team's time management.

Automatic Time Tracking

Learn how to enable time tracking on tasks, log time entries, use the timer, and edit entries across your projects.

Tracking Time on Tasks

Learn various time-tracking formats in Productive to log hours quickly and accurately, making you a time-tracking expert.

Time Tracking Tips and Tricks

Time Tracking: Best Practices

Basic Time Tracking

Draft time entries let you log a start and end time first and fill in the rest later, before anyone else can see them.

Draft Time Entries: Overview

Create a draft with just a start and end time, add the missing details, and it becomes a time entry automatically.

Creating and Submitting Draft Time Entries

Find your drafts and rejected entries in one place, edit or delete them, and see how they're organized.

Managing and Deleting Draft Time Entries

How to create, finish, and manage draft time entries, incomplete entries only you can see until they're ready to submit.

Draft Time Entries

If time approval is on, approvers can review and approve time entries from their Approval Inbox.

Approving Time: Overview

How approval types, change requests, and edits affect time entries and expenses that have more than one approver.

How Approvals Work With Multiple Approvers

How to request changes to time entries before final approval.

Requesting Changes to Time Entries

Edit time entries at once by using the bulk edit option. Change billable time in bulk or move time to different services easily.

Managing Time Entries: Bulk Editing and Moving

Automatically lock timesheets after a specific period to prevent changes. Learn how to set up timesheet locking and manage unlocked entries.

Timesheet Locking

Learn how to easily duplicate time entries from the previous day in Productive, simplifying your time-tracking process.

Duplicating Time Entries from Yesterday

Time Entry Management

Log and manage your time entries day by day in My Time. Add entries manually, use tracking suggestions, and connect your Google or Outlook calendar to see events alongside your…

Day View in My Time

See all your time entries for the week in one place, organized by project and service. Add, edit, and manage entries directly in the Timesheet view.

Timesheet View in My Time

Log and manage time entries in a weekly calendar layout in My Time. View, add, and edit entries, and connect your Google or Outlook calendar to see external events alongside…

Calendar View in My Time

Discover how the Work log feature helps you recall and document your daily activities in Productive.

Using the Work Log to Track Your Daily Activity

Company time shows time tracked for all team members. Use this to see who is tracking less than their capacity at a glance.

Company Time

Time Tracking Views

Define rules for when and how time is tracked, ensuring consistency, compliance, and accurate reporting across your team.

What Are Time Tracking Policies?

Create a time tracking policy, define rule categories, and set restrictions to match your team's working hours and limits.

Setting Up Time Tracking Policies

Assign a time tracking policy to a user or team to control how they track time. Set defaults to apply policies automatically to new users.

Assigning a Time Tracking Policy to Users

Edit, review, or delete time tracking policies to keep them aligned with your company’s current working time rules and needs.

Managing Time Tracking Policies

Make task and note fields mandatory for time entries on specific budgets or deals to keep your time data accurate and complete.

Required Time Entry Fields

Time tracking rules and policies let you define how and when time can be tracked, helping ensure legal compliance and align with internal processes.

Time Tracking Rules and Policies

Turn on overtime in a time tracking policy, then enable overtime tracking on budgets and deals.

Setting Up Overtime Tracking

Mark time entries as overtime, view overtime costs on budgets and deals, and filter reports by overtime.

Tracking Overtime

Set up overtime tracking and mark time entries as overtime, paid at a higher rate.

Overtime

Learn how to enable time entry submissions, configure reminders, and manage permissions.

Setting Up Time Entry Submissions

A step-by-step guide for employees on submitting, tracking, and updating their timesheets.

Submitting Time Entries for Approval (Employee Guide)

A guide for managers on tracking, approving, and managing submitted time entries.

Managing Time Entry Submissions (Manager Guide)

Answers to common questions about submitting, approving, and managing timesheets.

FAQ on Timesheet Submissions

Learn how to set up, submit, and manage timesheet approvals. Ideal for employees, managers, and admins using time entry submissions in Productive.

Time Entry Submissions

Easily track real-time work with the timer. Start the timer as you work for current-day entries or use manual entry for past days.

Using the Timer to Track Time

Track time directly from your desktop with Productive’s time tracking widget. Start/stop the timer, link tasks, and manage entries efficiently.

Using the Time Tracking Widget (Desktop App)

Learn how Productive rounds your time entries when you track time using the timer feature.

How Time Entry Rounding Works When Using The Timer

Customize time tracking reminders in Productive to ensure accurate and timely time logging across your organization.

Setting Up Time Tracking Reminders

Time Tracking Tools

There are a few reasons why you may be unable to track time against a service in a budget. Let's see what they are!

Can't Track Time Against a Budget?

Track time for your team in Productive when necessary, ensuring accurate project insights and flexibility in time management.

Tracking Time For Others

Log time from Jira to Productive projects.

How to Track Time on Productive Projects in Jira

Manage and modify your time entries logged via the Productive Time Tracking widget in Jira.

Managing Jira Time Entries

Special Time Tracking Scenarios

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