Tracking Time in Intervals Online Project Management using Modules | Project management and time tracking blog for web designers and small business

Tracking Time in Intervals using Modules

December 19th, 2008 by John Reeve

Online time tracking apps are great for discovering where all your time is going. And many of them allow you to classify time entries by billable types of work, an invaluable feature for billing clients and estimating future projects. One of the unique features within the Intervals time tracking tool is the ability to classify time entries into an additional category, what we call modules. So, what are modules, exactly? And, what makes them so powerful?

Modules are like work types, but different
When applying your Intervals timer to a project you can assign it to a work type and a module. The selected work type assigns a billable rate to that unit of time. The selected modules groups that unit of time into a bucket. It helps to think of modules as categories that persist outside of the current project. For example, our web design & development agency uses modules like Ecommerce, CMS, and Custom Application Development, so we can report on the types of web sites we are designing and building.
Modules help you see into the future
One method for determining which modules you will use is to ask yourself what will be asked of you in terms of accountability. How will your boss/client/teammates expect to see your time broken down in reports? They may want to see how much time you spent — or wasted — launching a new web site or getting the file server back online. Additionally, classifying your tracked time with well-planned modules may help you identify which types of clients, projects, and markets you should pursue in the future.
Modules help you recollect the past
Reporting by module is perhaps most valuable when analyzing tracked time on completed projects. Modules reveal the nature of your small business be reporting across all projects. You can see collectively how much time is going to each aspect of your business, for example, Human Resources, IT, and the core focus of your business, whatever it may be. Tracking time using modules can spare you the proverbial condemnation of repeating the past.