Tracking Time

How to use the timer and manually log time entries in Indema.

Written By Gemma DeMasi

Last updated 12 days ago

There are three ways to log time:

Start a live timer — best when you're starting work right now
Add a past entry — best when you're catching up at the end of the day
Import a CSV — best for moving time over from another tool, or for bulk-logging a week

This article walks through each one.

1. The live timer

The timer is the fast path. You start it, you work, you stop it. The system records the exact duration.

Starting

Click Start Timer in the top nav (the play icon next to your avatar). The timer button lives in the global nav, not on the Timelogs page, so it stays visible no matter where you navigate.
Pick:
- Project (required)
- Service / Activity type (required) — this auto-fills the billable flag
- Title (required) — "What are you working on?"
- Optional: Task, Phase, Room, Billable override
Click Start.

The timer is now running. Its current elapsed time shows in the top nav. You can navigate anywhere in the app — the timer keeps counting.

Stopping

Click the running timer pill in the top nav and choose Stop. The entry saves with:

Status: Open (not Closed — see the statuses article)
Start time: when you clicked Start
End time: when you clicked Stop
Total time: end minus start, with overnight wrap handled (if you start at 11:50 PM and stop at 12:10 AM, that's 20 minutes, not -23h 40m)

Pause / Resume

If you need to step away mid-session, use Pause instead of Stop. Pause freezes the clock without closing the entry; Resume picks it up where you left off. Pausing and resuming during a session is allowed any number of times.

Heads up: There is no automatic idle detection. If you start the timer and walk away, the timer keeps running until you come back. The 2-minute idle prompt that was prototyped in an earlier build is not currently enabled.

What if my computer restarted?

The running-timer state lives on the backend, keyed to your user. Refresh the page or log back in and the timer pill reappears. You won't lose the entry.

2. Add a past entry via the side panel

When you've already done the work and need to record it, use Log Time in the Timelogs page header. This opens the side panel.

Fields

	FieldNotes
Project	Required. Filters the Task / Service / Phase / Room dropdowns to that project.
Task	Optional. Only available after a project is picked.
Service	Required. Picking a service auto-fills Billable from the service's own billable flag. You can still override the toggle afterwards.
Title	Required. Short — this is what the client sees on an invoice line.
Phase / Room	Optional. Used for Budget rollups.
Date	Defaults to today. Pick any past date.
Hours / Minutes	At least one must be > 0.
Billable	Defaults to whatever the service is set to. Override per-entry as needed.
Memo	Internal notes. Not shown to clients by default.
Logged by	Admins (with Edit others' timelog) can log on behalf of another member. Members see their own name only.

Save behavior

When you save:

The entry appears in the day group for the date you picked.
The service's rate is stamped onto the entry so invoicing later sees the rate that was in effect when the work was done, not the rate today.
If you save an entry with exactly the same project, task, title, date, duration, and logged-by as an existing one, the system blocks the save as a soft-duplicate guard. Edit one of the fields to bypass.

Common mistakes the side panel catches

Total duration is 0 — at least one of hours or minutes must be > 0.
Project not picked — without a project, the entry can't be invoiced, so the form blocks save.
Service not picked — without a service, there's no rate to stamp.

3. Import from CSV

When you're moving time over from another tool (Harvest, Toggl, a spreadsheet), use Import CSV from the page header's overflow menu.

Template columns

The importer expects these column headers exactly (case-insensitive):

title, date, project, loggedBy, status, billable, hours, minutes, memo

Click Download template in the import modal to get a sample file with one example row.

Field rules

		ColumnRequiredNotes
`title`	Yes	Plain text.
`date`	Yes	`YYYY-MM-DD` is safest. Other common formats are accepted.
`project`	Yes	Must match an existing project's name or ID. Lookup is case-insensitive. Rows whose project can't be resolved are rejected.
`loggedBy`	Yes	Member name or member ID. Same lookup as project.
`status`	No	Open / Closed / Paid / Unpaid / Paused / Billed. Defaults to Open.
`billable`	No	`true`, `yes`, or `1` → billable. Anything else → non-billable.
`hours`	One of	At least one of hours or minutes must be > 0.
`minutes`	One of	(combined).
`memo`	No	Optional internal note.

What the importer does

Validates every row up-front.
Reports skipped rows in a summary modal — usually unknown project, unknown member, or zero duration.
Tags every imported row with source: csv so they show up under the Recently Imported filter for the next 24 hours.

After the import

Imported entries land as Open by default. If they were already invoiced in your previous tool, you'll want to bulk-change their status to Billed or Paid so they don't accidentally get invoiced again.

Tips that save real time

Pick the right service. The service drives both billable status and the rate that gets stamped onto the entry. Changing the service later does not re-stamp the rate — you have to delete and re-create the entry. If you find yourself doing that, fix the service's default rate first.
Use Title for what the client sees. Memos are internal, but Title is what shows up on the invoice line. Write it like a one-line invoice description.
Log to phases and rooms. They're optional, but if you skip them your Budget burn-down won't reflect actual hours and the project dashboard will look healthier than it is.

Service and activity types must be set up before you can log time. Go to Settings > Service & Activity Types to configure your billable and non-billable activity types and their hourly rates. Learn more about service and activity types.