Logging Time

Time tracking lives next to the work it describes. You can log time directly on a work item with a built-in timer, or enter durations manually for work you remember after the fact.

Time tracking worklog list

When to log time

Log time when you want a record of effort against a specific piece of work. Common reasons:

  • Customer billing
  • Internal cost tracking
  • Support and maintenance reporting
  • Understanding where team capacity goes
  • Improving future estimates

Timer vs manual entry

There are two ways to log time:

  • Timer. Start a timer from any work item. A floating timer widget stays visible while you work. Stop it when you are done and the entry logs automatically. The timer can be paused and resumed.
  • Manual entry. Enter a duration after the fact. Windshift parses natural durations like 2h, 30m, 2h30m, 2.5h, or 1d, so you do not have to convert to minutes.

Both end up in the same worklog and can be edited or deleted afterwards.

Customers, projects, and worklogs

Time is organised in three layers:

  1. Customer. Who the work is for. A customer can be an external client or an internal department.
  2. Project. A unit of work for that customer (an engagement, a contract, an internal initiative). Projects can be grouped into categories.
  3. Worklog. A single time entry. Each worklog records a duration, a date, an optional note, and is associated with a project and (when possible) a work item.

If your team bills customers, keep customers and projects aligned with how invoices are produced. That way exports drop straight into your billing workflow.

Linking time to work items

Whenever you can, link a worklog to the work item that caused the work. This keeps effort connected to the actual task, bug, request, or feature, and makes "where did this iteration's time go?" answerable from the work item view.

What to include in a note

A good worklog should still make sense in six months. Include enough context that you can tell what was actually done.

Examples:

  • Investigated OAuth callback failure
  • Updated onboarding copy and reviewed with marketing
  • Reviewed test plan for release candidate
  • Fixed failing import validation

Reporting and export

Worklogs can be filtered and reported on by user, project, customer, and date range. Reports export to CSV for invoicing or to upload into a finance system. Calendars can be exported as ICS for external calendar apps.

Practical habits

  • Log time close to when the work happens. Memory degrades fast.
  • Use notes for ambiguous or investigative work, even if the duration is short.
  • Link time to work items whenever you can.
  • Review time by project or customer when planning the next iteration.
  • Do not let time tracking become a substitute for clear priorities.