How To Manage Unassigned Activities

Assign your time in no time with our easy-access Unassigned Activity workflow.

Time by Ping (TBP) uses predictive technology and machine learning to reduce the amount of time and effort you need to put in to accurately bill for your work. 

Once we capture your time as an Activity, we apply our predictive technology to complete as much information about it for you as possible. Where we haven’t been able to gather enough information to confidently predict the client or matter, we leave the Activity as Unassigned so you can easily assign them, or delete those you don’t want to bill for.

Why do I need to assign Activities?

TBP attempts to predict the Client / Matter for all document and email Activity, if you save these activities in your firm’s Document Management System (DMS), we will automatically assign the Client / Matter for you. If you don’t file in the DMS, TBP uses our Matter Categorization model to attempt to predict the Client / Matter for the activity but we will only assign it if we’re at least 70% certain it’s correct. We don’t want to assign Activities incorrectly! 

If the activity hasn’t been filed in the DMS and the 70% threshold isn’t met, TBP will leave it to you to assign the Activity and so will show the Activity as Unassigned in your Timeline. If you assign and release that entry, TBP’s model will learn and similar activities in the future would be categorized as it may cross the 70% threshold. 

It’s important an Activity is assigned, as without a Client / Matter you can’t bill for it. Once assigned, TBP also conveniently and automatically fills in your Narratives and Work Codes for you.

How do I quickly assign and manage Activities?

You can assign and manage Activities in your Timeline view:

1. Check the ‘Unassigned Time’ box above your Current Matter List (CML) on the right-hand side of your TBP window. This also shows your total unassigned time in hours, minutes and seconds, which will reduce with each Activity you assign. Unassigned Activities are marked with a yellow left-hand border and look like this:
   
   
2. In your Timeline, all Assigned Activities will collapse into their respective Client / Matter buckets so it’s easier to see each Unassigned Activity. All your Activities will remain in chronological order so you can see them in context and easily recall what you were working on before and after the Unassigned Activity
3. Select one or multiple Activities
   • Tip: If you want to select consecutive Unassigned Activities, use shift and click
4. Once you’ve selected the Activities:
   • If the Client / Matter is in your CML, just click on the corresponding  to assign the Activity or Activities you’ve selected to it
   • If the Client / Matter isn’t yet in your CML, click on ‘Assign’ and it will open the ‘Assign Time’ modal where you can search firmwide for the Client / Matter or assign to a Temporary Matter
5. The ‘Unassigned Time’ checkbox will remain selected until you’ve assigned all Activities, so it’s easier to assign them all in one go. To exit, simply uncheck the ‘Unassigned Time’ box or click on any collapsed Activity

Using our Add to Previous / Next Feature

If an unassigned activity sits immediately before or after an assigned activity, you can quickly add it to the Client / Matter for these assigned activities with one click. Simply:

1. Hover over the 'Plus' icon above or below the unassigned activity 
2. Click on the Client / Matter you want to assign it to

See our Add to Previous / Next: Assign Time Quickly article for more information. 

How do I delete an Unassigned Activity I don’t want to bill for?

When you delete an Activity from your Timeline you can’t recover it, so it’s important to be certain before you do. 

To delete an Unassigned Activity, just click on  on the right-hand side of the relevant Unassigned Activity bar and you’ll see a ‘Successfully deleted’ notification in the Global Navigation Bar.

To find out more about deleting Unassigned and Assigned Activities from your Timeline and Entries from your Timesheet, read our How to Delete An Activity Or Entry article.