Resource Management time tracking settings

To change your time tracking settings, navigate to Account Settings.

• In Resource Management in Smartsheet, select the kebab menu in the top-right corner, then select Settings. From the list on the left, select Account Settings.
• In standalone Resource Management, select Settings > Account Settings.

Hours and minutes: Precise, efficient tracking 

Hours and Minutes time tracking allows people to enter the exact time spent on each project or phase. Your people can confirm the suggested hours for the days they work according to the plan, or enter their own hours. Day View includes a timer for more precise time entries.

This setting enables your team to track and report actual time spent per project. 

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½ days: Fast, high-level time entry

½ days works best for teams with little variation in their daily activities, when people are working on one or two projects at a time. Enter time in 4-hour increments. The Confirm Suggestions button makes entering time an easy, one-click process.

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½ days doesn't provide the accuracy you get with the other time tracking settings, but if you’re looking to keep time entry as efficient as possible, ½ days works well.

Itemized hours and minutes: Additional details and reporting options

Itemized time entry provides the most detailed time entry. People can categorize their time and add notes. Project managers can budget by category within a project, providing an additional layer of reporting.

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Use Itemized Time Tracking to break down time into specific activities (meetings, travel).

Customize activities in Settings > Time + Fee Categories. Day View includes a timer for more precise time entries.

When you set up itemized time tracking, you can select Require a category entry when entering time. Use this setting for billing clients or other projects that require detailed time entry information. 

Requiring a category with each time entry deactivates the option to bulk confirm suggested hours for a specific day.

Other time tracking settings

You can also set:

• Minimum and maximum allowable hours to track per day
• Work hours in a day
• Workdays per week
• The day your work week starts

When people enter fewer hours than the minimum for a day, a warning reminds them that the entry is incomplete. When people enter more hours than the maximum for a day, a notification lets them know they’ve exceeded the maximum.

Hours entered appear as confirmed even if they don’t meet the guidelines in your Account Settings.

Approval workflow

Enable the approvals workflow (including bulk approvals) in Account Settings.

To ensure users can't add any time or expenses to approved entries, enable the setting that automatically locks time and expense entries upon approval. You can do this in the approvals workflow section of Account Settings. 

Tracking project progress

You can see a project’s progress in time (days or hours) or currency amounts (fees and expenses). This information appears on the project page, under Status.

Availability and allocation

In Account Settings, select percentage (%) or hours per day. This setting determines how availability appears on the schedule. It's the default method for how people get allocated when assigned to projects.

Availability and allocation appear on the schedule below projects as hours per day.

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You can't restrict time tracking for specific projects or users at this time. However, use approvals to ensure time tracking is accurate. 

Choose the best method to track time in Resource Management to help get the most out of your projects and provide the reporting detail you need. Don't use timesheets as your main criteria. They're required for some options, but you can always request that your team submit timesheets to follow a project's requirements.

Set time tracking for your account

1. Open Account Settings.
   • In Resource Management in Smartsheet, select the kebab menu in the top-right corner, then select Settings. From the list on the left, select Account Settings.
   • In standalone Resource Management, select Settings > Account Settings.
2.  Scroll down to Incurred Hours and Amounts. 
3. Select the best default option for your projects (read on for descriptions).

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You can use different time tracking  when needed for a project. You're simply choosing a default setting. 

Track confirmed hours and unconfirmed past scheduled hours

When you track confirmed and unconfirmed hours, you focus on the time allocated for the work. Hours appear as suggestions on timesheets, but timesheets aren't required to track the project.

The schedule—which you can update as the project progresses—remains your source of information.

To use this method, select Confirmed hours and unconfirmed past scheduled hours in Account Settings. Incurred time includes both confirmed and unconfirmed hours from timesheets.

If you track confirmed and unconfirmed hours, consider setting the Incurred Period to include past days only. This will ensure incurred time and fees include only historical data.

Track confirmed hours

When you track confirmed hours, your team reports all hours worked and submits regular timesheets.

Hours reported are incurred, and you can use these hours to calculate how much of your budget you’ve spent.

Hours assigned on the schedule appear as time entry suggestions on a person’s timesheet. Each person can confirm or change their hours when they submit a timesheet. Confirmed hours appear as incurred time or fees under Project Status.

Hours from timesheets appear in Project Status.

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If you track confirmed hours, consider setting the Incurred Period to include past days and today. This provides the most up-to-date information about incurred time and fees.

Track approved hours

Approved hours treat only those hours that have been through the approval process as incurred. Resourcing Admins need to enable approval workflows in order for approved hours to appear. 

Use Approved hours if you’re invoicing clients on an hourly basis, or you need to meet audit compliance requirements.

Incurred hours don't include future hours, even if they’re approved. Reports only show hours worked.

By default, a work week in Resource Management is five days. The work week begins on Monday, making Saturday and Sunday nonworking days.

 You can adjust the length of the work week based on your needs. For example:

• Your team could work a four-day work week for members unavailable Friday through Sunday.
• You could have some team members working every day of the week. 
• Your company could consider Friday and Saturday as nonworking days and Sunday as the start of the work week. 

Set your work week

1. Open Account Settings.
   • In Resource Management in Smartsheet, select the kebab menu in the top-right corner, then select Settings. From the list on the left, select Account Settings.
   • In standalone Resource Management, select Settings > Account Settings.
2. Scroll down to Time Tracking. 
3. Enter details for your work week in these fields:
   • Work Hours in a Day 
   • Work Days in a Week 
   • Start of Work Week
4. Select Save at the bottom of the page. 

On the Schedule page, nonworking days appear as light gray vertical bands. Resource Management doesn’t include nonworking days (official holidays or weekends) in availability calculations.

Manage holidays 

Official holidays 

Official holidays occur at all locations and appear as nonworking days.

Before you begin

Part-time availability takes priority over official holidays. For example, if you work with a part-time employee whose schedule falls on an official holiday(s), the worker appears as available on the holiday. 

To make the part-time employee appear unavailable on an official holiday, remove their part-time availability schedule on that day.

1. Open Account Settings.
2. From the list on the left, select Official Holidays. 
3. Enter the details for the holiday and select Add. 

You have to add holidays one at a time. 

Regional holidays

For events that affect only certain locations, create a Leave Type (for example, Regional Holiday) and assign it as needed.

1. Open Account Settings.
2. From the list on the left, select Leave Types.
3. Enter the details for the holiday/leave type and select Add. 

Once you add a new leave, it appears as an Assignment option. 

Workdays with leaves aren’t automatically subtracted from the budget. Any time dedicated to Leave is considered available time.

Remove project assignments that overlap with regional holidays

You can’t undo the removal of overlapping assignments. Double-check your schedule before you make this change.

1. Select the assignment, and then select Allocation.
2. Select Remove overlapping assignments.

Resourcing Administrators can configure leave types and official holidays.

Leave types

​​​Leave types are assignment types that aren't projects, like vacation or sick time. You can also use them for non-project work, such as business development. 

Leave assignments are orange on the schedule.

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Add leave assignments the same way you add project assignments.

Non-working days and official holidays

You can identify scheduled days when your entire organization doesn't work. 

• Resource Management excludes non-working days (official holidays and weekends) from your project budget.
• No time sheet suggestions appear for non-working days. 

Non-working days appear on the Schedule as light gray vertical bands, which show how project timelines overlap with weekends or holidays.

Set official holidays

1. Open Account Settings.
   1. If you're working in Resource Management in Smartsheet, select the kebab menu in the top-right corner, then select Settings.
   2. If you're working in standalone Resource Management, in the top-right of the screen, select Settings > Account Settings.
2. From the list on the left, select Official Holidays.
3. Name the holiday, select the date, and then select Add.

Edit a holiday

Select the row, make changes, and then select Save. 

Delete a holiday

Select the row, and then select Delete. 

You must have Resourcing Administrator permissions to add or update user profile information.

1. Go to the profile page for the non-billable person, and then select the Edit Profile button.
2. In Utilization Target %, enter 0. 
3. Under Bill Rate, set a modified bill rate of $0.

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4. Select the Save button.

On the Schedule, under People Filters, you can filter by billable or non-billable.