Lesson 10. Tracking and Managing Time

In this lesson, you learn how to track and manage time in Basecamp.

Understanding Time Tracking in Basecamp

Tracking and managing the amount of time spent on a project is a key component of successful project management. If your company bills by the hour, it’s critical to track project time. Even if you don’t need to track time for billing purposes, knowing the amount of time your team is spending on a project is invaluable information.

Basecamp’s Max, Premium, and Plus plans all offer the ability to track time. See Lesson 1, “Getting Started with Basecamp,” for more information about Basecamp’s account plans.

It’s important to note that only people who work for your company can view or enter time in your Basecamp system. The time-tracking feature is hidden from people who work at other companies, such as clients and vendors, even if your account plan includes time tracking. People at your company, however, can enter time for anyone involved in a project, even at external companies.

Basecamp offers two ways to enter time. You can do the following:

• Enable time tracking for to-do lists and associate time entries with a to-do list item.

• Enter time independently on the Time page for a specific project.

In general, it’s a good idea to track the time your project team spends on each to-do list item and reserve independent time entries only for tasks that don’t correspond to a particular to-do.

Entering Time Associated with a To-Do List Item

To enter time for a to-do list item, follow these steps:

1. On the Basecamp Dashboard, select the project you want to open from the Your Projects list on the right side of the screen.
2. Click the To-Do tab to open the To-Do page, shown in Figure 10.1.

   Figure 10.1. Click the Clock icon to enter time for a to-do list item.

   

3. Click the clock icon to the left of the to-do list item for which you want to enter time. The page expands to display time fields (see Figure 10.2).

   Figure 10.2. Enter the time and any related data.

   

   Note

   Basecamp Time Clocks Are Color-Coded

   You can easily tell which to-dos have time associated with them based on the color of their time clock. A white clock indicates that no one has entered time yet. A green clock indicates that time entries already exist.

4. Select the date the work was performed. Today’s date appears by default.
5. Select the person who performed the work. Your name appears by default, but you can select the name of another project team member.
6. Enter the Hours worked. You can record partial hours by using numbers or actual time. For example, if someone worked two and a half hours, you could enter 2.5 or 2:30 in the Hours field.
7. Enter any Notes regarding this time.
8. If you’ve already entered time for this to-do, the total hours appear in a small green box (see Figure 10.3). To view the time log for this to-do item, click the See the Time Log link. This link appears only if you have existing time. Figure 10.4 shows a sample time log.

   Figure 10.3. You can quickly see how much time has already been logged for this to-do.

   

   Figure 10.4. Viewing a sample time log.

   

   Caution

   Help! My Hours Don’t Match

   By default, the time log shows only time entered for the last seven days. If you’ve entered time beyond a one-week period for this to-do, the hours in the green box won’t match the hours on the time log report. To fix this, click the Create a Report link to select new dates for your report. See “Creating a Time Report,” later in this lesson, for more information.

9. Click the Add to Log button.

Basecamp tracks the time entry, which you can view on the Time page.

Entering Time on the Time Page

You can enter time that’s not associated with a to-do list item on the Time page. To do so, follow these steps:

1. On the Basecamp Dashboard, select the project you want to open from the Your Projects list on the right side of the screen.
2. Click the Time tab to open the Time page, shown in Figure 10.5.

   Figure 10.5. The Time page as it appears before making any time entries.

   

3. If this is the first time you’re entering times for this project, you can view the optional video demo of Basecamp’s time-tracking feature.
4. Select the date the work was performed. Today’s date appears by default.
5. Select the person who performed the work. Your name appears by default, but you can select the name of another project team member.
6. Enter the Hours worked. You can record partial hours by using numbers or actual time. For example, if someone worked two and a half hours, you could enter 2.5 or 2:30 in the Hours field.
7. Enter any Description of the work performed.
8. Click the Add to Log button.

Basecamp tracks the time entry, which you can view on this page.

Viewing Time Entries

You can view time entries for a specific project or for all projects.

To view time entries for a specific project, click the Time tab for that project. The Time page opens, shown in Figure 10.6.

Figure 10.6. View time entries for your project in one place.

This page lists all time entries by date. The To-Do icon appears before any time entries associated with a to-do item.

To view time entries for all your projects, click the Time tab on the Dashboard. This version of the Time page (see Figure 10.7) displays hours by project for the last seven days.

Figure 10.7. The Time page as it appears from the Dashboard.

You can’t enter time on this page. You must open a specific project to enter associated times.

Editing Time Entries

If you make a mistake when entering times, it’s easy to adjust your entries.

To edit a time entry, follow these steps:

1. On the Basecamp Dashboard, select the project you want to open from the Your Projects list on the right side of the screen.
2. Click the Time tab to open the Time page.
3. Click the Edit link to the right of the entry you want to change (refer to Figure 10.6). The page expands to reopen the time entry fields, shown in Figure 10.8.

   Figure 10.8. If you make a mistake, you can revise your time entries.

   

4. Make any changes to the date, person responsible, hours, or description.
5. Click the Save button.

Your changes appear on the Time page.

Deleting Time Entries

To delete a time entry, follow these steps:

1. On the Basecamp Dashboard, select the project you want to open from the Your Projects list on the right side of the screen.
2. Click the Time tab to open the Time page.
3. Click the Trash icon to the right of the entry you want to delete (refer to Figure 10.6).
4. Click the OK button in the pop-up box that opens to confirm your deletion.

Basecamp deletes your time entry and removes it from the Time page.

Creating a Time Report

You can create time-tracking reports for a specific project or for all your projects.

To create a report for a specific project, follow these steps:

1. On the Basecamp Dashboard, select the project you want to open from the Your Projects list on the right side of the screen.
2. Click the Time tab to open the Time page.
3. Click the Create a Report link. The Time page expands to display the Create a Time Report section (see Figure 10.9).

   Figure 10.9. Create time reports filtering by date and person.

   

4. Select the person whose time you want to view from the Show drop-down list. Everyone’s time appears by default.
5. Select the dates for the report.
6. Click the Create Report button. Figure 10.10 shows the report that appears based on the sample criteria in Figure 10.9.

Figure 10.10. A sample Basecamp time report.

From here, you can do the following:

• Create another report by clicking the Create Another Report link.

• Return to the previous screen by clicking the Back to the Full Time Log link.

• Export this report data. See “Exporting Time Entries” later in this lesson for more information.

• Click the Print icon in the upper-right corner to print the report data. Depending on your printer’s capabilities, you can print a hard copy, send the report as a fax, or save as a PDF.

Exporting Time Entries

If you want to sort and analyze your data in Microsoft Excel or another data analysis tool, it’s easy to export your time entries from Basecamp. You can export your time entries to a CSV format by clicking the Export link on the Time page.

The data that you export depends on where you are in the Basecamp system when you click the Export link. For example, you export the following:

• Time entries for all projects if you’re on the Time page you access from the Dashboard.

• Time entries for a specific project if you’re on the Time page for that particular project.

• Time entries that are part of a report if you’re on the Time page that appears after creating a report.

To export time entries, follow these steps:

1. Click the Export link in the lower-right corner of the Time page. A dialog box opens, shown in Figure 10.11.

   Figure 10.11. Select the application in which you want to open your exported data.

   

2. To open the file with the default application (such as Microsoft Excel), select the Open With option button.
3. To open the file with another application, select the application you prefer from the drop-down list next to the Open With option button. Alternatively, click Other to search for an appropriate application.
4. To save the file, select the Save File option button.
5. Click the OK button to perform the task you selected.

If you want to open your exported Basecamp data in the same application every time, click the Do This Automatically for Files Like This from Now On checkbox.

Figure 10.12 shows a sample time entry export in Microsoft Excel. From here, you can sort, analyze, perform calculations, create charts, and so forth.

Figure 10.12. You can sort, analyze, and format Basecamp data in Microsoft Excel.

Summary

In this lesson, you learned how to track and manage time with Basecamp’s time-tracking features. Next, learn about the collaborative power of the Basecamp writeboard.