Projects & time tracking

Create projects, track your time with a timer or after the fact, and turn tracked work into earnings.

Overview

The Projects module brings together your projects, your time tracking and the money you earn with your work. Open it from the navigation or with G then W.

Projects & folders

The “Projects” sidebar holds the “Overview”, a search and your project tree with folders.

Time tracking

Start timers from any page with “Time tracking” in the header. Add past work inside a project or in the calendar.

Earnings

Depending on the project type you pay out hours, settle through a finance project or link a monthly salary.

Insights

The “Review” view shows your activity per project; the dashboard shows monthly figures, open work and your time classes.

Tip Timers, breaks, time categories, Pomodoro, rounding and overlaps are covered in the “Time tracking” guide.

Project types & money

Under “Project type” you choose, when creating a project, how you get paid for the work. It decides what Self-Engine calculates from your tracked time.

Hourly

You are paid by the hour. Earnings = hourly payment × booked time, meaning the time after rest breaks are removed, after rounding and after shared time is split. The chosen bank account sets the currency. Each entry keeps the rate and currency from the moment it is created.

Project-based

You get a fixed amount for the whole project. Link an existing finance project, or let Self-Engine create one from the “Project Salary”. Payment runs through that finance project.

Employment

For a fixed monthly salary. Create a “New salary” (monthly salary, payday, start date, bank account, employer) or pick an “Existing salary”. The salary runs as recurring income in Finance, regardless of the hours you track.

Hobby

Unpaid, personal work: pure time tracking with no rate and no bank account.

Note You cannot change the project type after creating the project, so choose it deliberately.

Tip Go by how the money actually reaches you: Hourly for billed hours, Project-based for a flat fee, Employment for your salary, Hobby for anything unpaid.

Create a project

Defaults for new projects, such as the default hourly payment, bank account and preferred project type, live in Settings → Work → Defaults.

Open the form
Click the plus “Add project” in the sidebar, or press N in the overview. If you have no projects yet, the empty overview offers “Create First Project”.
Name and project type
Enter a name and, optionally, a description. Then choose the “Project type” and fill in the money fields it shows, such as hourly payment, bank account and contact.
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Appearance and behavior
Everything else is optional and can be changed later:
- Color and icon: they mark the project in the project tree, the calendar and on the timer.
- Tag and contact: for filtering and assignment. You can create new tags, contacts and bank accounts right in the form.
- Default Time category: new timers and entries of this project start with it. Without a choice, your general default category applies.
- Time Rounding: rounding rules for this project only, or “Use rounding from settings”.

The “Add Project” form with name, description, project type and the money fields — The project type decides which money fields the form shows below it.

Organize & tidy up

The project tree in the sidebar arranges your projects in folders. Finished projects go to the archive.

Folders

“Add Folder” at the bottom of the sidebar creates a folder. Folders can hold projects and other folders. Drag items in the tree to move or reorder them.

Project tree

An item's menu offers “Edit”, “Rename”, “Archive” and “Delete”. Enter renames the focused row. ⌘ / Ctrl + B shows or hides the whole sidebar.

“Search projects…” expands the matching branches. The open project is always expanded in the tree.

Views & insights

Every project has four views, which you switch in the toolbar:

Review

An activity heatmap for a year of your choice, “Typical working hours” by time of day, and the “Last 30 days” compared with the 30 days before. Plus total time, active days, average per day and best streak.

List

All time entries of the project, newest first, grouped by month and day.

Appointments

The calendar appointments that belong to this project.

Tasks

This project's tasks from the Tasks module, right inside the project.

The “Overview” of all projects has “Review” and “List”. There, the list shows project cards with total time, unpaid amount and last activity. The toolbar sums up “This week”, “This month”, “Unpaid” and “Active projects”.

The dashboard adds more insights into your work:

Effective hourly rate: what you earned in the month with Hourly and Project-based projects, divided by the booked hours, per currency. Hobby and Employment are not included.
Open work: Hourly work not yet paid out, by contact and project. Anything older than 30 days is highlighted. “Pay out” takes you straight to the payout.
Time classes: how your day and week split into focus, active work, breaks and leisure, including time without a project.

The dashboard's “Work” tab with the last 7 days' hours by project and the open work — The dashboard's “Work” tab shows your week by project and what hasn't been paid out yet.

Manage time entries

In a project's “List” view you check and correct your entries. Click an entry to edit it.

Each entry shows its interval, duration, memo and, for Hourly projects, earnings and payment status. “Month” jumps to a month.
“Period” filters to the last 7 days, this or the previous week, this or the previous month, or the last 3 months.
“Add Time entry” in the toolbar (or N) adds past work.
“Activate selection mode” (or S) lets you pick several entries. You can then delete them and, for Hourly projects, use “Pay selection” or “Mark as paid”.

The “List” view of an Hourly project with time entries grouped by month and day — Each entry shows its interval, duration, memo and earnings; click it to edit.

Heads up Paid entries and entries in a payout are protected: you can't edit, delete or select them. So correct entries before you pay them out. Entries in archived projects are locked too.

Note “Edit selection” for several entries at once is not available yet and shows “Coming soon”.

Payouts & salary

For Hourly projects, unpaid work adds up until you pay it out. A payout records that the money arrived; it does not create an invoice.

Choose the period
In the project, click “Payout” → “Quick Payout” and choose “All time”, “This month” or “Last month”. For individual entries, use “Pay selection” in selection mode.
Check the amount
The “Start Value” is the calculated earnings. Enter what actually arrived as the “End Value” and give a “Reason for the difference” if they differ. Choose the “Date” and “Bank Account”; for an account in another currency you enter the received amount yourself. Then click “Payout”.
Wait for confirmation
The payout is pending at first and is confirmed as soon as you are online. Then exactly one transaction appears in Finance → Payouts, and the covered entries count as paid. If it is rejected, for example because an entry has been paid in the meantime, you see why and can try again.

The “Payout” form with Start Value, End Value, date and bank account — The Start Value is filled in for you; enter what actually arrived as the End Value.

Mark as paid

Marks selected entries as paid without creating a transaction in Finance. The entries are protected afterwards.

Change the hourly payment

When you change the hourly payment, “Apply salary change” asks whether to update no entries, all unpaid entries, or entries from a date and time on. Paid entries stay as they are.

Project-based

“Payout” opens the linked finance project. There you pay out the amount and any adjustments.

Employment

There is no payout per entry. Your salary appears as recurring income in Finance, regardless of the hours you track.

Note You create payouts on the web and in the Mac app. Correct or delete them in Finance → Payouts; deleting releases the entries as unpaid again. Reactivate an archived project before paying it out.

Tips

Separate areas of work with folders, such as clients, internal work and personal projects.
Give every project a fitting default Time category, such as Deep Work for focused work. That keeps your time classes on the dashboard accurate.
Add a short memo to timers and entries while you still remember what you did.
Open “Review” once a week to see your active days and typical working hours.
Check the list and correct entries before a payout; paid entries are locked afterwards.
The “Open work” card on the dashboard shows what is still outstanding. One payout a month keeps work and finances in step.