After creating a workspace in timeghost Time tracking, a few basic settings help ensure that users can start tracking time with the right structure, permissions, and working-time configuration.
Not every setup step is relevant to every workspace. The recommended configuration depends especially on whether your workspace uses Working time only, Project time only, or Project time with automatic working time.
In short
Start by choosing the appropriate time tracking setup. Then add your users and configure the organizational, project, and working-time settings that are relevant to your workspace before users begin recording time.
Recommended setup order
A practical order for setting up a new workspace is:
Choose the time tracking setup
Add users and assign roles
Create groups and configure additional permissions if needed
Set up supervisor relationships if needed
Configure working schedules and working-time settings if your setup includes working time
Create customers, projects, and tasks if your setup includes project time
Configure absences and working time rules if applicable
Review the setup before users start tracking time
Some of these steps can also be completed or adjusted later.
1. Choose your time tracking setup
The time tracking setup determines which types of time are recorded in the workspace.
Choose between:
Working time only
Project time only
Project time with automatic working time
This decision affects which features and areas are available to users, so it should normally be one of the first workspace settings you review.
For a comparison, see Choose the right time tracking setup.
2. Add users and assign roles
Add the people who should use the workspace and assign the appropriate workspace role to each user.
Roles define the general level of access a user receives. timeghost provides the roles Administrator, Manager,
Financial controller, and User, although the available roles also depend on the selected time tracking setup.
For example, the Financial controller role is relevant to project time and is not available in a workspace using Working time only.
Users can be invited before all other setup steps are complete. However, it is useful to review their roles and permissions before regular time tracking begins.
3. Organize users with groups and permissions
Groups can be used to organize users and assign additional permissions efficiently.
Permissions can be assigned to both roles and groups. This makes it possible to extend access for a particular team or subset of users without changing their workspace role.
A group can also contain only one user if additional permissions need to be granted specifically to that person.
Use groups where they reflect meaningful organizational or permission structures rather than creating them for every individual user by default.
4. Set up supervisor relationships
If your organization uses supervisor structures, assign the appropriate employees to their supervisors.
A supervisor relationship is separate from the workspace role. Depending on the configured permissions, supervisors can receive access to information relating to their assigned employees, such as working times, activities, time accounts, or rule violations.
You only need this step if supervisor-based access is relevant to your organization.
5. Configure working-time settings
This step is relevant for Working time only and Project time with automatic working time.
Configure the working-time structure your organization needs, such as:
working schedules and target hours,
individual schedules where required,
absence types and absence handling,
working time rules,
time account settings.
These settings provide the context for evaluating recorded working time.
If your workspace uses Project time only, working-time-specific configuration is generally not required.
6. Set up customers, projects, and tasks
This step is relevant for Project time only and Project time with automatic working time.
Create the projects users should be able to record time against. Depending on your workflow, you can also create customers and tasks and configure project members, responsibilities, budgets, hourly rates, billing settings, and labels.
Consider carefully whether a project should be public or private and whether particular tasks should be assigned to specific users or groups. These settings influence what users can see and select when recording project time.
If your workspace uses Working time only, project configuration is not required.
7. Review absences and working time rules
If working time is part of your setup, review how your organization wants to handle absences and working time rules.
Absences can affect target hours depending on their configuration. Working time rules can check requirements such as breaks, maximum daily working time, and minimum rest periods.
Rules can either warn users about violations or enforce compliance. If compliance is enforced, an entry that violates the configured rules cannot be saved until it has been corrected.
8. Review the workspace before regular use
Before rolling out time tracking to your users, review the most important parts of the configuration.
In particular, check that:
the correct time tracking setup is selected,
users have the intended roles and permissions,
relevant groups and supervisor relationships are configured,
working schedules and working-time settings are correct where applicable,
required projects and tasks are available where applicable.
You do not need to configure every optional feature before users can begin working with timeghost. Additional settings, projects, permissions, and organizational structures can be introduced later as your requirements evolve.
What’s next?
→ Choose the right time tracking setup
Compare the available time tracking setups and determine which one fits your workspace.
→ Working time only – what you need to know
Learn what to consider when your workspace records working time only.
→ Project time only – what you need to know
Learn what to consider when your workspace records project time only.
→ Project time with automatic working time – what you need to know
Learn how project time and automatically created working time work together.