Report sources - TimeTracker

Every report reads exactly one data source. The source decides what one row means, which fields you can group and filter by, and which figures can be calculated.

What is a data source?

A data source is a kind of record. Pick Time entries and one row is one logged entry. Pick Invoices and one row is one invoice. You choose the source in the Data section of the builder. Everything downstream follows from it – the column catalog, the filter fields, the grouping options and the date field the period windows on.

A report cannot join two sources. There is no way to put invoice balances on a time-entries report. If a question needs both, build two reports.

Choosing the right source

Your question	Source
Where did our hours go?	Time entries
What is still unbilled?	Time entries
What did we spend on this project?	Expenses
Who owes us money, and for how long?	Invoices
Is this project over budget?	Projects
Are we making margin on this client?	Projects
Are tasks running past their estimate?	Tasks
Who has not submitted their timesheet?	Timesheets
How much leave is booked next month?	Time off
Who was late or absent?	Timecard

Budget and estimate figures do not come from time entries. A time entry knows how long someone worked, not what the project was budgeted. Budget, actual cost, tracked value and profit live on the Projects source. Estimate and remaining hours live on the Tasks source. Choosing time entries for a budget question gives you a report that cannot be built.

The date basis

Most records carry more than one date. The date basis is the one the period windows on. Each source declares which dates are allowed and which is the default. An invoice, for example, can be windowed on its issue date or its due date – and an aging report only makes sense on the due date.

Shared fields

Two sets of fields appear on almost every source.

Date buckets

Every source offers five date buckets you can group by:

Bucket	What it does
Day	The calendar day in your workspace timezone
Week	The week starting on your workspace’s week-start day
Month	The calendar month, keyed as `YYYY-MM`
Quarter	The calendar quarter, `Q1` to `Q4`
Year	The calendar year

Roster fields

Sources that have a person on the record also offer roster fields:

Field	What it is
Group	The person’s primary group. Someone in several groups counts once, under their primary, so group rows always add up to the total. Filtering by group matches any group they belong to.
Manager	The person’s manager
Job title	The person’s job title
Employment type	Employee, contractor, and so on

All four are gated on roster access, so a report can never become a side door onto roster data your role cannot already read. Only sources that can resolve a field offer it – Group is on time entries, expenses, tasks, timesheets, time off and timecard; Manager and Employment type are on time entries and timesheets.

Time entries

One row is one logged time entry. The workhorse source and the default for a new report. Answers: Where did the hours go? How much is billable? What is approved but not yet invoiced? How much revenue and margin did the work carry?

Group and filter by

Field	What it is
Date	Entry date, bucketed to the report’s granularity
Day, Week, Month, Quarter, Year	The five explicit date buckets
Day of week	Monday to Sunday, as a cycle
Member	Who logged the time
Project	The project the entry belongs to
Task	The task the entry belongs to
Client	The client that owns the entry’s project
Billable	Whether the entry is marked billable
Approval status	Unapproved, approved or locked
Timesheet status	The submission state of the entry’s timesheet period
Invoice status	Invoiced or still uninvoiced
Source	How the time was captured – timer or manual
Group, Manager, Job title, Employment type	Roster fields

Figures

Figure	What it means
Reported time	Total tracked duration
Billable time	Duration flagged billable
Non-billable time	Duration flagged non-billable
Approved time	Duration that is approved or locked
Invoiced time	Duration already on an invoice line
Uninvoiced time	Billable, approved time with no invoice line
Timer time	Duration captured with the running timer
Manual time	Duration typed in after the fact
Timer %	Timer time as a share of the total
Entries	Number of time entries
Members	Distinct people who logged time
Labor cost	Cost rate × duration – needs `time.viewCost`
Billing rate	The effective billing rate on the entry – needs `rate.viewBilling`
Revenue	Billing rate × duration – needs `rate.viewBilling`
Profit	Billable value minus labor cost and expenses – needs both cost and billing access
Profit margin	Profit as a share of revenue – needs both

Date basis: Entry date only. Who can report on it: anyone with report.view. Rows cover the people your supervision scope reaches.

Expenses

One row is one expense. Answers: What are we spending, on which project, and how much of it is billable to the client?

Group and filter by

Field	What it is
Day, Week, Month, Quarter, Year	Date buckets
Member	Who incurred the expense
Group	The claimant’s primary group
Category	The workspace expense category it is filed under
Project	The project the expense belongs to
Client	The client it is attributed to
Billable	Whether it is billable to the client
Date	The expense date
Approval status	Draft, submitted, approved, rejected, invoiced
Invoice status	Whether it has been attached to an invoice

Figures

Figure	What it means
Expense cost	The raw amount paid – your internal cost. Needs `time.viewCost`.
Billable value	What the client is billed: amount × (1 + markup)
Expenses	Number of expenses

Date basis: Expense date (default), Date recorded, Date submitted. Who can report on it: you need expense approval access (expense.approve). This is workspace-wide expense visibility, not the self-only submit right.

Invoices

One row is one invoice. Answers: Who owes us money? How much is overdue, and by how long? What have we billed this quarter?

Group and filter by

Field	What it is
Day, Week, Month, Quarter, Year	Date buckets
Invoice	The invoice, by its number
Client	Who it is billed to
Status	Draft, sent, viewed, partially paid, paid, overdue, void
Date	The issue date
AR aging	The receivables bucket by due date: current, 1–30, 31–60, 61–90, 90+

Figures

Figure	What it means
Invoice total	The grand total on the invoice
Subtotal	Line items before discount and tax
Discount	Total discount applied
Tax	Total tax across all tax lines
Paid	Payments received
Outstanding	Total minus paid, credit notes and write-offs. Void and draft invoices are excluded.
Invoices	Number of invoices
Current	Outstanding, not yet past due
1–30 days	Outstanding 1 to 30 days past due
31–60 days	Outstanding 31 to 60 days past due
61–90 days	Outstanding 61 to 90 days past due
90+ days	Outstanding more than 90 days past due

Date basis: Issue date (default) or Due date. An aging report belongs on the due date. Who can report on it: you need invoice access (invoice.manage) – the same gate that opens the Invoices page.

Projects

One row is one project. This is the budget and profitability source. Answers: Which projects are over budget? Which client is making us money? What have we invoiced against each project?

Group and filter by

Field	What it is
Day, Week, Month, Quarter, Year	Date buckets
Project	The project itself
Client	The client it belongs to
Status	The project’s lifecycle state
Health	The budget-health signal – green, amber or red

Figures

Figure	What it means
Budget	The project’s budget amount
Actual cost	Tracked internal cost – needs `time.viewCost`
Tracked value	Client-facing billable value of tracked time – needs `rate.viewBilling`
Forecast margin	Forecast margin on the project – needs `time.viewCost`
Profit	Tracked value minus actual cost – needs both cost and billing access
Invoiced	Sum of invoices attributed to the project – needs `invoice.manage`
Projects	Number of projects

Date basis: Created (default), Start date, Due date. Who can report on it: anyone with report.view. Individual figures are still gated.

This is the only source that can answer a budget question. See /budgets/profitability-and-margin.

Tasks

One row is one task. Answers: Which tasks have blown their estimate? How much work is left? What is sitting in each section?

Group and filter by

Field	What it is
Day, Week, Month, Quarter, Year	Date buckets
Task	The task itself
Assignee	Who it is assigned to. Unassigned tasks group together.
Group	The assignee’s primary group
Section	The board column the task sits in
Status	Todo, in progress or completed, derived from the section
Priority	None, low, medium, high or urgent

Figures

Figure	What it means
Estimate (h)	Estimated hours on the task
Tracked	Time logged against the task in the report period
Remaining (h)	Estimate minus tracked, never below zero
Tasks	Number of tasks

Date basis: Created (default), Due date, Start date. Who can report on it: anyone with report.view.

Estimate and remaining hours live here, not on time entries. See /concepts/budget-vs-estimate.

Timesheets

One row is one person for one period. Periods a person never submitted are included as rows with the status missing, which is what makes this the chase-up report. Answers: Who has not submitted? How much time is submitted but not yet approved? Which group is behind?

Group and filter by

Field	What it is
Day, Week, Month, Quarter, Year	Date buckets
Status	Submitted, approved, changes requested, withdrawn, plus missing for a period never submitted
Member	The person the period belongs to
Period	The timesheet period – weekly, biweekly or monthly, per your workspace setting
Group, Manager, Employment type	Roster fields

Figures

Figure	What it means
Submitted	The period’s total once it has been submitted. A missing period counts 0.
Approved	The period’s total once it has been approved. Anything still submitted, withdrawn or missing counts 0.
Periods	Number of person-and-period cells, missing ones included

Date basis: Period end only. A period grid keeps every period that overlaps the window, so no other date field would change the result. Who can report on it: anyone with report.view. Which people’s periods you see is decided per row by your scope – a plain member sees their own.

Time off

One row is one leave request. Answers: How much leave is booked next quarter? Who is off, under which policy? How much is still pending approval?

Group and filter by

Field	What it is
Day, Week, Month, Quarter, Year	Date buckets
Policy	The leave policy the request draws from
Member	Whose leave it is
Group	The member’s primary group
Status	Pending, approved, rejected or withdrawn
Unit	Days or hours – which figure the request contributes to

Figures

Figure	What it means
Days	Leave amount for day-based requests. Hour-based requests count 0.
Hours	Leave amount for hour-based requests. Day-based requests count 0.
Requests	Number of leave requests

Date basis: Start date (default) or End date. Who can report on it: anyone with report.view. Seeing other people’s leave needs leave.viewOthers; without it you see your own.

Days and hours are never mixed into one number. A policy measured in days contributes only to Days, and a policy measured in hours contributes only to Hours. Group by Unit if you need both on one report.

Timecard

One row is one person on one day. This compares what someone was scheduled to work against what they actually clocked. Answers: Who was late? Who was absent? Who worked on a day off? Where are we over the schedule?

Group and filter by

Field	What it is
Day, Week, Month, Quarter, Year	Date buckets
Member	Whose day it is
Status	The day’s resolved status: present, late, left early, absent, worked on day off, unscheduled, over scheduled or incomplete
Group	The member’s primary group

Figures

Figure	What it means
Scheduled	Expected time for the day
Worked	Actual worked time, from closed sessions
Late	Time late past the scheduled start, beyond the grace period
Left early	Time left before the scheduled end, beyond the grace period
Over scheduled	Time worked beyond the expectation, beyond the grace period
Days absent	Scheduled days with no work recorded
Days worked on day off	Days worked when not scheduled
Days unscheduled	Worked days with no schedule assigned
Days incomplete	Days with a session that was never clocked out
Days	Number of person-days in the group

Date basis: Date only. Who can report on it: anyone with report.view. Which people’s days you see depends on timecard management or approval access; without it you see your own.

The Timecard source needs the Time Clock app switched on. It is off by default. See /time-clock/overview.

Which figures belong to which source

This is the table that stops a report from being unbuildable.

Family	Lives on	Not on
Hours, billable split, timer vs manual	Time entries	–
Labor cost, revenue, profit, profit margin	Time entries	–
Estimate, remaining hours	Tasks	Time entries
Budget, actual cost, tracked value, forecast margin, project profit, invoiced	Projects	Time entries
Expense cost, expense billable value	Expenses	Time entries
Invoice totals, payments, outstanding, AR aging	Invoices	Time entries
Submitted and approved period totals	Timesheets	Time entries
Leave days and hours	Time off	Time entries
Scheduled vs worked, lateness, absence	Timecard	Time entries

If the builder tells you a figure “is not available yet”, you have asked a source for something it cannot work out. Switch source.

Example

Northwind Studio runs three reports over the same month, from three different sources.

Question	Source	Grouped by	Answer
Where did July’s hours go?	Time entries	Project, then Client	Website Redesign 62h, Mobile App 88h
Are we still inside the Bluebird budget?	Projects	Project	$40,000 budget, tracked value so far
What is Bluebird still to pay?	Invoices	Client	Outstanding, split into aging buckets

Three questions, three sources. None of them could be answered by another.

Permissions

Source	Extra capability needed
Time entries	–
Expenses	`expense.approve`
Invoices	`invoice.manage`
Projects	–
Tasks	–
Timesheets	–
Time off	–
Timecard	–

Every source also needs report.view. A source with no extra gate still limits which rows you see, based on your supervision scope – see /concepts/supervision-scope.

Common questions

Can one report read two sources?

No. A report reads exactly one source, and there is no join. This is deliberate – a join would let a report pull another source’s cost figures past that source’s own permission check.

Why can I not see Expenses or Invoices in the source list?

You can select them, but running the report needs expense approval or invoice access. Without it the report is refused.

What happens to my columns if I switch source?

Anything the new source also has is kept. Everything else is dropped, and TimeTracker shows you the exact list before it does anything.

Why does my timesheet report have rows for people who submitted nothing?

That is the point. The Timesheets source builds a complete grid of every person against every period, so a missing submission is a visible row rather than an absent one.

Which date does the period actually filter on?

Whichever date basis the report uses. Each source declares its allowed dates and its default – expenses default to the expense date, invoices to the issue date, projects and tasks to created.

Troubleshooting

Problem	Why	Fix
”can’t be calculated on this report yet”	The figure does not belong to this source	Move the question to the source that owns it
An expenses or invoices report is refused	You lack the source capability	Ask an admin for expense approval or invoice access
A timecard report is empty	The Time Clock app may be off, or nobody clocked in	Check Settings → Apps
Leave hours show 0	Your policies are measured in days	Read the Days figure, or group by Unit

Metrics reference

Every figure, its meaning and how it is worked out.

Build a report

Turn a source into a finished report.

Report filters

Narrow a source down to the rows you want.

Budget vs estimate

Why budgets sit on projects and estimates on tasks.

Profitability and margin

How cost, revenue and margin are calculated.

Report permissions

Source gates, the cost firewall and scope.

​What is a data source?

​Choosing the right source

​The date basis

​Shared fields

​Date buckets

​Roster fields

​Time entries

​Group and filter by

​Figures

​Expenses

​Group and filter by

​Figures

​Invoices

​Group and filter by

​Figures

​Projects

​Group and filter by

​Figures

​Tasks

​Group and filter by

​Figures

​Timesheets

​Group and filter by

​Figures

​Time off

​Group and filter by

​Figures

​Timecard

​Group and filter by

​Figures

​Which figures belong to which source

​Example

​Permissions

​Common questions

​Troubleshooting

​Related guides

Metrics reference

Build a report

Report filters

Budget vs estimate

Profitability and margin

Report permissions

What is a data source?

Choosing the right source

The date basis

Shared fields

Date buckets

Roster fields

Time entries

Group and filter by

Figures

Expenses

Group and filter by

Figures

Invoices

Group and filter by

Figures

Projects

Group and filter by

Figures

Tasks

Group and filter by

Figures

Timesheets

Group and filter by

Figures

Time off

Group and filter by

Figures

Timecard

Group and filter by

Figures

Which figures belong to which source

Example

Permissions

Common questions

Troubleshooting

Related guides