Time Tracking That Actually Works for Tradies
By Jotter Team
The problem with timesheets
Filling in timesheets at the end of the day -- or worse, at the end of the week -- is guesswork. You estimate hours, round up or down, and forget that extra half hour you spent on a callout. Multiply that across a team and you are either undercharging (losing money) or overcharging (losing trust).
The fix is simple: track time as you work, not after the fact. But most time tracking tools make this harder than it needs to be. You have to open the app, find the right project, start a timer, and keep the app running in the foreground. Close the app? Timer might stop. Phone restarts? Timer is gone.
How Jotter handles timers
Jotter's timers are built into the job workflow. Every line item on a job can have its own timer. Here is what makes them different:
Lock Screen and notification bar
On iPhone, your running timer shows as a Live Activity on your Lock Screen and Dynamic Island. You can see the elapsed time without unlocking your phone or opening the app. On Android, it shows as a persistent notification in your notification bar. Glance at your phone, see the timer. That is it.
Multiple timers at once
Working on two things in parallel? Run two timers. Jotter supports multiple concurrent timers across different line items. This is common in trades work -- you might be waiting for materials on one task while actively working on another. Both timers run independently.
Survives everything
Close the app? Timer keeps running. Restart your phone? Timer is still there. Lose signal? Timer does not care -- it is stored locally and uses your phone's clock. Jotter records the start time, so even if the app is force-closed, it calculates the correct duration when you reopen it.
Time becomes invoice data
This is the part that matters for your bottom line. When you stop a timer, the tracked time is attached to that line item. When the job is completed and synced to Xero, the time becomes the quantity on the invoice line. No manual entry, no estimation, no re-typing.
If you tracked 2 hours and 15 minutes of labour on a line item, that is exactly what appears on the Xero invoice. Your customer sees a precise, defensible number -- not a rough guess.
What your team sees
Team members can start and stop timers on any job assigned to them. If you have enabled the "hide prices" setting, they see the timer and duration but not the dollar value. They track the time; you control the pricing. It keeps things simple for the people on the tools while giving you accurate billing data.
Getting started with timers
- Open a job and tap on a line item.
- Tap the timer button to start tracking.
- Get on with your work. The timer shows on your Lock Screen.
- When you are done, tap stop. The duration is saved to the line item.
- Complete the job. The tracked time flows through to the Xero invoice.
That is five taps. No timesheet app, no spreadsheet, no Friday afternoon data entry.