Booking time¶
There are three ways: the quick bar for what repeats, the form for everything else, and the timer when you want the time to run. All of them write to bexio straight away.
The quick bar¶
The bar above the week books an entry in one line.
| Field | What you enter |
|---|---|
| What did you work on? | Your note |
| Project · Work package | One of the pairs you used recently |
| Activity | Suggested to match the pair; you can change it |
| Day | Today is suggested |
| Duration | 1.5, 1:30, 90m … |
Enter or Add time books. After that note and duration are empty; project, activity and day stay as they are – ready for the next line.
- Other project … in the list opens the form when your project is not among the recent ones.
- Edit … opens the form with what you have already filled in – to set a start time, say, or to change "billable".
The form¶
Open it with N, with Add time under a day, or from the quick bar.
Day¶
Seven buttons, one per weekday.
Duration¶
You can set it in three ways:
- Typing:
1.5,1,5,1:30,90m,1h30all mean an hour and a half. A bare number is hours. - Arrow keys: Up and Down in the field make it one step longer or shorter.
- Clicking or tapping only: − and +, or one of the usual durations from 0:15 to 8:00.
Below the field you see what will be booked, for example "Will be booked as 1:30". Which steps durations are rounded to is up to you in the settings.
Start¶
Optional. Without a start mTime books a plain duration. With a start it books start and end; the end follows from the duration.
Recently used¶
Your nine most-used combinations of project, work package and activity. What you use often and used lately comes first. Alt+1 to Alt+9 picks a combination, on a Mac Option+1 to Option+9.
The search field next to it also finds combinations that are not among the first nine: type a few letters of the project, work package or activity. Enter takes the first match.
Project, work package, activity¶
Type a few letters to search and pick with Enter. Recently used projects come first.
Billable¶
The tick follows your last entry with the same combination. For a new combination the default of the activity in bexio applies. You can always set it by hand.
Note¶
Every line becomes a bullet point in bexio – the way bexio stores notes itself. This can be switched off in the settings.
Saving¶
| Action | Keyboard |
|---|---|
| Save | Enter, from the note Ctrl+Enter |
| Close without saving | Esc or a click beside the form |
The timer¶
Instead of typing a duration, you let the time run.
Starting¶
- In the quick bar: choose note, project · work package and activity, then Start timer. No duration is needed.
- In the form: Start timer instead of Save – for a project that is not among the recent ones. No duration is needed here either.
- On an entry: the ▶ in the corner of the card.
The entry is in bexio at once – with one minute as a placeholder and the line
[mTime] Zeiterfassung läuft in its note. That way it is recognisable as unfinished in
bexio and in mReport too. In mTime you do not see this line; there the entry is marked
"Timer running".
A card with the running clock appears at the bottom right.
Stopping¶
Stop in the card or on the entry. mTime writes the time to the minute into the entry and removes the line from the note.
Nothing is rounded when you stop. If you want to round, open the entry and adjust the duration with − and +; they jump to the next step.
Carrying on with the same entry¶
The ▶ on an entry of today continues exactly that entry: the new time is added to what it had. If you switch between tasks several times a day, you still end up with one entry per task.
The ▶ on an entry of another day starts a new entry for today with the same details. Time is always booked on the day it was worked.
After stopping, the card offers Continue – for the short break.
Switching like a chess clock¶
Only one timer runs at a time. If you start another one, the running one is stopped and booked, and the new one begins.
Good to know¶
- The timer belongs to your account. It keeps running when you close the browser, and it shows on your phone as well.
- If a timer runs past midnight, the time is booked on the day it was started.
- If it runs for more than 12 hours, the card points that out: it was probably forgotten. Stop it and correct the duration in the entry.
- While a timer runs, its entry cannot be edited in mTime. Stop first.
- The day total counts the running time only once you have stopped.
Editing and deleting¶
Click an entry. The form opens with its values.
For a quick delete the × at the top right of the card is enough: the first click asks ("Really delete"), the second deletes. A click elsewhere takes the question back.
- Save writes the change to bexio.
- Delete needs a second click on Really delete. Deleted entries cannot be brought back.
The duration of an existing entry stays exact to the minute, as bexio has it, as long as you do not touch the duration field.
What happens after saving¶
mTime reads the week from bexio again. So what you see afterwards is not what mTime believes it knows, but what bexio holds. The new entry is highlighted for a moment.
What happens when bexio does not answer while saving is described under When something goes wrong.
All keyboard shortcuts¶
| Where | Key | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Week | N | New entry |
| Week | Left / Right | Previous / next week |
| Week | T | Today |
| Form | Enter | Save |
| Form, in the note | Ctrl+Enter | Save |
| Form | Esc | Close |
| Form | Alt+1 … Alt+9 | Recently used combination |
| Form, in the duration field | Up / Down | Longer / shorter |
You start and stop the timer with the mouse, or with the Tab key and Enter; it has no shortcut of its own yet.