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Click the Grid Time Tracker icon in your menu bar to open the popover. You'll see your projects with activities listed underneath. Click the play button next to any activity to start tracking. The button changes to a pause icon and an animated ring appears around the main timer button at the bottom, letting you know time is being recorded. Click pause when you're done and your session is saved automatically.

Click the menu bar icon to open the popover, then click the hamburger menu button (three horizontal lines) at the bottom. Select "Projects" to open the project manager. Click the + button in the left sidebar to create a new project and give it a name. With a project selected, use the + button in the right panel to add activities under it. You can create as many projects and activities as you need.

Projects are containers that group related work together. Think of them as clients, areas of responsibility, or major initiatives. Activities are the specific types of tasks you do within each project. For example, a "Client A" project might have activities like "Design", "Development", "Meetings", and "Admin". Time is always tracked at the activity level, which gives you detailed insights into how you spend your hours.

Grid Time Tracker requires macOS 14.0 (Sonoma) or later. It's a native macOS app built with Swift and SwiftUI, so it runs efficiently and follows Apple's design guidelines.

Yes. Click the + button in the bottom-right of the toolbar popover. Select the activity you worked on, enter the hours and minutes, and save. Manual entries are labeled differently in your session history so you can distinguish them from automatically tracked time. This is useful for logging work you did offline, in meetings where you couldn't access your computer, or time you simply forgot to track.

This is intentional. When you navigate to a previous date in the popover, the play buttons are disabled to prevent accidentally creating sessions with incorrect timestamps. Time tracking should reflect when work actually happened. If you need to log time for a previous date, use the manual time entry feature. It's designed exactly for this purpose and keeps your records accurate.

No, Grid Time Tracker is designed around focused, single-task tracking. Only one timer can run at a time. If you start a new activity while another is running, the current one stops automatically. This approach encourages focused work and produces cleaner, more accurate time data. If you frequently switch between tasks, you'll see each switch reflected as separate sessions in your history.

In Preferences, you can set a minimum session duration to declutter your History list. Sessions shorter than your chosen threshold are hidden from the History list only. They still count toward every total and appear in your Charts. Nothing is deleted or excluded from your data. This is useful for keeping accidental timer starts (clicking play then immediately stopping) or very brief interruptions out of your session list without affecting your totals. Every saved session (down to 5 seconds) is always counted.

At the top of the popover, you'll see the current date and navigation arrows. Click the left or right arrows to move between days. To change the time period, click the hamburger menu and select Day, Week, Month, Year, or All Time. Each view shows totals for that period. Week shows your last 7 days, Month shows the current calendar month, and so on. The All Time view shows your complete history across all dates.

Yes. Open the hamburger menu, go to Preferences, and find the "Start of Week" setting. Choose either Sunday or Monday. This affects how weekly totals are calculated and how the week view displays your data. The change takes effect immediately.

Grid Time Tracker includes three chart types, accessible from the Charts tab. The Heatmap is a calendar-style grid where each cell represents a day, with darker colors indicating more hours tracked (similar to a GitHub contribution graph). The Bar Chart shows hours per day as vertical bars across your selected time period, useful for comparing daily output. The Pie Chart displays time distribution, grouped by project or activity, to see where your time goes proportionally. All charts support six color themes and can be exported as PNG images.

All your time tracking data is stored locally on your Mac in the app's data directory. Nothing is uploaded to any server, cloud service, or third party. Your data stays on your device and under your control. This means your time tracking information remains completely private.

Open the hamburger menu and select "Export Data". Choose your preferred format: CSV (opens in Excel, Google Sheets, Numbers, or any spreadsheet app, best for invoicing and analysis), JSON (structured data format useful for developers or importing into other tools), or TXT (human-readable text report). Then choose a report type: Session Details (every individual time entry), Project Summary (totals per project), or Daily Breakdown (time totals grouped by date). Files are saved to your Downloads folder.

The easiest backup method is regular exports using the Export Data feature. Save CSV or JSON files periodically to preserve your records. For a complete backup including all app settings, you can copy the data folder at ~/Library/Application Support/Grid Time Tracker/. To access this folder, open Finder, click Go > Go to Folder, and paste that path.

Not currently. Grid Time Tracker stores data locally on each device without cloud sync. If you work on multiple Macs, you'll have separate time records on each one. You can export data from one machine and keep combined records manually in a spreadsheet.

Open the Projects view from the hamburger menu. Select the project you want to archive, then click the Archive button. Archived projects are hidden from the main popover but not deleted. All their time data is preserved. You can view and restore archived items from the Projects view by toggling the archive filter.

Yes. Deleted projects and activities go to Trash instead of being permanently removed. Open the Trash view from the hamburger menu to see deleted items. Each item shows how many days remain before permanent deletion. Click Restore to bring any item back with all its data intact. You can configure how long items stay in Trash (7, 30, or 90 days) in Preferences. After the retention period, items are automatically and permanently deleted.

Yes. Open the Projects view, find the activity you want to move, and use the Move option. Select the destination project and confirm. The activity transfers with its complete session history preserved. This is useful when reorganizing your project structure or when work shifts between clients or areas.

Grid Time Tracker offers three plans: Monthly at $4.99/month, Annual at $29.99/year (with a 7-day free trial, about $2.50/month), and Lifetime at $59.99 as a one-time purchase. All plans include the same features and all future updates. Purchases are made through the Mac App Store.

Yes. New users get a 7-day free trial of all Pro features when they install Grid Time Tracker. No credit card required to start. The trial begins automatically when you launch the app and converts to a paid Annual subscription unless cancelled before it ends.

Yes. You can cancel anytime through System Settings → Apple ID → Subscriptions on your Mac, or via the App Store. If you cancel during your trial, you won't be charged. If you cancel a paid subscription, you keep access until the end of the current billing period.

Your tracking data stays on your Mac regardless of subscription status. After your subscription ends, you can still view your history, export your data, and adjust your settings. You just can't start new tracking sessions until you resubscribe. Resubscribing restores full functionality immediately and your historical data is exactly where you left it.

Monthly ($4.99/mo) and Annual ($29.99/yr) are auto-renewing subscriptions. Annual includes a 7-day free trial and works out to about $2.50/month, significantly cheaper than paying monthly. Lifetime ($59.99) is a one-time purchase that unlocks Pro permanently, including all future updates. If you plan to use Grid Time Tracker for more than two years, Lifetime is the best value.

Only when starting a subscription or restoring purchases. All tracking happens locally on your Mac and your tracking data never leaves your device. The only network call Grid makes is to verify your subscription status with the App Store. No tracking content, project names, or session details are sent anywhere.

No. Existing users from before v1.2 are automatically grandfathered to Pro permanently. You won't see paywalls or pricing prompts and you keep full access to all current and future features at no cost. Thank you for being an early supporter.

Grid Time Tracker has a one-minute heartbeat that checks if tracking is alive. If your Mac sleeps, the screen locks, your Mac shuts down, or the app crashes mid-session, your time is automatically saved up to the last heartbeat. When you relaunch, a notification confirms the session was preserved. You won't lose tracking data from unexpected interruptions.

Optional reminders that ask "Still working on X?" at intervals you configure (default 15 minutes). They help prevent accidentally logging hours on the wrong project. You can confirm to keep tracking, stop the session, or dismiss the reminder. Configure or disable check-ins in Preferences → Notifications.

Yes. Every notification (check-ins, app-quit confirmations, and crash recovery alerts) can be toggled individually in Preferences → Notifications. Notifications appear on whichever display your mouse cursor is on, so you won't miss them across multiple monitors.

Yes. The menubar icon appears on every display's menu bar, and notifications follow your mouse cursor, appearing on whichever screen you're actively working on so you never miss them. The popover itself opens on the display where you clicked the menu bar icon.

First, check if your menu bar is full. On smaller screens or with many menu bar apps, icons can be hidden. Look for a >> or similar overflow indicator on the right side of your menu bar. If that's not the issue, try quitting Grid Time Tracker completely (right-click the icon if visible and choose Quit, or use Activity Monitor) and reopening it. The icon should appear within a few seconds of launch. If problems persist, restart your Mac. Menu bar apps occasionally need a system restart to register properly, especially after installation or updates.

First, make sure you're stopping the timer before quitting the app. Sessions are saved when you click pause, not continuously while running. Check that your Mac's disk isn't full (verify in Apple menu > About This Mac > Storage). If specific sessions are missing, check your minimum session duration setting in Preferences, as sessions shorter than your threshold are filtered from view. If problems continue, try exporting any existing data as a backup, then quit and reopen the app.

First, verify your timezone setting in Preferences matches your actual location. Incorrect timezone settings can make times appear off. If your Mac went to sleep while a timer was running, the session continues when your Mac wakes. The app tracks elapsed time accurately across sleep/wake cycles. For very long sessions, double-check the start time in your session history. If you forgot to stop a timer overnight, you can delete that session from History and manually add the correct time.

If you need to start fresh or are troubleshooting persistent issues: 1) Quit Grid Time Tracker completely. 2) Open Finder and press Cmd+Shift+G. 3) Enter ~/Library/Application Support/ and press Go. 4) Find and delete the "Grid Time Tracker" folder. 5) Relaunch the app. Warning: This permanently deletes all your projects, activities, and time data. Export anything you want to keep before doing this.

We'd love to hear from you. Use the contact form at the top of this page or email us at Support@gridtimetracker.com. For bug reports, please include what you were doing when the issue occurred, what you expected to happen, and what actually happened. Screenshots are helpful if relevant.

This FAQ covers all major features and common questions. The app is designed to be intuitive, and most users find they can start tracking time within seconds of opening it. If you have a question not covered here, reach out to support and we'll help you directly.