Project Gantt - Set Up Time Tracking Only Tasks

Last Modified On: November 5, 2026

Overview

There may be situations where you want to track planned effort and log time at a higher level, such as against a project phase or milestone, rather than against individual tasks. The Time Tracking Only option allows you to create tasks that serve as placeholders for time tracking purposes.
 

When Time Tracking Only is enabled for a task, the task is excluded from project roll-up calculations, including Total Duration, % Complete, Start Date, Finish Date, and other related roll-up fields. Time Tracking Only tasks are also excluded from Resource Utilization. This allows you to track planned effort and actual time at a higher level without impacting the project’s overall calculations or resource utilization reporting.

How to Set up Time Tracking Only Tasks

Create your project plan as you normally would. However, we recommend creating Time Tracking Only tasks in a separate section of your project. This keeps them separate from your project task hierarchy and prevents them from being included in roll-up calculations for parent tasks.
 

In the example below, the Time Tracking Only tasks are organized in a separate section at the bottom of the project.

Select the Time Tracking Only checkbox to exclude these tasks from project roll-up calculations.

You can specify Duration and Planned Effort for your Time Tracking Only tasks. The Duration, Start Date, and Finish Date determine when these tasks appear in the Time Tracker tab, allowing users to log time against them during the applicable period.
 

Time Tracking Only tasks are excluded from the Resource Allocation page when calculating and displaying a resource’s allocation and capacity. This allows you to track planned effort and actual time without impacting resource allocation calculations.

Assign the Time Tracking Only tasks to the appropriate resources so they can log time against these tasks using the Time Tracker.