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Smart Time Suggestions

Features Below Available To: ✅ Grow Plan ✅ Track Plan ❌ Free Plan

Smart Time Suggestions help you complete your timesheet faster by automatically suggesting time entries based on events from your connected calendar.

Instead of manually recreating your week, you can review suggested entries, make any necessary adjustments, and add them directly to your timesheet.


💡 Any user with a connected Google Calendar or Microsoft 365 calendar integration can use Smart Time Suggestions, regardless of their permission level.

Users who do not have a connected calendar integration will not be able to use Smart Time Suggestions.


How to Use Smart Time Suggestions

After integrating with Google or Microsoft, Monograph reviews events from your connected calendar and generates suggested time entries for the selected week.

When a suggestion is generated, Monograph may automatically populate some or all of the following information based on details from the calendar event:

  • Project name

  • Phase name

  • Activity (when available)

  • Suggested hours

  • A brief explanation of why the suggestion was created

Suggestions are only generated when Monograph has a high level of confidence in the information pulled from the calendar event. If there is not enough information to generate a reliable suggestion, the event will not be included.

If no suggestions are available for a given week, the panel will display "No suggestions available."

After connecting your calendar for the first time, Smart Timesheet Suggestions may not appear immediately. Suggestions are generated overnight, so it can take up to 24 hours before they become available.


Viewing Suggestions

When available, suggestions are automatically generated for last week and this week. These suggestions appear in the Suggestions panel on the left side of the timesheet.

The panel automatically expands when at least one suggestion is available. If the panel is collapsed, a purple dot will appear to indicate that suggestions are available to review.

When navigating between weeks, the Suggestions panel updates to display suggestions relevant to the selected week. Suggestions are sorted by confidence and chronological order. To view suggestions at any time:

  1. Open your timesheet.

  2. Click Suggestions to open the Suggestions panel.

  3. Review the suggested entries for the selected week.

  4. Accept or decline the suggestions.

Editing Suggestions

Before accepting a suggestion, the following information can be modified by clicking on the Edit icon in the upper right corner of the suggestion:

  • Project

  • Phase

  • Activity

  • Duration

This allows users to refine suggestions when Monograph can identify the work performed but cannot confidently determine every detail.


Accepting Suggestions

If a suggestion looks correct after reviewing the suggested details:

  1. Click the checkmark or select Edit if you want to make changes.

  2. Click Save and accept.

Once accepted, the suggestion is converted into a time entry and removed from the Suggestions panel. The entry is then added to the selected week's timesheet as a new row, even if a matching project/phase/activity already exists. Smart Time Suggestions are never merged with existing timesheet rows.

Any explanation included with the suggestion is automatically added to the time entry's Notes field. Existing notes are not overwritten; the suggested note is simply appended.

Dismissing Suggestions

If a suggestion is not relevant, click the X within the suggestion to dismiss it. Dismissed suggestions are removed from the Suggestions panel and are not added to your timesheet.

Once a suggestion has been dismissed, the action cannot be undone.


Timesheet Settings and Suggestions

Based on the timesheet settings enabled in Settings > App Defaults, your firm's experience with Smart Time Suggestions may vary slightly.

Timesheet Locking

If the Timesheet Lock setting is enabled for your firm, users will only be able to view suggestions for last week's timesheet if:

  1. They have the Edit all Timesheets permission enabled, or

  2. The timesheet has not yet been locked based on the firm's Timesheet Locking settings.

Users who cannot access last week's timesheet will not see any suggestions for that week. Instead, a warning message will explain that suggestions are unavailable for locked timesheets and that they must contact an Admin if the timesheet needs to be unlocked.

Users with the Edit all Timesheets permission can unlock a locked timesheet when accepting a suggestion. If a suggestion is accepted for a locked week, a confirmation window will appear explaining that the timesheet must be unlocked before the suggestion can be added.

From here, click Unlock to proceed or Cancel to return to the suggestions list.

Required Activities

If the Require activity for all timesheet entries setting is enabled for your firm, users will be required to select an activity before accepting a suggestion when an activity has not been automatically generated.

If this setting is not enabled for your firm, activities will be optional.


Frequently Asked Questions

Where do suggestions come from?

Suggestions are generated using information from your connected calendar and other work signals available in Monograph.

Why is a project, phase, or activity missing?

Sometimes Monograph can identify that work occurred but cannot confidently determine the correct project, phase, or activity. In these cases, you'll be asked to select the missing information before accepting the suggestion.

Will suggestions automatically create time entries?

No. Suggestions are drafts only. You control which suggestions are accepted and added to your timesheet.

Can I still enter time manually?

Yes. Smart Time Suggestions are designed to help speed up timesheet completion, but you can continue entering time manually at any time.

Why don't I see any suggestions?

Suggestions may not be available if:

  • No relevant calendar events were found

  • A calendar integration has not enabled

  • Suggestions have not yet been generated for the selected week

  • The selected timesheet period has been locked

To note: After connecting your calendar for the first time, Smart Timesheet Suggestions may not appear immediately. Suggestions are generated overnight, so it can take up to 24 hours before they become available.

Why are my Outlook-based Smart Time Suggestions showing the wrong time?

Smart Time Suggestions should display the same time range as your Outlook calendar in your local time zone. If your suggestions are still showing the wrong time:

  • Confirm that your computer is set to the correct time zone.

  • Confirm that the Outlook calendar event was created in the correct time zone.

  • If everything appears correct and the suggested time is still incorrect, contact Support and include a screenshot of both the Outlook calendar event and the Smart Time Suggestion so we can investigate further.

Do I need to reconnect Outlook after the timezone fix?

No. In most cases, you do not need to reconnect your Outlook calendar for the timezone fix to take effect. Newly generated Smart Time Suggestions should display the correct time based on your local time zone. However, suggestions that were generated before the fix may continue to display the original time they were created with and are not automatically updated.

If newly generated suggestions continue to display the wrong time after confirming your computer and Outlook time zone settings, please contact Support so we can investigate further.

What happens to a timesheet added by a suggestion to a project, phase, or activity that has been deleted or archived?

If a timesheet entry was associated with a project, phase, or activity that was deleted, the same behaviors will occur whether they were added using a timesheet suggestion or not.

If the...

Then...

Project is deleted

Any timesheet entries associated with the project are permanently deleted.

Project is archived in Settings

Existing timesheet entries are not affected.

Phase is deleted from the project

Any timesheet entries associated with the phase are permanently deleted.

Phase is archived in Settings

Existing timesheet entries are not affected. However, the phase will no longer be available for use in future projects.

Activity is deleted in Settings

Existing timesheet entries are not deleted, but the activity is permanently removed from those entries.

*Activities cannot be archived at this time.

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