Work Time Monitor - User Guide

Work Time Monitor is a free application that keeps track of the time spent working on the computer and automatically generates time reports, allowing you to easily calculate your monthly work time.

Work Time Monitor logs your work start and end times automatically by measuring the active and idle durations over a 24 hour period. It is suitable for use with desktop computers, which are idle during non-work hours. Portable computers, which may sometimes be active during non-work hours, prevent Work Time Monitor from correctly calculating the work time. For this reason, Work Time Monitor cannot be used with portable computers.

Installation

After downloading, double-click on the installer file to start the installation process. Installation is subject to the license agreement that is displayed next. At the end of the installation you'll be presented with the Settings page, allowing you to configure Work Time Monitor to your work schedule.

Since installation takes place when the current work day has already begun, monitoring will not start immediately, but only at the beginning of the next work day.

Usage

Tray icon

-	Double-click on the tray icon to view the work time records.
-	You can hover the mouse over the tray icon to get a glimpse of the remaining work time.
-	A small check mark on the tray icon indicates the end of the work day. Hovering over it will display the extra hours count.

Note: It is recommended that you customize the Windows Notification Area and make the tray icon visible, so that Work Time Monitor can be more easily accessed.

Settings

The Settings page is accessible by right-clicking on the tray icon and selecting Settings. Three tabs are available on this page: The first and most important is the Schedule tab, in which the schedule and duration of work are specified. On the Logging tab you'll find further settings controlling the display of data in the log file. The Advanced tab features several options that can be used to fine-tune the default behaviour of Work Time Monitor. Changing the advanced options is not recommended, unless you experience problems with the default settings.

Manual Adjustments

Work Time Monitor logs your work start and end times automatically. However, sometimes manual corrections to the log file may be required. For instance, you can edit the start or end time for a certain work day if they were not detected correctly. After saving the changes, double-click on the tray icon to view the updated log file. Make sure not to include any extra spaces or other unnecessary characters, as this might lead to log file corruption.

In addition, there are other cases where manual adjustments to the log file can be made:

Missing days

When Work Time Monitor detects that a work day is missing from the log file, it marks it as a "Missing" day:

Missing days: 1

Tue 2012/11/13 MISSING (Fill in reason to remove from count)

You can edit the reason for absence in brackets, and after saving and double-clicking on the tray icon, the day will be marked as an "Absence" day:

Absence days: 1

Tue 2012/11/13 MISSING (Vacation)

Underworked days

Work Time Monitor marks days as "Underworked" if they are shorter than two-thirds of the daily work hours (this value is configurable in Settings > Logging > Underworked and Half days):

Underworked days: 1

Wed 2012/11/21 09:24 to 2012/11/21 14:11 (04:47) -03:13 - Underworked day (Fill in reason to count as Half day)

If this is a Half day (rather than an Underworked day), then edit the reason in brackets, and after saving and double-clicking on the tray icon, the day will be marked as a Half day:

Half days: 1

Wed 2012/11/21 09:24 to 2012/11/21 14:11 (04:47) +00:47 - Half day (Thanksgiving eve)

Marked days

You can mark certain days by appending a comment to the end of the line. For example:

Marked days: 1

Mon 2012/11/26 10:14 to 2012/11/26 19:18 (09:04) +01:04 - arrived late because of an appointment

Errors

If you notice "ERROR" lines in the log file, this usually means that Work Time Monitor was not able to correctly detect the start or end of the work day. For example, this may happen if you use a portable computer at work, and in addition use it from home (For this reason, Work Time Monitor cannot be used with portable computers).

Another reason for "ERROR" lines could be a long idle period during the work day. The default idle timeout is 7 hours (configurable in Settings > Advanced > Activity). Thus, if no activity is detected for over 7 hours, the end of the work day is assumed. If you continue working later, errors will be logged.

In the following example, work had started at 08:25, and a long break has been taken between 09:31 and 17:06. Since the break was over 7 hours long, an error was logged at 17:06. Afterwards, work has continued until 18:14 (as noted by the second error):

Errors: 2

Wed 2012/11/28 18:14 ERROR (Missing start time)
Wed 2012/11/28 17:06 ERROR (Inconsistent start time)
Wed 2012/11/28 08:25 to 2012/11/28 09:31 (01:06) -06:54 - Underworked day (Fill in reason to count as Half day)

In such a case, you should manually edit the end time (replacing 09:31 with 18:14), and in addition remove the "ERROR" lines. After saving and double-clicking on the tray icon, the result will be:

Wed 2012/11/28 08:25 to 2012/11/28 18:14 (09:49) +01:49