todo.vu support

Help pages, tutorials and tips about how to get the most out of todo.vu

7 easy steps to get started with todo.vu & on your way to beautiful billing

New to todo.vu? Welcome!

We know you’re busy (that’s why you’re looking for a way to boost your productivity, right?), so we’ve put together a quick guide to help you make the most of todo.vu from day one.

todo.vu works best for freelancers, consultants and teams who need to organise, track, and bill for their time. If that sounds like you, you’re in the right place.

If you need more help, make sure to get in touch with us.

Jump to:

  1. Customise your workspace
  2. Set up your billing rate
  3. Add your unique todo.vu email to your contacts’ list
  4. Invite others to todo.vu
  5. Download the mobile app
  6. Create a task
  7. Track your time

1. Customise your workspace

Why is this important?
Personalising your workspace to your business or brand is an easy way to love working in todo.vu every day. It also means you can add branding to any billing reports you provide clients. (But more on those later.)

Let’s get crackin’! What do we do?
You’ll see the name you first assigned to your workspace in the top left-hand corner. Click it, and navigate to “Workspace style” in the drop-down menu.

Here, you can upload your logo,​
A screenshot of todo.vu's interface demonstrating how to upload your logo to todo.vu.
An animated GIF demonstrating how to change your todo.vu Workspace name.
change your name,
and update your workspace colours to your own style.
A screenshot of todo.vu's interface demonstrating how to change Workspace colours to suit your branding - feature available to Business Time customers only.

2. Set up your billing rate

Why is this important?
Not only can you organise and track your time in todo.vu, you can also create billing reports detailing your logged time. These provide your clients with a breakdown of hours completed on a project and at what cost.

We need to set up your billing rate, so your billing reports are accurate and you get paid properly.

Sounds great for my cash flow! How do I do it?
Head back to your workspace name. This time, after you’ve clicked on your name, select “Time & billing settings”.

Here, you can change your default billing rate and currency (and don’t worry if you have different billing rates for different clients, we can change these too).

A screenshot of todo.vu's interface depicting where a user can set up their default time billing rate when they get started with todo.vu.
You can also set up your taxes,
A screenshot of todo.vu's interface depicting where a user can set up their tax rates when getting started with todo.vu.
and here’s how your final billing report might look like when you have logged time and are ready to invoice for that time.
An example of the customisable time billing reports you can create in todo.vu to attach to your client invoices and minimize the risk of invoice disputes.

3. Add your unique todo.vu email to your contacts’ list

Why is this important?
Your todo.vu workspace has its own email address. By adding that address to your contacts’ list in, say, Gmail, you can create todo.vu tasks directly from your Gmail inbox.

When you send or forward emails to your todo.vu email address, a task is automatically created in todo.vu, saving you time.

That’s convenient! How do I set it up?
Easy. Go to your account settings at todo.vu/your-settings/workspaces. Next to ‘Add tasks via email’, you will see your unique todo.vu email address.

Save this address to your email contacts. Now, whenever you want to create a task from an email, just send or forward (or CC/BCC) the email to your unique todo.vu address!

A screenshot of an email being sent to a unique todo.vu email address. todo.vu will automatically create a new Task in the Workspace connected with the email address, using the details within that email.
If you’re having trouble finding your unique email address, simply substitute your own workspace name into the following email address: addtask@yourworkspacename.taskby.email

4. Invite others to todo.vu

Why is this important?
If you work with a team (and even if you don’t), you can invite others to todo.vu, too. That way, you can easily collaborate with more people, see who’s doing what across your team, and never miss another deadline.

The more the merrier! How do I invite my team or contractors?
You can invite anyone to todo.vu by clicking the plus sign at the top left-hand corner of your workspace.

A screenshot of todo.vu's interface demonstrating where you can invite collaborators to join your todo.vu Workspace; it is recommended that you invite at least one trusted colleague to todo.vu when you get started.
Be sure to select “More details and access” to manage what your new collaborator can see and do in your Workspace, particularly if they’re an external stakeholder like a contractor or client.

Initially, we recommend inviting just one trusted colleague to todo.vu.

5. Download the mobile app

Why is this important?
So you can take your todo.vu workspace wherever you go! If you need to assign a task to a team member on the go, or retrieve any detail at any time, you can do so straight from your mobile phone.

I’m app-solutely in. Where can I get it?
You can download the todo.vu app for Android devices here, and for IOS devices here.

A screenshot of todo.vu's mobile app log-in page.

6. Create a task

Why is this important?
Tasks are where the todo.vu productivity magic begins. Tasks help you easily manage your clients, projects, workload, time, and billing.

Let’s do it! What’s the easiest way?
You can add a task to any of the three columns, or workflow states, that you see on your Tasks view: ‘Snoozed’, ‘To Do’, or ‘Done’.

However, you can only add tasks to whichever column occupies the middle space. (To change that middle column, click the chevrons, > or <, that appear as you hover over the left or right column headings.)

Hit [Ctrl]+[Enter], or place your cursor in the Task Adder at the bottom of your screen. Type in your task.

A screenshot of todo.vu's quick-add Task feature, where users can add Tasks to their Task Dashboard with minimal interruption.
To quickly add the task, simply press [Enter]. To add more details to the task, press [Ctrl]+[Enter] after you finish typing in your task.
If you choose to add more details to your new task, this new task will open on your screen.

Now, you can add an Assignee, Client/Project and Followers to the task.

You can create new Clients and Projects directly within this new task, or you can do this later.

A screenshot of todo.vu's interface, demonstrating that a user can search for and add new clients and projects to Tasks while creating the Task or afterwards.
A screenshot of todo.vu's interface, demonstrating that a user can add titles, descriptions, checklists and more to Tasks.
Then, add a title, a description, a checklist and any files to your new task.
Add a due date to the task on the right-hand side.

If you’ve already completed this task, you can log the time the task took you here, too.

A screenshot of todo.vu's interface, demonstrating how a user can set a due date to a Task.
Don’t forget to hit “Create task” at the bottom left-hand corner of the task when you’re done.

 

Looking for tasks?

To find specific tasks quickly, use todo.vu’s advanced task filtering tool. Navigate to the search bar at the top of your screen, or use the keyboard shortcut [Ctrl]+[F] to place your cursor in the search bar.

Here, you can search for any specific task. You can search for tasks either with keywords, or as the tasks relate to certain Projects, Clients, Users or Labels, or any combination of these!

For example, if you type in a specific client, todo.vu can show you every task you have created for that client: every task that’s upcoming (Snoozed), in progress (To do), or completed (Done).

An animated GIF demonstrating how a user can search for Tasks quickly and easily using todo.vu's unique context filter for Tasks.

7. Track your time

Why is this important?
By tracking the time you spend on tasks, you can easily see how long tasks take, and who’s doing what (and when) in your team. In todo.vu, your logged time can quickly translate into time billing reports for quick and accurate invoicing, which means a better cash flow for you.

Okay, so it’s time to get tracking. How?
When you’re ready to get to work, simply hit the “Start timer” button up the top of your workspace, and off you go!

A screenshot of todo.vu's timer icon, which a user must select to start tracking their time.
If you already had a task open when you started the timer, todo.vu will track time to that task. If you weren’t, you can choose which task you want to log time to at any time. To stop the timer, simply click on the timer again.
A screenshot of todo.vu's timer icon, which a user must select to stop tracking their time.
You can also start and stop the timer directly on a task within the Tasks dashboard view.
A screenshot of todo.vu's timer icon within the Task Listing, which a user can select to quickly start and stop tracking their time directly to a Task.
To manually record time you’ve already spent on a task, open the task, click the “Time spent” option on the sidebar to the right, and select “Log time.”

Now, when you’re ready to invoice your client, you can create a detailed billing report and get paid accurately for your time.

Head to your workspace to get started with todo.vu now, or learn more about time billing here.

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