Project Tracking

The article outlines the Project Tracking feature in BambooHR, available to all customers regardless of their package. It details how to set up and manage projects, including logging time and tracking pay rates. Users can access Project Tracking settings through the Time & Attendance tab. The guide covers adding projects, managing pay rates, and importing project pay rates into employee profiles. It emphasizes the importance of accurate data entry for syncing with payroll and offers tips for importing data effectively. Additionally, it provides instructions on creating tasks within projects and the implications of enabling Time & Attendance. This resource aims to enhance project management and time tracking capabilities for users.

  • Jul 2, 2026
  • Knowledge

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Project Tracking
Article Text
This feature is included in the Core, Pro, and Elite packages and is enhanced with the Time Tracking add-on.

Project Tracking is available to all customers regardless of the package purchased. However, customers without BambooHR® Time & Attendance must import hours to track hours to specific projects.

How do I Set up Project Tracking?

Purpose: With Project Tracking, our customers with employees working on diverse tasks or for various clients can easily add and manage projects and pay rates within BambooHR. This guide will show you how to create projects, log time to specific tasks (add-on), track multiple pay rates, and efficiently import project pay rates, enhancing your project management and time tracking capabilities.

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Table of Contents

BambooHR Time & Attendance customers can track project time while adding hours to their timesheet. Understanding where your time is spent is a powerful tool; it helps you see how long projects take and where you can optimize for the future. If you've been manually tracking billable hours for clients in spreadsheets, we have a better way! Our report shows you the billable and non-billable hours for each client, ready to send to accounting or directly to the client. This guide will show you how to set up Project Tracking so your employees can accurately report the time they spend on each project.

Accessing Project Tracking Settings

You can find Project Tracking settings by navigating to the Time & Attendance tab in Settings.

Project Tracking settings display a list of all the projects you've created. Here are the options available for each project:

  1. Add Project: Click this button to add a new project. There is no limit to how many projects you can track in BambooHR.
  2. Search by project name
  3. Bulk select: Clicking the Bulk Select button enables a checkmark next to each project. Once enabled, you can use the search bar to filter as needed, then archive, unarchive, or delete your projects. An admin can perform actions on both active or archived projects.
  4. Project Status: Use this dropdown menu to select either Active or Archived projects.
  5. Projects Included in Payroll: The dollar symbol indicates that hours logged to this project appear in payroll, allowing for rate entry. You can enable this in the individual project tracking settings.
  6. Project: Click on the project name to make any changes to its setup.
  7. People: This feature is only available if you've enabled Time & Attendance. Otherwise, it will always show '0'. This number indicates how many employees are assigned to the project. Click it to see a list of those employees.
  8. Tasks: This number indicates the tasks you've created within the project.
  9. Duplicate: Click the duplicate icon to easily copy projects with all attached tasks.
  10. Archive: If you are no longer working on a specific project, you can click the archive icon. This archives the project, making it unavailable for employees to track time on. To unarchive a project, simply click the Active filter in the top right corner to see a list of archived projects, then click the unarchive icon next to the project. This action is also available in bulk if you click the Bulk Select button (see #3).
  11. Delete: If you created a project by mistake or no longer need the data associated with a specific project, click the delete icon. However, if you ever need to recreate that project, simply enter the same name to restore the project. This action is also available in bulk if you click the Bulk Select button (see #3).

Add Project

  1. Project Name: Enter the project name. This name shows when the employee is logging hours for this project. Additionally, it lists on the employee's timesheet and in the Project Hours report.
  2. Who can log time to this project?: Select if all employees can log time to this project. Otherwise, select "Only specific employees" and choose which employees to assign. Remember, this project will only appear as an option for assigned employees when they log time.
  3. If Who can log time to this project? appears grayed out: Time & Attendance is not enabled. You will see the message above, and no one will be able to log time directly to your projects or tasks.
  4. How will time be logged?:
    • If Time & Attendance is enabled: Select whether employees will log time directly to the project. If so, you'll choose if the time logged is billable or non-billable. If you need to report time on specific tasks within the project, check that option. You'll then be able to add the list of tasks* you want to track for this project. For each task, you'll select if the logged time should be billable or non-billable. Remember, each task name will appear as an option for the employee to select when logging time.
    • If Time & Attendance is not enabled: You can use this step to create tasks within a project. However, an administrator must import hours to log time directly to the project or tasks.
  5. Break out projects in payroll:
    • If BambooHR Payroll is enabled: Checking this box ensures projects appear separately in payroll, payroll reports, and journal entry reports.
    • If BambooHR Payroll is not enabled: Checking this box ensures any project/task hours appear in the Payroll Hours Detail report.
  6. Be sure to save the project.

You can remove tasks by clicking the "X" next to each task. The system won't prompt for confirmation, so use this option with caution. Note that these tasks are archived; they'll still exist in the background and appear in history and reports, but they won't show in the project or be an option for employees to select. If you recreate a deleted task name under the same project, it reactivates the previously deleted task.

Need to track multiple pay rates for projects? Check out this help guide to learn how!

Project Pay Rates table

Once you set up your project, you'll need to add the Project Pay Rates table to the employee profile to track multiple pay rates. Navigate to any employee profile and click on their Job tab. From there, click Customize Layout > Reorder Fields > Add > Project Pay Rates > Done. You can then drag and drop the table anywhere you'd like on the job tab, then click Save.

The Project Pay Rate table includes the following fields:

  • Start Date
  • End Date
  • Project or Task Name (Only active projects show up in this list. Make sure to create your projects in Project Tracking before attempting to add rates.)
  • Pay Rate (USD only)
  • Comment
  • Edit (pencil icon)
  • Delete (trash can icon)

For Project Pay Rates to sync correctly with your payroll, the start date in the Project Pay Rate table must be the first day of the current pay period. This rule applies to both existing employees and new hires. If you have a new hire who starts mid-pay period and will have multiple pay rates, you must still set the start date for those rates in the Project Pay Rate table to the first day of their first pay period, not their hire date.  

You can add multiple pay rates for a project on an individual basis. After you've added the Project Pay Rates table to your account, navigate to an employee's profile, find the table, and add each project with its corresponding rate.

Does adding multiple pay rates for each employee one at a time feel like a daunting task? You can also import directly into the Project Pay Rates table in bulk (see below).

Want a quick way to view all the Projects/Tasks and their rates created for your employees across the platform? Check out the Project Pay Rates Report.

Importing project pay rates

You can import project pay rates into the Project Pay Rates table, but you cannot import Projects into Project Tracking.

Fields to include in your import:

  1. Employee #: An employee's unique identifier in BambooHR. Importing by employee number provides the most accurate data import.
  2. First and Last Name: While the system doesn't import these fields, they help you ensure you assign the correct data to the right person.
  3. Start Date: This field records the date the employee started working on the project.
  4. End Date: This field records the date the employee finished working on the project.
  5. Project:The name of the project must match exactly as it appears in BambooHR.
  6. Task Name:The name of the task within the project must match exactly as it appears in BambooHR.
  7. Pay Rate:This is the pay rate for the project or task. Be sure to include the USD currency code to prevent errors.
Importing tips

To access the importer you'll need to manually adjust your URL. Simply log in to your BambooHR account and at the end of the URL, type manage/import/history.

  1. Importing project pay rates does not create the projects in BambooHR. Make sure to create all your projects and tasks in Settings > Time & Attendance > Project Tracking before importing project pay rates.
  2. Ensure that the spelling of your projects and tasks in your spreadsheet matches exactly what you have named them in BambooHR.
  3. If your project has tasks in BambooHR, you must include both the project and tasks in your import.
  4. An employee can only have one pay rate assigned per task. They can have multiple pay rates for each project, but each pay rate must be assigned to a different task.

If you need additional help importing your data in BambooHR, check out this help guide!

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