Expected vs tracked hours

Your timesheet grid colours each day by comparing what you were expected to work with what you actually tracked. The expected hours come from your work schedule.

Expected vs tracked

Two different things, and they are often mixed up.

Term	What it is	Where it comes from
Expected hours	What you are scheduled to work	Your work schedule
Tracked hours	What you actually recorded	Your time entries

The timesheet compares the two, day by day. It never changes either one – it only shows you the gap.

Expected hours come from the person’s own work schedule, not from a single workspace-wide setting. Two people on different schedules see different targets on the same day.

Where the colours appear

Open Time and switch to Grouped view. The comparison lives in that grid.

What you see	What it means
A greyed-out, dimmed column	A day off on your schedule
A highlighted column	Today, read in the workspace timezone
A coloured figure in the Total row	How that day compares to its expected hours
A red tinted cell	An entry that came back rejected

The day comparison only colours the Total row cell for that day. Individual project rows are not coloured.

The three day states

State	When it shows	Which days
Completed	Tracked hours exactly match expected hours	Past and today
Overtime	Tracked hours are above expected hours	Past and today
Short	Tracked hours are below expected hours	Past days only

Three rules follow, and they are deliberate.

A future day never shows a state. There is nothing to complete yet.
Today under target stays neutral. You may still hit the target before the day ends. Only a past day flags as short.
A day off never shows a state. There is no target to miss.

Where expected hours come from

Your work schedule sets, per weekday, whether you work and for how long. The schedule also handles the exceptions.

Source	Effect on the day
A working day on your schedule	Expected minutes for that day
A non-working day	Day off, no target
A holiday that covers you	The day is off for everyone it covers, so no shortfall is counted
Approved leave	The schedule resolves the day as not working

Set schedules up in Settings → Schedules. See /schedules/overview and /schedules/working-hours-and-days-off.

How to read your week

Open the grouped view

Go to Time and click the grid icon in the view toggle.

Find the Total row

It runs across the bottom of the grid, with one figure per day.

Scan for colour

A coloured past-day total means the day is not neutral. Compare it to what you expected to work.

Check the greyed columns

Those are your days off. Hours you tracked on them still count toward the period total. They carry no target.

Fix and submit

Add anything missing, then submit the period.

Timecards compare the same way

If your workspace uses the Time Clock app, the timecard review shows the same comparison in a table.

Column	What it shows
Day	The date
Worked	Minutes actually clocked
Scheduled	Minutes expected from the schedule
Late	Minutes late, or a dash
Status	The day’s attendance status

That is presence at work. The timesheet grid is hours against tasks. Both read expected hours from the same schedule.

Example

Sarah Lin is on a standard Northwind Studio schedule – Monday to Friday, 9:00 to 17:00, 8 hours a day, 40 hours a week. Her week reads like this on Friday afternoon.

Day	Expected	Tracked	State
Sunday	Day off	0	No state – greyed column
Monday	8h	8h	Completed
Tuesday	8h	9h	Overtime
Wednesday	8h	6h	Short
Thursday	8h	8h	Completed
Friday (today)	8h	5h	No state yet – she can still finish
Saturday	Day off	0	No state – greyed column

Her period total is 36 hours. Wednesday is the only day that flags short. The next week Northwind observes a public holiday on the Monday. The holiday marks the day off for everyone it covers, so Monday shows no shortfall even though Sarah tracked nothing.

Options and settings

Setting	Where	Who can change it
Working days and hours	Settings → Schedules	Owner, Admin
Who is on which schedule	Settings → Schedules	Owner, Admin
Holidays	Time off → Holidays	Owner, Admin
Your own schedule, read only	My schedule	Anyone with `schedule.view`

Permissions

Action	Capability	Default roles
See your own schedule	`schedule.view`	Owner, Admin, Project Manager, Finance, Member, Contractor
Create or change a schedule	`schedule.manage`	Owner, Admin
See a teammate’s timesheet comparison	`time.viewOthers`	Owner, Admin, Project Manager

Plan and app gating

The comparison is part of timesheets, which are free. The Work schedules app must be on in Settings → Apps for expected hours to resolve. Without a schedule there is no target, so no day state shows.

Common questions

Why does today never show as short?

The day is not over. Flagging you at 10 a.m. for not having worked 8 hours would be noise. Short only shows once a day is in the past.

I worked on a Saturday. Does it count?

Yes. Hours on a day off count toward the period total exactly like any other hours. The day carries no target, so it shows no state.

Nothing is coloured at all. Why?

Either the Work schedules app is off, you have no schedule assigned, or the schedule has not loaded yet. The grid renders un-styled until it resolves.

Does a shortfall stop me submitting?

No. The comparison is information, not a gate. You can submit a short week.

Does approved leave create a shortfall?

No. The schedule resolves a leave day as not working, so there is no target to fall short of.

Which timezone decides what "today" is?

The workspace timezone. That way everyone on a distributed team sees the same day highlighted.

Troubleshooting

A working day shows as a day off. Check the person’s assigned schedule and any schedule exception on that date.
The wrong day is highlighted as today. The highlight uses the workspace timezone. Check Settings → General.
Expected hours look wrong for one person. They are probably on a different schedule template. Open their record and check which schedule they are assigned.
A holiday still shows a shortfall. Check that the holiday covers that person – holidays can be scoped.

Schedules overview

Where expected hours are defined.

Working hours and days off

Set the days and hours a schedule expects.

Fill in a timesheet

The grid these colours appear on.

My schedule

Check your own expected hours.

Absence and expected hours

The same comparison for clock in and out.

Holidays

Days that are off for everyone they cover.