Tallyfy lets new users go from zero to a fully working tracked business process in under 30 minutes through a four-step tutorial path covering organization setup and dashboard orientation and template creation and process launching while also providing guidance on team adoption strategies and trial evaluation and industry-specific use cases for emergency services and small businesses and client management.
Track time on tasks
You can track time by adding number fields to tasks with validation rules. This captures hours and minutes spent on each task - useful for cost analysis and workflow measurement.
- Administrator or Standard user role
- Access to edit templates
- Familiarity with form fields
Time tracking works best for:
- Billable client work requiring accurate hour logs
- Process improvement measuring task efficiency
- Compliance requirements mandating time documentation
- Resource planning based on actual task duration
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Open your template for editing Go to the Templates tab and open the template where you want time tracking. Click Edit Template.
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Select the task Click on the specific task (step) where team members should log their time.
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Add the hours field
- Click Add Form Field in the task editor
- Select Short Text field type
- Configure:
- Field Name: “Hours spent on this task”
- Validation: Select “Number”
- Minimum Value: 0
- Maximum Value: 999 (adjust as needed)
- Suffix: “hrs”
- Required: Check if time tracking is mandatory
- Guidance Text: “Enter whole hours only (0-999)”
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Add the minutes field
- Click Add Form Field again
- Select Short Text field type
- Configure:
- Field Name: “Minutes spent on this task”
- Validation: Select “Number”
- Minimum Value: 0
- Maximum Value: 59
- Suffix: “min”
- Required: Check if needed
- Guidance Text: “Enter minutes (0-59)”
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Optional: Add a notes field Add a Long Text field:
- Field Name: “Time tracking notes”
- Guidance Text: “Optional: Add notes about time spent or delays”
- Required: Leave unchecked
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Save and test Click Save Template and launch a test process to verify the fields work correctly.
Tallyfy doesn’t auto-calculate totals, but you can use variables to show entered time in later tasks:
- In a later task’s description, insert:
{{Hours spent on this task}} hours and {{Minutes spent on this task}} minutes were logged - This gives approvers or reviewers visibility into time spent
Use automation rules to trigger actions based on time entries:
- If hours spent > 8, assign a task to a manager for review
- If total time exceeds budget, send a notification email
To track time across an entire process:
- Add time fields to every task that needs measurement
- Create a summary task at the end titled “Time Tracking Summary”
- List all time variables from previous tasks in the description
- Export data via CSV for analysis
People rarely work on one task at a time. Someone might spend 30 minutes on a task, get pulled into a meeting, answer emails, then finish an hour later. Did that take 30 minutes or 90? Both answers have merit.
A task assigned on December 23rd might sit untouched until January 2nd. That’s not a 10-day task - it’s a 2-hour task with an 8-day holiday in the middle.
Waiting for client feedback, dependencies on delayed tasks, or system outages all add time that has nothing to do with actual work effort.
Add a form field asking assignees to record their actual working time. It’s one more field to fill out - but it gives you clean data about real effort.
Why this works:
- People know how much time they actually spent (not elapsed time)
- External delays don’t contaminate your data
- You can still track elapsed time through Tallyfy’s built-in timestamps
Timestamps in Tallyfy Analytics and CSV exports measure elapsed time between task assignment and completion. They’re subject to all the issues above. That “3-day average” might represent 30 minutes of work spread across a long weekend. Use effort tracking fields for cleaner metrics.
Use consistent naming for easier reporting:
- “Task Name - Hours”
- “Task Name - Minutes”
- Set maximum hours based on typical task duration
- Use validation to prevent data entry errors
- Consider dropdown lists for standard time increments
- Add guidance text explaining time tracking expectations
- Specify whether to track active work time or total elapsed time
- Explain the difference between effort time and elapsed time
- Export process data monthly to spot time trends
- Identify tasks consistently taking longer than expected
- Consider both effort metrics and elapsed time when analyzing bottlenecks
For client billing, consider adding:
- A “Billable?” radio button field (Yes/No)
- A “Billing Code” dropdown field
- Separate fields for billable vs non-billable time
For regulatory requirements:
- Make all time fields required
- Include fields for start time, end time, break duration, and delay reasons
To measure efficiency:
- Track both estimated and actual time
- Add “Estimated Hours” and “Estimated Minutes” fields
- Compare estimates to actuals in your analysis
- Open any running process with time tracking
- Click Settings > Export CSV
- Open in Excel or Google Sheets
- Sum time columns for total duration
Use the Tallyfy API to:
- Pull time data into business intelligence tools
- Create automated time reports
- Integrate with billing systems
Configure webhooks to:
- Alert when time exceeds thresholds
- Send daily time summaries
- Trigger billing system updates
Problem: Users entering time in wrong format Solution: Use dropdown fields with preset time options instead of text entry
Problem: Forgetting to track time Solution: Make time fields required and add reminder text
Problem: Time entries seem inaccurate Solution: Add a “Time Entry Method” field with options like “Timer”, “Estimate”, “Calculated”
How To > Build effective forms
Tallyfy connects form submissions directly to trackable workflows so that every response automatically triggers defined process steps with email verification for public forms and supports conditional branching and document generation along with field validation and collaborative multi-step completion across teams.
Processes > Process lifecycle management
Every process in Tallyfy moves through five distinct phases—create a template with steps and assignments then launch a named instance where assignees complete tasks while you monitor progress in the Tracker view and finally review captured data after completion to improve your template based on patterns found across multiple runs.
Process Improvement > Gather data and use Tallyfy Analytics
Effective process improvement relies on collecting and analyzing real data rather than assumptions and Tallyfy Analytics automatically captures task completion times and bottleneck patterns that you can connect to BI tools like Tableau or Power BI for spotting trends and driving fact-based workflow changes.
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