Once you have set up Time & Budgets in Karbon, you can start setting and adjusting budgets, modifying fee settings, adding expenses, and tracking time for your work and contacts. This article will guide you through estimating budgets, tracking time and expenses, and submitting your timesheets for approval.

To add a budget estimate to your work item, follow these steps:

Once complete, review the 'Estimate Total' to ensure it matches your expectations, then click Save. Repeat this process for each Task Type and Role involved in the work. This will create an accurate budget that can be reviewed in the 'Budget Overview' and detailed by Role, Task Type, and Team Member in the budget details table.

To update an existing budget estimate, click on the entry's detail line to bring up the estimate's details for editing. For example, if you are viewing the budget table by Team Member, click on the Team Member, then click on the expanded details line to edit the previous budget estimate.

There are 4 different ways of adding and tracking time in Karbon. We recommend using the timer to track time, as this gives you the most accurate time tracking.

Within the 'Time & Budgets' tab on a work item. From here, you can choose 'Add Time Entry'.

You will then be able to enter time for the work item, the Role, Task Type, date, and duration, as we as any notes. Specifying the 'Role' and 'Task Type' is important because they ensure the right dollar amount is associated with the time entry that is made.

You can add time from a contact within your 'Time & Budgets' tab. From here, you can choose 'Add Time Entry'.

From your global add icon (+) in the top right, select 'Time Entry'. You'll then have the option to add time against a contact or work item that you search for.
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Note: When adding time from this option, you will not be able to locate the 'None' contact. You must search for and use another contact to add time against. If you wish to add time against the 'none' contact, you will need to add time directly on that contact, or on one of their work items.

To add time using the clock icon in the upper right-hand corner of your screen, follow these steps:

If there is allocated time against the Role and Task Type assigned to you within a work item, you will be notified if the time gets close to the remaining budget allocated for that work item or contact.

Once you're finished working, you can stop the timer and enter in the necessary details. Based on the work you've done in the work item, smart notes will be automatically added based on the activities you have carried out during that time. You can edit these, or add your own notes for more detail.

You can additionally begin your timer within the work item or contact itself, navigate to the work item or contact > Time & Budget tab > and select the Start Timer button:

Please keep in mind when the timer is running you can still click away from the work item and go to your Triage or another place in Karbon, and the timer will keep tracking your time until you click the stop button.

When you stop tracking time using Karbon's timer, you might notice that the Notes field is pre-populated with a list of activities. These smart notes are automatically added based on any actions you have performed in the related work item since you began tracking time.

You can edit these, or add your own notes for more detail before you confirm your time entry.

Best Practice Tip to ensure that your colleagues don't forget to add in their Roles and/or Task Types, be sure to set up them as required fields.

When creating a 'Time Entry,' you will need to specify a 'Role' and 'Task Type'.

Specifying the 'Role' and 'Task Type' is crucial because they ensure the correct dollar amount is applied to the time entry.

If you have chosen to track expenses, you are able to add them on a work item or a contact. You can turn the tracking of expenses on or off in your Time & Budgets settings. In addition to this, you will need to have the 'View Dollar Amount' setting set to on in your user permissions, in order to be able to add expenses to a work item or contact.

When tracking expenses you can choose to view and export from a single work item or from a contact in the 'Time & Budgets' tab. In either case, you can view the tracked expenses in the Expenses section or download them from the Budget table.

If you want to record an expense within the work item, click the 'Add Expense' button and specify the expense's description, cost, amount billable and the date the expense occurred. Only users enabled to view dollar amounts can record expense entries.

If you track expenses, the expense data will be displayed in the client's Time & Budget view and included in all related Time & Budget exports.

Please note: To be able to edit expenses, including those that you have submitted, you will need the permission added as a Time Administrator found in the Extra Permissions section under the user's profile.

To download expenses from a work item, go to the Time & Budget tab and click the download icon at the top of the Budget by Team Member / Role / Task Type section.

Likewise, you can view and export all expenses for a single contact within their Time & Budget tab and download expenses via the download icon at the top of the Budget by Work / Work Type section.

To turn off your 'Expenses', go into into your 'Settings' off of your 'Main Menu' and click into 'Time & Budgets'. At the bottom of the page will be the option to toggle the 'Expenses' option off.

You are able to edit all information on your time entries, but only if you have not yet submitted them. Once they are submitted you are no longer able to edit your time entry. Before submitting your timesheet you can edit your time entries in multiple places to ensure you've captured all time. Edit your time entries in one of two places:

Within the Time section off of the Main Menu, click into the timesheet that you want to make changes to and choose your name.

Find the day of the specific time entry, select the time entry, and review/edit/save the new time entry details.

To edit time entries off of work and contacts, navigate to their Time & Budget tab and click into the desired time entry and review/edit/save the new time entry details.

If you are unable to edit a time entry, it is likely due to one of the following reasons:

Please keep in mind once a timesheet is approved, its time entries become locked and unchangeable. A lock icon will appear next to the related time entries on work items, contacts, and the timesheet itself. To make changes, request the Time Administrator to decline the approved timesheet. Once declined, you can edit and resubmit the timesheet for approval.

When activities take place within a work item that have not yet been recorded, a suggested time entry will appear within the timesheet of the day the activity took place.

You can find these suggested time entries off of the Main Menu under Time, choose your preferred week and day to see any available suggestions.

As you complete work and track activities, including time, Karbon aggregates this information to streamline the creation and submission of weekly timesheets.

To review your time-related activities, you can view:

To review timesheets, navigate to 'Time' from the main menu. Here, you can view timesheets by period and access related statistics, such as the number of drafts, submissions for approval, and counts of declined or approved timesheets. Click on a specific time period to review timesheets for that period.

Within your own timesheet, you can:

When your timesheet is up-to-date and ready for review, click the 'Submit' button and select the Time Administrator to whom you want to send your timesheet. After submission, the chosen Time Administrator will receive a Triage notification to review and approve it. Until the timesheet is approved, you can continue to update it and add comments.

If your timesheet is declined, you will receive a notification in Triage. If the reason for the decline is not provided, create a comment from the Timesheet to determine what needs to be reviewed or changed. Once you have made the necessary updates, click 'Submit' again to request another review.

Once approved, you will be notified via Triage, and the time entries in the timesheet will be locked and unchangeable. A lock icon will appear next to the related time entries on work items, contacts, and the timesheet itself. To make any changes, you must request that the Time Administrator decline the approved timesheet. After the timesheet is declined, you can edit it and resubmit for approval.

Best Practice Tips:

Suggested articles:

Update your templates for Time & Budgets

Review and approve timesheets as a Time Administrator