Time tracker threshold for time

[jane_editor]

I have a quick question with regard to the time tracking app. I did a job today, the first part of which was no problem and tracked my time. I came back a little while later to do a last review of the work prior to submission to the client, which was only about five minutes. However, this last five-minute segment didn't get recorded by the time tracker. I was actively working the whole time.

I know the tracker (and all time-tracking on Upwork) works in ten-minute increments, but at which point does it actually "accept" that I worked long enough in a ten-minute increment? Is it once it goes over the halfway mark? I've used the tracker a bit on various jobs and I'm not really paying attention to that as much as making sure I do the job at hand as diligently as I can.

I'm not worried about the five minutes on the job as I have a habit of erring on the side of the customer, I'm just trying to understand the mechanics of the time tracker with regard to what will and won't be recorded.

[prestonhunter · Accepted solution]

Yes... well... The Upwork desktop time tracker is not actually designed for very short time segments.

You are facing a difference between how the software actually works, and how you may prefer it to work for your work style, which can involve short segments of time.

If you start the time segments and work for five minutes, then after five minutes, the time-tracker may have recorded a time block. Or not. It may not record a time block until 8 minutes have passed. Or not. Perhaps it takes 10 minutes. Perhaps 12.

Perhaps you work 5 minutes and are credited with 10 minutes of work.

Perhaps you work 13 minutes and are credited with 0 minutes of work.

Really?
Yes. Sorry.

Those are the mechanics of the software.

But if you work for an hour, you are guaranteed to be be credited with EXACTLY an hour (or CLOSE to an hour, give or take 10 minutes) worth of work.

[jane_editor]

Thanks, Preston, that is in line with what I expected. 

I really wasn't worried about the time, it happened to be a review at the end of the job that might have taken two minutes or it might have taken twenty, which was why I used the time-tracker as it was an unknown quantity.

The short answer is to record your time accurately and let it work itself out 🙂