Time Recording: Timesheets & VibeTime
Two ways to capture effort — traditional timesheets or percentage-based VibeTime — with a smart cascade that puts the right mode in front of the right person
You've reached the end of the week only to realise your billable hours don't match your project progress — or worse, half the team hasn't logged anything because their work doesn't fit neatly into task-level timesheets. Retainer clients, account managers, and senior staff often struggle with traditional time tracking, yet you still need to know where your labour cost is going. AtomicSam solves this with two recording modes and a cascade that automatically puts the right one in front of the right person.
Two Ways to Record Time
| Mode | How staff record | Cost calculation | Use this when… |
|---|---|---|---|
| Timesheets | Hours per task per day in a weekly grid | Hours × staff hourly cost rate | You bill by the hour, need task-level granularity, or clients require detailed time reports |
| VibeTime | Daily percentage allocation by client | (Annual total cost ÷ working days) × daily allocation % | Retainer-heavy work, senior staff who oversee clients, or roles where task-level tracking adds overhead without insight |
Timesheets: The Detail View
The weekly grid shows job/task rows across Mon–Sun columns. Staff enter hours using decimal (1.5), minutes (90), clock format (1:30), or quick presets (15m, 30m, 1h, 2h, 4h, 8h). Keyboard navigation keeps things fast — arrow keys to move, Enter to save.
Input Methods
- Direct minutes: Type "90" for an hour and a half
- Decimal hours: Type "1.5" for the same result
- Clock time: Type "1:30" if that's how you think
- Quick presets: One-click buttons for common durations
- Keyboard shortcuts: Arrow keys to navigate, Enter to save
VibeTime: The Allocation View
The VibeTime board shows clients with active assigned jobs as rows and working days as columns. Staff enter a percentage for each client each day — 40% Client A, 30% Client B, 30% internal. Daily totals must not exceed 100%. Notes per cell capture context without requiring hour-level detail.
AtomicSam calculates the staff member's daily cost (using the S2 Cost Engine) and distributes it across each client's active jobs based on the allocation percentage. The result: accurate profitability data without the overhead of task-level tracking.
The Time Recording Mode Cascade
AtomicSam uses a four-level cascade to decide which mode applies for a given staff member on a given job. The first explicit setting wins:
| Priority | Level | Where to set it | Use this when… |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 (highest) | Job override | Job header toggle or job form | A specific project needs a different mode from the client default |
| 2 | Staff default | Staff profile → Payroll & Rates | A person always works one way regardless of client |
| 3 | Client default | Client record | All work for a client should default to one mode |
| 4 (fallback) | Org default | Settings → Time Tracking | The system-wide baseline |
Example: Your org defaults to Timesheets. Client "Acme Corp" is on a retainer, so you set their default to VibeTime. All Acme jobs now default to VibeTime. But when Acme commissions a website build, you override that specific job to Timesheets. The developer assigned to it sees it in their timesheet grid; their other Acme work stays in VibeTime.
Submission & Approval
Both modes share the same lifecycle: Draft → Submitted → Approved → Closed (with Rejected branching back to Draft). Managers see a single approval queue that merges submissions from both tables.
The Lifecycle
| Status | What it means | When to use |
|---|---|---|
| Draft | Visible only to you; still editable | Throughout the day or week as you work |
| Submitted | Locked for the user; sent to manager for review | At the end of your week |
| Approved | Verified and ready for billing/costing | Once a manager confirms accuracy |
| Closed | Period officially locked; no further changes | After billing cycle is complete |
Compliance Controls
Configure these in Settings → Time Tracking to enforce your firm's commercial rules:
- Require All Days Filled: Warning if working days are missing entries or allocations
- Require Notes: Warning when entries lack descriptions
- Non-Billable Warning: Flags weeks where non-billable time exceeds your threshold (Timesheets only)
- Over-Budget Warning: Flags when task hours exceed budget (Timesheets only)
- Require Time Approval: Blocks invoicing until time is approved
- Lock After Approval: Prevents edits after approval
Billing Rounding
AtomicSam manages rounding at two layers: UI rounding (on save, e.g. nearest 6 or 15 minutes) and billing rounding (during invoice generation). Double-rounding prevention ensures these never compound — your totals remain mathematically sound across the entire month.
Pro Tips
- Start with the org default, then refine: Set your org to Timesheets, then flip specific retainer clients to VibeTime. You can always override individual jobs later.
- Use the Job Header tooltip: Hover over the time recording badge on any job to see "Resolves to: [Mode] via [source]" — no guessing which level set it.
- Set budget warnings at 80%: Don't wait until a task is over-budget. Early warnings give project leads time to renegotiate scope before margin is eroded.
- Check unsubmitted badges weekly: The Time page badge aggregates both modes — if it shows unsubmitted weeks, staff haven't submitted either a timesheet or a VibeTime sheet for that period.