A quick look at the basics of what Time by Ping does and how to start using it.
We all suffer from the necessary evil of having to complete mundane tasks like timekeeping. But digital transformation has the power to change that – after all, why waste your time sifting through notes, calls, calendars and emails trying to recall how you spent your time and what the right phase or task code is when technology can do it for you?
Time by Ping (which we’ll refer to as TBP for brevity) exists to automate your time. It works silently in the background to capture as many of your day-to-day activities as possible, helping you complete Timesheets with much less effort than you’re used to. By making sure your hard work is accounted for accurately and reliably, TBP gives you more time to do what you want.
Think of TBP as your favorite personal assistant – invisible, efficient and trustworthy.
What does Time by Ping do?
TBP automates your timekeeping in three distinct stages:
Capture
TBP works silently in the background capturing your Activity across five main workflows:
- Emails
- Document editing
- Phone calls
- Meetings
- Research
You can also manually create Activities in your Timeline and Entries in your Timesheet to make sure your entire day is accounted for.
Contextualize
Once captured, TBP adds your Activities chronologically to your Timeline. We then apply our predictive technology to every Activity in order to add as much information as possible, including:
- Client / Matters when we know who the work was for
- Narratives to describe the work you’ve done
- Associated Work Codes to accurately represent specific work
You can edit, add, remove and group your Activity as you see fit and always have complete control over what’s in your Timeline and Timesheet.
Release
Once an Activity in your Timeline has a Client / Matter assigned, it will show as an Entry in your Timesheet. From here it’s ready for you to review and release to your Practice Management System (PMS) when you’re ready, which you can do in just a few clicks.
When does Time by Ping work?
Once you launch TBP it gets to work right away and continues to capture your time silently in the background as long as you’re online and logged in.
- If you minimize the TBP window, it continues capturing your time – and you can always recall it directly from your toolbar
- If you click the ‘x’ in the top right corner to close the TBP window, it continues to capture your time – and you can reopen the window directly from the system tray
- If you go offline, we’ll let you know via the red notification bar, as TBP will stop working when you’re offline
- If TBP crashes, it restarts automatically in the background so you don’t lose any time. If it tries and fails to restart three times, you won’t be logged back in and will need to reopen TBP again to continue capturing your time. If this doesn’t work you should contact us right away on support@timebyping.com so we can keep your time automated
How do I navigate Time by Ping?
To give you some instant orientation, let’s walk through the Global Header that lets you move easily between days across your Timeline and Timesheet.
This is your Global Header:
1. Date
All your Activity is organized into a daily view so it’s easy to track and manage. On launch, TBP defaults to today’s date, which you can always see clearly indicated in the Global Header.
2. Week View
Beneath the date, you’ll see the seven days of that week running from Monday through Sunday represented as circular icons. The selected day is outlined with a blue circle and today’s date is always highlighted in bright blue, even if it’s not the day selected.
Click on any day to see your Timeline and Timesheet for that day
3. Refresh
All your captured Activity up to that point should appear in your Timeline as soon as you launch TBP but, if it looks like something is missing, just click 
and TBP will reload with any recent Activity that hasn’t yet appeared.
4. Date Navigation
Use 
on the right to navigate back and forward – note that you can only select dates in the past up to today’s date and not dates in the future. No matter what day you’re on, click 
to jump straight back to the current day.
5. Week & Month Totals
The Week and Month figures show how many hours you’ve released to your PMS from TBP over the current week and month. Hover your cursor over either and you’ll see a breakdown of that total as billable 
and non-billable 
hours.
6. Notification Bar
If we need to tell you something – for example if you complete certain actions or go offline so TBP is no longer running – we’ll post a notification bar across the top of the screen to let you know.
7. Manual Timer Recall
Click 
and TBP recalls the Manual Timer to be the active window.
8. Support
Click 
to go to the TBP Help Center to read our Guides, get answers to common questions, take interactive tutorials or submit a support ticket to our team of specialists.
Your Timeline and Timesheet views
We’ve created two views to easily manage and release your time to the PMS – Timeline and Timesheet. Your Timeline and Timesheet are fundamental to how TBP works, so you should read a bit more about them in our Timeline vs. Timesheet guide.
Timeline gives you a chronological view of your daily Activity and Timesheet gives you a billing view of your daily Activity organized into Entries by Client / Matter. Depending on which view you’ve selected, the features in your Global Header will be slightly different.
In your Timeline view
1. Total duration
This is the total number of hours, minutes and seconds of Activity that TBP has captured on the selected day.
2. Create Activity button
While TBP captures as much of your Activity as possible, it can’t capture everything you do. Use the ‘Create Activity' button to capture any time spent offline or account for any gaps in your Timeline.
You can read more about how to create an Activity in our Manual Activities & Entries: Account For All Your Time guide.
3. Timeline Search
The search bar in Timeline allows you to search all of the activities on a current day. You can search:
- Client / Matter name
- Client / Matter number
- Client name
- Narratives
- Activity details
For more information, please refer to the Search Bar: Find Activities & Entries article.
4. Global Navigation Bar
The Global Navigation Bar is a simplified view of your entire day. A single glance gives you immediate insight to see where your time has been recorded and where there are gaps.
5. Minimum Activity filter
TBP captures any Activity over 30 seconds, but we realize you may not always want to see so much detail in your Timeline. Click on the ‘Minimum Activity’ dropdown in the top right of your TBP window and choose the Duration filter that best suits you. Any Activities shorter than your chosen duration will collapse in your Timeline and still appear in your Timesheet as long as they are assigned to a Client / Matter.
We’ve set the filter to two minutes by default but if you change the duration, it will stay like that until you change it again.
For more information, please refer to the Minimum Activity: Filter & Assign Your Time article.
In your Timesheet view
1. Timesheet Search
The search bar in Timesheet allows you to search all of the entries on a current day. You can search:
- Client / Matter name
- Client / Matter number
- Client name
- Narratives
- Activity details
For more information, please refer to the Search Bar: Find Activities & Entries article.
2. Total hours
This is the total number of hours of Activity that TBP has captured on the selected day, measured in billable increments.
3. Create Entry button
Click 
to create a manual Entry you can save to your Timesheet.
4. Release Day button
Click to release all your time for the entire day to the PMS.
How do I shut down Time by Ping?
You can shut down Time by Ping easily from your system tray:
- Click on the system tray arrow to see the TBP logo
- Right click on the logo to see two options:
- Shut down Time by Ping
- Restart Time by Ping
- Select the option you want. If you shut down TBP you’ll need to relaunch it to start capturing your time again. If you restart TBP it will restart immediately.
