The new TimoDesk is a redesigned time tracking dashboard with a cleaner layout and one date range for the whole page. It also adds new tools for running a team: teams with team managers, project leaders, manual time requests, a task board in every project, tracking policies and weekly summary emails.
Picture Monday morning. You want one answer: how did last week go? In a lot of tools that means opening three reports and picking the same dates in each one. We wanted that answer to fit on one page, so we rebuilt the dashboard around the questions owners, managers and members ask most. This post is a tour of what changed, with a link to a deeper guide for each part.
What is new in TimoDesk?
Everything below lives in the web dashboard. The desktop app for Windows, macOS and Linux keeps tracking time, activity, screenshots, apps and websites the same way. The dashboard is where that data is now easier to read and act on.
| What is new | Where you find it |
|---|---|
| Redesigned dashboard | Dashboard, the first link in the sidebar |
| Teams and team managers | Teams in the sidebar |
| Project leaders | The Project Leaders field on each project |
| Manual time requests | Manual Time in the sidebar, once an organizer turns it on |
| Task board | Inside each project, with Kanban, List and Calendar views |
| Tracking policies | Team tracking policy on the Members page, or Open tracking policy in your organization settings |
| Time Calendar and Monthly Timesheet | The Analytics group in the sidebar |
| Guided tour | Take a tour, in the account menu |
What does the redesigned dashboard look like?
The first thing you will notice is the sidebar. Pages are grouped under plain headings (Activity, Analytics, Performance, Billing, Support and Settings), and you can collapse the whole sidebar when you want more room for a table.
The dashboard now follows one date range. Pick a period at the top and every figure and chart on the page updates to match.
Below the range you get a row of key figures, such as Hours tracked, Avg. activity, Idle share and Tasks completed, each with its trend across the period. Under that, managers see cards like Team Day, Live Now, Time Allocation, Performance Map and Action Center. Members get the same page for their own time, with cards such as My Day, My Tasks, Activity Heatmap and Recent Screenshots.
We wrote a separate post on the thinking behind these choices. If you want the reasons and not just the list, read why we redesigned TimoDesk.
How do teams, team managers and project leaders work?
Teams
You can now group members into teams. Organizers and business managers click Add Team, give it a name and an optional description, then choose who manages it and who belongs to it.
The Teams page lists each team with its Team Managers, Members, Projects and Time Tracked. Open a team and you get its own Overview, plus Members, Projects, Time & Activity, App Usage, Websites & URLs and Screenshots tabs for that group only.
Deleting a team takes its members and managers off it, and their tracked time is kept. The full walkthrough is in how to organize your workforce with teams.
Team managers and project leaders
Two kinds of responsibility let you share the load without handing over the whole account.
- Team Manager: a role for someone who runs one or more teams. They see their own work plus the members of those teams, and the projects, tasks, time and reports that belong to them.
- Project leader: a Staff member you put in charge of a project. Leaders can manage that project's tasks and members and see everyone's work on it.
You assign team managers on the team itself, and project leaders in the Project Leaders field of a project. See what team managers and project leaders can access for the details.
How do manual time requests work?
Sometimes the tracker was not running. A member forgot to press start before a client call, or the work happened away from the desk.
Manual time is off by default, and an organizer turns it on. Once it is on, a member clicks Request Time, picks the project, an optional task, the date, the start and end time, and writes a reason. The request then waits as Pending.
A reviewer can approve it as asked, open Review request to change it before approving, or reject it with a note to the member. Approved time counts as worked time in your reports, and it stays marked as manual on the dashboard, the Screenshots page and the client portal.
The organizer sets the rules:
- Who can review: organizers only, organizers and business managers, or team managers as well for the teams they manage.
- Approval: Review each request, or Approve automatically.
- Limits: the longest single entry, and how far back a request can go.
- Reason: required or optional.
A request cannot overlap time that is already recorded, and nobody can edit time the desktop app tracked. Read more in the guide to manual time requests.
What can you do with the task board?
Every project now has a task board with three views: Kanban, List and Calendar.
In Kanban you split work into sections, give each section a color, and drag cards between sections or up and down to reorder them. A task can carry assignees, a priority, a start date, a due date, labels and an estimate.
Filters at the top narrow the board by member, priority, label and due date (Overdue, Due today, Due in 7 days or No due date). You can switch the card size between Detailed and Compact, pick a board background that only you see, and turn on Focus mode.
Because tasks and tracked time live in the same place, you can see where the hours went, task by task. The task board guide covers each view.
What do weekly summary emails include?
On the first day of your organization's week, TimoDesk emails a summary of the seven days that just ended.
Every member who tracked time gets a personal summary with Time, Activity and Tasks, followed by their top projects, top tasks, top apps and top websites. Organizers, business managers and team managers also get a team summary with Members, Time and Activity, plus top members, projects, tasks, apps and websites for the people they can see.
If nothing was tracked that week, no summary is sent. You choose the first day of the week in your organization settings.
What does the member details page show?
Click a member and you land on a page built around that one person. The header shows whether their tracking and screenshots are on, and the tabs follow the rest of the product: Overview, Projects, Time & Activity, App Usage, Websites & URLs and Screenshots.
The Overview shows Total Logged and Avg. Activity, with a Timing Chart, Top Projects and Top Tasks. From the header you can also see the teams the member belongs to and, for a team manager, the teams they manage.
How do tracking policies work?
Tracking settings used to be spread across pages. They now sit in one grid called the tracking policy.
The top row is the organization default, labeled "Everyone else follows this". Below it, each member has a row with Tracking, Screenshots, Idle timeout, Screenshot interval, Screenshot alert and the manual time settings. Leave a value on Default and the member follows the organization. Pick a value and that member gets their own setting.
Need to change ten people at once? Check them, choose a setting and a value, and click Apply. The Custom only tab shows just the members whose settings differ from the default. The full guide is at tracking policies in TimoDesk.
Which reports and timesheets are included?
Reports
Reports are grouped by the question they answer. Activity holds Screenshots, App Usage and Websites & URLs. Analytics holds Member Timing, Time & Activity, Project Timing, Weekly Worklog, Time Calendar and Monthly Timesheet. Performance holds Top Performers, Low Performers and Productivity Leaders.
Reports such as Time & Activity, App Usage and Websites & URLs export to PDF or CSV, and the file follows the dates and filters you have set. If you are not sure where to start, we picked out five reports every manager should check weekly.
Time Calendar and Monthly Timesheet
The Time Calendar shows a month at a time with the time tracked on each day. Open a day to see how it splits across projects and members.
The Monthly Timesheet puts your members in rows and the days of the month in columns, with Total Time, Average Time and Average Activity. The Highlighter colors days above or below the limits you set, and Show in/out times adds clock in and clock out times. When you export, choose Overall for the whole team in one sheet or User wise for one page per member.
Is there a guided tour for new users?
Yes. A new layout only helps if people can find their way around it. The first time you reach the dashboard, a short tour points out the sidebar, the date range, the key figures and each main card.
It takes less than a minute, you can skip it, and you can run it again any time from Take a tour in your account menu.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does TimoDesk cost?
TimoDesk costs $1 per user per month, with one plan that includes every feature in this post. You are billed monthly, only for members who tracked time that month, and you can start with a 15-day free trial without a card. See TimoDesk pricing.
Who can create teams in TimoDesk?
Organizers and business managers can create, edit and delete teams and assign team managers. A team manager can open the teams they manage and see their members' work, but cannot change the team itself.
Does manual time count the same as tracked time?
Approved manual time counts as worked hours in your reports. It stays marked as manual on the dashboard, the Screenshots page and the client portal. Because it has no keyboard or mouse activity, reports such as Time & Activity leave it out of activity averages.
When are weekly summary emails sent?
They go out on the first day of your organization's week and cover the seven days before it. An organizer sets the first day of the week in the organization settings. If nothing was tracked that week, no summary is sent.
Can I set a different screenshot interval for one member?
Yes. On the tracking policy page each member has their own row, so you can give one person a different screenshot interval (3 to 60 minutes) or screenshot alert while everyone else follows the organization default.
Can I export reports from the new dashboard?
Yes. Time & Activity, App Usage and Websites & URLs export to PDF or CSV using the dates and filters you have set. The Monthly Timesheet downloads as a PDF in an Overall or User wise layout.
Try the new TimoDesk with your team
The new TimoDesk keeps the time tracking you rely on and makes the dashboard around it quicker to read: one date range, clearer navigation, and new tools for teams, tasks, manual time and tracking rules.
Already a customer? Sign in and take the tour. New to TimoDesk? Start your 15-day free trial and set up your first team today.
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