Time Tracking in ChurchDesk – Easily and Flexibly Record Your Working Hours

With the time tracking feature, you can record your working hours with ease – whether right after your workday or retroactively. There’s no need for a stopwatch or to clock in or out. This tool is designed for users who want to document their working hours transparently – for example, sextons, musicians, or clergy.
This feature is available to churches with the appropriate subscription. Learn more here:
ChurchDesk Pricing
More about Time Tracking

Activating Time Tracking (One-Time Setup)

Before you can start tracking your time, the feature must be activated for you. Only an organisation administrator can do this:
Go to ChurchDesk Settings.
Click on Users.
Select the person > Actions > Edit Time Tracking.
Enable the time tracking feature.
If needed, set an initial time balance (e.g. +2h overtime or -1h deficit).

Note: This balance cannot be changed later.
Once activated, you'll see a small clock icon next to your name in the top right corner of your account – this is where you access the time tracking feature.

Logging Time – In the Browser or the App

Whether you’re using the browser or the app, the time tracking feature works the same. You can:
Enter working hours for today or retroactively
Adjust your default working hours – useful if you work a regular schedule
Add comments to briefly note what you did

Important: This is not a real-time tracker. You don’t need to start or stop a timer – just enter your times manually.

How Time Tracking Works in Practice

The system automatically assumes your default weekly working hours.
Only if you have worked more or less than your regular hours on a given day, then you'll need to manually enter the amount of hours you worked on the given day. E.g. if you have worked 9 hours instead of your regular working hours of e.g. 7 or 4, then you register the 9 hours
You do not need to log vacation – but you can optionally add “Vacation” as a comment.
If you’re marked as absent in the calendar, this will appear in the report but has no effect on the hours calculation.

Note: Comments are the only way to describe what you worked on. There are no categories or work types for time tracking. However, there are categories for absences.

What if I’m on Vacation?

Employees on paid leave do not need to enter working hours, as vacation days count as fully worked days.
The system automatically uses the default weekly working hours and applies them daily without requiring any input. So, you only need to document deviations.
If you’d like, you can add a “Vacation” note for those days afterwards.
If your vacation is entered as an absence in the ChurchDesk calendar, it will automatically appear in the reports for those days.

Note: Absences have no effect on the hour calculation.
The “Full-day Absence” column in the export is purely informational for employees and supervisors.
The same applies to the “Events” column, which lists events the person is assigned to in the ChurchDesk calendar. These hours are not included in the hour calculation.

Downloading a Report

If you want to evaluate your logged time, you can receive a report as an Excel file via email:
In the calendar, go to Reports > Time Tracking.
Select the desired period and person.
Click Export – the report will be sent to your email as an Excel file.
Only organisation administrators can create reports for others. All other users can only export their own hours.

The Excel file includes:
Week, date, and weekday
Logged hours and default working hours
Comments
Notes on full-day absences
Time balances

Note: Plus or minus hours are not displayed directly in the module – they are only visible via the Excel reports.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who can use the time tracking feature?
Anyone for whom it has been activated by the church. Each church decides this individually.
Can I change or add times later on?
Yes, you can edit your entries at any time – even retroactively. Just make sure your entries accurately reflect the hours you worked.
What happens to the initial balance?
If you started with e.g. +2h overtime, this can be recorded as a starting balance. It is factored into the report but not visible in the module.
Are there differences between app and browser?
No – the time tracking feature works the same in both.

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Updated on: 19/06/2025