Time tracking
What is measured, how it is measured, and what the numbers do and do not mean.
What is measured
| Field | Source | Used for |
|---|---|---|
| Session start and stop | The employee starting and stopping the tracker | Total tracked hours |
| Active seconds | Intervals containing keyboard or mouse input | Active time and the activity percentage |
| Idle seconds | Intervals with no input | Reported separately, never merged into active |
| Input counts | Number of key presses and clicks, not the characters | The activity measure only |
| Application / window title | Sampled while the tracker runs | Context on the time report |
| Project and task | Selected by the employee | Hours per project, client billing |
The activity percentage
Activity is the ratio of intervals containing input to total intervals in a period. It is a rough measure of hands-on-keyboard time and nothing more.
What the activity percentage is not. It is not productivity, not output and not a ranking. A developer reading a design document for two hours will show a low percentage while doing the most valuable work of the week. Use it to spot a tracker left running overnight, not to compare two people against each other.
Idle handling
After a configurable idle threshold, typically five to ten minutes, the interval is marked idle. Idle time is shown as its own figure on every report rather than being deducted silently or counted as work, so an employee can see and explain it.
Hours against projects
The employee selects the project, and optionally the task, that the session belongs to. That attribution is what makes per-client and per-project reporting possible without anyone re-entering the data at the end of the week.
- Switching project mid-session splits the session, so a day can span several projects.
- Time with no project selected is reported as unattributed rather than being dropped.
- Daily work reports attach to the same projects, so reported and measured effort sit side by side.
Offline behaviour
The desktop app queues sessions, activity data and screenshots locally when there is no connection and uploads them in order when it returns. Nothing is lost and nothing is double-counted; see the desktop tracker documentation for the queue details.
Reports
- Per employee, per day. Tracked, active and idle hours with the activity percentage.
- Per project. Total hours across the team for any date range, which is the client-billing number.
- Live board. Who is tracking right now and today’s running totals.
- CSV export for any of the above.
Related
Frequently asked
What counts as active time?
Any interval in which keyboard or mouse input occurred while the tracker was running. The interval, not the individual keypress, is what is recorded.
Is thinking time counted as idle?
Yes, and this is the honest limitation of every activity-based tracker. Reading a specification, being in a meeting or working on a whiteboard all register as idle. It is why the activity percentage should never be used on its own to judge someone.
Can time be edited afterwards?
An administrator can correct entries and every correction is recorded in the audit log. Measured time is not silently editable.
Something missing from the docs?
Tell us what you were looking for at support@employeedeskcrm.com and we will add it here.
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