Time Tracking
Idle time
When a member stops using the keyboard and mouse for long enough, the desktop app calls them idle and stops the timer at their last input. Your organization decides how long that takes and what happens to the idle time: discard it, let the member decide, or always keep it and mark it as idle.
How idle is detected
Step 1
No input for the idle timeout
The desktop app watches for keyboard and mouse input. After the idle timeout with none (10 minutes unless you change it), the member is idle.
Step 2
The timer stops at the last input
The timer is cut back to the member's last input, so the idle minutes are not counted as active work, and tracking stops.
Step 3
The idle window opens
When the member returns, the desktop app shows how long they were idle and what happens to that time under your rule.
Step 4
Kept time is marked as idle
Kept idle time runs from the last input to when the member answered, or to when the computer slept or locked if that came first, for at most 4 hours. It counts in totals and pay like any tracked time, and the timesheet shows its share in the Idle column.
What happens to idle time
One of three rules applies to each member: the organization's, or the member's own.
Discard idle time
The default
The idle stretch is removed from the timer automatically. When the member comes back, the desktop app tells them how much was removed and lets them continue or stop. This is what Colabio always did before the rule existed.
Let the member decide
When you trust the member's judgement
When the member comes back, the idle window has a “Keep this idle time” box. Ticked, the stretch stays on the timer and is marked as idle; left unticked, it is removed.
Always keep idle time
Calls, meetings, reading, whiteboard work
The idle stretch stays on the timer without asking, and is marked as idle. The member is told it was kept and can continue or stop.
An example
The idle timeout is 10 minutes. A member types until 14:00, takes a call without touching the computer and comes back at 14:25. At 14:10 the timer stops at 14:00.
- Discard idle time: 0 minutes are added; the timer resumes from 14:25.
- Let the member decide, box ticked: 25 minutes are added, marked as idle.
- Always keep idle time: 25 minutes are added, marked as idle.
Setting the rules
- For everyone: Users page → Idle time. Choose how long without input makes a member idle (5 minutes to 4 hours, or never) and what happens to idle time. Organization managers only; every change is recorded in the audit log.
- For one member: open their row on the Users page and set Idle after and Idle time, or leave them on Follow organization.
- On the desktop: the app picks up a change within 10 minutes while tracking, and at once on the next start. It needs a desktop app that supports idle rules; older apps keep discarding idle time.
On the timesheet
Kept idle time is never hidden inside an entry.
- Idle column: the share of each entry the member kept as idle time. Hover it for the exact amount.
- Filters → Time type → Idle: shows only entries with kept idle time.
- Activity: kept idle time has no input, so an entry with idle time usually has a lower activity percentage.
- To change kept idle time afterwards, use a correction: Time entry history and corrections.
Questions
Is a short pause idle time?
No. Pauses shorter than the idle timeout stay on the timer and only lower the activity percentage for that time. Idle time starts only once the timeout has passed with no input.
Does kept idle time count in totals, pay and invoices?
Yes. Kept idle time is tracked time: it counts in totals, utilization, pay and billable hours like any other minute. The Idle column and the Idle time type let you see it and, if needed, correct it through the usual correction flow.
Why is at most 4 hours kept?
So a computer left awake overnight does not turn into a night of work. A kept idle stretch also ends when the computer sleeps or locks, because the member was away rather than idle at their desk.
Can I set different rules for one member?
Yes. Open the member's row on the Users page and set “Idle after” and “Idle time”. Follow organization uses the rules from the Idle time dialog; anything else overrides them for that member only. Members cannot change their own rules.
What does “Never (idle detection off)” do?
The member is never marked idle and the timer never stops for inactivity. Long pauses still show as low activity. Use it for roles where long stretches without input are normal and you do not want the timer to stop.
How quickly does a change reach the desktop app?
Within 10 minutes while the member is tracking, and at once when they next start the timer. An idle window that is already open keeps the rule it opened with.
Why does the Idle column show 0% on older entries?
Before these rules existed, the desktop app always discarded idle time, so no older entry holds any. Members on a desktop app older than this feature also always discard it.
Still have a question about idle time? Email support@colabio.org.