Set up project-based time tracking – Personio

This article explains how to set up project-based time tracking. With this feature, you can create projects in Personio and enable specific employees to track the time they spend on them.

You can:

Create projects and subprojects in granular detail.
Assign projects to your entire organization, specific employees, or employees matching certain criteria.
Access detailed reports and filters to monitor project progress.

Before you start

Permissions

Tip:
When you assign an employee to a project, they can automatically track time for it. They don’t need additional permissions to do this.

Employees with role permissions for Account configuration > Attendance projects can create, edit, and view all projects. If you want these employees to have greater visibility, you can grant additional role permissions:

Allow employees to see other colleagues assigned to projects: Go to People data > Personal data > Public profile and grant view permissions to the relevant access area (Custom, All, etc.).
Allow employees to view attendance data tracked against projects in reports: Go to People data > Attendance data and grant view permissions to the relevant employees. Then go to Configurations > Reports and grant edit (All) permissions.

Create a project

You can create detailed projects in Personio, whereby each project is easily identifiable in the system. Furthermore, you can add subprojects to organize complex tasks.

To create a project:

Go to Time Off & Attendance > Projects.
Click Create project.
Give your project a name.
Fill out the optional details where needed. You can include a description, ID, cost center, billable status, start and end dates, project type, and client.
Create your project.

Once you’ve created a project, you can assign it to the relevant employees.

Add subprojects

With subprojects, your employees can distinguish between the different types of work they do. By tracking the time your employees spend on subprojects, you can ensure:

Accurate compensation and billing.
Better reporting on specific types of work.

To add a subproject:

Go to Time Off & Attendance > Projects.
Click the project you want to add a subproject to.
Click Add subprojects.
Give the subproject a name.
Fill out the optional fields where needed.
Create your subproject.

Assign a project to employees

Note:
Your employees can’t track time on projects live via clock-in and clock-out (on web, mobile, or the entrance app). They can only track time on projects via their Attendance tab in the web app and Time tab in the mobile app.

For an employee to track time for a project, you need to assign the project to that employee. You can assign projects to your entire organization or specific employees. You can also assign projects to groups of employees that match certain criteria you define.

By assigning employees to projects, you can ensure that only the relevant people can track time against those projects. This helps improve accuracy and avoid errors.

To assign a project:

Go to Time Off & Attendance > Projects and click the relevant project.

On the right, under Members, choose one of the following:

Assign the project to your entire organization

In this case, the system assigns the project to all your employees. They can then track time for the project.

Note that when you add a new employee in Personio, the system automatically assigns that employee to the project.

Assign the project to specific members

In this case, you can manually add specific employees to the project.

You can also set a rule, in which case the system assigns the employees who match the criteria you define in the rule. For example, you might assign all employees in your IT department to the project. Note that when you add a new employee in Personio, the system doesn’t automatically assign that employee to a project with an assignment rule. To add that employee, you need to assign them manually.

You can also exclude specific employees.

Save your changes.

Reporting

Report on attendance data for projects

You can generate a detailed report on how much time your employees spent on projects and subprojects. This can help you understand:

The number of hours an employee, team, or specific group has spent on a project in a given time frame.
The breakdown of time spent on subprojects.
The number of hours spent on different types of projects filtered by client, cost center, billable status, date, etc.

To create a report, follow these steps:

Go to Analytics > Reports.
Create a new report using the Attendance periods template.
You can filter by the attribute Attendance project, and select the relevant projects or subprojects to extract the information you need. Add further filter rules as needed.
[Optional] Export your report as a CSV file.

Export project data

You can export all projects with their assignees at once:

Go to Time Off & Attendance > Projects.
Click the export icon.

You can also export individual project:

Go to Time Off & Attendance > Projects.
Click the project you want to export.
Click the three-dot icon at the top-right.
Export the project as a CSV.

In both cases, you’ll export a CSV file with project data and a second CSV file with project assignees.

Archive or delete a project

Note:
If you archive or delete a project, the system also archives or deletes its subprojects. However, if you archive or delete a subproject, it doesn’t affect the parent project.

You can archive or delete projects at any time. When you archive a project, employees can't track time on it anymore, but related past time entries still appear in timesheets, reports, and exports. You can’t delete a project if there’s time tracked against it.

Go to Time Off & Attendance > Projects.
Select the project you want to delete or archive.
Click the three dots on the right.
Delete or archive the project.

Archive or delete a subproject

Go to Time Off & Attendance > Projects.
Click the project that contains the relevant subproject.
Under Subprojects, click the three dots beside the relevant subproject.
Delete or archive the subproject.

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