The Away time tab is located under the Computer Activities reports on the left side menu:
What is the away time?
The desktop application registers time when computer is actively used. If for a certain time (previously defined in settings) you don’t use a mouse or keyboard, the application will register your time away from the computer.
You can leave it unchanged or set the activity such as Lunch, Meeting, Offline work, etc. Those values also can be defined in settings The away time is treated as an unpaid break, but if you assign an activity this time will be counted into an effective working time.
If you track time using the web application and the desktop app works as a background, you can set activities or also manually fill in the away time directly in this section.
If you track time using the desktop app widget, the system will automatically send an inquiry and a new window will appear asking about the offline activity.
The ability to add and manage the away time can be limited by the account Administrator
Set up the away time
The administrator's privileges are required to access and change settings.
Step 1
To set up the away time function navigate to your Account Settings and use the shortcut from the General tab to get to the Computer Activities settings.
Step 2
Now find the option Stop tracking when computer is unused for and select the amount of idle time you allow the computer to maintain before the app stops tracking time. If you choose for example a 5-minute period, it means that the desktop app will stop recording time and activities if computer is unused for 5 minutes.
Step 3
The next step is optional. If you'd like users to assign activity to their away time mark the checkbox next to Choose away time activity after option. Select the time you want the system to wait before asking your employees about their time away from the computer. As the administrator of the account, you can also list and define various acceptable activities for your employees to manage the time they spent away from the system.
Please keep in mind, that the option "Choose away time activity after" refers to the pop-up window asking about activity for users who track time with the desktop app widget.
Private time
The Administrator of the account can also define the amount of Private time every user can have during the workday. The private time is counted into the active work time, it won't be added as Away time. If user selects an option to use their Private time, the application will stop registering activities and will add the period of private time as a separate activity.
To define the amount of Private time please go to your settings and use the shortcut from the General tab to get to the Computer Activities settings. Next, find the option "Allow users to have private time each day" and set the value.
After the option of having private time is defined, users can simply open the desktop app menu and select the Private time option.
The application will stop registering activities immediately. If the break is finished, open the desktop app menu again and unselect Private time.
If user stopped the timer, private time would be added as a separate activity to the unassigned computer activities on Timesheet.
If user didn't stop the timer, private time would be added as a separate activity to the time entry.
The difference between Private and Away time is that Private time is counted as effective working time. The away time is counted separately as an unpaid break.
Limit the option of adding the offline time
There are a few options and settings that you can adjust to prevent users from adding and editing the away time.
- The first way is to block the ability of adding the away time to a specific user.
You can adjust this option in personal settings of each user. Please go to the Users module on the left side menu, click on the name of user you'd like to edit and unmark the checkbox next to the Can add offline time option. After disabling this setting user won't be able to manually add the offline time in the Away time section, and only the away time registered by desktop app will be available here.
- The second way is to turn off the option of assigning an offline activity to the away time registered by the desktop app to the entire group or certain groups of users.
To do that please go to the Computer Activities settings and unmark the checkbox next to the Choose away time activity after option. If this setting is disabled and the application registers the away time, users won't be able to set the activity. Without assigning the offline activity this time won't be counted to the effective working time.
- The additional option that helps to limit editing the away time is the option Disable split away time data.
If this settings is enabled users won't be able to split the time of the registered breaks.
