Start-Stop Timers

Start-Stop Timers let you record focused work manually while keeping WiseTime’s continuous, detailed activity capture as a safety net. This guide follows the style and structure used on help.wisetime.com and explains how the feature works, how to use it, best practices, and the key things every user should know.

Article Content: 

1. Requirements and Setup
2. How Start-Stop Timers Work
3. Best Practices
4. Key Things to Know
5. Troubleshooting and FAQ

Requirements and Setup

• Minimum app version: 4.2.51 or higher.
• Where to check: Open the desktop app and view Application Settings to confirm your version.
• View mode: Use the header view selector to switch from Autonomous to Timers.

How Start-Stop Timers Work

Starting a timer

1. In the Timers view click + New Timer.
2. Select a Tag to attribute the time.
3. If you belong to multiple teams, select the Team first.
4. (Optional) Enter a Narrative — if left blank, WiseTime will generate an AI Narrative for the timer based off your automatically tracked activities.
5. Click Start.

Stopping and uploading

• Click Stop when finished. The timer appears in your list.
• To send the recorded time to your timeline, click the Upload (up arrow) icon.

Narrative behavior

• AI Narrative: Generated automatically when the Narrative field is left blank; WiseTime groups the activity that occurred during the timer and creates a description.
• Manual Narrative: If you typed a narrative at start, that text is used instead of an AI-generated description.

Best Practices

• Use Tags consistently — choose the same Tag for recurring tasks to keep reports clean.
• Start timers for focused work such as calls, drafting, or billable tasks; rely on Autonomous capture for background context.
• Leave Narrative blank when you want an AI summary; provide a manual narrative when you need a specific description.
• Stop timers promptly when a task ends; if you forget, you can edit the elapsed time later.
• Upload promptly to ensure your timeline reflects grouped time entries rather than scattered autonomous rows.
• If you need full detail later, delete the grouped timer entry — WiseTime will restore the original autonomous activity rows automatically.

Key Things to Know

• Autonomous capture remains active even while timers run, so no detailed activity is lost if you forget to start or stop a timer.
• You can edit elapsed time either in the desktop app before uploading or on the web after the entry is on your timeline.
• Deleting a timer entry restores the original activity rows, so grouped timers are reversible without data loss.
• AI narratives only appear when you leave the Narrative field blank. If you enter text, WiseTime assumes you want that manual description.

Troubleshooting and FAQ

• I forgot to stop my timer. What now?
  WiseTime continues to capture activity autonomously. Stop the timer when you remember and edit the elapsed time to the correct duration.
• Where can I edit timer time?
  Edit elapsed time in the desktop app before uploading or on the web timeline after upload.
• Why didn’t I get an AI narrative?
  If you entered a manual narrative when starting the timer, WiseTime uses that text. AI narratives are generated only when the field is left blank.
• Can I convert a manual timer back into individual activity rows?
  Yes. Delete the grouped timer entry from your timeline and the autonomous rows that occurred during that period will reappear.
• Can I disable Autonomous Mode?
  You can switch back to Autonomous view and pause capture, then return to Timers only. Note that pausing Autonomous capture removes the fallback outline of your day and AI narratives will not function on your timeline while Autonomous capture is paused.