For a task that takes one hour and thirty minutes, people might enter 1.5, 1:30, or 90. How should I structure the fields and instructions so everyone records time consistently and the results can be totaled by person or project? If I record start and end times instead, how should breaks be accounted for?
I would pick one unit for the stored value: whole minutes. In a numeric field named Minutes worked, everyone enters 90 for one hour and thirty minutes. Show it as 1h 30m or 1.5 hours in a report, but keep 90 as the value you add. That removes the ambiguity between 1.5, 1:30, and 90.
I would use a Time entries Base with one record per work session: person, work date, linked project, optional linked task, minutes worked, and a short note. If billing matters, add a billable/non-billable flag. To report by person or project, sum the numeric minutes for the relevant entries, then divide the total by 60 for display. This leaves a clear history when someone works on the same task on several days.
If you want clock-in and clock-out times, store full start and end timestamps plus break minutes, and calculate net minutes as elapsed minutes minus breaks. One current UI detail matters: the standard Base Date editor selects a date, not a time of day. For actual start/end times, use an AirApp with date-time inputs or have a connected Agent write full timestamps; Busabase's formula engine can calculate the date-time difference once those values are present. Keep the time zone clear for overnight work, and check that the end follows the start and breaks do not exceed the session.
Would people enter time as they finish each session, or submit one total at the end of each day? That decides whether a session log or a simpler daily timesheet is more comfortable.
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