When travelling with your laptop or iPhone across time zones, it can be inconvenient to have to log out and then back into LiveTimer in order to force it to recognize the time zone change. Therefore, we've begun checking your time zone every time you start or stop the timer.

In order to identify your time zone, LiveTimer checks with your browser, which in turn checks your operating system. Unfortunately, some browsers, such as Firefox, seem to cache the time zone once they've been started. Therefore, it may be necessary to close and reopen your browser for changes to your operating system's time zone to be recognized by your browser.

We've confirmed that dynamic time zone recognition works in the following platform / browser combinations:

• iPhone / iPod Touch: Safari
• Mac: Safari 3.2, Fluid 0.9.5
• Windows: Internet Explorer 7

If you travel quite a bit, consider using LiveTimer from one of these browsers. After all, jet lag is enough to worry about!

We've enhanced our reports in a couple ways that should be useful for teams distributed across multiple time zones:

• Custom time zones can now be specified for reports - When configuring a report, you can now specify a time zone different from the time zone in which you logged in. This custom time zone will be used when applying date filters to your report. This allows everyone on your team to see the same results when running a report filtered by the same dates.
• Detailed listings can now be shown with times converted to the same time zone - Previously, times could only be shown in the time zone in which they were entered.

Both of these options are available from the Configure tab of reports. Of course, you can memorize reports with these options in order to quickly run them again without reconfiguration.

We recently launched LiveTimer Mini, a compact version of our most frequently used features. We created LiveTimer Mini by reworking our iPhone interface to be compatible with every desktop browser we support (Internet Explorer 7+, Safari 3+, Firefox 2+, and Google Chrome). In the process, we also boosted the performance and improved the look of our iPhone interface.

In order to try out LiveTimer Mini, just click on the Mini link in the lower left corner of your LiveTimer account. This should resize your browser and load LiveTimer Mini (note: because Google Chrome does not allow web sites to resize your browser, it may be necessary to resize your browser manually). Once in Mini mode, you can return to full sized Standard mode by clicking on the Standard link in the lower left corner.

LiveTimer Mini currently has all the capabilities of the iPhone interface, including a small version of the Timer and Time Ledger. You'll notice that the Time tab looks a bit lonely at the top. It will soon be joined by an Expenses tab for expense tracking, a feature that many of our users have waited for patiently.

Many Integration Options for LiveTimer Mini

Although LiveTimer Mini runs just fine in desktop browsers, you may appreciate integrating it more closely into your Mac or Windows desktop. Options include:

• Mac Dashboard Widget - Browse to your account in Safari, switch to Mini mode, and then right click and choose "Open in Dashboard...". Select the entire page, from the upper left corner to the lower right corner, and then click Add. Voila! LiveTimer Mini has become a Dashboard Widget.
• Fluid Application in Mac OS X - If you'd like a visual indication of when your timer is running right in your Mac's dock, try running LiveTimer with Fluid. The simple instructions are described in this article and this video, and work for both Mini and Standard modes.
• Google Chrome Application in Windows - Creating desktop applications with Chrome is simple: Browse to your LiveTimer account, then click the Page controls in Chrome, and then "Create application shortcuts...". As mentioned above, switching between Mini and Standard modes in Chrome is a bit tedious because it requires that you manually resize the window, but that's the only downside we've found.
• Firefox Prism Application in Windows - Firefox 3 has an add-on named Prism that can be used like Chrome to create a desktop version of your favorite web applications. A future blog post will be dedicated to running LiveTimer with Prism.

We will soon post video tutorials that explain each of the above techniques in detail. In the mean time, don't hesitate to ask for help if you have trouble with the brief instructions provided here. Also, please let us know how LiveTimer Mini works for you!

LiveTimer has just added support for OpenID, a free and easy way to use a single identity across multiple websites. You can learn more about OpenID at OpenID.net, which also lists a number of ways to get your own OpenID. You may be surprised to learn that you already have an OpenID through another service you use!

Once you have an OpenID, it's simple to enable it within your LiveTimer account:

1. Click on Settings and then My Profile
2. In the Authentication section, click Edit Login
3. Click Use OpenID
4. Enter your OpenID and then click Update

It's easy to log in using OpenID:

1. On the log in page, click Use OpenID
2. Enter your OpenID and optionally check "Remember me?" before clicking Log in
3. You'll be taken to your OpenID provider to authenticate yourself, and then automatically returned to your LiveTimer account

Once you start using OpenID, I think you'll really appreciate the simplicity of a single online ID.

We've just completed a major upgrade of LiveTimer's reporting system. We've added new billing reports, new report grouping options, and a number of features that improve the flexibility and performance of reports.

The new report configuration page is shown below:

You can now convert a summary report to a detailed listing report, and vice versa, just by changing its "Style". Furthermore, detailed listings can now be grouped with the same options as summary reports. These options have been expanded to include a number of date-based groupings:

Our billing reports are brand new, and hopefully not too overdue for users who have been entering billing rates since the beginning of the month. Since we support multiple currencies per account, we also allow billing reports to display multiple currencies, each in its own column within the same report:

We hope that our new reports help improve both your revenues and productivity!

We're pleased to announce the introduction of billing rates to LiveTimer. In order to enable these new features in your account, go to the Settings Tab, then Billing, and then click Enable.

LiveTimer supports 164 currencies and allows multiple currencies per account. You can even configure the format of each currency independently, including whether cents are shown.

In keeping with the flexibility of our classification system, we also allow you to specify the level at which billing rates are used. You can track billing rates per client / project / task, per activity, or per user.

Billing rates can be named and shared, or can be uniquely assigned.

We've also added the ability to mark certain classifications as "Not Billable". For example, if you've defined billing rates for clients / projects / tasks, you can mark certain activities as "Not Billable" in order to override the billing rates.

Please note: We've got quite a few more billing-related features coming in the very near future. The first will be reports that use these billing rates, which will make these new features truly useful. Rest assured, they're right around the corner!

We're proud to announce the launch of LiveTimer's new iPhone interface, which makes tracking your time effortless when you're on the go. We've optimized LiveTimer to work smoothly and responsively on iPhone, whether you're accessing the Internet using Wi-Fi or the slower EDGE network.

In order to access the iPhone-optimized site, you'll need an iPhone or iPod Touch. Open Safari and visit your account's login page (e.g. https://myaccount.livetimer.com). You may want to check the new "Remember me?" option when you login to avoid having to re-enter your user name and password. Furthermore, you may find it helpful to add a LiveTimer link to your home screen (just click the + button, and then "Add to Home Screen").

Both the Timer and Time Ledger are available in LiveTimer's iPhone-optimized interface. You can even create new classifications, such as clients, projects and tasks, as you track your time. If you want to access all of the features of LiveTimer from your iPhone, perhaps to view a time report, just click "View main site" and you'll be taken to the familiar LiveTimer interface. Another click on "View iPhone-optimized site" will take you back.

We hope you enjoy tracking your time with LiveTimer's iPhone interface.

We've added the option to change the sort order of the Time Ledger. Until now, time entries were always displayed in descending order, with the most recent at the top. For example:

Some users found this counter-intuitive, especially since end times appear above start times when editing time entries. Therefore, we've added an ascending sort option in which the most recent time entry appears at the bottom. With ascending sort enabled, the same Time Ledger entries appear as follows:

In order to change this preference for your account, go to the Settings tab, Preferences, and then update Sort Order under Time Ledger Preferences.

Due to popular demand, we've added a new date format preference. As you can see below, we've added quite a few options, but please let us know if we've overlooked any:

We hope that this makes LiveTimer a more natural fit for our international customers.

Reports can now be exported in CSV (Comma-Separated Values) or XML (Extensible Markup Language) formats. Just look for the CSV and XML links in the upper right corner of each report.

CSV files can be easily opened with any spreadsheet application, such as Microsoft Excel. In addition, most databases can import CSV formatted data.

XML files provide detailed, structured information that may be particularly useful to developers. The XML report format is discussed extensively in the LiveTimer API.

If you'd like us to provide additional export formats, please email us at support AT livetimer DOT com..

We're pleased to announce the new LiveTimer API (Application Programming Interface). The API can be used by developers to extend any desktop, or web-based, applications to include time tracking. Also, you can use the API to integrate your LiveTimer account with your company's project management or accounting systems.

The LiveTimer API adheres to the REST principles as closely as possible. Resources, such as projects, users and time entries, each have a unique URI. These resources are controlled using the primary HTTP verbs: GET, POST, PUT AND DELETE. Data is returned in XML format.

If you'd like to learn more, please read our extensive documentation of the LiveTimer API.

If you have any questions or feedback about the API, please email us at support AT livetimer DOT com.

It's been quite a while since we've posted any news here, but that doesn't mean we haven't been busy working on LiveTimer. In fact, we've re-architected the entire site in the past couple months to support both a developers' API and full account backups and restores. We're still putting the finishing touches on the developers' API, but we're ready to release the account backup and restore feature right now.

Your account - Your data

We appreciate the trust you place in us by keeping your valuable data on our site, and we make every reasonable effort to keep your data secure and confidential. In fact, we currently make full backups of every account's data and we copy those backups offsite on a daily basis. However, we recognize that your data is your own, and we're now giving you more direct control of it.

You may now backup your account once every 24 hours. Backup files are in XML format, which is plain text and easily readable, and include almost all of your account's data. Notably missing are user passwords, user preferences, and memorized reports (all of these settings will be preserved if possible during a restore).

You may download your latest backup file at any time. Backup files are zipped along with a signature file that verifies the authenticity of the backup.

Disaster recovery on your terms

While it's nice to be able to extract your account's data in a backup file, it really is only one half of the safety net for your data. We've decided to also provide the other half: the ability to restore your full account from one of your backups.

We always keep your latest backup file on our servers, which makes it especially easy to restore your account from this file. However, we also allow you to restore your account from a backup file that you've downloaded in the past.

Peace of mind

In order to access these new features, account administrators should click on the Account tab, and then Backup / Restore Account.

We hope that you enjoy the peace of mind that comes from having more control over your account and direct access to your data.

Most people spend the majority of their time in LiveTimer using either the Timer or Time Ledger. With that in mind, we've just completed some major enhancements to the Time Ledger which make it more useful and efficient.

Bulk time entry

Time can now be entered "in bulk" one day or one week at a time. The Bulk Entry view in the Time Ledger displays all of your assignments as rows and the day (or days) as columns. The day view allows you to enter notes along with your time entries.

While bulk entry may not be as accurate for tracking time as the Timer, we think you'll find that this is the most efficient way to make many time entries at once.

Time summaries

Several users have requested a quick means to check time totals as they work. To meet this need, we've embedded a Summary view within the Time Ledger. This view displays a filtered time summary report that is updated automatically as you make Timer entries.

You can quickly step through multiple days of Time Summaries within the Time Ledger, or you can view a summary for an entire week.

We hope you enjoy these new features. Please let us know what you think!

Reports can now be filtered by the periods "This half month" and "Last half month". The first half of any month is considered the 1st through the 15th, and the second half is the 16th through the end of month. We hope that this will be useful for those of you who report your time on a bimonthly basis.

A complete list of filterable periods is shown below:

In addition to making date ranges easy to select, filterable periods are useful for creating memorized reports because dates are recalculated from periods whenever reports are run. This allows you to create memorized reports such as "My hours this half month" which you can run with a single click and never have to reconfigure.

We've added custom ID fields for classifications and users. IDs can be used to keep track of your data, and may reference IDs that you use elsewhere for project management or accounting purposes.

The assignment of IDs to your data is completely optional. However, we're sure that these fields will be useful to clients who need to manage a large number of classifications.