How it works
From the first window to a time entry in your software
Four steps, in this order: measure, day overview, approve, send. The first happens by itself, the third is done by the employee, Okloq takes care of the rest.
Beforehand, once
Install and connect to the firm
The app sits in the Windows system tray, next to the clock, and starts with the computer. The icon is violet with a lime-green block while it is measuring, and grey when paused.
Connecting works with a pairing code the administrator creates in the portal. The code is valid for seven days and can be used once. After connecting, the laptop takes over the firm’s settings: where the projects are, what a project number looks like and how time is rounded.
The app fetches new versions itself; they are only used at the next start, so work is not interrupted. The app also works without a connection: it then measures on its own and writes the approved hours to a file.
Step 1 · 08:30
Measure
Every two seconds Okloq checks which window is in front. Continuous work in the same window becomes one measurement with a start and an end time.
What is read
- The program and the window titleSo also the title of a browser tab or a PDF.
- The file path of the open documentIn Word, Excel and PowerPoint, and the folder in File Explorer. The firm can switch this off.
- The subject of the open email in OutlookOnly the subject, not the content. This can also be switched off.
- How long the keyboard or mouse has not been usedOnly the time since the last input; not what was typed.
When time counts
- Five minutes of inactivity: the measurement stopsAt the moment of the last input, that is, not five minutes later.
- A call in Teams or Zoom keeps countingOkloq sees in Windows that the microphone is in use. No audio is recorded.
- A locked screen or sleep mode does not count
- Pause for private timeOne click in the menu; nothing is recorded until you resume.
In the Measurements window the employee sees what is being measured right now and every measurement from today. A measurement can be moved to another project or deleted entirely there, and that stays on the laptop.
Between measuring and the overview
Recognising the project
Every firm numbers its projects differently. That is why Okloq does not ask for a formula but for two or three real numbers. From those it works out how your numbers are structured.
A number only counts if it is in your project list. Okloq reads that list from your folder structure (every folder with a project number in its name, even when grouped by year) or from a list you save from Excel. The list is read again every hour.
If the number is briefly out of view, for example because you switch to another window in the same program, that program stays on the same project for another ten minutes.
For each program the firm sets which type of work goes with it, for example Word for drafting documents. The employee can change that per line.
Step 2 · 17:10
The day overview
Double-click the icon and the day is ready: a timeline with a colour per project, and below it one line per project and type of work.
Everything can be edited
The project, the type of work, the time (as 1:30 or 1.5) and the description. Time without a project can still be assigned to a project with a single choice.
A suggested description
Composed from what was worked on longest, such as ‘Word: Conceptdagvaarding’. The firm can switch this off; the description then stays empty until you fill it in yourself.
Work away from the laptop
Okloq does not measure a hearing or a meeting without a laptop. You can increase the time of an existing line; a project for which nothing was measured that day you currently still enter in your own software.
Step 3 · 17:12
Approve
One button, per day. This is the moment the hours leave the laptop, and the only one.
- Nothing happens automaticallyA day that has not been approved does not exist for the firm.
- Catching up on forgotten daysUse the arrows to go back to earlier days and approve them after all.
- Changing your mind is fineAs long as the hours are not yet in your software, you can rebuild a day from the measurements and approve it again. The new approval replaces the old one.
- After that the day is lockedOnce the hours are in your software, the day overview says that a correction can only be made there. That way the laptop and the accounts never drift apart.
- Without internetApproved days wait and are sent as soon as there is a connection again. The app works for up to fourteen days without contact with the service.
Step 4 · 17:13
Sending to your software
The service puts the approved lines in a queue and offers them to your firm’s software. What form they take depends on what that software accepts.
- Time entry in your softwareFor Moneybird, Exact Online and Simplicate, for the time-tracking tools Toggl Track, Harvest and Clockify, and as a message to your own system.
- Invoice or sales order per monthFor e-Boekhouden and SnelStart, which have no separate hours. The administrator checks the amounts and creates them personally.
- FileA CSV with your own columns, separator and date format, or an hours summary as PDF. Always works, even without an integration.
- If something fails, you will see itThe service tries eight times with increasing pauses. Whatever still has not arrived after that is shown in the portal with the error message and a button to try again.
- No duplicatesOn a new attempt, the integration first checks whether the line is already in your software.
Fixed-price work
A budget per project, with its status
If you work for a fixed price, you want to know during the job how many of the budgeted hours are already used up. Not afterwards.
In the portal, the administrator sets the budgeted hours per project and, optionally, the agreed price, a start date and from which percentage a warning is given (80 by default). Used is everything employees have approved on that project, laptop and phone combined.
- In the portalBudgeted, used and remaining per project, with a bar and the status. Whatever is over budget or almost used up appears at the top. One click further: the hours per employee and per type of work.
- For the employeeThe day overview shows, next to the project, how many hours the whole firm has spent on it, without names and without amounts. The bar moves along when the time of a line is changed. The firm can switch this off.
- A notification when it gets tightOnce at the threshold and once when the budget is used up, from the system tray, for projects on which the employee has approved hours personally.
- With a fixed price addedThe portal shows the achievable hourly rate and, after closing, the achieved one. The project’s hours no longer appear on an hours-based invoice and go to your software as non-billable, where the software supports that.
- Extra work kept separateFor a line on a project with a budget, the employee can tick Extra work in the day overview. Those hours do not count towards the budget and are not covered by the fixed price: they do appear on the hours-based invoice, marked ‘extra work’ on the line, and go to a time-tracking product as billable. The portal shows extra work per project separately from the budget.
- In the hours summary, if you wantThe ordinary PDF does not include the budget status, so it can go to a client. A second button produces the summary with the status, for internal use. Neither contains amounts.
- Limit
Only approved hours count. Anyone who does not approve for a week is invisible in the budget for that week; the portal cannot see it, because unapproved time does not leave the laptop.
- Not there yet
A monthly budget for retainer work, and a budget per phase or type of work. A budget applies to the whole project.
For the administrator
The portal: six pages
The firm’s administrator handles everything in the browser. No server is needed at the office.
Hours
The approved hours per month, per employee, project and type of work. Downloadable as a file or as a PDF report, with the sending status.
Budgets
The budgeted hours per project and how much has been used, with a warning when it gets tight. With a fixed price added, also the achievable hourly rate. More about budgets.
Invoicing
For software that accepts invoices: a proposal per client with hours, rate and amount. You tick that you have checked it and create the invoices. Fixed-price projects are listed separately.
Employees
Add employees, create a pairing code, see which laptops are connected and revoke a laptop. At the top you see how many licence seats are in use.
Settings
Where the projects are, what a number looks like, rounding, type of work per program, whether employees see the budget status, and the layout of the export file. Set it up once; all laptops take it over.
Remote support
The activity log: who signed in, which setting was changed and when an employee let a specialist provide remote support.
What is not there
A page showing what employees are doing. That data never reaches the service, so the portal cannot show it.
In development
Business phone calls as hours
A six-minute phone call rarely makes it onto the timesheet. A phone app is coming for that.
The app retrieves your business calls, links a number to a project and offers the call as hours. You save a number once; after that, calls with that number are linked automatically. Private numbers are never sent, missed and very short calls are skipped, and here too nothing goes to the firm until you have approved it.
- Status
The app has been built for Android and iPhone. The Android version has been tested on a real phone, the iPhone version not yet. The app is not yet available for download.
- iPhone
An iPhone does not give apps access to the call history. There, calls come in via the business phone system, or you add them by hand.
- Phone system
The service can accept calls from a phone system. The connection to a specific provider still has to be built for each provider.
Get acquainted
Want to see what a day looks like with your own projects?
Okloq has not yet been released. In a demo we show the day overview, the portal and the route to your software, and discuss what still needs adding for your firm.