A new Beebole account holds no sample projects, people, tasks, or hours: everything you see in it is what you add. It comes with the structure to build on: the project categories Client, Internal, and Activity, the Department tag category, a planning called Main plan, four roles, the PTO and Sickness absence types, and a few sample reports.
Step 1: Create your account
Go to app.beebole.com/signup and fill in your name, work email, and company name, or sign up with Google or Microsoft. Beebole is passwordless: instead of setting a password, you confirm your email with a one-time code (see Sign-in methods). Once you’re in, Beebole opens the Getting started page.
The Beebole sign-up form
Your 30-day free trial includes every Beebole feature, with no seat limit and no credit card required. The Getting started page shows how many days are left.
Step 2: Answer the Getting started questions
The Getting started questions tell Beebole how your team works, so the checklist that follows only holds the steps that matter to you. They come one at a time: click an answer and the next question opens. A counter at the top shows where you are, and its arrows take you back to a previous question.
A Getting started question: the counter, the progress bar and the answers
Three more questions close the first run: What tool are you using today to track time?, What is your primary role?, and How did you hear about Beebole?. They change nothing in your account, and Skip passes each one.
Apart from the plannings, your answers change no setting. The approval answer, for example, neither creates nor removes an approval workflow, and the money answer sets no rate or budget: they only decide which steps the checklist shows.
Your answers stay at the top of the Getting started page as Your answers tiles: Way of working, Planning, Financials, Team size, and Timesheet approval. Click a tile to reopen its question. Your new answer is saved as soon as you click it, and the questions after it follow with your earlier answers selected: click through them, or click Back to Getting started to return to the checklist, which follows the new answer.
Step 3: Follow the Getting started checklist
Once the last question is answered, the Getting started page shows your checklist in up to four tiles: Basic setup, Team, Billing – costs – budgets, and Reports. Each tile shows its own progress, and the ring at the top of the page counts the steps done out of the total. The steps tick themselves. Beebole reads your account, so a step is done as soon as what it asks for exists, such as a project, an invitation, or a billing rate, whichever page you did it on. There is no box to check by hand. Click a step to open the page where it’s done. A Back to Getting started button then stays at the bottom of the screen, with a tick once that step is done. Click it to return to the checklist where you left it, or click its ✕ (Close) to dismiss it.
A few steps tick in a way worth knowing:
- Check your timesheet settings ticks once you open the Timesheet and Planning Settings panel in Account Settings.
- Set up approval ticks once you open the Approval workflow panel in Account Settings. A new account already has a workflow with one Admins stage, so opening it to review it is enough. See Approval.
- Add your people ticks when the account has two people, you included.
- Accept what filled in on your timesheet ticks when you accept a suggested entry that comes from a Kanban card moved to Done or from a planned day. See Tracking time on tasks.
- See the team’s load ticks once there are bookings and you have opened a Staffing view.
- The first cost rate ticks both cost steps, whether you set it on a person or on a project.
- A report step ticks when you open that report.
Step 4: Add your projects
Projects are what your team logs time against. They live inside project categories: the broadest grouping of your work, such as clients. When your checklist has Add your projects and the account has no project yet, the step opens three short screens on the Getting started page itself:1
Name what you work on
Under How do you call what you work on?, pick Client, Project, or Building, or type your own word next to Other. Your first project category takes that name.
2
Name the smaller parts, if any
The next screen asks whether you divide that work in smaller parts. Pick Project, Sub project, Job, or Product, type your own word next to Other, or pick No. The word names the level under your category.
3
Enter your first projects
Type a few names, each with its smaller parts beside it, and click Continue. Left empty, the examples shown (Client A, Client B, and Client C, for example) are added for you. You’re back on the checklist, with Add your projects done.
Creating a project in Beebole
1
Go to Projects
Click Projects in the sidebar.
2
Pick a category
Use the category selector next to the Projects title to choose where the project belongs. For example, Client for client work or Internal for everything else. You can rename or delete the existing categories, and add a new one by typing its name in the field at the bottom of the selector menu and clicking Add.
3
Add the project
Once you have chosen a category, click the + Add button at the top of the page. Its label names the open category, for example, Add Client.
4
Name the project and confirm
Type the project name in the field that appears and click the Save new button, for example Save new client. The project is immediately available for time tracking.
The add panel of the Client category, with the Or add multiple entries area below
Need to add several projects at once? Beebole supports bulk entry across projects, people, tasks, and more: open the add panel, look for the Or add multiple entries area, copy rows from a spreadsheet, and click Paste. Beebole reads each row and lets you confirm before saving.
Step 5: Invite your team
Each team member gets their own profile and logs their own hours. Your account comes with four ready-made roles that control what each person can see and do in Beebole: Admin, Employee, People manager, and Project manager. On the checklist, Invite your people (and Add your people when you plan bookings) open this page with the add panel ready.Adding a person in Beebole
1
Go to People
Click People in the sidebar.
2
Add a team member
Click the + Add Person button at the top of the screen, then enter the person’s Name, Email, and Role. Employee is the right starting point for most team members.
3
Confirm
Click Add Person. The profile now exists in your account. You may want to configure a person’s settings before inviting them to the platform.
4
Invite them
Open the person’s profile and click the Invite by email button. Beebole emails them a secure link, and until they join, the button reads Invitation pending…. Click it to send the invitation again (its tooltip reads Send the invitation again).
The Add person panel: name, email and role, with the Or add multiple entries area below
Adding a person and inviting them are two separate actions in Beebole. A profile exists as soon as you add it, but the person can’t sign in until you send the invitation.
Step 6: Track your first hours
This is where Beebole delivers its core value. Logging a first entry confirms your setup works, gives you data to report on, and ticks Record your first hours when your checklist has that step.1
Open your timesheet
Click Timesheet in the sidebar. The first time, it opens in the calendar view, with one column per day.
2
Draw an entry
Click and drag across the time you worked, or click an empty slot. Pick a project in the popup that opens: the entry is created as soon as you pick it, and Beebole saves it automatically.
3
Add details to a time entry
Click the entry to open its details and add more information, such as comments, custom fields, work from home, or non-billable hours.
The Add a row button in a section's header, in the grid view
Step 7: Run your first report
With a project and at least one time entry in place, you can turn raw hours into insights. The first time you open the Reports section, Beebole shows sample folders with a few ready-made reports inside. The Reports steps of the checklist open the report that fits your answers.1
Open Reports
Click Reports in the sidebar. Your report folders appear on the left.
2
Run a sample report
Click through to discover default reports like Hours by Person or Margin by Client per Month. Beebole runs the report and displays the results.
3
Refine and share
Click to view the report as a Table, Chart, or Matrix. You can adjust each format to fit your needs. Open the report’s ⋯ action menu to change the date range with Period, download the results with Export, or narrow them down with Filter.
The Current Month folder with the Hours by Person report run as a table
Step 8: Adjust the basics
Beebole’s account-wide configuration lives in the Settings area: click the button with your initials at the bottom of the sidebar, then Account Settings. The Settings menu on the left lists the other settings screens. The defaults work out of the box, but these are worth a first look:
For administrators, the Getting started page lists more setup areas under Advanced, each with a line on what it’s for: Work across projects, Tags, Expenses, Custom fields, Work schedules, Time off, Approval workflow (unless the checklist already has Set up approval), Timesheet settings, and Integrations and API. These links have nothing to tick and don’t count in the checklist.
Work across projects
Some work is the same whatever the client: development, meetings, support, travel. Rather than repeating it under each client, Work across projects gives it a project category of its own that the timesheet offers next to your projects. Each time entry then names a project and an activity, and you can filter and report on that work on its own.1
Open Work across projects
On the Getting started page, click Work across projects under Advanced.
2
Name this work
Pick Activity, Job, or Product, or type your own word next to Other.
3
Enter its first entries
Type a few entries and click Continue. Left empty, the examples shown are added for you. Beebole then opens the Projects page on the new category.
Before you continue: a note on tags
Before you start assigning settings across your projects, people, and tasks, it’s worth taking a moment to plan your tags. Tags are Beebole’s cross-cutting labels. Unlike projects or people, which live in their own sections, tags let you group and compare across entities in any way that matters to your business. Once applied, they become filters and dimensions in every report. Your account starts with one tag category, Department. To add your own, click Tags in the sidebar, open the category menu next to the Tags: heading, type a name in the field at the bottom, and click Add. A few minutes spent deciding which tag categories reflect how your business actually measures work will pay off every time you open a report or apply new settings. See Tags for the full reference.Who sees the Getting started page
The Getting started page is for everyone in a trial account, and for administrators after the trial:- The person who created the account lands on it at first sign-in, answers the questions, and gets the full checklist.
- During the trial, the people you invite find Getting started at the bottom of the sidebar, with a short checklist of their own. The page doesn’t open by itself for them.
- The sidebar entry shows the steps done out of the total, such as 3/8. It leaves the sidebar a few minutes after the last step ticks.
- After the trial, only people with the Admin role can open it, from the Settings menu.
- Accounts created before the Getting started page existed don’t open on it. Their administrators can still open it from the Settings menu.
Complete your profile ticks once you have a picture or a work schedule of your own. Employees see their checklist only. Administrators and managers also see the trial and help links below it.
Hiding the page and bringing it back
To hide the Getting started page, click No thanks (I’ll go on my own…) at the top right of the page. Hiding it only hides it for you. Administrators can bring it back from the Settings menu: click the button with your initials at the bottom of the sidebar, then Account Settings, then Getting started in the Settings menu. It then stays in the sidebar, trial or not, until you hide it again. During the trial, if colleagues are invited after you hid the page, it comes back by itself, with the note Colleagues were invited since you hid this page — the team steps are relevant again.Trial days left and help
While the trial runs, the Getting started page shows the days left, for example Trial: 23 days left. Administrators also get:- Choose a plan, which opens the Subscription page.
- Book a demo, when the team size answer is 51 to 200 or more. It opens a chat with the Beebole team with a demo request ready to send, and then reads Demo requested.
What’s next?
You’ve completed the essential setup. Here’s where to go depending on what matters most for your team:Related content
Key Concepts
Understand Beebole’s core building blocks and how they relate to each other.
Timesheets
Entering time, duration modes, the timer, and timesheet options in depth.
People
Adding team members, sending invitations, and configuring profiles.
Projects
The project hierarchy, project settings, and rates per project.
Frequently asked questions
Can I add multiple people at once instead of one by one?
Can I add multiple people at once instead of one by one?
Yes. Click People in the sidebar, click the + Add Person button, and use the Or add multiple entries area of the panel. Copy rows from a spreadsheet (one person per line, with the name, then a tab, then the email), click Paste, pick one role for the whole batch in Choose a role, and confirm with Import entries. Beebole creates all the profiles in one pass, and you can then invite them together from the People list. See Adding several people at once.
Can I import my existing data into Beebole?
Can I import my existing data into Beebole?
Yes, in different ways depending on the data. People, projects, tags, and tasks can be pasted from a spreadsheet: open their add panel, use the Or add multiple entries area, click Paste, and confirm with Import entries. Time entries can’t be imported from a file in the timesheet; load them through the MCP server or the API, as described in Importing time entries in bulk. If you come from the legacy Beebole platform, Beebole’s support team migrates your account for you, see Legacy migration. Integrations also bring in projects and work items from Asana, Linear, and monday.com, and employees and their time off from BambooHR.
What's the difference between a project and a category?
What's the difference between a project and a category?
A category is the top-level grouping on Beebole’s Projects page — new accounts start with Client, Internal, and Activity, and the Getting started page can rename the first one with your own word, such as Building. Projects sit inside a category and represent the work being tracked, and each project can hold subprojects at any depth. Use whichever depth makes sense for your team.
Will my team members see each other's time entries?
Will my team members see each other's time entries?
Not with the default roles. In a new Beebole account, the Employee role sees only the person’s own time entries. The People manager role also sees the entries of the people they manage, the Project manager role sees the time logged on the projects they manage, and the Admin role sees the whole account. You can adjust or extend these roles under Settings > Person Roles.
How do I get the Getting started page back after hiding it?
How do I get the Getting started page back after hiding it?
In Beebole, administrators bring it back from the Settings menu: click the button with your initials at the bottom of the sidebar, then Account Settings, then Getting started. It then stays in the sidebar until you hide it again, even after the trial. Other people can’t bring it back themselves, but during the trial it returns on its own when colleagues are invited after it was hidden.
Is there a limit to how many projects or people I can add during the trial?
Is there a limit to how many projects or people I can add during the trial?
No. Beebole’s 30-day free trial includes every feature with no seat limit, so you can add as many projects and people as you need to evaluate it properly. Contact support@beebole.com if you have any questions about the trial.