Timesheets: tracking and submitting your time

The timesheet is where each person in Beebole records the time they spend on projects, tasks, and time off. Every entry feeds reports, budgets, billing calculations, and the approval workflow. Open it by clicking Timesheet in the left sidebar.

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Calendar view and grid view

The timesheet has two views of the same entries. Switch between them with the two buttons next to the Timesheet title, Grid view and Calendar view. The first time you open your timesheet it shows the calendar view; after that, Beebole remembers the view you used last. Neither view is the main one. They show the same period, the same entries, and the same day headers, where each day shows the time reported so far against your scheduled hours. An entry you create in one view is in the other straight away, so you can switch whenever it helps: draw your day in the calendar, then check your totals per project in the grid. Everything else works the same in both views: the date picker, the button cluster at the top left of the timesheet (approvals, team, suggestions, calendar import, copy and paste), the entry details, the floating timer, undo, and Submit. If a day doesn’t accept time, in either view, your administrator may have added restrictions in Timesheet and Planning Settings, for example blocking time entries on future dates, on non-working days, or beyond your scheduled hours. With Allow only planned tasks in the timesheet, a task takes time only on its planned dates, see When only planned tasks are allowed. A submitted or approved period is also locked until it is rejected or reopened, and nothing on or before the Lock date can change, whoever you are.

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Moving between periods

Use the arrows on each side of the date range at the top of the page to move one period back or forward. Click the date range itself to open the date picker: pick any day in the two months it shows, or use a shortcut such as This week, Last week, This month, or Today. The stretch a period covers (a day, a week, two weeks, half a month, or a month) is not something you switch from the timesheet. Your administrator sets the Timesheet period once for the account, or for a team or a person, in Timesheet and Planning Settings, and every timesheet follows it. If you expected a day, week, or month switcher and don’t see one, that is why. In the calendar view you can still read one day at a time, see Opening a day as a list.

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Calendar view

The calendar view gives each day of the period a column and draws each entry as a block, so you place time instead of typing it.

• When your account records start and end times, each column is a day by the hour, today shows a line at the current time, and every entry sits at its real start and end.
• When your account records durations only, there is no hour scale. Entries stack one after another from the top of each day, and the height of a block is its duration.

A full day fills its column exactly to the end of your schedule; only a genuinely over-booked day is drawn as overflowing. The day grid is tall enough for short entries to stay readable. With start and end times, entries can overlap, and each one stays visible. Entries that start at the same time sit side by side. An entry that starts while another is still running is drawn on top of it, slightly offset to the right, so the one underneath keeps an edge you can see and click. A run of entries close together, such as several one-minute entries, steps across the column the same way. To read entries too short to tell apart at this scale, open the day as a list.

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Adding and changing entries

• Create an entry: click and drag across an empty time slot. The selection shows the total duration alongside the start and end times as you draw. The entry popup opens with the activity picker built in, and the entry is created as soon as you pick the project, task, or absence type. You can still drag the new block to another time or day, or resize it from either edge, before you’re done.
• Create an entry with one click: click an empty slot without dragging. When your account doesn’t record start and end times, the new entry is pre-filled with the time still missing from that day’s schedule, the same figure the day header shows, so the last entry of the day always completes it. On a full, overrun, or unscheduled day, and whenever start and end times are on, the click places a one-hour entry instead.
• Add an entry to a full day: without start and end times, the calendar keeps an hour of free space under each day’s last entry, unless a No overtime beyond the schedule restriction stops you from logging more. Click it to add an entry after the day’s last one. You can also open the day as a list and click Add an entry.
• Move an entry: drag it to another slot or day. Its duration is preserved.
• Resize an entry: drag its top or bottom edge to change the start or end time. Edges snap to 15-minute steps, or to the Minimum time interval accepted when your administrator set a longer one; hold ⌘ (Ctrl on Windows/Linux) while dragging an edge to snap to whole hours instead.
• Give an entry a time: when start and end times are recorded, an entry that has none yet (typed in the grid view, for example) sits stacked at the top of its day. Drag it to a slot and it takes the clock time where you release it.
• Duplicate an entry: hold ⌘ (Ctrl on Windows/Linux) while dragging an entry to a new slot.
• Edit an entry: click it to open its entry details.
• Delete an entry: hover over it and click the delete button that appears.
• Work on several entries at once: Shift-click to select a range, or ⌘-click (Ctrl-click on Windows/Linux) to pick individual entries, then move, duplicate, resize, or delete the whole selection. One undo step reverses the batch.

When your account records start and end times, entries you place in the calendar carry them, and those times can appear in reports.

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Keyboard shortcuts

Click an entry to select it, then:

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Favorites

Above the calendar, a favorites bar shows up to five of your activities. The rows you pinned in the grid view come first, followed by the rows of your timesheet and the projects and tasks you used most recently.

• Drag a favorite onto the calendar grid to create an entry for that activity on the day and at the time where you release it. The entry takes your usual duration for that activity (or one hour when your recent entries on it vary), trimmed to the hours still missing for the day, or to one hour at most once the day is full. Click the new entry to adjust its details.
• Drop a favorite on a suggested entry to accept that suggestion as the favorite’s activity instead.
• Remove a favorite with the × (Remove from favorites) on the left of its chip. When the favorite comes from a row of your timesheet, that row is removed from the grid view too.

A plain click on a favorite doesn’t create anything: only the drag adds an entry, so a stray click never logs time. To start tracking a favorite right away, use its play button on the right of the chip when the timer is enabled, see Using the timer.

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Opening a day as a list

Click a day header to open that day as a list. At the scale of a whole period, short entries are hard to read: the list gives every entry of the day its own line, however short. The list belongs to the calendar view; the grid view has no equivalent.

• Each line shows the entry’s start and end times when it has them (+1 marks a time on the next day), the activity, its note, and its duration. Entries with times come first, in the order they were worked, followed by the entries without times.
• Click a duration to change it in place. An absence counted in days shows the half-day and full-day buttons (Half day and Full day) instead. Click anywhere else on a line to open the entry’s details.
• Entries whose times overlap are bracketed together under In parallel.
• The day’s suggested entries sit among the entries as dashed lines. Click the check button (Accept) at the end of a line to accept it, or the line itself to open its popup. When you have hidden the suggestions, a Show N suggestions link under the list brings them back.
• Add an entry, under the list, opens a new entry that starts where the day’s last one ends.

The header above the list gives the day, how many entries and suggestions it holds, and its total against your schedule. Its copy button (Copy day) copies the day’s entries. Open another day, in this period or another one, and click the paste button (Paste day) in its header to paste them. If that day already holds entries, Beebole says There are already time records on this day and asks whether to Add the copied entries on top or Replace the existing ones. To read another day, click it in the list of the period’s days on the left, which shows each day’s total, or press the left and right arrow keys. The arrow keys step one day at a time and carry on into the previous or next period, and so do the arrows on each side of the date range while a day is open. The favorites bar is hidden meanwhile, since favorites are dropped onto the period’s columns. To return to the whole period, click the zoom-out button next to the date range. It names the period you return to, Week, 2 weeks, or Period depending on your timesheet period, and its tooltip reads Zoom out to the surrounding period (Week). Beebole remembers that you were reading a day: the next time you open the calendar view, it opens on today’s list, or on the first day of the period when today isn’t in it.

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Suggested entries in the calendar

Suggested time entries show up as ghost entries in the calendar, and as dashed lines in a day opened as a list. Drag a suggestion to a time slot to schedule it, or accept it as it is. Click a suggestion to open its popup: when you accept it from there, the entry details open on the entry it became, so you can complete it right away. The suggestions button (Suggested entries) in the button cluster shows or hides them. Hiding them and showing them again also brings back the period’s dismissed suggestions, and accepted ones whose entries you have deleted since, except on locked days and in periods already submitted or approved.

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Grid view

The grid view is a table of the period:

• Sections group rows by the project or task categories your administrator selected in Timesheet and Planning Settings. A Time Off section appears when recording time off is allowed.
• Rows are what you track time against: a project (or chain of projects), a task, or an absence type. Each row shows its total for the period.
• Columns are the days of the current period. Today’s date is highlighted, and each day’s header shows the time reported so far against your scheduled hours.

With a Daily timesheet period, the grid shows a single day and each row displays its full entry form (duration, times, and note) inline.

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Entering time in the grid

Every change is saved automatically, in both views. There is no save button on the timesheet. If the + button (Add a row) is missing next to a section of the grid view, your administrator may have turned on Allow only planned tasks in the timesheet. Beebole then fills your timesheet with the tasks you own on their planned dates, and no other row can be added, while time off stays available (see When only planned tasks are allowed). The section’s category may also have been removed from your timesheet settings. In both cases the section name is grayed out and hovering it explains why. No row can be added to a submitted or approved period either. When you add a row and there is no project to pick, either no project has been made available to you yet, or the project’s category isn’t offered in the timesheet. Ask an administrator or your manager to grant you the project under Who has access?, or Show projects on your profile, and to check Record time on these project categories in Timesheet and Planning Settings. See Troubleshooting.

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Managing rows

Each row has a ⋯ action menu with:

• Pin to top / Unpin: keep the row at the top of its section.
• Edit: change the row’s project, task, or absence type selection. The row’s entries in the current period move with it, in one undo step.
• Set as done: on a task row, for people allowed to manage tasks. It marks the task Done once its work is finished, so the row leaves your timesheet and the task leaves the active planning views. Hours already logged on the task are kept and still appear in reports. To bring the task back, click Show Done on the Planning page, then Reopen the task (see Marking tasks done and deleting them).
• Remove row: take the row off your timesheet.

To clear a whole section at once, hover over the section’s header and click the trash button (Clear all rows in this section) that appears. It removes that section’s rows and their time entries for the current period. The button is hidden on locked periods and when reviewing someone else’s timesheet. There is no confirmation dialog for these actions. Press ⌘+Z (Ctrl+Z on Windows/Linux) to undo.

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Suggested entries in the grid

In the grid view, the suggestions button (Suggested entries) in the button cluster opens the suggested time entries in a pane next to the grid. Opening the pane also brings back the period’s dismissed suggestions, and accepted ones whose entries you have deleted since, as hiding and showing them does in the calendar view.

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Entry details

Every entry has the same details, whichever view you use. In the calendar view, click the entry. In the grid view, hover over a cell and click the info icon that appears in its corner. Depending on your account’s settings, an entry can hold: The Non-billable and Work from home checkboxes apply to work entries only. They don’t appear on time off entries. There is no setting to hide Work from home, unlike Non-billable, which the Hide the non-billable option restriction takes away. Leaving it unchecked has no effect on reports, so teams that don’t track remote work can simply ignore it. An entry can run past midnight, for a night shift for example, but must end by the end of the following day. Beebole refuses an end time before the start, or later than that, with An entry must end after it starts, at the latest on the following day. An entry that runs past midnight belongs to the day it starts on: it counts in that day and that period in reports, approvals, and fixed fee calculations alike. The calendar draws it in that day’s column, with the hours after midnight marked +1. The entry’s activity is named at the top of its details. To move the entry to another activity, click the pencil button (Change activity) next to that name, then pick another project, task, or absence type in the activity picker. The entry keeps its duration, times, and note, and one undo step reverses the move. When the new activity is an absence type counted in days, the duration becomes the nearer of a half day or a full day of your schedule.

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Using the timer

The timer only shows when your administrator has enabled it, in either view. Where you start it depends on the view, and the timer button on each row belongs to the grid view only: Time off has no timer: time off is booked, not timed. Beebole saves timer time rounded up to the Minimum time interval accepted, the smallest increment your timesheet accepts. New accounts start at 15 minutes, so a 7-minute run is saved as 15 minutes. An administrator can lower the interval in Timesheet settings, for the whole account or for one team or person. Starting a timer from a suggestion also works on the suggested project or task. Without start and end times, it accepts the suggestion in the same undoable step; when Record start and end times is on, the tracked time is the entry and the suggestion shrinks as that time covers it. A plain click on any play button switches timers: whatever was running is paused and its time saved, then the activity you clicked starts. To run several timers at once, hold ⌘ (Ctrl on Windows/Linux) while clicking a play button. The tooltip reads ⌘+Click to start it without stopping the others whenever a timer is already running. Each timer counts its own time in full, so two timers running for an hour log two hours. The gesture is the same on every play button: calendar entries, favorites, suggestions, grid rows, and the floating timer itself.

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The floating timer

On desktop, a floating panel appears as soon as a timer runs, whichever view or page you are on. Drag it anywhere on the page, grabbing it by any spot including the activity names, and it stays where you leave it. It lists the activities you timed today, one line each. Each line names what the timer belongs to: the project or task, with its parent projects shortened to initials, for example AC. Website Redesign for Website Redesign under Acme Corp. Hover the name to see the full path.

• A running line shows a pulsing dot, its name, a live counter, and a Pause timer button.
• A paused line stays listed with the time saved on its entry. Its play button resumes it (a plain click pauses the others first, ⌘-click or Ctrl-click adds it to the ones running) and the × (Remove from the timer list) takes it off the panel. A running line has no ×: pause it first, so time is never discarded while it is still counting.
• When more than one timer is running, a Pause all button appears under the lines and stops them all at once, saving each entry’s own time.

Click the chevron on the first line to collapse the panel to dots and counters; hover a dot for the activity’s name. The panel only tracks today’s activities, and when several entries exist for a day, one line stands for each activity. If a restriction refuses the time a pause would save, for example No overtime beyond the schedule, the timer keeps running and an error explains why, so no time is lost while you fix the day.

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Timers left running

Beebole stops a timer you forgot to pause, at the first of these that applies:

• The end of your scheduled hours that day, from your work schedule. When your schedule gives the day hours but no clock times, the timer stops once the entry holds the day’s scheduled hours.
• When the schedule gives no end, on a day off or for a timer started after your working hours, the end of the planned task the timer runs on.
• At the latest, the end of the day after the one the timer started.

The entry keeps the time up to that moment, rounded up to the Minimum time interval accepted, as when you pause it yourself. Beebole then sends you an email and a push notification naming the activity, the time the timer stopped, and the time logged, with a link to your timesheet so you can correct the entry. They reach you on the email and push channels you turned on in your notification settings.

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Copying a period

To reuse a period’s rows and entries, in either view: To copy a single entry instead, use ⌘+C and ⌘+V in the calendar view, see Keyboard shortcuts.

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Undoing and redoing changes

Beebole tracks your recent changes across the app, in both views: Undo and redo buttons also appear in the top bar whenever there is history to step through. Deleted entries and rows come back exactly as they were.

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Recording time off

When your administrator allows recording time off, you can record it in either view. In the calendar view, create an entry and pick an absence type in the activity picker. In the grid view, click the + button (Add a row) of the Time Off section, pick an absence type, and enter the time. Absence types tracked in days are entered as full or partial days. See Time off for absence types, allowances, and approval.

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When only planned tasks are allowed

Your administrator can tie your timesheet to your plan with the Allow only planned tasks in the timesheet restriction in Timesheet and Planning Settings. You then record time only on the tasks you own (the tasks where you are the Owner), and only on their planned dates.

• In the grid view, each task you own appears on its own as a row, in a section for its planning, in every period its planned dates reach. Its cells take time only on its planned dates; the other days are locked, and a task without planned dates takes no time. Project sections no longer appear, except one that already holds your entries.
• No row can be added. The + button (Add a row) is gone from the project and task sections, and hovering a section name explains why. A row’s ⋯ action menu has no Edit either, since each row is its planned task.
• In the calendar view, the activity picker offers only your own tasks planned for that day, and the favorites bar keeps only your own tasks. The suggested entries stay on show: the suggestions button doesn’t hide them.
• The copy and Paste period buttons disappear, so periods can’t be copied.
• Time off works as usual, in both views.

Time on someone else’s task or on a project is refused with Your timesheet settings only allow time on the tasks planned for you.

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Importing calendar events

You can bring your Google or Microsoft calendar events into the timesheet instead of re-typing meetings. Events are assigned to a row, so this is done in the grid view. The imported entries then show in the calendar view too.

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Importing time entries in bulk

The timesheet itself has no import button for a CSV file or a spreadsheet. Pasting rows from a spreadsheet exists for adding people, projects, tags, and tasks in bulk, not for hours. Bulk import of time entries is done outside the timesheet, through Beebole’s API or its MCP server, or by one of the in-app shortcuts:

• The MCP server: connect Claude, ChatGPT, or another AI assistant to Beebole and hand it the spreadsheet. Its record_time tool creates one entry or many at once, for you or for other people. See MCP server.
• The API: create entries for any number of people with addTimeRecord, from a script that reads your file. See Mutations and the worked example.
• Copy a period: reuse a person’s own rows and entries from another period. See Copying a period.
• Import calendar events: turn Google or Microsoft calendar events into entries. See Importing calendar events.
• A legacy migration: historical time from a legacy Beebole account is imported by Beebole’s support team. See Legacy migration.

People who belong to your Beebole account enter time directly in their own timesheet, and it is part of your data the moment they save it. There is nothing to import between people in the same organization.

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Submitting your timesheet

When your period is complete, click Submit at the top of the timesheet, in either view, next to the period’s total. For 3 seconds the button reads Submitting… and a notice at the bottom of the screen offers Undo: click it, or press ⌘+Z (Ctrl+Z on Windows/Linux), to cancel before anything is sent. The timesheet then enters the approval workflow and is locked while it waits for review. From then on, only a rejection by an approver or an administrator reopens it. Once it is rejected, fix your entries and click Resubmit. Submit only shows when an approval workflow applies to you, and not on a period that is already submitted or approved. Without a workflow, Beebole has nobody to send your timesheet to, so there is no Submit button and no reminder to submit. Your period then closes only if your administrator set Auto-submit timesheets after X days: once those days have passed, Beebole approves and locks the period on its own. If your timesheets should be reviewed, ask your administrator for an approval workflow, see Approvals. Submitting checks your administrator’s rules first. Beebole refuses the submission until it meets Require comments for submission, Require filling the whole schedule to submit, and No overtime beyond the schedule, whichever are on. A period that ends on or before the Lock date can’t be submitted at all: Beebole answers This period is locked and cannot be submitted for approval. Your administrator can also have Beebole submit timesheets automatically a set number of days after the period ends, and send reminders to submit. See Timesheet and Planning Settings.

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Reviewing your team

Managers and administrators see two extra buttons in the button cluster at the top left of the timesheet:

• The approval button (Approval) opens the Pending pane with timesheets waiting for review. A red badge shows how many are pending. From here you can open a person’s timesheet and Approve or Reject submissions. A rejection needs a comment, so the person knows what to fix.
• The team button (Team) opens the Team pane listing your team members with their reported time for the period. For someone who has an approval workflow and whose timesheet is still a draft or was rejected, the bell button (Send reminder) reminds them to submit. Select several people to Remind them all at once.

Unless your administrator turned on Only the owner or an admin can edit entries, managers can correct a team member’s draft or rejected timesheet: click the pencil button (Edit timesheet) on their line in the Team pane. For the full review workflow, see Approvals.

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Timesheet score

The timesheet score is a 0 to 100 measure of how reliably a person submits their timesheet. Each period scores 100 when submitted on time and loses 10 points per day late, down to 30. A period never submitted scores 0, and each rejection takes off 15 points. The score is the average over the periods. The team panes of the timesheet no longer show it around people’s pictures. Open the Compliance entry in the Reports menu instead, where the Score column gives each person’s score as a colored badge: green from 95, yellow from 80 to 94, and red below 80. The report leaves out people without an approval workflow, since they can’t submit. Next to the score, each of the person’s periods is marked On time, Late, or Not submitted, and hovering a period shows its Deadline, when it was Submitted, the Days late, and any Rejections. Click the Score column header to switch between worst first and best first. See Timesheet Compliance for the report’s filters, period, and access. Developers can also read a person’s score through the API’s getTimesheetScore query, see Queries.

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Related content

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Frequently asked questions