Task time tracking without GPS: a timer instead of a route

In Taskloc GPS is an option, not a precondition for time tracking. The employee opens a task from your tracker, taps Timer — and time on the task is counted with no route, no coordinates and not even the location permission. When it stops, the hours go to the task in your tracker, just as if they had been logged by hand.

One app covers both field employees who need a route and office staff who don't.

When you don't need GPS

• Office or remote work: there's no route, but time per task is still needed.
• An employee isn't ready to share location, and the company doesn't want to make an issue of it.
• A mixed team: some people travel, some sit at a desk, and tracking should be the same for everyone.
• GPS is poor on site, but the time still has to be recorded.

How the timer works

1. The employee opens the task card and taps Timer, next to the Tracking button.
2. The card shows a running clock; the notification shade shows a regular notification with a stopwatch and a Stop button. The GPS service does not start.
3. On stop, the time goes to the tracker as a time entry. A comment and a status change can go along with it.
4. No network — the entry waits in a queue and is sent automatically when the connection returns.

The timer doesn't depend on whether GPS tracking is turned on in the settings, and it doesn't need the location permission.

A forgotten timer

When the timer reaches 4 hours of active time, a "Timer is still running" reminder arrives with Continue and Stop buttons. It stops nothing by itself. On stop you can choose the end time: now, or the moment the reminder arrived — so a timer left running overnight doesn't turn into extra hours.

A check-in instead of a route

When the visit matters but the whole trip doesn't, there's the Check in button: a one-off arrival mark at the task's site, with no route recorded. Check-ins show up in stats, and on the team map a manager sees the latest check-in of the day with its time and place. Check-in can be set as the main quick-action button on the task screen.

GPS is still there for those who need it

The timer and the GPS session sit side by side on the same task card. A field employee starts a GPS session with a route; an office employee starts the timer. Both send hours to the same task in the tracker.

If the team doesn't need GPS at all, the owner or an admin can forbid GPS tracking with the team policy. The server enforces that strictly, and it doesn't touch the timer — time tracking keeps working.

Where the hours go

Time goes back to the same tracker if it accepts time entries: Redmine, Yandex Tracker, Bitrix24, Kaiten, OpenProject, Jira Cloud and others. Some trackers have no time-entry API — then the hours stay in Taskloc and appear in web dashboard reports: what each tracker can do.

Limitations

• Timer sessions don't appear in Routes: that section shows only GPS tracks with coordinates.
• If time tracking is turned off for a project in the tracker, the entry won't go through — the time stays in Taskloc.
• The app is Android-only. The web dashboard opens in any browser; there is no iPhone app.

More: timer, GPS tracking.

Questions

Does the timer need location permission?

No. The timer works without the location permission and without the GPS service.

Can we forbid GPS for the whole team but keep time tracking?

Yes. In the team policy GPS tracking and the timer are separate toggles. Forbidding GPS doesn't turn off the timer.

How is the timer different from a GPS session?

Only in that it doesn't record a route. Time on the task is counted the same way and goes to the tracker the same way.

What if someone forgets to stop the timer?

After 4 hours of active time a reminder arrives. On stop, the end time can be set to the moment of that reminder.

Try it with your team

Connect your tracker, install the app for two people — one in the field, one in the office — and run one task with GPS and one with the timer. Free works forever for one seat; the Team trial gives 14 days and 3 seats, once per account. No card is needed to start, and nothing is charged after 14 days — the account simply moves to Free.

Team is paid with Mir cards issued in Russia and the CIS and via SBP, or — with a card issued by a foreign bank — by a one-off Robokassa invoice: contact us and we will send a payment link.

On the privacy side of field tracking: GPS time tracking without surveillance.