Track your first entry
The two ways to log time — a live timer or a manual entry — plus pausing, editing, and the mistakes ProjectPacer catches for you.
Time gets into ProjectPacer two ways: start a timer while you work, or add a manual entry afterward. Both create the same thing — a time entry on a project — so use whichever fits the moment. This walks through both, start to finish.
Everything here happens on Track, the first item in the sidebar and where the app opens.
Start a timer
At the top of Track, click the project field and start typing a client or project name to filter the list. Don't see it yet? You'll need to create the project first — a timer always tracks against a project.
Type a short description in the field next to the project — something you'll recognize later, like Homepage hero, not work. It's optional, but it's what makes an entry readable on your reports. If you use tasks, you can also attach one here.
The timer begins counting live. It turns into a running bar and also shows in the sidebar, so you can move to any screen — or close the tab entirely — and it keeps running.
Hit pause to step away without ending the block (elapsed time freezes and resumes where it left off), or stop to finish it. Stopping turns the running timer into a saved entry on that project.
In a hurry? Start the timer with no project and fill it in when you stop. The clock is running either way — better to capture the time and label it after than lose it.
Add time manually
Forgot to hit start, or logging something from earlier? Add the block by hand.
On Track, choose to add time instead of starting the timer. The entry editor opens.
Set the start and end times, pick the project, and add a description. Times are in your own time zone — set it under Preferences if it looks off.
It lands in your list alongside timed entries. Once saved there's no difference between a timed and a manual entry.
Editing and fixing entries
Click any entry — timed or manual — to reopen the editor and change its project, description, or times. Delete it from the same place.
Entries stay editable until a finished period is locked — an optional workspace control that's off by default (see Timesheets & approvals). Unless your workspace has turned locking on, everything stays editable.
Tracking offline
Lose your signal mid-session? Keep tracking. On the web app — especially once you've installed it to your home screen — starting, stopping, pausing, and logging time all keep working with no connection, and your running timer keeps ticking. A slim bar at the top shows you're offline and how many changes are waiting; the moment you're back online, everything syncs on its own — nothing for you to do.
Offline covers time you start or log while offline — those queue on your device and sync when you reconnect. Two things still need a connection: opening the app the first time (so it can cache itself — after that it opens offline), and editing an entry that was already saved to the server before you went offline. Your queued time waits safely on the device until it syncs, even if you close the tab in between.
Mistakes ProjectPacer catches
You don't have to police your own timesheet — a few common slips get surfaced under AI suggestions for a one-tap fix. Some run on your existing entries and work right away; others only appear once you've connected a source (a calendar, the desktop app, or in-app activity):
| If you… | ProjectPacer will… | Needs a source? |
|---|---|---|
| Leave a timer running overnight | Cap it at when you actually stopped and ask you to confirm | Yes |
| Log two entries over the same minutes | Flag the overlap so you can fix one | No |
| Log the same work twice | Flag the duplicate | No |
| Leave a tiny gap between back-to-back entries | Offer to close the switching time | No |
The last three run on the entries you already have — no setup. Catching an overnight timer (and untracked work) needs a source connected, and each check can be switched off in Settings → AI suggestions. So if one isn't showing up, it usually means its source or its toggle isn't on yet — not that something's broken.
With an activity source connected, forgetting to stop a timer isn't a disaster: ProjectPacer caps it at your last real activity (say, when your computer locked) and holds it out of reports until you confirm. Without a source, a timer just keeps running until you stop it — so until you've connected one, it's worth a glance before you leave for the day.
Break a project into trackable work and time against it directly.
Recover the meetings and work sessions you didn't track at all.