todo.vu’s Calendar (The ‘Time’ Dashboard)

todo.vu’s Calendar makes it easy to visualize and manage your work, meet your deadlines, and bill accurately for your services.

Developed to support agile workflows, the calendar can be used to quickly record billable (and non-billable) time at specified hourly rates, set reminders and due dates, create new tasks on the fly, and see at a glance where all your time is spent.

Here’s everything you need to know about todo.vu’s calendar.

Quick todo.vu glossary

Click the links below to learn more about each todo.vu term.

• Client  – a person/organisation to which you are billing time.
• Project  – a grouping of todo.vu tasks.
• Task – an action item in todo.vu represented as individual elements or ‘containers’ with task titles, descriptions and more.
• Assignee – the todo.vu user in charge of the task.
• Follower – todo.vu users who get notifications about that task.
• Calendar entry – an entry on todo.vu’s calendar; can be a time entry, due date, reminder, and so on.
• Time entry – a detailed record of time that has been logged in todo.vu.
• Time modal – a modal that enables users to update details on an existing or to create a new time entry.
• Tasks modal – a modal that enables users to connect a time entry to a task.

Different calendar views

todo.vu’s calendar is located on the Time Dashboard, which you can navigate to by selecting the calendar icon on the left-hand side of your Workspace, or by heading to this link when you’re logged in to your account.

The layout on this page will depend on your last session’s view.

You might see a daily (1-, 3-, 5-, 7- or 9-day) calendar view depending on your device’s screen width, with the current day appearing in the middle of the screen and the preceding and subsequent days on either side. You might see an Agenda (A) view, with either one day or three consecutive days, depending on your screen width. Or, you might see a weekly (W), monthly (M) or yearly (Y) view.

If you are an Admin user, you will see a hamburger icon at the top left corner of the calendar. When you select this icon, a side menu will expand, where you can select and view individual team member’s calendars.

Depending on your view and activity in todo.vu, you might also see a variety of coloured blocks on the calendar. Some of these are what we refer to as time entries, some are due dates, and some are task reminders. However, all of these are grouped under the umbrella term of ‘calendar entries’. We explain what each of these calendar entries mean in more detail below.

You can change your calendar view by using the symbols at the top right-hand side of your Workspace. Your current view is indicated by a red symbol.

Time totals

You can see the total time tracked and logged in todo.vu at a glance on the calendar. If you’re an Admin user, you can see this information for any todo.vu user, too, while on their calendar.

You can see time totals:

For any day: Daily totals are displayed in all weekly calendar views at the top right-hand corner of each day’s column.

Admin users can see this information for any user by clicking on the hamburger menu to the left of the calendar, and selecting the relevant user from the drop-down list of avatars.

Quick toggle

To quickly navigate backwards or forwards through days, weeks, months or years in different calendar views, simply click on the arrows at the top left of the calendar. Clicking the dot in the middle of the arrows will take you back to the current day of the calendar view you’re currently using.

Calendar entries

Depending on your activity in todo.vu, you might see a variety of coloured blocks on your calendar. Some of these are what we refer to as time entries, some are due dates and some are task reminders.

Here’s more about what these different blocks, what we call collectively ‘calendar entries’, mean:

Who sees what?

Every staff user in todo.vu will see on their own calendar: time entries, due dates, and reminders for tasks they’re either in charge of as a task assignee, or that they follow as a task follower.

Administration users in todo.vu will also be able to see this information as it relates to each of their staff in their separate calendar views. Only private tasks are kept hidden from users other than the task’s assignee.

You can also see due tasks that are assigned to other users if you created the task.

Create a new calendar entry

In this section, we explain how to add calendar entries to your own todo.vu calendar.

The only type of calendar entries you will create manually are:

• time entries
• due dates
• reminders

Many calendar entries as indicated by the coloured blocks above are created in todo.vu automatically. For instance, when you first create a time entry for which you haven’t billed, you will see a blue block on the calendar. As soon as you bill for that time, that same blue block will automatically update to green to reflect a billed time entry.

If you are an Admin user and want to add calendar entries to a staff user’s calendar, there are a few differences that you will need to know about – more on this below. If you are not an Admin user, you will only be able to see your own calendar.

Here’s how to add a calendar entry to your own todo.vu calendar:

No matter which method you use to create a calendar entry, a pop-up window will appear every time you carry out any of the above four options.

This is what we call todo.vu’s ‘Time modal’.

Using the Time modal

When you use any of the four methods above to create a calendar entry, todo.vu’s “Time” modal appears. Depending on your workflow, you may be given options to create:

• A time entry
• A due date
• A reminder

These three options are represented by tabs at the top of the Time modal (see the screenshot below) with a ‘Time entry’ tab first on the left, followed by two ‘Task is due’ and ‘Set reminder’ tabs.

It is likely you may only see one tab allowing you to create or edit a time entry only, as many of the options for creating a calendar entry are limited to time entries only.

Using the Time modal for time entries

When using the Time modal to create time entries, you can simply select ‘Log X time’ at the bottom right-hand side of the modal if the data it represents is already correct. (Which may be the case if you’ve created the entry via a click-and-drag motion on your calendar or a predictive time entry.)

Otherwise, you can adjust time entry data on the Time modal by:

• selecting the plus and minus signs on either side of the hours and minutes

• selecting any number on the Time modal, including the start and finish times above the time duration, and using the up/down arrows on your keypad to increase or decrease the time. You can also insert the real numbers from your keypad. Note you can toggle the start and finish times between am and pm by selecting them with your mouse, or using your arrow keys to toggle between them.

• selecting the time disks underneath the time duration.

If you’d like to see your updates to the Time modal made in real time on the calendar, be sure to move the modal by using the 12-dot ‘grabber’ at its top left-hand corner; just click the dots and drag the modal anywhere on your screen with your mouse.

Your edits won’t come into effect until you select ‘Log X h/m’ at the bottom right-hand side of the modal.

Mouse-less time modal editing

You can edit any detail on the Time modal by navigating the data fields with your tab key and left and right arrow keys, and adjusting values with your up and down arrow keys.

Connecting time entries to tasks

For time data to appear in your billing reports, your time entries must be connected to tasks. Why? Because todo.vu breaks down billing reports by billable time on tasks, so it’s easy to see in detail where time was spent (as well as at what cost).

Connect a time entry to an existing task

If you or a staff member has already created a task in todo.vu, time can be recorded and connected to that task from within the Time modal.

Connect a time entry to a new task

To connect a time entry to a new task, follow the same instructions as connecting a time entry to an existing task. However, when the pop-up Tasks modal appears, you will want to create a new task here, instead of searching for an existing one.

Creating a new task is easily done.

A note on unlinking

You can unlink a time entry from a task at any time by selecting that time entry to open the Time modal, then selecting the link icon at the bottom right of the time modal.

Create a due task or task reminder entry

To create a due task or task reminder in your calendar, simply click the date and time in your calendar (while within either of the 1-,3-, 5-, 7- or 9-day rolling views) on which you want your task to be due or to receive the reminder.

The same pop-up Time modal will appear. This time, select either the ‘Task is due’ or ‘Set reminder’ tab to the right of the ‘New time entry’ text at the top of the modal. Here, you can create a new task, or select from an existing task, to be due or ‘woken up’ at this time.

The process of creating a new or connecting to an existing task for a reminder or due date is the same as when connecting a time entry to a task. The only difference is that you are in the ‘Task is due’ or ‘Set reminder’ tab on the pop-up Time modal.

That is:

Select the ‘No task selected’ text or link icon at the bottom of the modal. This will take you to the same pop-up Tasks modal as described above, where you can add or create new tasks.

Search for your task using the Most Recent or Task Dashboard views in the Tasks modal, which you can toggle between using the icon at the top right-hand side of the Tasks modal. Select the task and you will be taken back to the Time modal.

Add new tasks using the blue Task Adder bar at the bottom of the Search Tasks modal. Add (or create) a client and project to connect to this task by clicking on the icon at the left in the Task Adder. Press enter or select the right arrow on the Task Adder bar and you will be taken back to the Time modal.

Then, select ‘Set due date’ or ‘Snooze and remind’.

If you click out of the Time modal at any time, your changes will be lost and the pop-up Time modal will disappear.

Note

If you create a task reminder or due date on a different user’s calendar, todo.vu will prompt you to add that staff member as a follower to that task, if they are not already a follower or task assignee. This is so that they will receive notifications relating to the task.

Note also that you will not be able to set a due task or task reminder on any date in the past.

What does a reminder mean?

When you set a reminder in your calendar for an existing or a new task, you ensure the task the reminder is connected to appears in the ‘Snoozed’ workflow state of your Task Dashboard.

You will receive a notification as soon as the reminder date and time is reached, and that task will automatically move from ‘Snoozed’ to the ‘To do’ workflow state.

Adding to another user’s calendar

If you are an admin user, you can add calendar entries (including time entries) directly to a team member’s calendar by selecting that team member’s avatar from the hamburger menu at the top left of the calendar, and opening their calendar view.

When you add a calendar entry directly to a team member’s calendar, and that calendar entry is linked to a new task, todo.vu will automatically make that team member that task’s assignee.

Note

Team calendar views are persistent; once you select a team member’s calendar view, you will remain on that team member’s calendar until you update the view to either your own or another team member’s calendar. This includes when you close the browser on your Workspace entirely, and then reopen it later.

Modify calendar entries

You can move any calendar entries on your (or your team members’) calendar at any time with a simple drag and drop. This includes due dates and reminders.

You can also edit time entries, due dates and reminders with a quick right click of your mouse on a calendar entry from within any calendar view, or with a right click on a day from within your weekly or monthly calendar views.

A right click on a day within the Month or Year calendar views will allow you to:

• add a new time entry to the day
• add a task due date to the day
• add a task reminder
• navigate to that day’s hourly view

If you click on any time entry, due date or reminder with your left mouse button, the pop-up Time modal will appear, and you are free to edit that particular time entry as required.

Update the time entry’s duration, add a or update the note, and update the task (and therefore client and project) to which that time entry belongs.

Digital calendar sync

You can sync your todo.vu calendar with any external digital calendar that supports iCal feeds.

This way, you can easily see past and upcoming activities and due dates combined with the events of whichever calendar you want. Simply hit the three-dot menu next to your calendar view symbols on the top right-hand side of your calendar.

Select ‘Sync with an external calendar app’ and then ‘Generate’ in the pop-up window to generate an iCal URL. You will have to follow the instructions and advice from your desired calendar app to complete the integration.

Here are some of our tips for calendar syncing.