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Requested design updates to the Upwork Desktop App

lenaellis
Community Member

We’ve made several improvements to the Upwork Desktop app to help you stay organized and provide more insight into the Time Tracker’s processes by displaying more notifications about what the app is doing on the backend. Let us know if you have any questions on the updates below.

 

Time Tracker Layout and Settings-

 

  • “Time today” - shows billable time tracked in your local time zone, not in UTC. However, “Time this week” still shows the weekly billable time in UTC because our weekly billing is calculated in the UTC time zone.
  • There is a connection status above the ON/OFF toggle informing you if the Time Tracker is online or offline.
  • We removed the elapsed timer which increased each minute, and replaced it with a timer which increases in 10 minute intervals after a screen capture is taken and the time is registered as billable.

TImetracker2.png

  • At top of the time tracker, we are now showing the contract name, contact person and client company.
  • Because your time tracked is now showing in your local time on the main page, when a new billing week is approaching (in UTC) and after a new billing week has started, we are showing a notification to avoid confusion.

TImetracker3.png

 

Improvements in offline tracking:

 

  • If the app loses connection with the server, the app will now display a notification on the screen until you dismiss it or until the connection is back.

Timetracker4.png

Timetracker5.png

  • When you’re approaching the caching limit, you will see a notification.

Timetracker7.png

  • And once the app is back online, we show a notification and start uploading the cached screen captures.

Timetracker8.png



111 Comments
lee98
Community Member

So I have to remember/record the time I start working - sounds like the change to the app added a step to my work process...

petra_r
Community Member

@Lee M wrote:

So I have to remember/record the time I start working - sounds like the change to the app added a step to my work process...


 Hm? That part has always been like that. The segments have always been this way.

I tend to just start at the beginning of a segment ( XX.00, XX.10, XX.20 etc etc) as that way my first segments are always full.

 

I don't like the new style tracker either, but nothing has changed as to the way the time itself is tracked, billed, and paid.

 

researchediting
Community Member

@Petra R wrote:

@Lee M wrote:

I really liked the elapsed timer as I would make it a point to work through a 10 minute block of time. This way, I don't know if I'm two minutes into my next 10 minute block or nine minutes in.


 No Lee, the segments are always the same: XX.00 to XX.10, XX.10 to XX.20, XX.20 to XX.30, XX.30 to XX.40, XX.40 to XX.50, XX.50 to XX.00

 

So for that you just need a clock as you are 4 minutes into the 6.20 to 6.30 am block when it is 6.24, for example.


So it would seem from the work diaries. So we "just" need a clock, because the timer is not a timer. (And never has been, in the way some of us have been thinking of it?)

petra_r
Community Member

@Douglas Michael M wrote:


 No Lee, the segments are always the same: XX.00 to XX.10, XX.10 to XX.20, XX.20 to XX.30, XX.30 to XX.40, XX.40 to XX.50, XX.50 to XX.00

 

So for that you just need a clock as you are 4 minutes into the 6.20 to 6.30 am block when it is 6.24, for example.


So it would seem from the work diaries. So we "just" need a clock, because the timer is not a timer. (And never has been, in the way some of us have been thinking of it?)


 It counts and bills and charges 10 minute segments. 6 of them per hour. Always has done. The segments are, and always have been, XX.00 to XX.10, XX.10 to XX.20, XX.20 to XX.30, XX.30 to XX.40, XX.40 to XX.50, XX.50 to XX.00

Segments with keyboard and / or mouse activity and a screenshot are counted, billed, and charged. There is never more than one screenshot in any one segment. Logging off before a screenshot has been taken in any one segment means the segment is not counted, billed or charged.

 

 

versailles
Community Member

@Petra R wrote:


"Stay away from negative people. They have a problem for every solution." —Albert Einstein

 

 


I may be wrong, but I'm practically sure that, like many other quotes Einstein is credited with, that one is not from him. People use Einstein's name to make all kind of statements, the Internet is full of these.

 

This quote is a good one, though, but has probably a totally different origin.

petra_r
Community Member

@Rene K wrote:

@Petra R wrote:


"Stay away from negative people. They have a problem for every solution." —Albert Einstein

 

 


I may be wrong, but I'm practically sure that, like many other quotes Einstein is credited with, that one is not from him. People use Einstein's name to make all kind of statements, the Internet is full of these.

 

This quote is a good one, though, but has probably a totally different origin.


If I ever find the time (unlikely) I'll verify with this book 😉

 

researchediting
Community Member


 

@Petra R wrote:

 

It counts and bills and charges 10 minute segments. 6 of them per hour. Always has done. The segments are, and always have been, XX.00 to XX.10, XX.10 to XX.20, XX.20 to XX.30, XX.30 to XX.40, XX.40 to XX.50, XX.50 to XX.00

Segments with keyboard and / or mouse activity and a screenshot are counted, billed, and charged. There is never more than one screenshot in any one segment. Logging off before a screenshot has been taken in any one segment means the segment is not counted, billed or charged.


Well understood. So it's a logger. It is not and never has been a timer. The minute count some of us have been bemoaning was always just window dressing, and the app may be better off without its nonfunctional overhead.
 

petra_r
Community Member

@Douglas Michael M wrote:


 The minute count some of us have been bemoaning was always just window dressing, and the app may be better off without its nonfunctional overhead.

 


 No idea, but minutes matter as not enough active minutes make a segment disputable.

 

My biggest gripe is that sessions are no longer displayed, as they were before.

 

lee98
Community Member

So, if you start working at 2:10 and stop working at 2:45, technically, the client is paying for five minutes that you didn't work. If this happens six times in a week, the client is paying for half an hour more than the time you actually worked. Do you understand my logic? I relied on the elapsed timer to work as close to a full 10 minute block as I could. Do your tasks/jobs always work out to multiple of 10 minutes? I do understand that starting at :10 or :20, etc., will guarantee a full first segment, I guess I can try harder to start right on a 10 minute mark... I just wish I didn't have to change my habit (you know, being a human that doesn't like change...).

kr_bs_ba
Community Member

The same thing is said to be true of Winston Churchill - many of the quotations attributed to him are apocryphal also.

 

However, with Einstein, it goes beyond quotations. Attributing the A-bomb to Einstein is also incorrect, or so I have heard. What he did was write a letter to Roosevelt at the behest of the actual discoverer of the bomb's potential, to get Roosevelt to take it seriously.