Track time
Time tracking in dotby is built around one idea: logging time should cost you less effort than not logging it. There are no modes to pick and no tabs to switch before you can type.
Log time in one line
Section titled “Log time in one line”Type a duration and press Enter:
3h 20mThat’s logged. Leave the same box empty and press Enter instead, and it starts a live timer.
The same editor works everywhere — on the task, in the timer popover, and on your timesheet. One box, one grammar, no “which screen am I on” tax.
The duration grammar
Section titled “The duration grammar”| Unit | Means | Aliases |
|---|---|---|
m |
minutes | min |
h |
hours | hr |
d |
days | — |
w |
weeks | wk |
mo |
months | mon |
y |
years | yr |
Combine them freely: 1h30m, 2w, 1mo 2w. 1:30 works too.
Two rules worth knowing:
mis always minutes andmois always months.1monever reads as1mplus junk.- A day and a week are your team’s, not the calendar’s. They use the
project’s work schedule — 8 hours a day and 5 days a week by default — so
2wis 80 hours, not 336. Months and years are fixed multiples on top of that: 1 month is 4 weeks, 1 year is 12 months.
While the timer runs
Section titled “While the timer runs”Forgot to start it? Click the “Started 1:13 pm” label while it is still running and drag the start time backwards. No stopping, no re-logging.
Pause and resume as often as you like. Each stretch is recorded separately and the total is the sum of them — a pause never inflates your hours.
The timer pill opens your recent days in place: per-day totals, one-tap resume, and inline editing of any entry without leaving the page.
If a new entry would overlap one you already logged, dotby warns you instead of quietly double-counting.
What one entry actually is
Section titled “What one entry actually is”An entry is a block of time carrying one activity tag and one billable classification. The activity says what kind of work happened; billable says whether those hours may be invoiced somewhere else.
A single block can span several tasks — useful when one stretch of work touched three things. It can also have no task at all, if an admin has turned that on for the workspace. Meetings and admin time are real work; they just don’t live on a board.
Estimates vs actual
Section titled “Estimates vs actual”Give a task an estimate in the same grammar (4h, 2w), and the task shows
estimated against tracked side by side. Points and t-shirt scales work too, if
your team sizes that way instead.
This is where the number earns its keep: after a few sprints you stop arguing about whether estimates are accurate and start reading how far off they usually are.
Activity types
Section titled “Activity types”An activity type is a named, colored tag — Development, Design, Meeting, Support. Every workspace has one marked as the default, so logging time never blocks on a decision.
Their job is context: reports can show where the hours went without inventing a second Task hierarchy.
Billable and non-billable hours
Section titled “Billable and non-billable hours”Every block is either Billable or Non-billable. This is classification, not a price: dotby stores no hourly rate, amount, earnings, payroll, or currency on time entries.
New entries inherit the workspace’s Default new time entries to billable setting. You can override it before starting or logging, change it while a timer is running without restarting the clock, or toggle it directly on your timesheet.
Changing activity while a timer runs still closes the current stretch and opens a new one, preserving its billable choice and Task links. Pause and resume also preserve it.
Reports
Section titled “Reports”Personal reports show total, billable, and non-billable hours, trend, activity, project, heatmap, overlap warnings, and weekly goal progress. Goals always count all hours, even while a billable filter is active.
On a Task, the time section shows how many hours you logged there and the exact entries behind that total. It never includes another member’s hours.
Private by ownership
Section titled “Private by ownership”Everyone can see and correct their own hours. Nobody can read or mutate another member’s time, even with an admin/manager role or an older stored capability. The same rule is enforced by the web app, mobile app, REST API, MCP, and agents.
- Core concepts — where estimates sit among a task’s other properties.
- Invite your team — roles, and granting one ability without promoting anyone.
- Billable time reports — report filters, breakdowns, and CSV.