Tracked
Recorded by the desktop app while the timer ran.
Ten-minute slots with activity, screenshots and recordings. This is the only kind of time Colabio records on its own.
Time Tracking
Time entry corrections and history
Timesheets get corrected: a block tracked on the wrong task, a lunch break the timer ran through, a call nobody started the timer for. Colabio allows those corrections and keeps the original every time, with the reason and the person who made the change. This page explains what is kept, how to read it, and who can change what.
Three kinds of time
Nothing is dressed up as tracked. Each kind is visible on the timesheet and can be filtered.
Manual
Typed in afterwards, by a manager or through an approved request.
No activity and no proof. The timesheet shows the manual share of each entry, and manual time can be filtered out.
Adjusted
Tracked time that a correction changed.
When an entry is edited to a different time window or split, the slots that remain or are recreated are marked Adjusted. They are not dressed up as fresh tracked time: the badge says a person changed them, and History says who and why.
What each correction keeps
Every one of these writes a revision: the slots before, the slots after, who did it and why. The media of deleted slots is the one thing that is not kept.
| Action | What it does | What is kept |
|---|---|---|
| Edit time entry | Moves an entry to another task, or changes its start and end. A task-only change keeps the slots and their proof; a change to the time window rewrites the slots. | The original slots, the new slots, the reason and who did it. Rewritten slots are marked Adjusted. |
| Split time entry | Takes a part out of the middle of an entry, either removing it or moving it to another task. | The slot before the cut, what remains of it and anything created, the reason and who did it. Trimmed and created slots are marked Adjusted. |
| Delete time entry | Removes an entry and its screenshots and recordings. | The deleted slots as they were, including task, window, duration and activity, the reason and who did it. The media is not kept. |
| Move to another task | Reassigns the whole entry without touching its slots or proof. | The entry before and after, the reason and who did it. |
| Add manual time | A manager types time in for a member. | Any slot the new time was merged into as it was, the slots created, the description and who did it. |
| Approve a manual time request | A reviewer accepts a member's request with its proof. | The same as a manual add, linked to the request number. A rejection changes no time and is written to the audit log only. |
| Approve a correction request | A reviewer accepts a member's request to change, move or delete one of their own entries. The change is applied exactly as if the reviewer had made it. | The same as the matching action above, linked to the request number, with the member's reason as the revision's reason. A denial changes no time and is written to the audit log only. |
Asking for a correction
Unless the organization allows self-service edits of recent entries, members cannot rewrite their own tracked time. They ask, and a reviewer decides. The entry is untouched until then.
- 1
Ask from the entry
On your own timesheet, open the entry's Actions menu and choose Request correction. Say whether the time should change, move to another task, or be deleted, and give a reason of at least twenty characters. One entry can have one open request at a time.
- 2
Nothing changes yet
The entry stays exactly as it is while the request is open. It is listed under My correction requests above your timesheet, where you can cancel it. Organization managers and the leaders of the entry's project get an email.
- 3
A reviewer decides
Timesheets → Time Approvals → Corrections. Approving applies the change at once, writes a revision linked to the request and keeps the original in History. Denying changes nothing; you see the reason. If the entry changed in the meantime, or a new window would overlap other tracked time, the approval is refused and the reviewer is told why.
A reviewer is an organization manager, or an admin of every project the time belongs to: a product manager on it or its team leader. Nobody reviews their own request. Manual time requests follow the same rule, so a team's lead can approve their own team's requests.
Self-service edits of recent entries
An organization manager can let members fix their own recent time without waiting for a review (Users page, "Self-service time edits"). With it on, an entry of yours that ended within the last 24 hours offers Edit and Split in your timesheet: move it to another task you are assigned to, change its times within those 24 hours, or split it. Every change is kept in the entry's history with your reason, where your managers can see it. Older entries still go through a correction request, deleting keeps its own permission, and a manager can set any one member to always or never have self-service edits.
Questions on an entry
A reviewer who is unsure about an entry asks, instead of changing it. The timesheet shows the question on the entry until it is settled.
On a member's timesheet, a reviewer opens the entry's Actions menu and chooses Needs clarification, with a note such as “is this the same call as the 10:00 block?”. The member sees the mark on that entry, opens it to reply, or uses Request correction if the entry is wrong; approving that request settles the question. Open questions are listed for reviewers under Timesheets → Time Approvals → Needs clarification. A flag changes no time and counts nothing differently; it is a state the entry carries, and the audit log records when it was raised and settled.
- Needs clarification
- The question is open. The entry is not changed.
- Explained
- The member's answer settles it; the entry stays.
- Duplicate confirmed
- The entry doubles other time; a correction follows or was requested.
- Parallel work explained
- Two tasks at once, by agreement.
- Correction approved
- The member requested a correction in answer and a reviewer approved it.
- Cleared
- Nothing to change; the question is withdrawn.
When two tasks claim the same minutes
A timesheet is built from ten-minute slots, and each slot holds one task. When time for a second task lands in a slot that already has one, nothing is counted twice and nothing disappears silently.
The slot keeps its task, so totals, reports and invoices count each minute once. The other task's minutes are recorded on the entry and shown as an Overlap mark: minutes that were already the entry's are not counted, and minutes that filled a gap are counted under this entry's task even though they were tracked for the other. Manual time works the same way: it fills only minutes that are not already tracked, and the approval says how much was applied.
- 1
Find them
Timesheets shows how many entries in the range overlap another task. Review overlaps filters the list to them; Filters → Overlaps another task does the same.
- 2
Read the mark
Hover the Overlap mark on an entry. It names the other task and splits its minutes into “not counted”, which were already this entry's, and “counted under this entry's task”, which filled minutes the entry did not have.
- 3
Ask, or correct
A reviewer chooses Actions → Needs clarification; the question starts from the overlap and can be edited. The member answers, or requests a correction that moves the minutes to the right task. Settling it as Duplicate confirmed or Parallel work explained records the decision.
Download as Excel carries what an overlap review needs: the task, Adjusted, overlap minutes and the other task, the review state, each entry's start and end with its UTC offset, the member's time zone and the entry ids. The PDF shows the same marks in its Notes column. The full walkthrough, with a worked example and each role's steps, is in Overlapping time entries; for reconciling records outside Colabio, read Overlapping time entries: a review worksheet.
Reading the history
Timesheets → an entry's Actions menu → History.
- 1
One card per correction, newest first
The kind of change, who made it, when (in the member's time zone), the reason they typed, and the request number when it came from a manual time request or an approved correction request.
- 2
Before and after
Each side lists the slots with their time window, duration and task, totalled at the top. Manual and Adjusted badges show what each slot was. A deleted entry's After side says it was removed.
- 3
Show every change on this day
By default the dialog shows corrections that touch the entry you opened. Turn the switch on to see all corrections on that day, including ones to entries that no longer exist.
The same corrections appear in the organization's audit log under Security & Compliance, with the revision they point at, so they outlive the member and the task.
Who can change what
Rewriting someone's time is for organization managers. Moving an entry between tasks keeps its proof, so the projects' own admins may do it, and the same people review requests and ask questions. Everyone else asks. Reading follows the timesheet itself.
| What | Org. manager | Product manager | Team leader | Employee |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Edit or split an entry's time | Yes | No | No | No |
| Move an entry to another task | Yes | Own projects | Own projects | No |
| Delete an entry | Yes | No | No | Own entries |
| Add manual time | Yes | No | No | No |
| Edit or split own entries from the last 24 hours (self-service, if the organization allows it) | Yes | Own entries | Own entries | Own entries |
| Request a correction to an entry | No | Own entries | Own entries | Own entries |
| Approve a correction or manual time request | Yes | Own projects | Own projects | No |
| Ask a member to clarify an entry | Yes | Own projects | Own projects | No |
| See the History of an entry | Yes | Own projects | Own projects | Own entries |
An employee deletes their own entries only when a manager has turned on “Allow self screenshot delete” for them. Roles themselves are explained in Roles and permissions.
Questions
My timesheet shows less than I tracked. How do I find out why?
Open Timesheets, find the entry, and choose History from its Actions menu. Every correction to it is listed newest first: who made it, when, the reason they gave, and the slots before and after. If the entry you remember no longer exists, turn on “Show every change on this day” to see corrections to entries that were removed.
What does the Adjusted badge mean?
A correction recreated or trimmed that entry. The time is still counted and still shows its activity, but it is no longer exactly what the tracker recorded, so the badge keeps that visible. History shows the change.
What does the Overlap mark on an entry mean?
Time for another task landed in the same ten minutes, for example from a second device, an offline queue that synced late, or manual time over tracked time. Each ten-minute slot holds one task, so the entry keeps its task and no minute is counted twice. The mark says which other task it was, how many of its minutes were not counted and how many now count under this entry's task.
Why was less manual time added than was requested?
Manual time fills only the minutes that are not already tracked. If an hour is requested and twenty minutes of it were tracked, forty minutes are added. The approval and the request both say so, for example “1h requested, 40m applied: 20m was already tracked”.
Are deleted screenshots and recordings kept?
No. A revision keeps the slot's details, such as task, time window, duration and activity level, not its media. Deleting an entry deletes its screenshots and recordings, as the retention policy says.
Can a correction be undone?
Not with one click. History shows exactly what the slots were, so a manager can re-enter the time as manual time or move it back, and that correction is recorded too. Nothing is ever silently overwritten.
Why does every correction need a reason?
Because a number on a timesheet is a claim about someone's work. The reason is stored with the revision and shown to the member, so a change can be explained later without relying on memory.
Where else is this recorded?
Every correction also writes an entry to the organization's audit log under Security & Compliance, with a link back to the revision, so it survives even if the member or the task is later removed.
Does this change utilization or the leaderboard?
A correction recomputes the member's daily figures straight away, so utilization, the leaderboard and alerts reflect the corrected time. The revision records what the time was before.
I am not a manager. How do I fix a wrong entry on my timesheet?
If your organization allows self-service edits and the entry ended within the last 24 hours, its Actions menu shows Edit time entry and Split time entry: change it yourself, and the change is kept in its History with your reason. Otherwise open the entry's Actions menu and choose Request correction. Say whether the time should change, move to another task or be deleted, and why. Nothing changes until an organization manager or the leader of that project approves it; until then the request is listed under My correction requests, where you can cancel it. If it is denied, you see the reason.
Who approves correction requests?
An organization manager, or an admin of every project the time belongs to: a product manager on that project or its team leader. Nobody approves their own request. The same rule now applies to manual time requests, so a team's lead can approve their own team's requests.
What does “Needs clarification” on an entry mean?
A reviewer asked a question about that entry, for example whether it duplicates another block. The entry is not changed. Open the mark to read the question and reply, or use Request correction if the entry is wrong; approving that request answers the question. A reviewer then settles it as Explained, Duplicate confirmed, Parallel work explained or Cleared, and the mark shows that outcome.
Still have a question about corrections? Email support@colabio.org.