Using a project management tool like Trello to keep track of your tasks and projects allows you to organize all your projects, delegate tasks to your team members, and more.
However, if you want to monitor the progress of your tasks and projects, you should also track the time you and your team spend on them.
While Trello is feature-rich when it comes to project management features, it lacks a built-in time tracking solution. That’s why, in this guide, we’ll tell you how to track the time you spend on Trello tasks using the Clockify browser extension.
In the following paragraphs, we’ll also:
- Explain in detail how you can track time with Clockify in Trello, and
- Give you some additional tips for tracking time in Trello.
So, let’s start.
- By integrating Trello and Clockify, you get the ability to track time spent on your Trello tasks right from Trello.
- To start tracking time for your Trello tasks with Clockify, you’ll first need to set up the Clockify browser extension.
- You can track the time you spend on your Trello tasks by starting the timer, or you can add time manually on your Trello card — either way, your tracked time will be recorded in your Clockify extension (as well as in your other Clockify apps).
- If you tend to forget to start the timer, you can set a reminder to track time in your Clockify browser extension and get a notification from the extension to start your timer.
- With Clockify, you can also track the time for your Trello sub-tasks, manage time estimates for your Trello tasks, calculate your billable hours, and even create invoices for your clients.
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How to track time with Clockify in Trello
If you’ve been using Trello and Clockify separately, you’ve probably already noticed a significant boost in productivity.
However, combining the two apps lets you manage your projects and tasks while tracking the time you spend on them — all in Trello.
💡 Clockify Pro Tip
Leveling up your productivity levels is never a bad idea, so we’ve compiled a handy list of tools that you can introduce to your workflow:
Let’s go over the step-by-step process of tracking time in Trello with Clockify so that you can make the most out of the functionalities that both apps provide.
Step #1: Set up the Clockify browser extension
Make sure that you’ve set up all your necessary tasks and tags, as well as projects and clients in your Clockify web version. Then, download the Clockify browser extension.
You can download Clockify extensions for Chrome, Firefox, and Edge, depending on the web browser you use.
If Chrome is your preferred browser, you can download the Clockify extension from the Chrome web store.
When you enter the Chrome web store and find the Clockify extension, simply click the “Add to Chrome” button, and your Clockify extension will be installed.
💡 Clockify Pro Tip
If you are new to time tracking and Clockify time tracker, we suggest you take a few minutes to watch our video tutorials and learn just how easy it is to use our tool:
Step #2: Start tracking time for tasks in Trello
After you add the Clockify extension to your web browser, Clockify’s ”Start timer” button will appear in the Actions list on your Trello card.
With it, you and your team will be able to track the time you spend on your Trello cards (that is, your tasks) directly from them.
To start Trello time tracking, just click on the “Start timer” button.
As an alternative to clicking the button to start the timer, you can also select any text in your Trello card and start tracking time from there.
After you select your preferred text (e.g., the task’s title), you’ll need to right-click on the chosen text and select Start timer with description.
When you click on Start timer with description (e.g., Start timer with description ‘Front-end’), the timer will start ticking, and you’ll start tracking the time for a time entry with the selected text as description.
When you start the timer, you’ll notice that the Clockify extension icon in your browser bar has changed from gray to blue. That’s how you’ll know for sure that every single second of the work you’ve put in counts.
💡 Clockify Pro Tip
To learn more about the process of tracking projects and tasks for your clients, here’s a helpful resource for you:
How to add time manually in Trello
In case you prefer to manually add the time you spent working on a particular Trello task, you can do that with Clockify as well.
Just add your time in the space right below the Clockify “Start timer” button on your Trello card.
As soon as you add your time, it will immediately appear in the Clockify browser extension.
Step #3: Find the time tracked in Trello
Whether you’re tracking time via timer or adding your time manually on a Trello card, Clockify keeps a record of all your time entries in your browser extension but also in your other Clockify apps (the web version, mobile app, and desktop versions).
So, if you’re wondering where to find all the hours you’ve tracked, you can refer to any of the Clockify apps you use — and your time entries will be there.
Step #4: Analyze the time tracked in Trello
Once you and your team decide that you’re ready to wrap up the task you’ve been working on, you can go to your Clockify web account and analyze the time you tracked in Trello.
For this purpose, you can pick a report you’d like to see — it can be a Summary, Detailed, or Weekly report.
Let’s say you’ve chosen a Summary report. To see the breakdown of the time you and your team tracked while working on a certain project, you’ll need to:
- Filter report by project you worked on in Trello,
- Filter report by team members who worked on said project, and
- Group the data by User and sub-group it by Project.
You can also choose a time period you’d like to look into (e.g., today, yesterday, this week, past two weeks, this month, this year, etc.).
What’s more, if you want to get more detailed information about your team members’ tracked time, you can use a Detailed report. When you click on a specific team member in your Summary report, a Detailed report related to that team member will open.
There, you’ll be able to see exactly how much time that team member spent on each of their tasks.
By analyzing your team’s tracked time in detail, you’ll be able to see if they spent too much time on certain tasks. This can help you better understand your team’s productivity.
Additionally, if you want to see each team member’s tracked time for any given week, you can use the Weekly report.
Furthermore, if you want to stay up to date with your team’s tasks regularly, you can also receive scheduled time reports via email and see everyone’s tracked time for a day, week, or even a whole month.
💡 Clockify Pro Tip
To see some of the best methods for tracking your team’s productivity, make sure you check out our blog post:
Additional tips for tracking time in Trello
Sometimes, staying on top of your tasks goes beyond the quick and easy option of starting your timer — and this is where additional tips on perfecting your time tracking in Trello come in handy.
How not to forget to start tracking time in Trello
If you tend to forget to start your timer, Clockify offers a solution for that, too. You can set a reminder to track time and receive a notification from the Clockify browser extension to start your timer.
Furthermore, if you want to automate your tracking process completely, you can check the “Start timer when browser starts” option in the Settings menu of your Clockify browser extension.
This way, the timer will instantly start tracking your time as soon as you open your preferred browser.
Additionally, to automatically stop the timer when you close your browser, you can check the “Stop timer when browser closes” option.
How to track time for items (sub-tasks) in Trello checklists
Adding checklists to a Trello card is perfect if you want to break a task down into sub-tasks and make tracking the progress of your tasks extra easy. This option allows you to create a to-do list where you can add items (your sub-tasks) and check them off the list once you complete them.
Just click the “Checklist” button within the Add to card list on your Trello card and add your items.
You can organize the items according to their importance or urgency and motivate yourself to start working on the most important items first.
You’ll also notice a Clockify button next to each item you add to a Trello card.
As soon as you start working on an item, click the button, and the timer will immediately start ticking in your Clockify browser extension.
When you finish working on a checklist item in your Trello card, you can put a checkmark next to it, and the system will automatically cross it out. This way, you’ll know exactly how many sub-tasks you have left to complete a certain task.
Each time you’re done working on a checklist item, you need to stop the timer and go to the web version of the Clockify app. There, you’ll be able to see all your Trello checklist time entries.
💡 Clockify Pro Tip
To find out what the best way to break down a project into tasks is, read more about it in the following blog post:
How to manage deadlines in Trello
Trello gives you and your team the option to set and keep up with deadlines.
You can set a due date for each card on your Trello board and let your team know exactly when their deadline is reaching an end so that they can finish their tasks on time.
Based on the cards’ deadlines, you can update their order by dragging and dropping your cards within the lists. That way, you can put priority cards at the top and let your team know what card to tackle first.
Setting deadlines in Trello is an essential part of Trello time management. It ensures that everyone knows how much time they have available for their tasks.
Also, once you start setting deadlines and seeing how your team copes with them, you’ll be able to see whether you need to introduce some changes to your team’s workflow.
You may find that your deadlines are too time-pressing and lead to your team rushing to meet them — at the expense of the quality of their work.
Or, you may discover that your deadlines are too lenient, so employees spend a lot of time procrastinating instead of working.
When this happens, your team might fall prey to Parkinson’s law, filling the time they have available before the deadline instead of moving on to the next task.
💡 Clockify ProTip
If you’re curious about how to prevent Parkinson’s law from taking the best of your team, read more about it here:
How to manage time estimates for Trello tasks
Setting time estimates is important because it allows you to get a better sense of how long a project will take.
Before you start tracking time on the cards marked with deadlines, you’ll need to:
- Go to your Clockify web version,
- Select the project you are working on in Trello, and
- Set an estimate for it.
Or, if you’ve set deadlines for each card in Trello, the best practice would be to create tasks corresponding to those cards in Clockify and then set individual estimates for each.
You can also indicate assignees in Clockify so that your team members know exactly what tasks they should tackle in Trello.
As you work on your Trello cards (indicated as tasks in the Clockify web version), you’ll be able to check how much time you have left before your deadlines (indicated as estimates in the Clockify web version) are up.
💡 Clockify Pro Tip
To see why time estimation is important for project management and what consequences poor time estimation may bring, read our guide:
How to use Clockify to calculate billable hours for projects in Trello
If you want to know how much you should bill your clients for your projects, you’ll need to calculate your and your team’s billable hours.
To calculate billable hours for yourself and your team, you should first indicate your hourly rates in Clockify. You can set them per:
- Workspace,
- Team member,
- Project, or
- A team member within a particular project.
The system will use the most specific hourly rate you set (a team member within a particular project being the most specific of the four above-mentioned rates).
After you set your hourly rates, you can begin working on a Trello card.
When you start the timer in your Trello card, a window will open where you can mark your time entry as billable.
Once you finish tracking time for this card (or project, if you want to bill for all of your Trello board’s activities altogether), just go to your Summary report.
There, you can select the time period when you worked on that Trello project (say, this month) and filter by said project, to view your total hours tracked and total billable hours in the header.
Right beside your billable hours in the header, you’ll also see the total amount of money you’ve earned according to your billable hours. Then, you can create invoices in your Clockify web version, download them as PDFs, and send them to your clients.
💡 Clockify Pro Tip
Along with Clockify’s built-in invoicing solution, you can also try out our ready-made invoice templates that you can download and fill out:
Clockify’s integration with Trello makes tracking time in Trello a breeze
They say that the best things in life are free — but a blend of 2 free apps that level up your productivity is a combination that might just be unmatched.
With Trello, a project management tool that lets you manage all your tasks and projects, and Clockify, a time tracker that helps you calculate your billable hours and generate invoices for your clients — it seems like you have it all.
As Trello lacks a time tracker feature, integrating it with a powerful app like Clockify makes it easy to keep track of any task.
To track time with Clockify in Trello, follow these simple steps:
- Create a free Clockify account,
- Install Clockify web extension,
- Start the timer inside Trello, and
- Stop the timer when you are finished.
With Clockify, it is easy to track projects in Trello, analyze tracked time in reports, and much more, so make sure to try it out.
