The task timer

Starting a Timer

A timer always belongs to a task:

1. Open the task from the Tasks page, or from the project it belongs to
2. In the detail panel, click "Start timer"
3. The elapsed time counts up beside the button
4. Click it again to stop

You can also start one as you create the task: the "New task" form offers "Create and start timer" instead of the usual "Create task".

One Timer at a Time

Only one timer runs at a time per person. Starting a timer on another task stops whatever was running before it, so two pieces of work can never be billed for the same hour. A timer left running stays visible as you move around the dashboard, and "Discard time" in the panel throws away an entry you started by mistake or forgot to stop.

How the Hours Are Counted

Each start and stop is stored as its own entry, and the hours shown on a task are added up from those entries rather than kept as a running total. Correcting or discarding an entry therefore updates the task's hours immediately — there is no stale figure left behind.

Turning Time Into a Price

Tracked time never changes what a client owes on its own. When you want the work priced from the clock, click "Apply" in the panel:

• Bridge multiplies the time logged on that task by your hourly rate
• The result becomes the task's price, which you can still edit by hand
• The figure is recalculated on the server from the entries themselves, so it always matches the time actually logged

Applying needs both an hourly rate and some stopped time: without a rate Bridge asks you to set one for the project or your account first, and a task with nothing logged yet has no time to price.

Where Your Rate Comes From

Bridge looks for an hourly rate in this order:

1. The rate set on the project itself, if it has one
2. Your account default, under Settings → Payout settings → "Default hourly rate"

A rate on a project always wins, which is what lets one client be billed at a different rate from the rest.

Who Can See It

The timer is designer-only, by design. How long a job took is your cost basis, so the client side of Bridge — the widget and the client portal — has no timer in it, and the requests behind it only answer to your own account. Your client sees the price you set, never the hours behind it.

Tip: Start the timer from the task itself rather than keeping time elsewhere. Once the hours live on the task, pricing the work is one click, and the task carries its own record of what it took.