Work Management

Overview

The Work module is where projects, time tracking, and money meet. Organize your work in a project tree, track time with timers or manual entries, and — for paid work — watch tracked hours turn into earnings and payouts.

Project types & money

Every project has a type, chosen at creation (it cannot be changed later):

• Hourly - Paid per hour. Hourly rate × tracked time = earnings; the linked bank account defines the currency.
• Project (fixed price) - Paid per project via a linked finance project — link an existing one or let Self-Engine create one from your project fee.
• Hobby - Unpaid personal work — pure time tracking without money.

Each time entry freezes the rate and currency at the moment it's created. If you raise your rate later, existing entries keep their value — unless you explicitly apply the new rate to unpaid entries (you'll be asked when changing the rate: keep everything, update all unpaid entries, or update from a chosen date).

Organization

Organize your work with a hierarchical structure:

• Folders - Group related projects together (e.g., "Client Projects", "Internal Work")
• Projects - Individual projects with their own settings, colors, and descriptions
• Collapsible Tree - Navigate easily with a collapsible project tree (toggle with Cmd+J / Ctrl+J)
• Search - Quickly find projects using the built-in search functionality
• Tidy overview - Tidy overview: hobby projects and fully paid hourly projects are hidden from the overview after 3 months without activity — projects with unpaid earnings always stay visible (a counter shows how many are hidden).

The three project views

Each project has three views:

• Review - Activity heatmap, weekly trends, and period comparisons — your project at a glance.
• List - All time entries: edit, filter by date range, multi-select for bulk actions. Paid entries and entries in a payout are protected from deletion.
• Tasks - The project's slice of the Tasks module — capture and manage tasks that belong to this project without leaving it.

Time entries

Track current work with a timer or add past work manually:

• Associate time entries with projects and add notes
• Browse entries grouped by month and day, with week and day context
• Use selection mode for bulk actions across multiple entries
• Edit entries at any time; deletion is restricted for paid and payout-linked entries

Payouts

For hourly projects, unpaid earnings accumulate until you pay them out:

• Create - Create a payout from the project toolbar: all unpaid time, this month, or last month
• Linked - The payout appears in Finances and stays linked to the exact work sessions it covers
• Mark as paid - Alternatively, mark selected entries as paid without a payout

Rounding & time fragments

Self-Engine can round tracked time automatically when a timer is saved. Two modes exist:

• Round the duration - Round the duration: e.g. with a 15-minute interval rounding up, 43 tracked minutes become a 45-minute entry.
• Fill time fragments - Fill time fragments: start and end snap to a grid instead — working 10:07 to 10:52 with 15-minute fragments gives an entry from 10:00 to 11:00. Useful when you bill in fixed blocks.
• Three levels - Three levels: rules set on the timer itself win over project rules, which win over your global settings.

Tips & Best Practices

• Use folders to separate different types of work (client, internal, personal)
• Give projects clear, descriptive names and choose distinct colors
• Add descriptions to time entries for better context later
• Review your time weekly to identify productivity patterns
• Use Pomodoro mode for focused work sessions without distractions
• Check your unpaid earnings in the overview toolbar before invoicing — one payout per month keeps Finances tidy.