Manual Timer: Account For Every Moment

When you want to capture your own time, there’s the Time by Ping Manual Timer. 

Time by Ping (TBP) gives you a concise picture of your working day, automatically capturing your time and adding it as Activities to your Timeline in clear chronological order. It’s a powerful tool that automates your day – but there may be moments where we can’t capture your time, or when you may prefer to keep track of it yourself. For that we have the Manual Timer.

What is the Manual Timer?

The Manual Timer is exactly that – a quick way to capture your time for Clients / Matters manually. 

With the Manual Timer you can:

• Add a Client / Matter timer
• Start and stop a timer against a Client / Matter
• Start an anonymous timer
• Write a narrative for each timer
• Add Works Codes for each timer
• Add an alias for a timer
• Duplicate a timer
• Remove a timer
• Submit your timer to your Timesheet

Manual Timer: Quick Overview

There are several different ways to access and use your Manual Timer and several features you can use to make it more effective for your specific work. Each time you start a timer, we call it a session. 

Linked timer sessions

You can run multiple sessions under each timer where TBP will capture the start and stop time of each. When you submit multiple sessions for one timer, they will show individually against their respective timestamps but will be linked together in one group.If you submit a timer that’s assigned to a Client / Matter, it will also appear as a single Entry in your Timesheet but you’ll be able to open it to see each individual session.

Captured Activity

When you’re running a Manual Timer, TBP will still be capturing your Activity. This captured activity will appear in your Timeline at the relevant timestamps. When you submit your timers, they’ll live alongside this automatically captured activity. 

Add an alias

You can give a timer an alias or nickname that will show as its main title to make it more instantly recognizable, with the client name visible below it. In the Edit Timer window, just click on the ‘+ Add Alias’ link, add the Alias name and click ‘Save’.

How do I use the Manual Timer?

How do I start a new Manual Timer?

To start a new Manual Timer on your desktop:

1. Click the timer icon in the top right corner of your TBP window to launch a Manual Timer window
2. If you have any active or recent timers, you’ll see them listed. You can also use the search function or start an anonymous timer (both of which we’ll cover in detail below). To create a new timer, click on the plus icon
3. You can choose to fill in as much or as little detail as you want. You can either:
   • Choose a Client / Matter and click ‘Save’ to assign the timer
   • Choose a Client / Matter, write a Narrative and select your Work Codes before you click ‘Save’
4. Once saved, click the play button to start your new Manual Timer and the pause button to stop it

How do I start a Manual Timer by search?

To start a new timer by search:

1. Use the search bar at the top of the Timer window to search for a particular Client / Matter by Client / Matter name or number or client name
2. Initially, we’ll do a local search in the timer window to see if there’s a match. If so, it will show up in the search results below and you can just click on the timer to start it
3. If a local search returns no results and you need to add timer for a Client / Matter you haven’t used before, TBP will prompt you to ‘Search Firmwide’
4. Click the button and TBP will search your firm’s Practice Management System (PMS) to find the relevant match and show them in the search results below – just click on the [plus icon] next to the relevant result to add it to your timer window

 

How do I start an anonymous Manual Timer?

An anonymous timer means it has no Client / Matter attached to it. You can submit anonymous timers to your Timeline and they will show as Unassigned Activity. 

1. In the Timer window, below the search bar, click on to immediately start an anonymous timer. Every anonymous timer features a subtle orange tag in the top right-hand corner to remind you it still needs to be assigned to a Client / Matter

How do I add and edit details in a Manual Timer?

You can edit the information in any session quickly and easily by clicking or tapping on  in the timer window on your desktop, including:

• Re-assign the timer to another client 
• Add and edit an alias
• Add and edit a Narrative
• Add and edit Work Codes

Any edits you make will be specific to this timer and will last until it’s submitted at the end of the day, at which point it will reset to the default.

You can edit:

How do I submit a Manual Timer?

Once you’ve recorded all the sessions in your timer or finished with it for the day, you can submit it to your Timeline. Once you’ve submitted a timer, its Narrative will reset but the Client / Matter and Work Codes information will remain.

To submit a Manual Timer on your desktop:

1. Go to the timer you want to submit
2. Click on  and then ‘Submit’ 

If you have a timer running when it reaches midnight, TBP will automatically pause and submit it to that day’s Timeline to stop it running across two days. We’ll then start a new timer at midnight so we don’t miss capturing any work you may still be doing.

TBP will also automatically submit your timers if you manually close the application. 

How do I delete a Manual Timer?

You can remove a Timer in two easy steps any time you want. 

To delete a Manual Timer on your desktop:

1. Click on  for the timer you want to remove and at the bottom of the pop-up window click ‘Remove Timer’

How do I duplicate a Manual Timer?

Our duplicate timer feature helps you set up your timerboard more quickly. If you want to create several timers to cover different Activities but with the same Client / Matter – for example one each for emails, phone calls and research – then you can do that in just two clicks:

1. In the edit details screen of the Timer window, scroll down and click on the ‘Duplicate’ button.
2. This will create a duplicate of the timer and prompt you to add an alias for the duplicated timer

 

What if my system crashes and I haven’t submitted the time on my Manual Timer?

Our Manual Timer saves your activity every 15 seconds so your time is in safe hands. All your previously captured time will remain on your timerboard ready for when you relaunch.