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See Your Tracked Time in a Calendar View

By Florian6 min read
calendarweb appreportsvisualizationpro features

You scroll a list of time entries for the week. Acme · Frontend, Beta · Meeting, Acme · Frontend, Acme · Call, lunch, Beta · Roadmap. Twenty-seven rows. You're trying to figure out where Wednesday afternoon went and whether you have a 90-minute gap that could fit a workout. Lists are terrible at this. A calendar view is exactly right.

Timesheet's web app ships a full calendar view alongside the entry list. Day, week, and month, with the entries laid out the same way they'd sit on a Google Calendar or Outlook week. You see gaps, overlaps, density, and patterns that a list flattens out.

Calendar ViewPro
Day, week, and month calendar views in the web app. Drag to move, resize, and copy entries. Spot gaps and overlaps at a glance. Export to Excel or CSV, or sync with Google Calendar. Pro plan and up.

#Why a Calendar View Beats a List

The list view is what you want for typing entries quickly and reading a long history. The calendar view is what you want for understanding the shape of the day or week.

Two specific advantages:

  1. You see proportion. A 30-minute meeting takes 1/16 of an 8-hour day on screen. A 4-hour deep-work block takes half. Lists hide this.
  2. You see structure. A four-hour gap is visible at a glance. A pair of overlapping entries (you started a new timer before stopping the previous) shows up as a stack. A short, scattered Tuesday vs a solid, focused Thursday look completely different.

The list is faithful to the data. The calendar is faithful to the day.

#What the Calendar Shows

The web app calendar lays out the time axis vertically. Each entry appears as a colored block at its actual start and end time. The block carries:

  • The project name (and parent client, depending on naming convention)
  • The start and end time
  • The break duration, if the entry has breaks
  • The description and, in shared projects, the avatar of who tracked it

The project's color is used to fill the block, with a slightly darker shade of the same color as the border. Colors are configurable on the project itself, so visually similar work groups cluster naturally.

#Day View

A vertical strip showing one day. Useful for reviewing a single day in detail, especially before submitting a timesheet or invoice. Drag to create a new entry; click an entry to open it for edit.

#Week View

Seven day columns side by side. The default view for most users. Quickly compare days, spot patterns, see the week's shape.

#Month View

Each day becomes a cell with a stack of entries summarized as their project colors. Useful for spotting weeks of low activity, vacations, or unbalanced work between projects.

#Interactions: Drag, Resize, Copy

The calendar is not read-only. The web app supports direct manipulation.

#Drag to Move

Click and drag an entry to a different time slot or day. The start and end times shift together; the duration stays the same. Useful for fixing "I started this at 09:00, not 09:15."

#Resize to Adjust Duration

Drag the bottom edge of an entry to extend or shorten it. The start time stays put; only the end time changes. Useful for "the meeting actually ran 45 minutes, not 60."

#Click-and-Drag to Create

Click in an empty slot and drag down to the desired end. A new-entry dialog opens with start, end, and a project picker prefilled. Saves a few clicks for entries you're typing in retroactively.

#Copy to Another Day

Hold Option (Alt on Windows) and drag an entry to another day. A copy is created at the same time-of-day on the destination day. Useful for "Tuesday's standup was at 09:30, Wednesday's was the same time."

Every action creates a real time entry with concrete start and end times. There is no "duration without time" path in the calendar; you always see and edit the exact moments the entry covers.

#Filters That Stay Out of the Way

Above the calendar, a filter bar narrows what's shown without changing the data:

  • Search: find entries by text
  • Projects: pick one or several
  • Status: billable, non-billable, billed, paid, and more
  • Members and teams (Pro+): for shared projects, filter by who tracked the entry

The filter affects the calendar only; the underlying entries are not touched. Filters stay active until you clear them; the clear button next to the filter toggle resets everything.

#Taking the Data Somewhere Else

Two paths from the calendar to the outside world:

#Excel and CSV Export

Exports run from the export page, where the same project, status, and date filters are available. Pick the week you were just looking at, and the rows match the entries on the calendar. Useful for sharing a week with a teammate or with payroll.

#Google Calendar Sync

A two-way sync that mirrors Timesheet entries into a dedicated Google Calendar. Entries created in Timesheet appear on Google Calendar; entries created on Google Calendar can also create matching Timesheet entries (configurable). For the full setup, see the Google Calendar integration.

#Practical Patterns

#Friday Afternoon Cleanup

Open the week view at 16:00 on Friday. Scan for gaps you should have logged (the 30 minutes after lunch that disappeared) and overlaps you didn't mean to create. Fix both in under five minutes.

#End-of-Month Review

Switch to month view. Days where almost nothing was logged stand out; days where the colors are unbalanced (90 percent on one project) raise questions. Use these signals to start the monthly review conversation.

#Client Submission

For agencies that track client time and send a "this is the week we did" view, open the week filtered to that project and walk through it together in the status call. A PDF report of the same entries, generated from the documents section, backs it up with the exact times.

#Catch-Up After a Trip

You return from a four-day client visit. Open the calendar. Use click-and-drag to create the entries day by day, reconstructing the schedule from memory and the calendar entries you already had. The visual layout makes it easier than a flat form.

#Common Patterns That Work Well

Pick colors that mean something. All Acme projects in green, all Beta in blue. The week becomes instantly readable.

Use the day view before submitting timesheets. Catches gaps and overlaps that the list never reveals.

Combine with filters for client meetings. A week view filtered to one project is a great visual for a status update.

Watch the empty Fridays. Three Fridays in a row with light tracking is a pattern. The calendar shows the pattern; the list shows numbers.

#Common Questions

Can I use the calendar view on mobile? The calendar view is part of the web app. The mobile apps organize entries as a list grouped by day; on iPad, the Cockpit adds week and month calendar grid overlays.

Why is an entry not appearing on the calendar? The entry may be filtered out, have a project that's hidden by the project filter, or fall outside the visible date range. Reset filters and check the date range first.

Does drag-and-drop change anything besides the times? No. Moving or resizing an entry updates its start and end time; project, tags, and billing flags stay exactly as they were.

Can I disable drag-and-drop for some users? Not currently. Drag-and-drop edits respect the user's existing edit permission. A user who can't edit an entry can't drag it either.

What about overlapping entries? They appear stacked. You can see both at the same time. For HR/compliance purposes, the wall-clock time is what counts; the HR warnings post explains the overlap rule.

#Summary

  • The calendar view shows time entries in their actual time slots, day, week, or month
  • Drag, resize, and copy work directly on the calendar
  • Filters narrow the view without changing the data
  • Excel and CSV exports and Google Calendar sync carry the data elsewhere
  • Available on Pro plan and up (web app)

#Where to Go Next

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See Your Tracked Time in a Calendar View | Timesheet Blog | timesheet.io