This video introduces you to the basic concept of time tracking in Leadtime – the core system for any service provider who wants to understand their team's productivity.
Leadtime distinguishes three levels of time tracking. The first is attendance (pink ring): when is someone actually there? The second is booked time (yellow ring): what did someone actually do? The third is billable time (green ring): which portion of work is assigned to a client project and therefore chargeable? The difference between these levels reveals where time "leaks" and how much internal vs. billable work occurs.
For attendance tracking, there are two modes. In Simple mode, attendance is calculated automatically based on contract working hours. In Enabled mode, employees actively clock in and out – complete with a blinking reminder button in the header. The daily statistics show the three rings and how much of the daily target remains.
The most important tool is the Time Tracker in the header. It runs in real time and delivers exact rather than estimated times. You can start it quickly via the play button or in detail with project, activity, and comment. Especially practical: multiple trackers can run in parallel – ideal when switching between tasks without mixing up times.
For retroactive booking, there are two levels: project level for general activities without a specific ticket, and ticket level for concrete tasks. Time booked at the ticket level is automatically counted toward the parent project as well. The recommendation: always book at the finest available level, and prefer the Time Tracker because it delivers more accurate data.
Time tracking is the heart of Leadtime. As a service provider, you're basically selling your team's working time. And to understand how productively that time is being used, you need clean data.
In this video, I'll show you the basic concept of time tracking in Leadtime. You'll learn about the three levels: attendance, booked time, and billable time. And you'll see how to track time, either in real time with the Time Tracker, or retroactively on projects and tickets.
Leadtime distinguishes three types of time. And this distinction is incredibly valuable for your reports.
The first level is attendance. That's the total time between clocking in and clocking out. So: when is someone actually there? In the daily statistics, you'll see this as the pink ring.
The second level is booked time. That's the time actively documented on projects or tickets. So: what did someone actually do? That's the yellow ring.
The third level is billable time. That's the portion of booked time assigned to a client project, and therefore chargeable. That's the green ring.
Why does this matter? Imagine someone is present for eight hours but only booked five. Then three hours are missing. Time leaked somewhere. Meetings, coffee breaks, distractions. Seeing this gap is the first step to closing it.
And if only two of those five booked hours are billable? Then you know three hours went into internal work. Not necessarily bad, but you can see it. And you can decide if that's how it should be.
For attendance tracking, Leadtime offers two modes. You'll find this setting under Workspace Settings, then General Settings.
The first mode is called Simple. Here, attendance is calculated automatically based on contract working hours. If someone's contract says eight hours, Leadtime assumes those eight hours were worked. That's convenient for getting started, but obviously not very precise.
The second mode is called Enabled. Here, employees need to actively clock in and out. This gives you the real attendance times.
When Enabled is active, your team members will see a blinking Clock In button in the header. That reminds them to clock in.
There are two ways to clock in. The quick way is through the profile menu in the top right. One click, select your start time, done. The detailed way opens a dialog where you can enter date, start and end time, optionally your mood, and a comment.
In the header, there's also the button for daily statistics. Here, team members can see their three rings: attendance, booked time, billable time. And how much of their daily target is still open. You can also choose which value to display as the progress bar at the very top.
The Time Tracker is the most important tool for precise time tracking. It sits in the header and runs while you work.
The advantage over booking time afterwards: you're measuring real time. No estimates, no "that was probably two hours." Instead: it was exactly one hour and forty-seven minutes. That makes a huge difference for data quality.
There are two ways to start the tracker. The quick start: just click play and go. You can add details later. That's handy when you want to jump into a task quickly.
The detailed start: click on the gray area next to the play button. This opens a dialog where you can immediately select a project or ticket, choose an activity like development, testing, or management, and optionally add a comment.
While the tracker is running, you'll see the time counting up in the header. You can pause the tracker if you have an interruption. And at the end, click stop and save.
One especially practical feature: you can run multiple trackers in parallel. Imagine you're working on a system analysis, and suddenly the phone rings. An urgent support case. With "Start another tracker," you launch a second tracker for the call. The first one is automatically paused. After the phone call, you can resume the first tracker. This way you don't mix up times and end up with clean entries.
Sometimes real-time tracking isn't possible. You forgot to start the tracker, or you're entering times from yesterday. That's what retroactive booking is for.
You can book time on two levels: project level or ticket level.
Project level works well for general activities that aren't tied to a specific ticket. For example: you're doing general marketing work for the Marketing project. No specific ticket, but the time should still be documented. Go to the project, open the Spent Time tab, click Log Time, and enter your hours.
Ticket level is for concrete tasks. You worked on the newsletter, and there's a ticket for it. Then open the ticket, click the clock icon, and book your time directly there. The time automatically counts toward the parent project as well.
When to use which? If there's a ticket, book on the ticket. That gives you the finest granularity. If there's no ticket, or the work is too small for individual tickets, book on the project.
But remember: retroactive booking is always an estimate. The Time Tracker delivers more accurate data. The more consistently your team uses the tracker, the better your reports will be.
You now understand the basic concept of time tracking in Leadtime. Three levels: attendance, booked time, billable time. Two modes for attendance. And two ways to book time: in real time with the tracker, or retroactively on projects and tickets.
In the next video, I'll show you how to manage absences. Requesting vacation, sick leave notifications, and how you as an admin handle approvals.
