How to Organize Your Workforce with Teams in TimoDesk

Teams in TimoDesk let you group members, put one or more team managers in charge of each group, and see that group's time, activity, projects, apps, websites and screenshots on one page. Organizers and business managers create teams in a minute from the Teams page in the sidebar.

A company of eight people can run on one member list. Everyone knows who does what, and one person can read every report. At thirty or fifty people, that stops working. Design, support and development sit in the same long list, and the person who runs each group has to ask someone else for the numbers. This guide shows how to organize your workforce with teams, step by step, using the labels you will see on screen.

What are teams in TimoDesk?

A team is a named group of members inside your organization. It has a name, an optional description, at least one member, and any number of team managers, including none.

A team does not replace projects. Projects describe the work, and teams describe the people. A member can sit on more than one team, and a team's members can be spread across many projects.

Once a team exists, it does three practical jobs:

• It gives you a team page. Every team has its own details page with an overview and tabs for members, projects, time, apps, websites and screenshots.
• It sets what a team manager can see. A person with the Team Manager role sees their own work plus the members of the teams they manage.
• It works as a filter. You can narrow the project list to the projects one team's members are assigned to.

Who can create and manage teams?

The Teams link in the sidebar is shown to three roles: Organizer, Business Manager and Team Manager. Staff do not see it.

Only organizers and business managers can create, edit and delete teams, and add or remove the people on them. Team managers can open the teams they manage and read their reports, but they cannot change them.

For the full picture of what each role can do, read Team Managers and Project Leaders: who can see and do what.

How do you create a team in TimoDesk?

If your organization has no teams yet, the page says "You have no team yet" and shows a Create your first team button. After that, the button in the top bar is called Add Team.

1. Open Teams from the sidebar.
2. Click Add Team (or Create your first team). The Add New Team window opens.
3. Type a Name. It is required, and two teams in the same organization cannot share a name.
4. Add a Description if you want one. It is optional and limited to 255 characters, with a counter that shows how many are left.
5. Pick people in Team Managers. This is optional, and you can choose more than one.
6. Pick people in Members. Use Add All to select everyone, or Clear to start again.
7. Click Create Team.

Everyone you added as a member gets a dashboard notification that they joined the team. Everyone you added as a manager is told they now manage it.

Rules to know before you start

First, a team needs at least one member. If you try to save with nobody picked, you will see "A team needs at least one member", and you cannot remove the last member later.

Second, the Team Managers field only lists people who already have the Team Manager role. If nobody has it, you will see the notice "No one has the Team Manager role yet". Open Members, give the right person the Team Manager role in their Edit Member window, and they will appear in the list.

Third, only active members who have confirmed their email can be added. Someone who is waiting for approval or has been disabled is not offered as a new member.

What does the Teams list show?

Organizers and business managers see the Teams page as a table with one row per team. Use Search team to find a team by name, and click a column heading to sort by it.

Column	What it shows
Team	The team name. Click it to open the team.
Team Managers	The people who manage the team, or "No manager" with an Assign managers link.
Members	The people on the team.
Projects	How many projects the team's members are assigned to. Click the number to see the list.
Time Tracked	The total time the team's current members have tracked.

The menu at the end of each row has four actions: View details, Projects, Edit team and Delete team.

Adding and removing people later

You do not have to reopen the whole form to change who is on a team. Click the avatars in the Members or Team Managers column to open the people list for that team.

From there, Assign Members and Assign Team Managers add people, and Remove Member and Remove Manager take them off. People get a notification when they are added or removed.

You can also work from the member's side. The member details page lists every team that person belongs to, with a Remove From Team action. For a team manager, a second list shows the teams they manage, and Assign Teams adds more.

What does the team details page show?

Click a team name, or choose View details, to open the team's details page. The header shows the team name, its managers and its members. Organizers and business managers also see an Edit button and a delete button.

Below the header are seven tabs.

Overview

The Overview opens on the last 30 days, and the date filter lets you pick another range. It starts with three figures: Total Logged, Avg. Activity and Members Worked (how many of the team's members tracked time in that range).

Under those you get Top Members, the apps and websites the team used most, a Timing Chart of time per day, Top Projects, an Average Activity chart, a summary of the team's tasks, and Recent Team Activity.

Members and Projects

The Members tab lists every member with their total time and activity. Open a member to see their days, and open a day to see the tasks they worked on.

The Projects tab works the other way around: each project, then its days, then that day's tasks. Projects the team is on but has not tracked time on yet still appear, with zero time.

Time & Activity, App Usage, Websites & URLs and Screenshots

These four tabs are the same reports you find in the sidebar, limited to this team's members. On the Screenshots tab you can switch between Group by Date and Group by Member.

If you already check a set of reports each week, the team tabs give you the same view per group. See 5 reports every manager should check weekly for what to look at.

Where else do teams show up in TimoDesk?

Teams are not limited to the Teams page. They shape a few other parts of the dashboard.

• The project filter. On the Projects page, open Filter and choose a team under Team to see only the projects its members are assigned to.
• A team manager's reports. When a team manager signs in, the Dashboard, the Members page and the reports cover them and the people on the teams they manage, not the whole organization.
• A team manager's Teams page. Instead of a table, they see a card per team with who is working now, plus Members, Projects, Total Task and Time Tracked, and a Team Details button that opens the team page read-only.
• Manual time reviews. In the manual time settings, Who can review has an option that includes team managers. With it selected, team managers review requests only from the teams they manage.

That last point is worth setting up early if your managers approve time for their own people. The full flow is in the guide to manual time requests.

One thing to keep in mind: team reports use the team's current members. When you add someone, their past time counts for the team. When you remove someone, their time leaves the team's reports but stays everywhere else.

How do you edit or delete a team?

To change a team, choose Edit team from the row menu, or Edit on the team's details page. The same form opens with the current name, description, managers and members filled in. Change what you need and click Save Changes.

To remove a team, choose Delete team and confirm with Delete Team. The confirmation tells you what happens: members and managers are taken off the team, and their tracked time is kept. You cannot undo a delete.

Deleting a team never deletes a person, a project, a task or any tracked hours. It only removes the grouping.

How should you structure your teams?

A few habits make teams useful from day one.

• Mirror how work is really managed. If one person signs off the support team's hours, make support a team and make that person its manager.
• Use the description. A short line such as "Tier 1 and Tier 2 support" saves questions later.
• Give the role first, then the team. Set a person's role to Team Manager before you try to add them as a manager.
• Let people sit on two teams when it is true. A designer who splits time between product and marketing can be a member of both.

The Teams help guide covers every screen in more detail.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can a member belong to more than one team in TimoDesk?

Yes. A member can be on as many teams as you like, and a team manager can manage several teams. The member's details page lists every team they belong to.

Who can create a team in TimoDesk?

Organizers and business managers can create, edit and delete teams and choose who is on them. Team managers can open the teams they manage and read their reports, but they cannot change them.

What happens to tracked time when I delete a team?

Nothing is lost. Members and managers are taken off the team, and their projects, tasks and tracked time stay as they were. Their work still shows in every other report.

Why is the Team Managers list empty when I create a team?

Only people with the Team Manager role can manage a team. Open Members, change the person's role to Team Manager in their Edit Member window, and they will show up in the list.

Can a team have more than one manager, or none?

Both are possible. You can pick several team managers, or save a team without one and assign a manager later. Organizers and business managers can still see and manage a team that has no manager.

Does a team need members?

Yes. A team must have at least one member, so you cannot save an empty team or remove a team's last member. You can add more members at any time from the Teams page.

Start organizing your workforce with teams

Teams turn one long member list into groups that match how your company runs. Create a team, add its members, put a manager in charge, and each group gets its own page for time, activity, apps, websites and screenshots. See how it fits with the rest of team member management in TimoDesk.

Ready to set up your first team? Start your 15-day free trial, no card needed, and open Teams from the sidebar.