How do I use Time&Budget as a controlling and billing tool in Daylite?

Time&Budget is iOSXpert's comprehensive project management and controlling plugin for Daylite. It enables time and expense tracking, financial and time-based project budgets, and the transfer of tracked items to compatible invoicing systems. The iOSXpert PluginCenter is required to use Time&Budget.

Table of Contents

• Introduction & Basic Configuration
• What is Time&Budget?
• 🎬 Basic Configuration of Time&Budget
• How do I set permissions in Time&Budget?
• 🎬 How do I manage different hourly rates for categories?
• How do I store personnel costs in Time&Budget?
• Time Tracking
• Should I use tasks or appointments for time tracking?
• How do I track time based on appointments?
• How do I track time based on tasks?
• How do I use My Daily Log in the Copilot?
• How do I group times in Time&Budget?
• Expense Tracking
• How do I record external costs with Time&Budget?
• How do I create expenses for resources?
• How do I convert Daylite notes into expenses?
• How do I record expenses with Plus Package?
• Budgets & Thresholds
• 🎬 How do I work with financial project budgets?
• How do I define default thresholds?
• How do I define individual thresholds?
• What does the red warning triangle next to the category mean?
• Reports & Analysis
• What is the global Time&Budget analysis?
• How do I analyze groups with Time&Budget?
• Invoicing
• 🎬 How do I create an invoice for times recorded in Time&Budget?
• Why can't I transfer line items from persons to my invoicing system?
• Troubleshooting
• Why does Time&Budget show no activities in the reports?
• Why don't all tasks appear in the Time&Budget reports?
• Why are times not evaluated for all Daylite users?
• Why do I receive a message that the smart list cannot be processed?

Introduction & Basic Configuration

What is Time&Budget?

Extend Daylite with the plugin Time&Budget into a comprehensive project management and controlling tool. To use Time&Budget, you need the iOSXpert PluginCenter.

Time&Budget helps you keep track of your time and financial project budgets and alerts you when critical thresholds are reached. With a compatible invoicing system, you can generate invoices for your projects based on tracked times.

Key features include:

• Expense tracking — Record expenses for projects and opportunities with custom units, costs, and revenues.
• Real-time reports and analysis by various criteria
• Financial and time-based project budgets with individual and default thresholds
• Daily and task-based time tracking using appointments or tasks
• Team-based permissions and personnel cost definitions
• Transfer of project times to compatible invoicing systems via the FinanceConnector

🎬 Basic Configuration of Time&Budget

Time&Budget is the most complex iOSXpert extension for Daylite. For optimal use, we recommend individual consulting by one of our product specialists or attending one of our training sessions.

This video guides you through the first steps to configure Time&Budget for the first time.

To set up Time&Budget, follow these steps:

1. Navigate to Daylite → Preferences → Categories
2. Create appointment categories for each type of activity
3. Navigate to Plugins → Time&Budget → Preferences
4. Determine for each Daylite category whether and how it should be billed
5. Enter the hourly rate in the Rate/h column for billable categories
6. Enter each employee's cost rate under Users & Teams

How do I set permissions in Time&Budget?

Time&Budget permissions let you define which data a team may view in Daylite. Navigate to Plugins → Time&Budget → Preferences → Users & Teams.

• Permission 1: The team may run reports and view time-based budgets and tracked times.
• Permission 2: Additionally, financial budgets and revenues are visible.
• Permission 3: In addition to the first two, costs can also be viewed.
• Permission 4 (Administrator): View all information and open and edit plugin settings.

If no teams are assigned to permission levels, users with the Administrator or Superuser role can view all Time&Budget data.

🎬 How do I manage different hourly rates for categories?

With Time&Budget you can not only track working hours, but also define hourly rates for specific activities. This video shows you how to manage the various hourly rates in Time&Budget.

Proceed as follows:

1. Navigate to Plugins → Time&Budget → Preferences
2. In the Reporting tab, select Category as the basis for billing in the lower right area
3. Assign the desired hourly rate to each category

How do I store personnel costs in Time&Budget?

Open the Time&Budget plugin in the iOSXpert PluginCenter and navigate within Preferences to the Users and Teams tab. Here you can set the personnel hour costs (under Costs) and the Revenue per Hour for each user in your Daylite database.

Time Tracking

Should I use tasks or appointments for time tracking?

The right choice depends on your working style:

• If you have many small tasks and need to track time to the minute, use task-based tracking. The built-in stopwatch helps you track each sub-step as a separate subtask.
• If you prefer tracking time in blocks of 15 minutes or several hours, appointment-based tracking is recommended.

How do I track time in Time&Budget based on appointments?

Time&Budget can generate reports based on appointments in your Daylite calendar. The Daily Log window provides a convenient input mask for logging appointments during your workday.

To enable appointment-based time tracking:

1. Open the Time&Budget Preferences
2. Select the Reporting section
3. Ensure that the Appointments checkbox is active under Elements to be considered in reports
4. Optionally configure additional settings per appointment category under Category Settings for Reports

To use the Daily Log:

1. Open the Daily Log dialog via the hourglass icon at the top of the Daylite window
2. Select the day for which you want to log times
3. Select a task from your worklist or a project from a smart list in the left panel
4. Fill in the appointment details under Add Appointment and click Add

Tip: Right-click — Right-click on a task and select Open in Daily Log. The Daily Log opens with all task data pre-filled, including subject, category, linked objects, and estimated duration.

Visual view — You can switch between List view (all appointments sorted chronologically) and Visual view (calendar overview). In the visual view, you can drag tasks directly onto your calendar.

How do I track time in Time&Budget based on tasks?

Time&Budget can generate reports based on Daylite tasks. Subtasks are interpreted as tracked time for the parent task. The Task Log provides a built-in stopwatch to time your work directly.

To enable task-based time tracking:

1. Open the Time&Budget Preferences
2. Select the Reporting section
3. Ensure the Tasks checkbox is active
4. Optionally configure additional settings per task category

To use the Task Log:

1. Open the Task Log dialog via the stopwatch icon at the top of the Daylite window
2. Select a task from your Daylite worklist under Worklist
3. Click the Start button to start the stopwatch
4. You can pause the stopwatch at any time or switch to a different task
5. When a task is fully completed, click the checkmark button — the stopwatch stops and the task is marked as done

Tracked times are displayed in a separate table and can be edited retroactively if needed.

How do I use My Daily Log in the Copilot?

The My Daily Log widget in the Copilot lets you quickly create an appointment from a task, carrying over all information and links. The widget is available on tasks, opportunities, and projects — including directly from the Board or the calendar.

The displayed time range in the widget is determined by the settings in Daylite → Preferences → Calendar → Day Start and End.

You can create a new task directly via the plus button.

My Daily Log on Tasks

Select the task you want to create an appointment from. Choose the target day in the widget and drag the appointment directly into the calendar. The created appointment contains all information from the task and is directly linked to it.

My Daily Log on Opportunities and Projects

Select the opportunity or project. In the widget, choose the task, the day of the week, and drag the appointment into the calendar. All information from the task is automatically transferred.

How do I group times in Time&Budget?

To make invoices clearer, you can transfer tracked times to an invoicing system grouped by category and type.

Select a project in Daylite, click the Time&Budget tab, and choose the External Project Overview. Then set the desired grouping by Category or Type (expense, appointment, or task).

Then transfer the grouped times to your invoicing system.

Expense Tracking

How do I record external costs with Time&Budget?

In addition to time-based effort, a project can also incur external costs — such as purchased services, goods, travel expenses, or out-of-pocket expenses. Time&Budget allows you to record these costs and assign them to a project for a complete overview of all project costs.

Recording new external costs

• Click Cost Entry when you are on a project or opportunity in Daylite  
  You can also add this as a context menu entry accessible via right-click in Daylite Preferences.
• In the dialog that opens, enter the cost details such as title, invoice number, amount, linked targets, tags, and details. 
  
• If you have attached a PDF receipt, a short preview is displayed on the right.

Using the Drop Zone

The convenient drop zone lets you add receipts for your external costs via drag & drop. Open the preview within the cost entry dialog and drag a document (e.g. a PDF) onto the preview window on the right.

Accessing already recorded external costs

External costs are stored in Time&Budget as notes with the category Expense. To edit them, click on the name of the external cost in a Daylite report. A slide-over window opens — select the Expense tab to view and edit the details.

How do I create expenses for resources with Time&Budget?

Automatically create expenses when a resource (e.g. rooms, technical equipment) is linked to a Daylite appointment. You decide whether the expense is created automatically or manually.

Configuration

1. Open Daylite Preferences
2. Navigate to iOSXpert PluginCenter → Time&Budget → Preferences → Expenses

Under General: Set the units for expenses and the default surcharge.

Under Set Rules:

1. Select a resource (each resource can only be used once)
2. Enter details such as quantity or unit price
3. Optionally add tags and link an optional group
4. Optionally check Create verification task for user to automatically create a review task

Under Automatic Creation:

1. Click Enable Automatic Creation (Daylite must always be active on this machine)
2. Define from which point in time expenses should be created
3. Start the automatic creation, then activate the slider and set the desired interval

Manual creation: Create expenses by right-clicking on an appointment and selecting Create Expense for Appointment…

How do I convert Daylite notes into expenses with Time&Budget?

Time&Budget allows you to convert a note into an expense — for example, to record a received invoice as an expense in order to track all costs for a project in Daylite.

1. Add a document (e.g. via Docs2Daylite) as a note to Daylite
2. Select the note and switch from the detail view to the Expense tab
3. Click Convert to Expense
4. Enter the relevant values (e.g. invoice number) and click Done

The note automatically receives the Daylite category Expense. Do not change this category afterwards — it allows you to filter for recorded expenses in Daylite.

How do I record expenses with Plus Package?

With the Plus Package, you can record expenses much more easily and access products and services stored in Daylite Preferences directly.

1. Click on any project
2. Click the Euro symbol "Record Cost" in the top bar

3. Click the magnifying glass next to the title — a window opens showing all stored products and services

4. Click on a product — all data is automatically transferred to the expense entry

Budgets & Thresholds

🎬 How do I work with financial project budgets in Time&Budget?

Time&Budget helps you keep track of your time and financial project budgets and alerts you when critical thresholds are reached.

Setting up a financial project budget

Ensure you have completed the basic configuration first, then proceed as follows:

1. Open a project in Daylite
2. Go to the Time&Budget tab and click the gear icon
3. Select the Budget Mode and enter a Budget
4. Optional: In the Contribution Margin field, enter an amount that should remain at the end of the project
5. Optional: In the Factor field, define a surcharge
6. Define thresholds to receive notifications when a specific percentage of the budget is consumed

How do I define default thresholds with Time&Budget?

Default thresholds are automatically applied to newly created Daylite projects, opportunities, and groups.

To view thresholds: Open a project in Daylite, click the Time&Budget tab, and switch to the Internal Project Overview via the drop-down menu. Click the gear icon in the top right to manage the budget and thresholds.

To set default thresholds:

1. Navigate to Daylite Preferences → iOSXpert PluginCenter → Time&Budget → Preferences → Budget Thresholds
2. Enable Financial Thresholds and/or Time-Based Thresholds using the slider
3. Set a unit (e.g. amount € or percentage %)
4. Choose whether to apply to All Activities or only Billable Activities
5. Add further thresholds using the plus symbol and name each one (e.g. Threshold 1)
6. Set the value (e.g. 25%)

How do I define individual thresholds with Time&Budget?

Individual thresholds are configured per project, opportunity, or group. The configuration for opportunities and groups is equivalent to that for projects.

To create new individual thresholds:

1. Check the box for the threshold type (Financial Thresholds or Time-Based Thresholds)
2. Set a unit (€ or %)
3. Choose All Activities or Billable Activities
4. Add further thresholds using the plus symbol
5. Name each threshold and set the value
6. Click Save and reload the overview using the arrow button

What does the red warning triangle next to the category mean?

In Time&Budget, you can specify that certain appointment categories must always be linked to a project or opportunity. This is configured in Time&Budget Preferences under Reporting.

Warning triangle in an appointment

If an appointment has such a category but is not linked to a project or opportunity, a red warning triangle appears next to the category. Clicking the triangle lets you search for a matching target directly.

Warning in My Daily Log

If you create an appointment from a task via the My Daily Log widget and a project or opportunity is missing, a warning is displayed immediately.

Data Quality Report in Time&Budget

In the left sidebar in Daylite under Time&Budget, select the Data Quality report from the drop-down menu. It shows all appointments, tasks, and expenses with insufficient data quality.

Enabling and disabling warnings

The feature can be enabled or disabled in Time&Budget Preferences under Reporting.

Enabling data quality warnings in Fone&Text

The feature can also be used directly with Fone&Text to receive a warning after each call if no target has been linked:

1. Navigate to Fone&Text in the iOSXpert PluginCenter
2. Select Phones
3. Enable Enforce Time&Budget Data Quality

Reports & Analysis

What is the global Time&Budget analysis?

Time&Budget provides four global reports to analyze, print, and export tracked data by various criteria.

• Activities — All Time&Budget-relevant activities in a selectable time frame. Available groupings: by categories, users, persons, companies, projects, or opportunities.

  

• Project Thresholds — Status of your projects based on time and financial budgets and thresholds. Can be filtered by smart list.

  

• External Project Thresholds — Same as the Project Threshold report, with the addition of company information and logo in the header.

  

• Data Quality — Quick overview of Time&Budget data with quality issues: expenses without costs, activities without categories, activities without a linked target, and open appointment invitations.

  

How do I analyze groups with Time&Budget?

The group view in Time&Budget allows you to create analyses across freely defined collections of objects. Four types of groups are supported: groups of projects, opportunities, persons, and companies.

Example — analysis across multiple customers simultaneously:

1. Create a new Group in Daylite
2. Add the desired contacts
3. Select the Time&Budget tab
4. Choose the report Person Group Internal or Person Group External

Invoicing

🎬 How do I create an invoice for times recorded in Time&Budget?

Time&Budget does not include its own invoicing feature. However, you can transfer recorded times and expenses to various invoicing systems as invoice line items via the FinanceConnector.

Available integrations include Lexware Office, TOPIX 8, QuickBooks, sevDesk, FastBill, MonKey Office, and easybill.

Setup

Time&Budget automatically detects whether a compatible FinanceConnector is installed. If so, an additional Invoice… button appears in external reports (e.g. on projects).

Transferring tracked items

1. Click Invoice… and select the company linked to the project
2. Define the desired tax rate
3. Review and select the line items to be transferred

Overview of already transferred items

Already transferred items are marked with a checkmark in the Invoiced column in Time&Budget and are not transferred again by default. You can manually remove the checkmark to enable re-transfer.

Why can't I transfer line items from persons to my invoicing system?

The FinanceConnector enables the transfer of line items to both persons and companies. Please note:

• All connected invoicing systems support the transfer to companies
• The transfer to persons is supported by all invoicing systems except TOPIX

If you use TOPIX, transfer the company linked to the person to TOPIX, then select the appropriate person as a contact on the TOPIX side.

Troubleshooting

Why does Time&Budget show no activities in the reports?

If no activities are displayed in a Time&Budget report, check your settings:

1. Navigate in the Plugin Menu to Time&Budget → Preferences → Reporting
2. Enable the Tasks checkbox (for task-based tracking) and/or the Appointments checkbox (for appointment-based tracking)

Why don't all tasks appear in the Time&Budget reports?

Time&Budget offers the option to ignore tasks above a certain duration. This is set to 480 minutes by default, to compensate for erroneous times caused by forgetting to stop the subtask timer.

You can adjust the maximum task duration in the Time&Budget Preferences.

Why are tracked times not evaluated for all Daylite users?

Time&Budget reports evaluate times of licensed Time&Budget users only. Appointments or tasks from Daylite users without a Time&Budget license appear in the report but without duration.

All Daylite users whose times should be evaluated therefore need a Time&Budget plugin license. Deactivated Daylite users are an exception — their appointments and tasks are displayed with duration even without a license.

Why do I receive a message that the smart list cannot be processed?

When using a smart list in the global Time&Budget analysis, you may receive the message The smart list cannot be processed because it contains too many records. This occurs when the smart list contains more than 1,000 records.

Please reduce the number of records in the smart list using appropriate criteria. For more information, see the article How do I create a smart list in Daylite?