Time Tracking requires People (Chapter 8 — time belongs to employees) and Sales (Chapter 3 — billing lands in sales invoices), and it cannot be switched on without them. Companies on the services business profile get it from the start; everyone else switches it on when they begin selling time.
Before the first entry, three things should exist:
- Employees with rates (§8.4) — the billable rate is what time is charged at when a project sets no rate, and the cost rate is what margin is measured with.
- Customers (Chapter 3) — every project belongs to one.
- A service product — the notional product invoice lines sell when they carry hours. Switching the module on prepares one for the company; each project can name its own (§9.6).
Permissions follow the module: recording, submitting, approving and billing projects are separate permissions, so the person who logs time, the person who approves it and the person who invoices it can be three different people (§1.12).