Activity Monitoring basics

Whenever your employee uses an app or website during work hours, Monitoramento de atividade can track their computer activities including active and idle time.

That data is used in calculating the Utilization score, showing how much of an employee’s target workday was spent on productive tasks.

This guide walks you through:

• How computer activities are tracked and categorized (Active, Idle, Productive, Neutral)
• How workspace settings and Clockify schedules determine expected work capacity
• How single-day and multi-day utilization scores are calculated

Understand activity monitoring metrics #

To understand how an employee’s activities are categorized and measured, you should get familiar with the following terms.

Prazo	Descrição
Active on Call (Activity Type)	This tracking rule keeps your status as “Active” by detecting when an app is using your device’s microphone or camera. It ensures that you are always recognized as active during voice and video conferences, even when you are merely listening to a presentation without any mouse or keyboard interaction.
Active Time	Actual amount of time you spend working on your computer, measured by your mouse and keyboard movements. It does not include breaks, lunch, or time periods when you walk away from your desk.
Always Active (Activity Type)	This tracking rule keeps your status as “Active” whenever a designated app or website is being used, completely ignoring mouse movements or keyboard input.
Capacidade de trabalho diário	Number of hours an employee is expected to work in a day (e.g. 8 hours). This is defined in the workspace settings or overridden with the member’s specific daily work capacity.
Idle Time	Time when your computer is turned on but don’t have mouse or keyboard activity or you are away from your desk.
Productive Time	Time you spend using apps, programs, or websites marked as work-related (e.g. Figma, Word, Excel, or coding tools) by your company.
Neutral Time	A category for “gray area” apps or websites that the company chooses not to label as strictly work-only or completely unproductive.  For example, YouTube is often kept as Neutral because its impact depends on usage: an employee might use it for a work tutorial (Productive), or simply for background music and entertainment (Unproductive).
Standard (Activity Type)	This is the default tracking mode where activity is measured entirely by mouse movements and keyboard input. The system automatically classifies any period as Idle Time if keyboard or mouse activity stops for longer than the limit (Idle Period) defined by your organization.
Unproductive Time	Time spent on apps or websites that are not relevant to your tasks at work (e.g. social media, personal streaming apps, or video games).
Work Time	Official hours recorded for the work day. This is the total time tracked by Activity Monitoring that sums Active Time and Idle Time.

Utilization score calculation #

Utilization is a calculated score that displays an employee’s amount of productive time compared to their expected work capacity. 

Activity monitoring uses the following formula to calculate utilization:

Active productive time is the sum of tracked active time periods according to workspace settings.

Capacidade de trabalho diária is the baseline capacity assigned to an employee in Clockify. 

However, while the screen displays the denominator as Capacidade de trabalho diária, the utilization formula uses an adjusted Expected Work Capacity, which is the daily capacity less approved time off for the selected day or date range. 

For example, an employee has 7 hours daily work capacity and 4 hours approved time off. The expected work capacity used in the denominator is 7 hours – 4 hours = 3 hours.

Example Daily Capacity Scenarios:

Cenário	Daily Capacity	Time-off	Expected Capacity	Productive Time	Utilization
Regular workday	8 hours	0 hours	8 hours	6 hours	75% (6h/8h)
Partial PTO	8 hours	2 hours	6 hours (8h-2h)	6 hours	100% (6h/6h)
Overtime work	8 hours	0 hours	8 hours	10 hours	125% (10h/8h)
Full PTO / Weekend	8 hours	8 hours / Non-working day	0 hours	3 hours	/

Utilization across multiple days #

When you select multiple days for a reporting period (e.g. one week), the system calculates the utilization by getting the total active productive time and total daily capacity, rather than averaging individual daily utilization calculation. This ensures accurate computation across long date ranges and prevents non-working days or PTO days from lowering the utilization.

Example (1-week calculation):

• Total Expected Capacity (Mon-Fri): 40 hours (8 hours/day)
• Total Productive Time Worked (Mon-Sat): 42 hours
• Utilization: 42/40 x 100 = 105%

Working on non-working days (e.g. weekend) adds to total productive time but does not add to the expected capacity.

What contributes to active productive time #

Whenever an employee uses an app or website, it contributes to productive time depending on the assigned category. An app or website is categorized by Productivity e Activity type.

Productivity

• Productive: Work-related activity.
• Neutral: Context-dependent activity. If enabled, this adds to productive time.
• Undefined: Activity on apps or websites not yet categorized. If enabled, this adds to productive time.

Activity type

• Standard: Keeps status active when using the mouse or keyboard.
• Always active: Keeps status active when the app is in use.
• Active on call: Keeps status active when an app is using a microphone or camera.

These categories represent how employees use their time during working hours and can be defined in the Productivity – Apps & websites .

Configure active productive time inclusions #

To select which app or website category adds to active productive time:

1. Vá para Configurações gerais on the sidebar
2. Role para baixo até Select which activities count as active productive time
3. Select the checkbox of the category that should be added to active productive time

Perguntas frequentes #

How is active productive time calculated? 

Active productive time is the sum of tracked active periods based on workspace settings. Using work-related apps increases this productive time while using non-work apps decreases it. Idle time is always excluded from the active time calculation.

Where does the system get my expected work capacity and time-off data?

Expected working capacity, work schedules, approved Time Off (PTO), half-day time off, and public holidays are automatically retrieved from your Clockify profile.

How does working on a weekend or public holiday affect weekly/monthly utilization?

Any productive time you log on a non-working day adds to your total active productive hours for the selected period, but adds 0 hours to your total expected capacity. This allows extra work performed outside regular schedule hours to positively contribute to your overall period utilization score.

How does approved Paid Time Off (PTO) affect daily work capacity?

Approved PTO reduces your expected work capacity for that day.

• Full-day PTO: Expected Daily Capacity becomes 0 hours.
• Half-day or partial PTO: PTO hours are subtracted from your standard daily capacity (e.g., an 8-hour workday minus 2 hours PTO results in an expected daily capacity of 6 hours).

What does a slash (“/”) mean in the Utilization column?

A “/” stands for “Not Applicable.” It appears when work is logged on a day with 0 expected capacity such as weekends, public holidays, or full-day PTO. Your productive time is still logged and visible, but the system doesn’t calculate a daily percentage since there was no baseline target.

Can utilization exceed 100%, and what is the maximum score shown?

Yes. Employees can exceed 100% utilization by working beyond their expected daily or period capacity. If a calculated score exceeds 999%, the system displays it as 999%+.