Plan vs actual

Each project’s man-hour plan compared with the hours actually spent. + hours = under plan (time to spare), − hours = over plan.

Variance by project

Project	Primary plan	Plan	Plan to date	Actual	Variance to date	Used	Forecast	At completion

Compare plans and projects

Case studies

Pick up to five plans or projects. The first one is the reference; the others show how many hours more (−) or fewer (+) they need.

Choose what to compare

Connecting…

Live status

Who is working right now – in Revit, AutoCAD, ETABS, Excel or any program on the software list – or in a Teams or Zoom meeting, on which project and file, and the hours recorded today.

Team status

Everyone

Hours todayWorking and meeting time0:00

By department

Click a department to filter the list below

Recent activity

Today by project

Employee	Status	Application	Current project & file	Open	Today

Recorded and approved manual time

Actual hours

Hours per person, day and project. Pick a person for their daily sheet with from–to times, or switch to sessions for every file opened.

Time spent outside Revit, AutoCAD and 3ds Max

Manual time

Add site visits, meetings away from the PC and other project work Hourline can’t see. Your line manager approves it, then it counts in the actual hours.

Add manual time

My entries

Project register

Projects

Revit models are matched by Manage ▸ Project Information ▸ Project Number. Other files are chosen once in the add-in’s project picker. Active projects appear in everyone’s picker and in manual time.

Project	Client	Status	Hours in period	Overtime	Share	Last 7 days	Team

Files without a project

Unassigned time

Assigning a file moves its hours to the project and remembers the file. Revit models apply to everyone; AutoCAD and 3ds Max files apply to that person.

File	Application	People	Working	Open	Last used	Assign to

Remembered choices

File mappings

Which project each remembered file belongs to. A change applies to time recorded from now on. Forget one and the person is asked again next time.

File	Application	Applies to	Project	Set by

Reporting lines

Org chart

Built from each person’s line manager. It redraws as soon as a line manager changes, here, in the Employees tab or in an employee’s own details.

People using the add-ins

Employees

Employees register themselves the first time Hourline starts on their PC. Edit details, the line manager and time tracking here.

Name	Job title	Department	Office	Line manager	Tracking	Portal login

Access to this portal

Portal users

Give people a login and decide what they can do. Line managers see only themselves and the people who report to them, unless they have “See everyone”.

Name	Username	Employee	Privileges	Last sign-in	Status

Applies to every add-in and desktop agent within a minute

Settings

Status rules

Idle after (minutes without keyboard/mouse in the program) Heartbeat interval (seconds) Mark offline after (seconds without heartbeat) Idle time inside an open project Company name Time zone for “today” Manual time Project number pattern (optional regular expression)

The pattern assigns AutoCAD drawings and 3ds Max scenes automatically when the project number appears in the file path, e.g. \\fs\Projects\P-1234 Tower\A-101.dwg → P-1234.

Meetings

Teams, Zoom and Webex calls are recorded by the desktop agent. People rarely type in a meeting, so the microphone being in use is what counts.

Meeting time After a meeting

Tip: put the project number in the meeting title (“P-1204 coordination”) and it is assigned automatically by the project number pattern.

Margin hours

An allowance for project work no program can see – talking a detail through at a desk, phone calls, marking up prints. Added per person per day on top of recorded time and split over that day’s projects. Shown as its own line, Margin, in every report.

Margin Percent of recorded time Minutes per worked day At most per day (minutes, 0 = no limit) Apply from Overtime

Software

Programs the desktop agent records. Switch off what your office doesn’t use or shouldn’t count; changes reach every PC within 10 minutes. Revit, AutoCAD and 3ds Max are recorded by their add-ins when installed (they know the exact model and Revit Project Number) and by the agent otherwise. Window titles give the document name; e-mail and chat are off by default and never read titles.

Working hours & overtime

Overtime is calculated automatically from recorded and approved manual working time. It is credited to the projects worked on after the daily hours were reached.

Overtime Normal hours per day Ignore overtime shorter than (minutes) Round overtime down to blocks of (minutes)

Weekend (all hours are overtime)

Public holidays (all hours are overtime) – one date per line or comma separated, YYYY-MM-DD A different daily limit for one person (part-time, special contract) is set on the employee in the Employees tab.

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