Time Control (Employee Productivity)
Time Control guide: measure application and website time, set productivity rules, and manage work hours, attendance, alerts and reports.
What is Time Control#
Time Control measures how much active time a user spends in each application and on each website. It counts every use as productive, neutral or unproductive by your rules and shows the result as a productivity score.
In this guide: productivity rules, work hours, attendance and privacy.
How it works#
When the module is on, the agent starts a low-privilege sampler in the active user session. The sampler reads the foreground application and idle time every 5 seconds. Sessions go to the server in 60-second batches.
| Data | What is collected | Platform |
|---|---|---|
| Foreground application | Application name and file path, every 5 seconds. | Windows, macOS, Linux (X11) |
| Website | Domain only. Read from the address bar of Chrome, Edge, Brave, Opera, Vivaldi and Firefox. | Windows |
| Idle time | Time without keyboard or mouse activity. You set the threshold. | Windows, macOS, Linux (X11) |
| Session events | Logon and screen lock. Used for attendance and locked time. | Windows, macOS, Linux (X11) |
Turning on the module#
The module is off by default for each workspace. You need the time_control.update permission to turn it on.
- 1Turn on the module
Turn on the Time Control switch on the System > Workspace > Modules tab. You can also use the Settings button at the top right of the Time Control page.
- 2Set the limits
Set the idle threshold (60–3600 s), the session retention (1–365 days) and the summary retention.
- 3Check the notice
In Agent Profiles > profile > Time Control tab, Notify users about Time Control is on by default.
Productivity rules#
On the Time Control > Productivity rules tab, you make an application or domain productive, neutral or unproductive per endpoint group. A domain rule also covers subdomains. When a device is in more than one group, the strictest class wins.
- Ready-made catalog: the Add rules wizard lists known global and Turkish applications and websites by category. Picking an item adds its process names on every operating system and its domains.
- Category rules: classify 31 categories such as Social media, Betting and Development per endpoint group.
- Apply persona: the Developer, Designer, Sales, Marketing, Finance, Human resources, Support or Executive persona sets a class for every category in one step. The review step shows which existing rules it overwrites.
- Priority: application and website rules always win over category rules.
Work hours#
On the Time Control > Work hours tab, set a schedule for each endpoint group: working days, start and end hour and time zone. When the end is before the start, the schedule is a night shift.
An hour is in hours when it falls in the window of any group of the device; otherwise it is after hours. Time on devices without a schedule shows as Unscheduled. The Work hours card on the Overview shows these three values and the users with the most after-hours time.
Attendance#
On the Time Control > Attendance tab, each row is a day, user and device: logon, first and last activity, active time and locked time. The status comes from the work schedule of the device group.
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| On time | First activity is before the planned start. |
| Late | First activity is after the planned start. The delay is shown. |
| Off day | The schedule does not cover that day. |
| No schedule | No group of the device has a schedule. |
Early departure is the time between the last activity and the planned end. When a device is in more than one group, the most flexible schedule is used.
Timeline and comparison#
On the Time Control > Timeline tab, each row is a user and device pair. Sessions are drawn in the colour of their productivity class. Zoom with the mouse wheel or the slider below the chart.
The Time Control > Compare tab shows two users or two endpoint groups side by side for the same date range: active time, productivity score, focus share, meeting share and after-hours share.
Alerts#
On the Time Control > Alerts tab, define a rule with a metric and a threshold. Rules are checked every hour against the previous day in the workspace time zone. When there are new alerts, workspace admins get one bell and email notification.
| Metric | Alert condition |
|---|---|
| Daily unproductive time | Above the threshold |
| Daily after-hours time | Above the threshold |
| Daily productivity score | Below the threshold. Days with less than 1 hour of activity are skipped. |
Privacy#
With the Pseudonymize user names switch on the System > Workspace > Modules tab, every screen, filter, report and alert email shows a stable pseudonym instead of the user name. The key is generated per workspace and never leaves the server. Device names are not hidden.
When monitoring starts, the user sees the notice “This device is monitored by Time Control”. You manage this notice per agent profile.
Reports#
The Reports > Time Control module includes application and website time, user productivity summary, daily active and idle time, productivity by endpoint group, biggest time sinks and attendance reports. Export them as CSV, XLSX, JSON or PDF, or send them by scheduled email.
You need time_control.view to see the screens and reports, and time_control.update to change settings and rules.