Timesheets Glossary
This glossary defines the key terms used in Timesheets and explains how they relate to each other.
The primary way you organize your time in Timesheets. Every time block must be assigned to a project, whether that's client work, an internal initiative, or a personal project. Projects can include tasks, a client, billable settings, and an optional time target.
See also: Client, Task, Time block
An optional grouping layer above projects. If you work with multiple clients, you can assign multiple projects to a single client. Clients help organize your timeline and reports. For example, filtering a report by client shows all logged time across every project for that client.
See also: Project
An optional sub-category within a project that describes the type of work being done. Divide projects into tasks like design, development, or marketing. Tasks add a second layer of detail to your time blocks and are displayed as their own column in reports, making it possible to see not just how much time went into a project, but what kind of work it involved.
See also: Project, Time block
A segment of time on your timeline that has been assigned to a project. Time blocks are what your timesheet is made of. They appear as colored blocks on the timeline and are the only time that shows up in reports. They're created by accepting an autocompletion, dragging a project onto the timeline, or clicking to add time manually.
A time block can also include a task and optional notes.
See also: Suggestion, Reviewed time
A 5-minute segment of activity grouped by what you were primarily doing during that time. Buckets are the underlying layer of your timeline. When you click a time block or an area of raw activity, you see the individual buckets that make it up, along with the apps and websites that were active during each one.
Buckets are useful when you need to make precise edits. For example, if a suggestion spans a period where you switched between two projects, you can use the bucket view to split it accurately.
See also: Activity, Time block
A proposed time block that RescueTime places on your timeline automatically, based on your past project assignments and activity patterns. Suggestions appear marked for review and deleting a suggestion removes it without recording any project time.
Suggestions can be generated in two ways: from your history (patterns learned from past assignments) or using AI analysis for activities that don't yet have a history. You can configure which method is used under Timesheets → Preferences.
See also: Hint, Reviewed time
A keyword or identifier you add to a project to help RescueTime recognize which activities belong to it. Hints can be app names, website domains, or file names—anything that's distinctive to that project's work. They're optional, but they improve automatic suggestion accuracy.
Use a general app name if that app is only used for one project. Use a more specific identifier, like a domain or filename, if the same app spans multiple projects.
See also: Suggestion, Project
The apps and websites you use throughout your day, captured automatically by RescueTime. Activities are shown on your timeline to help you understand where your time is spent. It's not the same as logged time; activity must be assigned to a project (as a time block) before it appears in reports.
Only Focus Work, Other Work, and Neutral activities appear on the Timesheets timeline. Personal and Distracting activities are filtered out.
See also: Bucket, Time block
Time that you've explicitly confirmed, either by accepting or editing an autocompletion, or by manually adding a time block. Reviewed time is what makes up your timesheet and is the only time that appears in reports by default.
Unreviewed suggestions sitting on your timeline are not included in reviewed time.
See also: Suggestion, Finalized day
A day that has been locked by clicking the lock icon on the timeline. Finalizing a day signals that your timesheet for that day is complete. No further autocompletions will be added. You can still make manual edits to a finalized day if needed by unlocking the timeline.
In reports, you can filter to show only finalized days, which is useful when you want to report only on fully closed periods.
See also: Reviewed time
Time logged against projects that have been marked as billable. You can set an hourly rate at the project, client, or task level, and Timesheets will calculate a billed total in your reports. Rate precedence is: task rate > project rate > client rate > your default user rate.
Non-billable time is still tracked and appears in reports, but it won't have a rate or a Bill column value.
The reporting section of Timesheets, found under Timesheets → Personal Reports. Reports let you view, filter, and export your logged time by date range, client, project, or task. By default they only include reviewed time, but you have the option to include unreviewed time.
Personal Reports includes two views: View & Export (a filterable table you can download as CSV or Excel) and Calendars (a week-by-week visual of your logged project time).
See also: Reviewed time, Billable time