The timer
If you'd rather clock time as it happens, the Timer page gives you a big running clock. The timer is optional — everything it produces is an ordinary time entry you could have typed in yourself — but it's handy when you want an exact record of a working session.
Starting the timer
On the Timer page, pick a client, optionally pick a project (the project list appears once a client is selected — "No project" is always an option), and type a short description in the What are you working on? field. Then hit Start Timer.
The clock counts up in hours, minutes, and seconds, and the timer card shows a green RUNNING badge. None of the fields are mandatory — you can start a completely blank timer and fill in the details later, even while it's running. Changes you make to the client, project, or description while the timer runs are saved immediately.
Stopping the timer
Press Stop Timer and Gigtime creates a time entry from the session:
- The entry is dated to the day the timer started, so a session that runs past midnight lands on the day you began working.
- The duration is the elapsed time in whole minutes. By default Gigtime doesn't round or pad your time — 47 minutes is logged as 47 minutes. Sessions under a minute are recorded as 1 minute.
- If you bill in blocks, the optional Rounding setting (Settings → General) rounds the duration up to the nearest 5, 10, 15, or 30 minutes when the timer stops. It only applies to timer sessions — manually logged entries are never rounded.
If the session was a false start, press Cancel (discard) instead. The timer is thrown away and no entry is created.
Pausing
Stepping away without ending the session? Press Pause — the clock freezes and the badge switches to PAUSED; press Resume to keep going. Paused time is excluded from the recorded duration, and the paused state syncs to your other devices like everything else about the timer.
Cross-device sync
The timer lives on the server, not on your device. Start it on your laptop and it shows up running on your phone, with the same elapsed time. Stop it from either one. Edits to the description or project made on one device appear on the others within a moment.
Gigtime also computes the elapsed time from server-synced clocks, so two devices with slightly different system times still show the same reading.
A few practical consequences:
- Only one timer can run at a time. It's one clock, shared by all your devices.
- Closing the app doesn't stop the timer. It keeps running on the server until you stop it — from any device.
- If you leave a timer running for a long stretch, Gigtime can send you a reminder. See Notifications to configure when.
Timer and ads
On the free plan, stopping the timer occasionally shows an ad or an upgrade prompt. Pro users are never interrupted. See Free vs Pro.