If you want project management software with time tracking built in, the short answer is that time should live on the task, not in a separate tool. AlianHub lets people start a timer on a task or add time by hand, send in a weekly timesheet for approval, and see logged time against the estimate in reports. This guide walks through how that works and how teams use it for billing and better estimates.
Why time tracking belongs inside your project tool
Most teams start with a project board in one app and a time tracker in another. It works for a while. Then someone forgets to switch timers, entries end up attached to the wrong client, and the end-of-week reconciliation turns into an hour of guessing.
When time tracking is native, every entry already knows its task, its project and its assignee. There is nothing to sync and nothing to match up later. The numbers in your reports come from the same place as the work itself.
That matters for three reasons:
- Accuracy. People log time where they are already working, so fewer hours go missing.
- Context. A time entry tied to a task carries its status, estimate and history with it.
- One source of truth. Managers review timesheets in the same workspace where they review the work.
How time tracking works in AlianHub
AlianHub is open-source, self-hosted project management software released under the AGPL-3.0 license. Time tracking is part of the core product, alongside tasks, sprints, views, docs, chat and reports. You can see the full feature set on the features page.
Timers on tasks
The simplest way to log time is to open a task and start the timer. Stop it when you are done, and the entry is saved against that task. If you forgot to start it, or you worked offline, you can add time by hand instead.
Workspace admins can set a limit for the time tracker in the general settings, next to working days. That guards against the classic mistake of a timer left running overnight.
Weekly timesheets and approval
At the end of the week, each person sends in a timesheet. It moves from submitted to approved once a manager signs off. Timesheets and leave requests waiting for a decision sit in a single approvals queue, so reviewers do not have to hunt for them. You can see how this fits with the rest of the admin tools in the workspace overview.
Optional desktop tracker
Some teams want more than manual timers. AlianHub offers an optional desktop tracker that can record screenshots and activity. It is opt-in: use it where your team and your policies call for it, and skip it where they do not.
Reports: logged time versus estimates
Logging time is only useful if you look at it. AlianHub has a Reports area with separate pages for dates, estimates, your own charts and team capacity. Dashboards also include widgets for status, time against estimate and free capacity.
The key view for most teams is logged versus estimate. It shows how much time went into work compared with what was planned, with a line marking the estimate. The estimates report also highlights where estimates tend to drift, such as tasks with no description, tasks whose estimate was changed, tasks with more than one assignee, and tasks that run two days or more.
| What you want to know | Where to look in AlianHub |
|---|---|
| How long a single task took | Time entries on the task |
| What one person worked on this week | Their weekly timesheet |
| Which timesheets still need sign-off | The approvals queue |
| Whether a project is running over | Logged vs estimate report |
| Who has room for more work | Capacity report and Workload view |
Using time data for billing
Agencies, consultancies and internal service teams often need to bill or charge back hours. Native time tracking makes that much easier, because every hour already sits under a project and a task.
A practical billing workflow looks like this:
- Set up one project per client or engagement, so time naturally groups by who pays for it.
- Ask the team to log time on tasks as they go, not from memory on Friday.
- Approve timesheets weekly, so mistakes are caught while people still remember the work.
- Use the reports to pull approved time for the billing period.
Because AlianHub is self-hosted, that time data stays in your own MongoDB database on your own server. For teams that handle client-sensitive work, that is often as important as the features.
Tip: approve timesheets every week, not every month. A one-week-old mistake takes seconds to fix. A one-month-old mistake turns into a negotiation.
Using time data for better estimates
Billing looks backwards. Estimating looks forwards, and it is where time tracking pays off most.
Once you have a few sprints of logged time, compare it to the original estimates. Patterns appear quickly. Maybe design tasks run long, or tasks with vague descriptions always overshoot. The drift signals in the estimates report point you at exactly these cases.
AI can help here too. AlianHub's AI Assist can read a task brief and propose a breakdown into subtasks with estimates, plus any open questions, using your own LLM API key. Pair that first draft with what your own history tells you and your estimates get steadily better. Learn more on the AI page.
Capacity planning
Time tracking also feeds capacity. The Workload view and the capacity report show committed work, upcoming work that is not yet confirmed, work that goes over what is available, and availability after time off. That makes it easier to say no to new work before a team is overloaded.
Best practices for project time tracking
A tool only helps if people actually use it. These habits make the difference:
- Keep tasks small. Time logged against a task called "Website" tells you nothing. Time logged against "Build contact form" tells you a lot.
- Write a description. Tasks without one are among the most likely to drift past the estimate.
- Log as you go. Start the timer when you start the task. Manual entry is a fallback, not the default.
- Set a timer limit. Use the time tracker limit so forgotten timers do not distort the data.
- Review weekly. Approvals and a quick look at logged versus estimate should be a standing weekly habit.
- Explain the why. Tell the team the data is used for planning and billing, not surveillance. That is especially true if you turn on the desktop tracker.
Getting started
You can try time tracking without installing anything by opening the live demo. When you are ready to run your own instance, AlianHub self-hosts with Docker Compose, and the admin guide covers setup. If you are coming from another tool, the ClickUp migration guide explains the import.
FAQ
Does AlianHub have built-in time tracking?
Yes. You can start a timer on a task or add time by hand, send in a weekly timesheet for approval, and optionally use the desktop tracker for screenshots and activity.
Can managers approve timesheets?
Yes. Submitted timesheets go into an approvals queue alongside leave requests, where a manager can approve them.
Can I compare logged time to estimates?
Yes. Reports and dashboards show logged time against the estimate, and the estimates report highlights the kinds of tasks where estimates drift most.
Is AlianHub free to use for time tracking?
AlianHub is free and open source under AGPL-3.0, with no per-seat pricing when you self-host. Paid help with hosting, customization and support is available from Alian Software if you want it.
Time tracking works best when it sits right next to the work. Open the live demo to start a timer on a real task, or contact us if you want help setting AlianHub up for your team.