Many of you have asked us to extend the functionality of the time tracker with a timer. We loved the idea, and now the feature is at your service in the new task view for much easier tracking and time reports. But perhaps the most fantastic news is that now you can see who on your team is currently working on which task.
The timer brings fantastic benefits to everyone. Team members get a clear picture of their personal productivity, while managers are able to balance the team’s workload according to the time required for different tasks. And we suppose that freelancers who get paid per hour will hit the “Play” button right after finishing this post!
When the tracker is on or paused, it stays within eyeshot at the top of the workspace wherever you navigate. This way, it’s unlikely that you’ll forget to turn it off when necessary. But if you do forget, don’t worry – you can easily edit time entriesafterwards.
If you’re working on multiple tasks during the day, you will easily notice how simple it is to switch between them in terms of time-tracking. Once you get to a new task and start the tracking, the timer in the previous task pauses automatically. As Wrike conveniently brings all paused timers together in the drop-down menu at the top of the screen, you can continue tracking any task with just one click.
Keeping peers who “walk by” in the loop of your progress
Broadcasting a real-time status of people’s current work is another great update that comes together with the timer.
Now you no longer need to ask your colleagues if they have already started that important task. Once an assignee puts his or her timer on, an update about this activity will appear in your Activity stream. You’ll also see the time counting under the assignee’s avatar if you open the task tab.
This feature is another step towards a larger concept of work that we share in our team. “There’s a concept of ‘management by walking around’, which has helped a lot of industry leaders be more effective. In Wrike, this is delivered through easy info sharing, the ability to follow tasks, update notifications, and now a status broadcast. It's a push-pull model, which means that you're not imposing this info onto your colleagues, but if they "walk by", they'll know what you're working on and will be able to contribute, if necessary,” Andrew Filev, CEO at Wrike, comments on the vision behind the innovation.
And there’s another nice time-tracking bonus for everyone – now you can find the new Timelog icon right on top of your workspace. Switching to the complete overview of your team’s activity by hours and minutes has become a matter of one click.
The timer is available for all users of Premium accounts who have switched to the new Wrike Graphite. Simply enable it for your workspace in Wrike Labs right now!
Important note: The old user interface will be disabled for all users on September 30, 2013. We wanted to make sure that you have plenty of time to get adjusted to the new Wrike. Keep in mind, our customer care team is always there to help you with any questions or concerns that you might have!