Here’s how Time By Ping does all the hard timekeeping work so you don’t have to.
We created Time by Ping (or TBP as we call it) to work seamlessly with the tools you use every day. It works silently in the background to track your Activities, which you can see in simple chronological order in your Timeline. But we've also made it super easy to manually add an Activity for any time spent offline or for any activities TBP doesn’t capture.
What Activities does Time by Ping capture?
TBP seamlessly integrates with the most popular tools, applications, websites, management systems and hardware that lawyers use to:
- Read or write emails
- Draft and edit documents
- Make and receive calls
- Attend meetings
- Carry out research
Through this integration TBP automatically tracks your Activity that lasts 30 seconds or more and adds it to your Timeline.
You can also manually add any Activity you want to your Timeline or Entry to your Timesheet, or capture it using our Manual Timers on desktop and cell. This might be work you do that TBP doesn’t capture, such as offline research, document markup or ad-hoc meetings.
What information does Time by Ping capture for each Activity?
For every Activity over 30 seconds, TBP captures:
- The start and end time
- Activity type
- Activity duration
- Relevant information about the Activity such as the subject line of an email, document title, or name of the person you called (see below)
Does Time by Ping capture any other information?
It sure does. We want to give you as much context to your Activity as possible to make submitting your Timesheets as painless as possible. What information TBP captures depends on the type of Activity:
Automated capture
Emails
TBP works with Microsoft Outlook in both Explorer and Inspector (the pop-out window) views.
For all emails you write or read on your desktop, TBP captures the:
- Subject line
- Who the email was received from or sent to, including those in the ‘To:’field. When the email is a reply thread it also includes those in the ‘CC:’field.
Note: Recipients in BCC are not captured/included in the narrative
At the moment, TBP doesn’t capture time spent previewing documents using Document Management System (DMS) plug-ins for Outlook.
For any emails you send on your cell, TBP currently captures the:
- Time the email was sent
- Subject line
- Who the email was received from or sent to, including those in the ‘To:’field. When the email is a reply thread it also includes those in the ‘CC:’field.
At the moment, we only capture emails sent on a cell. So, to help account for any time spent writing emails, we set a default three-minute duration on your Timeline for all emails sent via your cell. You can easily increase or decrease the duration in your Timeline when you review it later.
TBP searches Outlook for these cell emails only when TBP is the active window. If you navigate back a day, we’ll also search that day if we haven’t done so recently to make sure it’s up to date.
Documents
TBP works with Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint, as well as Adobe Acrobat and Reader, and KOFAX PDF.
For all documents on your desktop, TBP captures the:
- Document title
- File location, if it’s stored in your firm's DMS
Calls
TBP works with Cisco Unified Communications Manager (CUCM), the Cisco Jabber app and, for a growing number of clients, Microsoft Teams.
For calls, TBP captures the:
- Phone number
- For internal calls only, the participant name (if the extension exists in your firm’s Active Directory)
TBP can also capture phone calls on your cell but only when they’ve been forwarded to your cell from your tracked CUCM number.
Meetings
TBP works with your calendar in Microsoft Outlook.
TBP captures information for almost any created or accepted entry in your calendar – so if it’s in your diary, we’ll capture it. We say ‘almost’ any entry because there are three types of meetings we don’t capture – recurring meetings, anything that lasts 24 hours or more, and those that are not accepted by you. Because TBP works directly from your calendar, it won’t know if a meeting runs over or under time, in which case you can change the duration in your Timeline when you review it later.
For all other meetings, TBP captures the:
- Meeting title
- Meeting participants
TBP searches Outlook for these calendar events only when TBP is the active window. If you navigate back a day, we’ll also search that day if we haven’t done so recently to make sure it’s up to date.
Research
TBP works with Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge and Internet Explorer.
When we onboard your firm we add our default set of website URLs where billable activity is common, and can add any others you ask for. Every time you use one of these websites, TBP will track your Activity. You can always add other sites later by submitting a support ticket.
For all research, TBP captures the:
- Website URL
- Tab titles, if they’ve been constant for 15+ seconds
You can see the list of default websites that we track here, but please note that your firm may have requested more during onboarding.
Additional tracking
Window tracking
TBP also has the ability to track the windows of applications you use, even if we don’t have in-depth integration with them. We want to ensure your entire day is captured, but this additional tracking does come with some limitations.
If you use one of the applications we’ve listed below then you should know:
- When it’s the active window we’ll show the duration you spent on it
- We’ll show the application name in the Narrative
- We’ll expose the application’s window title in our Activity details section. If the window title changes and is then available for 15 seconds or more, we’ll show multiple window titles
- TBP won’t link these Activities and you’ll need to manage (assign, edit and group) them separately
Applications
We’ll add these applications to TBP by default but your firm can always ask to add new ones if desired:
- Microsoft OneNote
- Slack
- Microsoft Project
- Microsoft Publisher
- Microsoft Visio
- Microsoft InfoPath
- Microsoft Access
- Microsoft Yammer
- LexisNexis Sanction
- LexisNexis CaseMap
- LexisNexis TextMap
- LexisNexis TimeMap
- PDF Architect
- Evernote
- Notion
- Notepad
- reMarkable
- Docusign
- Google Earth
Idle Time
TBP has built-in idle time to protect against when you leave your computer running but are not active.
By default, this is set to 6 minutes. When the 6m threshold is passed without any activity (mouse movements or keystrokes), then the timer running will revert to the last active moment.
Let's use an example...
- I am actively working on a Word Document for 10m.
- Afterward, I leave my computer for 8 minutes to talk to a colleague but keep the Word doc as my active window.
- The activity would only show for 10m, not 18m
Can I add Activities and Entries manually?
TBP captures your Activities automatically via your desktop or cell emails when you’re online, but we realize not everything you do is online or there may be websites you haven’t added and applications that TBP currently doesn’t track. So we’ve made it as flexible as possible to add an Entry manually any time you want.
Create an Activity on your desktop
There are two ways you can create Activities to quickly fill any gaps in your day via your Timeline:
- Click on ‘Create Activity’ in the top right of your TBP window
- Or click on ‘Create Activity’ in any Open Time in your Timeline
When you manually create an Activity in your Timeline it will immediately show as an Entry in your Timesheet, as long as it’s assigned to a Client / Matter.
For more information about how to create an activity, please see the Manual Activities & Entries: Account For All Your Time article.
Create an Entry on your desktop
It’s easy to quickly add Entries to your Timesheet for any missing Activities and release them directly to the Practice Management System (PMS).
An Entry is different to an Activity because it has an increment duration rather than a start and end time. This means you can only add Entries to your Timesheet and they will not appear in your Timeline – this is so you can quickly create an Entry for a Client / Matter without having to immediately remember when it was.
For more information about how to create an entry, please see the Manual Activities & Entries: Account For All Your Time article.
Use the Timer on your desktop
If you want to capture your time manually as you go, for example, if you’re marking up the hard copy of a document or doing offline research, you can use our Manual Timer. You can always find this in your Global Header, no matter if you’re in Timeline or Timesheet views.
For more information about how to use your desktop timer, please see the Manual Timer: Account For Every Moment article.
Capture on the go
TBP has a mobile application that lets you capture time at any given moment anywhere. On our mobile app you can:
- Create an activity
- Start a timer (assigned to a Client / Matter or Unassigned)
All of these activities can then be released to your desktop and seen side by side all other captured activities in your day.
For more information on how your mobile application works, please see the Time by Ping Mobile: Capture On The Go article.
