In our time-tracking pricing plan, effectively managing project and Employee hours is essential for avoiding overwork, controlling project costs, and ensuring payroll compliance. The Time Limits feature is designed to set Time Limits on task tracking, allowing Managers to set predefined thresholds so that Employees only work within their allocated time and do not exceed it.
Goals:
Establishing limits on the total time spent on a Project, or for specific Employees under that Project.
Ability for Employees to be aware of the limits set, to know when the limit is reached and when they can start logging time again. We want to avoid abruptly stopping a task the moment the threshold is reached, as this could cause Employees to work for hours without realizing their time wasn’t logged.
The Time Limits feature allows teams to set structured boundaries for managing work effectively.
Time Limits can be applied at the project level or specified for individual Employees within a project. Employee-level time limits take precedence over project-level time limits.
Employee-Level Time Limit Priority
Time Limits defined at the Employee level have the highest priority and cannot be exceeded, regardless of any Time Limits configured at the Project level.
When both Employee-level and Project-level Time Limits are active, the Employee-level Time Limit always acts as the maximum allowed cap for time tracking. This ensures that an Employee never logs more time than what is permitted by their Employee-level Time Limit.
Interaction Between Employee-Level and Project-Level Time Limits
When an Employee is assigned to one or more projects, the effective Time Limit applied is determined by comparing the Employee-level and Project-level Time Limits.
The system applies the following rules:
If the Employee-level Time Limit is higher than the Project-level Time Limit, the Employee can log time up to the Project-level limit for that specific project.
If the Employee-level Time Limit is lower than the Project-level Time Limit, the Employee-level Time Limit caps the maximum time that can be logged on that project.
In all cases, the lower value between the Employee-level and Project-level Time Limits is enforced.
You can set a daily, weekly, or monthly limit on the total work time an employee can log across all projects or manually added shifts.
Setting Time Limits Include:
Daily Limits: Resets each day.
Weekly Limits: Resets each week.
Monthly Limits: Resets each month.
Each cycle includes settings for Start Date & Time and an optional Timezone.
If no timezone is specified, the system defaults to local Employee’s timezone to support the needs of global teams.
Limits can be configured at either the Project or Employee within Project, with up to three distinct cycle limits per project. The employee-level time limits override project-level limits, ensuring that specific employee configurations take priority.
Once the Time Limit is reached, Employees will be unable to log additional time on that project until their current active cycle, in which they reached the limit, resets.
Configuration is set up through the API. To begin, the user should:
1. Visit the Insightful Developers Portal.
2. Locate the Projects collection on the left sidebar.
3. Open the Time Limits collection within Projects.
This section contains all the necessary rules for configuring Time Limits.
Updating and Deleting Time Limits
Think of Time Limit as flexible limits on the amount of time you can log for a specific project. You can set multiple Time Limits for a project, each with its own start time and duration. However, only the most recently set Time Limit for a specific time period will apply.
If you need to change a Time Limit, simply set a new one with the desired parameters. You can pull the list of all currently active limits.
To remove a Time Limit entirely, you can delete it from the list, and if you want you can delete limits in bulk. After deletion, you can log time without any restrictions for that project.
Updating Time Limit via API
If the EmployeeAPI is hit it updates the Insightful desktop app's Time Limit. Updating the Time Limit via the API will automatically propagate the new values to a user device. Any device within the scope of the updated time limit will receive the changes.
Time to sync
When Time Limit values are changed and updated they are typically applied to the device in real-time (within 5 minutes maximum), assuming the device has an active internet connection and the Insightful desktop application is running at the time.
Tracked data upload is synced in 2-minute sequences.
Please note that Employee users must be Clocked-in to receive the time limit updates. Failing to do that may cause misunderstandings of time limits set.
When the Time Limit is updated, one of the following scenarios may happen:
Users that are Clocked-in and have an internet connection should immediately receive the updated limit,
Users that are not Clocked-in but have an internet connection will receive the updated Time Limit as soon as they Clock-in. Clocking-in acts as a trigger for the Insightful desktop app to check for any updated Time Limits values.
Users without an internet connection will receive the updated limits as soon as they regain connectivity and the Insightful desktop app syncs the necessary data.
Force sync
Force sync can be triggered directly from the Insightful widget. When a user selects the Sync Now option, it functions as a force sync for all values, including updates to the Employee entity.
The Sync button is located in the bottom left corner of the Insightful widget.
Increasing Project Time Limits
If you increase a Project-level Time Limit, make sure the Employee-level Time Limit is equal or higher.
Otherwise, the Employee-level Time Limit will continue to cap the allowed time.
Understanding Time Tracking Behavior
When a Time Limit is active, Employees need to know the set Time Limit and its timeframe, ensuring clarity on when limits will affect time tracking. If a Time Limit (such as daily or weekly limits) is in place, this closer, more immediate Time Limit should always be displayed to help Employees monitor their progress.
If there is a Time Limit set for an Employee under the project, the Employee will see that Time Limit, if there is just a total project Time Limit set, the Employee will inherit that total Time Limit. All Time Limits that are currently active for specific projects and Employees, will be seen from the side of the Employee, regardless of which one is close to achieving.
Once theTime Limit is reached, time tracking will automatically stop for that project, and Employees will receive an alert. Employees will encounter the following scenarios:
1. If the Time Limit has not been reached: Users will see the nearest Time Limit value, total Time Limit, and remaining time available for logging within the current Time Limit timeframe.
2. If the Time Limit is reached: Users will be notified of when the next Time Limit timeframe begins.
3. While the Time Limit is active: Employees are unable to initiate new time tracking.
Upon reaching a Time Limit, Employees will see the prompt: “You’ve logged 50 hours for this project. Time logging has been paused as you’ve reached your time logging limit.”
Each project with an active Time Limit for a specific user will display a tag, indicating the presence of time restrictions. When users hover over this tag, a tooltip appears with the message, “This project operates within a defined Time Limit.” Additionally, if conflict exists between project and employee time limits, the user interface will always display the more restrictive limit to ensure clarity and prevent overlogging.
In the app, Employees always see the lowest applicable Time Limit between the Employee and Project levels.
Users can easily view all active Time Limits that apply to them, with each limit clearly associated with its respective cycle. In the widget, each Time Limit appears as a countdown timer, enabling users to track their remaining time in real-time across all cycles.
When a Time Limit is reached, the user receives a notification indicating that the limit has been met. Within the widget, a red indicator will appear next to the cycle that has reached its limit. By hovering over the indicator, the user can see the exact time when the limit will reset.
For instance, for a daily limit, it may display: “Daily limit of 07:30h resets at 10:30 am.”
Time Limits Across Multiple Projects
When an Employee is assigned to multiple projects, Project-level Time Limits are applied independently only if no Employee-level Time Limit restricts them further.
Example – Case 1 (No Employee-Level Time Limit):
An Employee is assigned to two projects:
Project 1: 5 hours per week
Project 2: 10 hours per week
The Employee can log:
Up to 5 hours on Project 1
Up to 10 hours on Project 2
This allows a total of 15 hours per week across both projects.
Employee-Level Time Limit as a Global Cap
An Employee-level Time Limit applies as a global cap across all projects.
Example – Case 2 (Employee-Level Time Limit Applied):
An Employee is assigned to two projects:
Project 1: 5 hours per week
Project 2: 10 hours per week
Employee-level Time Limit: 9 hours per week
In this case:
The Employee can log up to 5 hours on Project 1
The Employee can log a maximum of 9 hours on Project 2, even though the Project-level limit is 10 hours
The Employee-level Time Limit prevents the Employee from exceeding 9 total hours, regardless of higher Project-level limits.
Troubleshooting Common Issues
Issue:
The weekly cap shows 60 hours, even though the Project-level Time Limit was increased to 80 hours.
Solution:
Check the Employee-level Time Limit. If it is still set to 60 hours, it will override the Project-level limit. Ask an Admin to update the Employee-level Time Limit to match or exceed the Project-level limit. Once updated, the correct weekly cap will be displayed in the app.