Features Below Available To: ✅ Grow Plan ✅ Track Plan ❌ Free Plan
To understand your project's progress and how the hours you work impact your project budget, it's critical that you consistently log your time in Monograph. This helps keep track of time spent on specific projects, phases and activities.
First things first, make sure you know how to log your time in Monograph via Timesheets. Once you understand the basics, check out these tips and tricks on to help you build a routine and keep yourself accountable!
⏰ Tip #1: Why Time Matters!
Time tracking matters on multiple levels and can lead to the success of your organization, as well as your own personal growth.
On a Company level - as individuals log time against a project, Monograph will be able to inform the Project Manager of how the team is doing. For example, how much budget do we have left? Will this be a profitable project for the company? Do we need to ask for an additional services contract? The answer to all these questions starts with logging hours. The best type of business instinct is the one you can back with data!
On an Individual level - as each person logs time daily or weekly, it helps managers understand if they have too much or too little on your plate. If you have a hard week, and worked long hours but don't log them, how will your team know to distribute work better? For early-career professionals, it also helps in understanding what areas are taking more time and how to better plan your day or request resources.
For Career Growth - To be eligible for licensure you will need to complete 3,740 hours across various areas and document them with NCARB. That's a lot of hours to track! If you are seeking licensure, use Monograph to track your hours, your timesheet will capture - project name, phase, activity, and activity details. As you log time to use the activity details free form to add a note, like "AXP - Programming & Analysis", or simply "AXP". At the end of the month, you can request an export of your timesheet history from your admin - it's just one click on their end, and you'll have an easy record available to you.
Your time is a key factor of your projects, your schedule, and your own individual growth. Look at logging hours as your contribution to success, not just another task to complete.
🧮 Tip #2: Don't Let Hours Accumulate!
Throughout your work week, you'll need to account for the hours spent on projects and phases you've worked, breaks taken, etc. Keeping track of your time for each day, per project is critical to understanding your personal impact on budgets and timelines.
The worst feeling is remembering your timesheet is overdue and you are unable to recall everything you worked on throughout the week.
You can eliminate the procrastination dread by adding your time to the timesheet while it's fresh on your mind. Some cadences you can adopt for entering time are:
Daily - Set a reminder for 30 minutes prior to the end of your work day
Every Other Day - Set a reminder to enter time on Monday, Wednesday + Friday
Weekly - Set a reminder to enter your time at the end of your work week. Your reminder should be set for mid-day, rather than waiting for the last possible moment before signing off, this will help avoid any distractions that may arise.
Consistency is Key! Pick whichever method may work best for you and stick to it! Once you build this behavior, it will become apart of your recurring flow.
🗺️ Tip #3: Take the Shortcut!
When logging time via Timesheets, be sure to use the following keyboard shortcuts to navigate across your timesheet boxes.
TAB allows you to jump into "Add a note...", then to the "Go to Expenses to add" link, and then you can use TAB again to move on to the next time entry on the right.
📲 Tip #4: Time Tracking To Go!
We're always working to make time tracking a breeze for you and your team. When you're on the go, you can log your hours with your mobile device's web browser. Or if you are using an iPhone or Android device, you can download our mobile app. Check out more information on this here!
This feature is compatible with most tablets and smartphones. Devices older than 5 years might not be compatible.
We suggest using Google Chrome for the best experience, this is a free app that can be downloaded through the app store on your device.
🔔 Mobile access is exclusive to logging time, other Monograph features including projects, invoices, and reports are not accessible via mobile device at this time.
🧠 Tip #5: Be in the Know!
The more you use your timesheets, the more you'll learn and the easier the experience will become. To help you become a Pro, we've highlighted some FYI's:
You can use decimals within Timesheets! Some organizations use increments of .25, .50, .75 while others round up or down to the nearest half or full hour.
You can log overhead work to a specific category, or against a non-billable project. Ask your Admin for more information on how your team is tracking this type of work.
If using the Timer, your hours will not round up or down. This may involve you needing to revisit your Timesheets to update entries.
Even more information can be found throughout the Monograph Learning Center, be sure to check out our Timesheets Collection to dive deeper into all things related to tracking and managing your time!