---
key: log-time
title: Log time on a work order, project or task
audience: staff
section: projects-tasks
routes: ["/work/time-entries", "/schedule", "/accounts/:accountUid"]
permissions: ["work.time_entries.create"]
features: ["work.time-entries"]
since: 0.0.1
updated: 0.0.1
status: published
summary: Choose hours and minutes you already worked, from the work order or customer itself, the Schedule or the Time Entries page. Start and end times are optional.
keywords: [hours, timesheet entry, record time, enter hours, manual time, billable hours, break time, time card, log hours, yesterday]
related: [start-and-stop-a-timer, submit-and-approve-time-entries, submit-and-approve-a-timesheet, see-your-work-for-today]
---

**Log time** opens the same drawer everywhere: on a work order, task or project, and in a customer’s ⋯ menu, on an item in the Schedule at `/schedule`, and at the top of the Time Entries page at `/work/time-entries` (sidebar: **Projects & Tasks**, then **Time & Mileage**, then **Time Entries**). This article covers typing in time after the fact; to run a live clock, see [[start-and-stop-a-timer]].

Record hover cards and preview cards use a clock icon named **Log time**. It opens this drawer with the record chosen; it does not start a timer. Customer, work order, task and project cards use the same action. A booking card logs against its customer. If a timer is already running on that record, the action becomes **Stop timer**.

## Before you start

- Your role needs the **Create time entries** permission for **Enter time**.
- Opened from a work order, task, project or customer, the drawer already says **Logging time for** that record and its customer. From the Schedule, a project milestone logs to its project and a booking to its work order, or to its customer when it has none. Press **Change** only if the time was for something else.

## Steps

1. Press **Log time**. **Enter time** opens first when your role can enter finished time.
2. Under **How long?**, choose **Hours** and **Minutes**, or tap a quick time. For an hour and a half, enter 1 hour and 30 minutes.
3. Pick the day: **Today**, **Yesterday** or **Other day**. Days and times follow your organization's time zone, the same days your timesheet uses; when your device is set to another zone, the drawer says which zone the times are in. Nova places the time in a free stretch of that day, never over time you already logged or a timer that is running, and for today never later than now. It shows the start and end it chose. If nothing that day is free for that long, Nova says so: press **Set start and end times** and choose them yourself.
4. To set exact times, turn on **Set start and end times** and fill in **Start** and **End**, plus a break if you took one. An end earlier than the start is an overnight shift.
5. Leave **Billable** on unless the customer should not be charged for this time. Add a **Note** if you like; your organization may require one.
6. Press the save button. It shows the total, for example Save 1h 30m.

With nothing chosen yet, pick the **Customer** and then the **Work order**, or press **Log it to a task or project instead**. If your role logs time for others, press **Change** under **For** to choose the person. The list shows their photo beside their name. Without that permission, the time is yours and **For** stays hidden. A chosen customer, work order, task, project or person appears in a summary; press **Change** to search again. Selecting an option or clicking away closes the search. Work assigned to you appears first.

When a chosen work order or task has a scheduled time, **Use scheduled start** shows that time and can place the entry there. This works from every **Log time** button, including Time Entries. Choose the hours and minutes worked; Nova calculates the end. The switch is optional and becomes available once that start has passed. A day with no time does not offer it.

## What you see

- The entry appears on the Time Entries page as a **Draft**, ready to submit.
- Closing the drawer with something typed asks before throwing it away, and offers **Save time**.

## If something looks different

- **Enter time** is missing: your role can only run timers. Use **Start timer**.
- Nova says the time runs over time you already logged: pick different times, or check the day. A discarded draft never counts. When you log time for someone else, the message names them.
- Nova asks you to pick a work order, task or project: your organization logs time to a work order, task or project, not just to a customer.
- A draft you no longer want: on the Time Entries page, open its row menu and choose **Discard draft**. Once an entry has been submitted, approved or locked it can only be corrected or reversed; see [[submit-and-approve-time-entries]].

[[route:/work/time-entries|Open Time Entries]]