10 Hidden Clockify Features You’re Probably Not Using

Breaking news: You may only be using 20% of Clockify’s potential.

Clockify key features, like Timer and Timesheets, are even more powerful when you know a few tips and tricks.

Stay tuned while we uncover the top 10 Clockify features you probably didn’t know about — along with a few honorable mentions.

• Clockify can detect idle time via the browser extension.
• Clockify workspace admins can control who sees tracked time and expenses.
• Users get to sync Clockify with an external calendar to quickly turn events into time entries.
• Admins can stop the timer for other users in Clockify.
• Clockify users can duplicate a time entry in 1 click.

#1: Idle time detection (Free plan)

Idle detection measures users’ inactivity while the timer is running. Once Clockify detects a lack of activity, it lets the user choose between these options:

• Discard idle time to immediately stop the timer and remove idle time from the tracked hours.
• Discard and continue to stop the current timer, remove idle time, and start a new timer.
• Keep idle time to allow idle time to count toward the total number of tracked hours, and keep the current timer running.
• Add idle time as a new entry to place tracked idle time in a separate time entry.

To enable idle time detection, install the Clockify browser extension. The extension comes at no extra charge and is available for 2 popular browsers: Chrome and Firefox.

Then, open Settings and enable Idle detection. The extension also lets you edit the number of minutes that should count as idle time — the default is 15 minutes.

Once the user enables Idle detection, whenever they don’t use their keyboard or mouse for at least 15 minutes (or a custom amount of time), they’ll see a pop-up window prompting them to discard or keep the idle time.

The Idle detection feature is great for ensuring logged hours reflect the actual hours worked. Thus, you can ensure you bill clients accurately for the time worked on the project. The total number of billable hours won’t be inflated when the timer is accidentally left running.

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#2: Auto-start/stop the timer (Free plan)

Your team can track time accurately without relying on memory by enabling the Auto-start timer or Auto-stop timer option. For this feature to work, team members need to install the desktop app or the browser extension: Clockify for Mac or Clockify for Windows.

Then, enable this feature in Preferences under the Timer section. Clockify desktop app automatically starts the timer when you toggle on at least one of these options:

• Start timer when PC wakes up
• Start timer when PC unlocks
• Start timer when app starts

The options for automatically stopping the timer include:

• Stop timer if screen locks
• Stop timer if PC goes to sleep
• Stop timer if PC powers off

Once the options you want are enabled, you can start work without worrying about the timer.

For example, let’s say that you always start working as soon as you power on your work computer. Then, when you go on a lunch break, your PC goes into sleep mode due to inactivity. Once you’re back, you disable sleep mode and resume working. At the end of the shift, you turn off your computer.

In that case, the options you should enable are:

• Stop timer if PC goes to sleep
• Stop timer if PC powers off
• Start timer when PC wakes up

If you don’t start working as soon as you power on your computer, you can always choose the Start timer when app starts option. Then, simply open the app, and the timer will start.

Alternatively, you can use the Auto-start/stop timer option within the browser extension — without installing the desktop app.

So, you can enable the option for the timer to start whenever you open the browser and stop when you close the browser. You can even set a specific time for the timer to stop.

This feature is particularly useful for remote teams that step away from their PC more frequently. And for even more automation, remote teams can use the Clockify Auto tracker — which tracks app usage and idle time when enabled without any further user input.

#3: Hide tracked time and expenses (Basic plan)

You can control who sees tracked time and expenses in Clockify. Not all data has to be visible to all users — instead, you can choose whether you want regular users to see:

• Only their own time and expenses
• Only time and expenses on public projects
• Everyone’s tracked time and expenses

This rule applies to regular Clockify users. The project and team managers would be able to see tracked time and expenses — but only for the projects/teams they manage.

So, when you want to ensure time and expenses stay private only to the workspace admin and managers — select the Only their own time and expenses option. This feature allows you to protect sensitive financial data, including total billable expenses charged to clients.

Also, regular employees not being able to see each other’s tracked time reduces unnecessary comparisons and competition between employees. This prevents a potential hostile work environment.

#4: Keyboard shortcuts for time tracking (Free plan)

Here’s a list of default keyboard shortcuts for faster time tracking in Clockify:

The desktop app allows you to customize keyboard shortcuts for Clockify time tracking features.

Keyboard shortcuts help teams minimize time spent on creating time entries, allowing them to focus on productive work.

#5: Converting calendar events into time entries (Free plan)

You can sync Google Calendar or Outlook with Clockify to quickly turn events (such as meetings) into time entries. For example, if you use Google Calendar for scheduling events, connect it to Clockify, and those events will appear in the Clockify Calendar. You can then choose to start the timer from the event or manually convert it to a time entry.

Converting calendar events into time entries is great for remote and hybrid teams that attend lots of remote meetings scheduled through Google Calendar or Outlook. Therefore, they don’t have to memorize and add each event separately — the events will appear automatically.

Events in Clockify are private to you until you create time entries for them.

#6: Stop a team member’s timer (Enterprise plan)

Workspace admins can stop the timer for others if they forget to do so themselves. 

To use this feature, go to the Accounts tab and select Log in as located next to the user’s name. Then, simply click the red Stop button next to the timer.

After you’ve completed everything you need to do on behalf of that user, click Log out to switch back to your account.

This way, you’ll prevent paying the employee for time they didn’t work and/or charging a client for hours they accidentally logged.

#7: Split time (Basic plan)

Use the Split time option to avoid starting and stopping the timer each time you switch between projects — especially when you work on many different projects throughout the day.

You can leave the timer running as long as you’re working on your tasks. Then simply split the time entry into as many entries as you need.

Once you click Split, a window will pop up, prompting you to choose the time at which you want your entry split. 

After that, click Save, and you’ll have 2 separate time entries under the same project. You can then edit any part of your entries, including the project, task, description, and time. Editing one split entry won’t affect the other entry.

So, if an employee switches from one project to another for a different client but keeps the timer running, they can easily split the time entry and change the project. This way, the team ensures that clients are invoiced properly for the correct projects.

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#8: Overtime reminders for managers (Standard plan)

Clockify lets you set targets and reminders — meaning you can get a notification whenever a team member tracks overtime.

To set the target, head over to the Workspace settings and scroll down to Daily work capacity. The default capacity is 8 hours a day, but you can modify it.

To configure reminders, select the team members to whom this rule applies. Then, choose More or Less than Their work capacity (or Custom time).

Finally, choose who will get the reminder:

• Only team members (check Them option)
• Team members and their managers (check Them and Their managers options)
• Team members and all admins (also check All admins option)

You can also choose whether you want the capacity to count on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis.

Let’s say your daily target is 8 hours, and you want team managers to be notified whenever any team member goes into overtime. Here’s how you’d set up the reminder:

If Everyone tracks More than Their work capacity on a Daily basis, send Them, Their managers a reminder.

Once everything’s set up, when a team member tracks more than 8 hours, the team manager will get notified. This ensures that managers are aware that their team members are working overtime, so that they can be compensated for overtime hours — or reminded not to work overtime if it isn’t allowed per company policy. 

#9: Save timesheet as a template (Free plan)

Saving the timesheet as a template is a convenient option for team members whose weeks look mostly the same. They can fill out the timesheet for one week and save it as a template by:

• Clicking Save as template
• Naming the template
• Ticking the Save time also option (if they need the hours to be copied as well)

Of course, when applying the template, users can tweak it if it doesn’t fully match their current week — ensuring they submit accurate timesheets for payroll.

#10: Bulk edit (Basic plan)

The Bulk edit option is useful when you need to edit multiple time entries, and doing so one by one takes too much time.

Let’s say you want to switch 10 time entries to a different project. Simply select all the time entries you want to edit, click Bulk edit, and select another project.

Once you click Save, all selected time entries will be edited accordingly — ensuring the correct project is later billed to the corresponding client.

Hidden Clockify features: Honorable mentions

If you want more Clockify tips and tricks — here are some honorable mentions (Clockify hidden features that didn’t make our main list).

#1: Change the start time of an already-running timer (Free plan)

When starting an urgent task, you may not immediately start the timer. Instead of adding time manually, you can start the timer when you can, and then edit the start time.

Once the user corrects the start time, their entries will reflect actual hours worked — ensuring accurate attendance reports.

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#2: Find out who hasn’t tracked any time (Standard plan)

To find out which team members haven’t tracked any time, open the Attendance report. Under the Work section, you’ll see a dash for members who didn’t log any hours.

Once you identify staff members who didn’t track time, you can find out why this happened and if anyone was absent from work without a justifiable reason. This way, you also ensure no mistakes were made in timekeeping before running payroll.

#3: Pomodoro timer (Free plan)

You can turn Clockify into a productivity tool by enabling the Pomodoro timer in your browser extension or desktop app.

The Pomodoro method is a productivity technique that usually involves 25-minute work intervals. Each work interval is followed by a 5-minute break, and a longer break after 3 mini breaks. In Clockify, work and break times can be customized to suit your work style.

If you turn on Focus mode, you’ll see a countdown from the number of minutes you set for work time. The same goes for your breaks.

You’ll get notified each time your break/work interval starts. And you can even turn on sound notifications to make sure you don’t miss the start of your work interval or break.

#4: Customize report exports (Basic plan)

A big advantage of Clockify reports is that they can be customized. You may know you can filter reports in the web app — but you can also choose what appears in your exports.

If you always click Save as PDF/CSV/Excel immediately, you definitely missed this option.

To customize your export, click Export in the report you want, then click Customization.

Depending on the type of report you’re exporting, you’ll get elements you can enable/disable. For example, if you select the Detailed report, you’ll be able to include or exclude:

• Proyecto
• Tarea
• Descripción
• User
• Cliente
• Other related options

If you enable Notes, you can add custom text to your PDF exports. This can be useful when you need to send the report to a client and add an extra note. And since you can choose what appears in the report, you can hide all sensitive information, such as the profit amount.

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#5: Duplicate time entry (Free plan)

If you need a time entry with the same details, you don’t have to create it from scratch. Simply duplicate your time entry in 1 click.

Since the cloned entry will have the same date and time, you can move it to a different time slot.

The easiest way to do this is to open the Calendar view and drag and drop the duplicate entry to another slot.

Use Clockify by CAKE.com to its full potential: for payroll, billing, and in-depth reporting

There may be even more Clockify features that would be useful for you. To explore Clockify in depth, you can check out our:

• Resource page
• YouTube channel
• Time tracking tutorials
• Tutorials for specific industries
• Clockify features pricing page

You also get personalized consultations from a dedicated success representative if you qualify. The criteria for concierge services include:

• 120 seats for the Basic plan
• 90 seats for the Standard plan
• 60 seats for the Pro plan
• 40 seats for the Enterprise plan
• 30 seats for the Bundle plan

Also, Clockify has 24/7 human support ready to answer any user questions — available to all users on all plans.

Try CAKE.com Bundle

In addition to Clockify for team time tracking, you get Plaky for project management and Pumble for team communication.

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