Get To Know Your Timeline

A walk through the features that make your Timeline easy and intuitive to use.

Your Timeline is your go-to timekeeping reference. It’s where you can quickly see, review and edit every automatically-captured and manually-added Activity in current and previous days. Laid out chronologically and cleverly designed with features to show you all the relevant information for each Activity at a glance, it’s a powerful timekeeping tool that will save you time and effort every single day. 

Where can I find my Timeline and what is it for?

You can find your Timeline tab on the left-hand side of your Global Header and your Timeline looks like this:

Every Activity Time by Ping (TBP) captures has a timestamp for the start time. We use this to place all your Activities in chronological order in your Timeline. You can scroll to any point in your day to see what you did as well as what came before and after. Here’s an explanation of each feature to help you make the most of what it can do:

Assigned vs. Unassigned Activity

There are two types of Activity – Assigned and Unassigned: 

Assigned

Assigned means an Activity has been assigned to a Client / Matter – either automatically by TBP using our predictive services or manually by you. An Assigned Activity clearly displays the Client / Matter or nickname (if added) in its header:

Where you have consecutive Activities for the same Client / Matter, TBP will stack them under the same heading for you:

Once the Client / Matter has been assigned, TBP will also fill in the Narrative and, if required, Work Codes to complete as much of the Activity information as possible so you can release your time with minimum effort.

Unassigned

Any Unassigned Activities are highlighted in yellow:

Unassigned means an Activity hasn’t yet been assigned to a Client / Matter. TBP gives you as much information as possible to help you determine which Client / Matter the Activity belongs to. If it’s not time you want to bill for, just click on  to delete it immediately from your Timeline.

You can assign one or several Unassigned Activities by selecting them in your Timeline and clicking  next to the relevant Client / Matter in your Current Matter List (CML) on the right-hand side. Once Assigned TBP will add a Narrative and, where needed, a Work Code prediction.

Current Matters List

Your Current Matter List sits on the right-hand side of your Timeline and is your go-to for a clear and concise dynamic summary of the clients and matters you’re currently working on:

It features handy shortcuts that make it easy to assign Clients / Matters, filter Activities in your Timeline, and see the time you’ve spent on each Client / Matter that day. If you have a nickname for your Client Matters, they will display in this list.

The CML has a default sort where all of the Client / Matters for that day which have time assigned to them will appear at the top of the list in alphabetical order by Client / Matter name. The rest will be below, also in alphabetical order by Client / Matter name.

When you complete an Activity and TBP makes a Client / Matter prediction to a matter that’s not in your list but is in the Practice Management System (PMS), that matter will appear in the CML for that day and disappear the next – unless you complete an Activity for that client or matter again.

There are two types of Client / Matter: temporary and permanent. Hover your cursor over a Client / Matter and if you see it’s temporary; if you see  it’s permanent.

What you see	Status of Client / Matter	Possible action
	Temporary TBP has assigned an Activity to a Client / Matter that isn’t permanently added to the Current Matter List and so it will remain only for that day	Click to add it to your permanent list
	Permanent  You’ve added the Client / Matter to the Current Matter List and so it will remain until you remove it	Click to remove from your permanent list

You can edit your CML at any time by clicking to open the Edit Matter List box.

Global Navigation Bar

Your Global Navigation Bar (GNB) is a simplified view of your entire day. In a single glance it shows you where Activities have been recorded and where there are gaps in your day of 12 minutes or more (what we call Open Time), without the need to scroll. 

Click anywhere along your GNB and your Timeline will automatically jump to that exact corresponding point in your day.

Also, when you filter clients in your CML, your GNB will show any corresponding Activities by marking them with a dark blue line.

Search

At the top of your screen is your Search Bar. You can use this to search for exact matches on:

• Client names
• Client / Matter name or nickname
  
• Client / Matter number
• Narratives
• Activity details

Everything relevant to your search is listed in an expanded Activity bar. Anything that’s not relevant to your search remains in your Timeline in chronological order to give you context, but the Activity bars collapse to their Client / Matter headers.

For more detail, please see our Search Bar: Find Activities & Entries article.

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.

TBP will default this filter to be 2 minutes in duration. But by clicking on the ‘Minimum Activity’ dropdown in the top right of your TBP window you can choose the duration filter that best suits you. Once you change this, the filter will persist. 

Any Activities shorter than your chosen duration will collapse in your Timeline and still show in your Timesheet.

Time Totals

Knowing how much time you’ve spent in different contexts is important, so we’ve given you several ways to view your total time in your Timeline.

Daily, Weekly and Monthly

We show you your time totals at 3 fidelities:

1. Daily: Shown in hours, minutes, and seconds
   
2. Weekly: All released time for the current week in increments 
3. Monthly: All released time for the current month in increments 
   

If you hover your mouse over the Weekly and Monthly totals you will see a breakdown of BIllable and Non-billable time. 

By Client / Matter

In your Current Matter List, you can see the hours broken down by Client / Matter for the chosen day. This will be shown in hours, minutes, and seconds. 

Create Activity

There are two ways you can create Activities to quickly fill any gaps in your day via your Timeline:

1. Click on ‘Create Activity’ in the top right of your TBP window
   
   
2. 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. 

Edit Activity

We’ve made it easy to Edit, Re-assign or Delete any Assigned Activity in your Timeline. Simply:

Edit Activity Details

1. Click on the Activity you want to edit in your Timeline
2. Your Client / Matter box pops up above your CML on the right-hand side of your TBP window
3. Click on ‘Edit Details’ to edit any of the information assigned to this Activity

Reassign Activity

1. Select an activity
2. Click on in the CML to re-assign to a Client / Matter

Please see How To Assign & Re-assign Your Time article for more information.  

Delete Activity

1. Click on  to delete the Activity altogether

Please see How To Delete An Activity or Entry article for more information. 

Release Status

Every Activity in your Timeline has what we call a Release Status. You can find this on the right-hand side of each Activity bar.

There are five Release Statuses:

Review More details are required before you can release the Activity
Ready for release The Activity is ready to be released to the Practice Management System (PMS)
Pending The Activity has been sent to the PMS and is awaiting review
Released The PMS has accepted the Activity
Rejected The PMS has sent the Activity back and you need to edit it before releasing again