Project Tracking

Project Tracking is available to all customers regardless of package purchased. However, only those who have enabled BambooHR Time Tracking have the ability to track time directly to projects or tasks.

How do I Setup Project Tracking?

Purpose: With Project Tracking, our customers who have employees working with different tasks or customers can add and keep track of the various projects and pay rates within BambooHR. This guide will show you how to create projects, log time to specific tasks (Add-on), track multiple pay rates, and import project pay rates.

Table of Contents

BambooHR Time Tracking customers can track project time while adding hours to their timesheet. Knowing where your time is being spent is a powerful tool to understand how long projects take and where you can optimize for the future. If you have clients that you need to charge for their services and have been doing this by hand in spreadsheets, it is now time to stop! We have a report that will show you the billable and non-billable hours for each client that you can send over to accounting or to the client directly. This help guide will show you how to set up Project Tracking for your employees to accurately report how much time they are spending on each project.

Accessing Project Tracking Settings

You can find Project Tracking settings by navigating to the Time Tracking tab in Settings.

Project Tracking settings will show you a list of all projects you've created. The following options are available for each project:

  1. Add Project: Click this button to add a new project. (See below)
  2. Projects Included in Payroll: The dollar symbol indicates that hours logged to this project will show in payroll, where rates can be entered. This is enabled in the individual project tracking settings.
  3. Project: Simply click on the project name to make any changes to the setup.
  4. People: This feature is only available for those who have enabled Time Tracking. If you do not have time tracking enabled, this will always list as "0". This number indicates the number of employees who have been assigned to the project. You can click this number to see a list of the employees who are currently assigned to the project.
  5. Tasks: This is the number of tasks that you've created within the project.
  6. Duplicate: Click the duplicate icon to easily copy projects with all attached tasks.
  7. Archive: If you are no longer working on a specific project, you can click the archive icon. This will archive the project, making it no longer available to employees when tracking time. To unarchive a project, simply click the "Active" filter in the top right corner to see a list of archived projects. Then click the unarchive icon next to the associated project.
  8. Delete: If you created a project by mistake or no longer need the data associated with a specific project, you can click the delete icon. However, if you ever need to recreate that project, simply enter the same name and the project will be restored.

Add Project

  1. Project Name: Enter the project name. This name will appear when the employee is logging hours for this project. Additionally, it will appear on the employee's timesheet and in the Project Hours report.
  2. Who can log time to this project?: Select if all employees can log time to this project. Otherwise, select "Only specific employees" and choose which employees should be assigned to this project. Keep in mind that this project will only show up as an option for employees who are assigned to the project. If an employee is not assigned to the project, it will not show as an option for that employee when they are logging time.
  3. If Who can log time to this project? is grayed out: Time Tracking is not enabled. You will see the message above and no one will be able to log time directly to your projects or tasks.
  4. How will time be logged?:
    • If Time Tracking is enabled: Select if employees will log time directly to the project. If this is the case, you will have the option to determine if time logged should be billable or non-billable. If you need to report time logged on specific tasks within the project, check that option. You will then be able to add the list of tasks* you need to track for this project. With each task, you will select if the time logged should be billable or non-billable. Keep in mind that the name of each task will show up as an option for the employee to select when logging time.
    • If Time Tracking is not enabled: You can use this step to create tasks within a project. However those assigned to this project will not be able to log time to the project or tasks and will not be able to mark it as billable or non billable.
  5. Be sure to save the project.

*Tasks can be removed by clicking the "X" next to each task. The system will not prompt you to confirm your selection, so use this option with caution. Keep in mind that these tasks will be archived which means that they will still exist in the background and will continue to show in history and reports, but will no longer show in the project and won’t be an option for the employee to select. If a deleted task name is created again under the same project, it reactivates the previously deleted task. 

Need to track multiple pay rates for projects? Check out this help guide to learn how!

Project Pay Rates table

Once you set up your Project, you must add the Project Pay Rates table to the employee profile in order to track multiple pay rates. Navigate to any employee profile and click on their Job tab. From here, click on Edit Fields > Add Fields > Project Pay Rates. You have the freedom to drag and drop where you would like the table to appear on the Job tab and then click Save. 

The Project Pay Rate table includes the following fields:

  • Start Date
  • End Date
  • Project or Task Name (Only active projects will show up in this list. Make sure to create your projects in Project Tracking before attempting to add rates.)
  • Pay Rate (USD only) 
  • Comment
  • Edit (pencil icon)
  • Delete (trash can icon)

You can add multiple pay rates for a project on an individual basis. After the Project Pay Rates table has been added to your account, navigate to an employee's profile, find the table, and add each project and its corresponding rate accordingly. 

Does adding multiple pay rates for each employee one at a time feel like a daunting task? You can also import directly into the Project Pay Rates table in bulk (see below). 

Want a quick way to view all the Projects/Tasks and their rates created for your employees across the platform? Check out the Project Pay Rates Report.

Importing project pay rates

Fields to include in your import:

  1. Employee #: An employee's unique identifier in BambooHR. Importing by employee number is the most accurate way to import data.
  2. First and Last Name: These fields do not get imported into the system but help you ensure that you assign the correct data to the right person.
  3. Start Date: This field records the date the employee started working on the project.
  4. End Date: This field records the date the employee finished working on the project.
  5. Project: The name of the project must match exactly as it appears in BambooHR.
  6. Task Name: The name of the task within the project must match exactly as it appears in BambooHR.
  7. Pay Rate: This is the pay rate for the project or task. Be sure to include the USD currency code to avoid running into errors. 
Importing tips

To access the importer you'll need to manually adjust your URL. Simply log in to your BambooHR account and at the end of the URL, type manage/import/history.

  1. Importing project pay rates does not create the projects in BambooHR. Make sure you have created all your projects and tasks in Settings > Time Tracking > Project Tracking before importing project pay rates.
  2. Ensure that the spelling of your projects and tasks in your spreadsheet matches EXACTLY with what you have named the projects in BambooHR.
  3. If your project has tasks set up in BambooHR, you must include both the project and tasks in your import.
  4. An employee can only have one pay rate assigned per task. They can have multiple pay rates for each project, but each pay rate must be assigned to a different task.

 

If you need additional help importing your data in BambooHR, check out this help guide!