Timepolice

The time tracker that focus on tracking time.

Concepts

Template: A template is a named list of tasks and is created manually. There may be several templates with the same base name, followed by a . and a suffix.
Session: A session is created manually. A session created using a template can use tasks from all templates with the same base name. This way you can define several related templates to show a subset of tasks dependning on your context.
Project: A project is a collection of all sessions created from templates with the same base name. Projects are created and deleted automatically.
Task: Tasks are created and deleted automatically depending on the list of tasks in the templates you provide.
Task entry: Each time you switch to a new task, a new task entry is created. A task entry will store the task ongoing, when it is started and when it is ended.

Templates

A template can be edited in the app. Templates can also be edited in any text editor - just copy and paste the content to the app.

The first line is the name of the template. The following lines are tasks included in the template.

Examples

Simple list of tasks.

    Work
    Idle
    Email
    Project 1
    Project 2
    Project 3

Style your session.

    Work#columns=3,extension=dd
    Idle
    Email
    Project 1
    Project 2
    Project 3

This will layout tasks in 3 columns and add the current day to the name of a session when it is created. "extension" follows Apple's format for formatting dates. NSDateFormatter.com has a good description.

Style your tasks.

    Work#columns=3,extension=dd
    Idle#color=888
    Email#color=f88
    =#color=8f8
    Project 1
    Project 2
    Project 3

This will color idle task grey, email task red and all project tasks green.

Two versions of a template.

    Work.projects#columns=3,extension=dd
    Idle#color=888
    Email#color=f88
    =#color=8f8
    Project 1
    Project 2
    Project 3

    Work.internal#columns=3,extension=dd
    Idle#color=888
    Email#color=f88
    =#color=8f8
    Planning
    Followup

This will give you two different sets of tasks to use for sessions related to "work".
After selecting a session you can switch template to use: Click on the name of the session (top right corner) to popup a list of templates that can be used for this sesion, then select the one you wish to use.

Edit task entries

When editing task entries, Timpolice will always make sure your data is consistent and follows a few rules.

The most common case is that the stop time for one task entry is exactly the same as the start time for the next task entry.
Start and end times for task entries can not overlap. If you change start time for one task entry and it overlaps with stop time for the previous task entry, the stop time for the previous entry will be changed as well. When changing stop time, the start time for the next entry will be changed in the same way.
Start time for a task entry can not be set earlier than start time for the previous task entry. Stop time for a task entry can not be set later than stop time for the next task entry.
Gaps are defined as periods of time where no task has been active. Gaps are displayed as empty boxes. Gaps can be created in two ways: Deleting a task entry or changing start and/or stop time so a task entry is no longer attached to its closest neighbor. By selecting a gap, it can be deleted by extending either the previous task or the following task to fill the gap.

Export data

Export of data is accomplished using the pasteboard on your device.

Select the sessions to export (, or ).
Hit the export button ( or ).
Open a spreadsheet app like Numbers or Excel.
Paste your tracking data

Session summary will summarize task entries for each task in a project and add one row for each task and one columns for each session in a project.

Session details will add one row for each task entry in a session and one column for each session in a project.