Projects

Your project list

1. Click Settings in the top bar, then Projects, then Open Projects.
2. Add a project by hand: its number, its name, and the client if you like.
3. If people call a project something other than its official name, add that as an alias ("Acme" for "Acme Logistics Network Study"). Timecrumbs recognizes it too.
4. When a project is finished, select it and click Retire, so it stops matching your work.

Importing a list

1. In the Projects window, click Import.
2. Choose a CSV or Excel (.xlsx) file exported from your project management or accounting system.
3. Timecrumbs guesses which columns hold the number, name, and client, and shows you what will be added or changed before anything is saved.
4. Check the preview, then confirm.

Importing again later merges the new file into your list: nothing you added by hand is lost.

Sharing a list with your firm

The button beside the Projects window's title shows whether your list is shared: Only on this computer, Shared with your team, or Can’t reach the shared list (Timecrumbs then shows the last copy it had). The same Share With Your Team… button is on Settings, Projects.

If someone at your firm already shares a list:

1. Click Share With Your Team….
2. Under Use your firm’s shared list, click Choose File… and pick the list your firm shares.

If you're the first:

1. Click Share With Your Team…, then Share this list.
2. Timecrumbs asks whether anyone at your firm already shares a project list. Choose Share Mine, or Use Theirs… if someone does.
3. Pick a folder everyone at the firm already syncs: OneDrive, Dropbox, Google Drive, or a network drive.

Everyone then uses the same project names and numbers. Each computer keeps an offline copy, so Timecrumbs keeps working when the folder can't be reached. If you connect a billing system, the new projects it brings in go into the shared list for everyone.

Whoever shares the list becomes your firm's first Timecrumbs admin. See Your firm's admins.

Activities

If your billing system tracks the kind of work as well as the project and phase (activities, service items, or labor codes), give each entry an Activity too. It sits beside the project and phase in the entry editor.

In Settings, Time and display, set Activities to Off, Optional, or Required, and click Manage Activities… to keep your list. On Settings, Team, your firm can keep one list for everyone and set the same rule for everyone.

Private projects

Mark a project Private for your own work outside the firm, such as a side business. A private project stays on your computer only: it never goes into the firm's shared list and is never sent to a billing system. Timesheet exports leave it out unless you turn on Include private projects. It still matches your work and gets suggestions like any other project.

Your firm's admins

Once your project list is shared, a few people at your firm are its Timecrumbs admins. Admins change the shared project list, the settings everyone shares, the firm's phases and activities, and the firm license. Everyone else sees them read-only: in the Projects window, the firm's projects can't be changed, and Add makes a private project instead.

Whoever shares the list becomes its first admin. If a shared list has no admin yet, anyone who can make changes in the shared folder sees Become Its Admin on Settings, Team. It needs a work sign-in.

To add another admin:

1. Open Settings, then Team.
2. Under Admins, click Add an Admin… and enter their work email address.

To take someone off, click Remove beside their name. Your firm always keeps at least one admin.

Admins also see Members: everyone who uses the shared list, with their Timecrumbs version, when they were last seen, and their license (Firm license, Own license, Not signed in, or Not licensed). Each person's Timecrumbs checks in once a day with their name, work email, version, and license, never their time. Someone not seen in 60 days is grayed out, with Remove. Admins also get an Inbox notice when someone isn't licensed or is out of date, or when the firm license is nearly full.

Settings for the whole firm

Once your project list is shared, your firm's admins use Settings, Team to decide, setting by setting, whether each person picks their own, the firm suggests a default, or the firm sets it for everyone: how hours are shown and billed, the time grid, whether notes are required, and more. Click Save for Everyone when you're done. The same page holds your firm's name.

Beside Firm phases, click Manage… to set the phases everyone picks from. Turn on Only these phases to keep everyone to the firm's list; otherwise the firm's phases come first, then each person's own. Firm activities works the same way.

Everyone else sees these settings read-only, with the names of the admins to ask.