How do I track hours and overtime?

Goal

Set a target per weekday, clock in or add time later, and see the balance and overtime in the time ledger.

Before you start

• Nova runs in the menu bar. See How do I start Nova with the Mac, and where is the menu?
• For the Work time page in Settings, Expert view. The settings inside the time ledger also work in Simple.

Steps

1. In the menu bar, Work time. Before setup, the item opens the time ledger right away. After that it has a submenu with Open time ledger and Start timer. While something is missing, the time ledger shows the Setup band on top with the steps Check week and target, Set starting values and Mac activity (optional). Skip hides it, Show setup in the time ledger settings brings it back.
2. In the time ledger Settings, or Settings, Work time, the Week tab. In the card Target per week, enter hours and minutes for each weekday. Workday and Off switch the day. Below it is the Total per week.
3. The Starting values tab, card Starting values: set the Cut-off date. Nova counts from that day. Add Opening overtime balance, Opening extra-hours balance and Opening vacation days, which is what you already had before.
4. Card Swiss guardrail: under Occupation choose CH 45 h, CH 50 h or Custom. Up to this weekly limit, time above the target counts as overtime, above it as extra hours.
5. Clock in: in the menu bar, Work time, Start timer and Stop timer. Or in the time ledger the card Clock in with Project and Start. You can also ask Nova at the avatar to start or stop the timer.
6. Add later: in the card Clock in, Add later, or at the top + New, Entry…. Enter Day, Start and End, and under Type Work, Break or Travel. Absence enters Vacation, Holiday or Sick.
7. In the time ledger, the card Balance shows Overtime, Extra hours, Extra hours year and Vacation left. Export… saves the ledger as Excel for further calculation or as a PDF report.
8. Settings, Work time, the Hints tab: Ask when work starts, Lunch break reminder with the Lunchtime, and Weekly review on Monday. All three are off by default. The start question arrives as the card Start tracking work time? when you have been at the Mac for 15 minutes on a working day and no timer is running. From and the time, or From now, starts the timer. The lunch reminder comes once a day if you have not had a break yet. Nova shows the weekly review on Mondays from 8 am as a card at the avatar.
9. Add time by asking Nova: at the avatar, for example “Book yesterday 2 to 3 pm on Website” or “Move the entry from 10 am to project Website”. Nova shows a card with project and time. Only after Yes is the entry in the time ledger. Nova answers “How many hours did I have for Website in October?” right away.
10. In the Hints tab there is also Ask after time away, off by default, with Ask after (minutes), 5 by default. If you were away from the Mac that long, the card “Where were you from … to …?” appears when you come back, with Break, Meeting, Phone, your recent projects and a running event. The answer becomes an entry. If the timer is running, the card only asks “It was work” or “Break”; Break takes the time off.
11. In the Export… dialog you can tick projects and keep the choice with Save as template, for example “Monthly report for employer”. When you pick it later under Template, it sets format, period (current or previous) and projects. Target and balance still count all projects.

Example

Enter 8 hours 24 minutes for Monday to Friday, set the cut-off date to the first of the month, then Start timer. The Work time submenu then shows Today and Week.

Common problems

• Without a cut-off date the time ledger does not count.
• If no weekday has a target, every minute worked counts as overtime.
• Nova calculates your personal account, not a company time clock and not payroll. The guardrail is for orientation only.
• Simple does not show the Work time page in Settings. The settings inside the time ledger still work, only the switch Weekly review on Monday is on the Work time page alone.
• Nova records time at the Mac only with Mac activity. That is its own switch and off by default.
• The time-away card does not come across midnight, after more than 4 hours, or when the time is already in the ledger.