Backlog
The Backlog is where Tasks live before they are planned onto the schedule. A backlog Task has been created and described, but has no committed dates and is not yet ready to start. Backlog is an organization-wide feature: when it is turned on, a backlog appears across the Flow Board, the Timeline, and the Ledger. When it is off, every new Task starts in To-Do instead.
If you never see a backlog anywhere in Time Flow, the feature is turned off for your organization. It is enabled under organization Time Flow settings.
Where a Task sits
Every Task is in one of five states. The backlog is the first of them:
Backlog — created but not yet planned.
To-Do — planned and ready to start, with no time logged yet.
Doing — at least one time entry has been logged.
Done — marked complete.
Archived — closed out and removed from the active board.
On the Flow Board
When Backlog is enabled, the leftmost column on the Flow Board is the Backlog column. It is drawn with a dashed border to set it apart from the planned columns to its right. The column also appears whenever any backlog Tasks already exist, even if the feature was later switched off, so that nothing is hidden.
Drag a card into the Backlog column to set it aside, or drag it out to To-Do to plan it.
On the Timeline
Backlog Tasks appear on the Timeline as dashed, semi-transparent bars rather than the solid bars used for scheduled work. A backlog bar is not draggable or resizable — because it has no committed dates, its position is derived from the time entries logged against it, not from the grid.
Once a Task has been moved out of the backlog and scheduled, any hours that were logged while it was still in the backlog remain visible as a separate dashed bar. This is a read-only marker of past backlog work and cannot be moved or edited from the grid.
In the Ledger
In the Ledger, a backlog Task shows Backlog in its state column alongside every other Task, so you can sort, filter, and bulk-edit backlog items in the same table as scheduled work.
Moving Tasks in and out of the Backlog
Open a Task and use the three-dot menu in the Task panel. When a Task is in the backlog, the menu offers Move to To-Do; when it is in To-Do, the same menu offers Move to Backlog. You can move freely between these two states.
There is no manual step from To-Do to Doing. A Task moves to Doing on its own the first time you log a time entry against it.
New Tasks you create yourself start in To-Do. Tasks created through an integration start in the Backlog when the feature is enabled.
Deleting a backlog Task
A Task can be deleted from the three-dot menu only while it is in the Backlog or To-Do state and has no time entries logged against it. Once any time has been logged — or once the Task has reached Doing — the delete option is no longer offered, and you archive the Task instead.
Stages within the Backlog
If your organization uses Stages, the Backlog can be broken into sub-stages. On the Flow Board the single Backlog column expands into one column per backlog stage, with anything unassigned grouped under a plain Backlog column. Use the stage selector on a Task to move it between stages, and the gear control above the columns to manage which stages are shown.
Logging time directly against backlog Tasks is a separate setting. If your organization does not allow backlog hours, you must move a Task to To-Do before you can record time against it.
Backlog and billing
Time logged on backlog Tasks is handled separately from time on scheduled work, and you decide whether it ever reaches an invoice. Two organization settings work together to control this:
Allow Backlog Hours (Time Flow settings) decides whether time can be logged against a backlog Task in the first place. It is off by default; until it is turned on, backlog Tasks do not appear in the time entry picker and no hours can be recorded against them.
Include backlog hours in billing (Billing settings) decides whether the hours that were logged while a Task sat in the Backlog are charged on an invoice. It is on by default.
AbleTime records the state a Task was in at the moment each time entry was made. Hours recorded while the Task was in the Backlog stay counted as backlog hours even after the Task moves on to To-Do or Doing — so promoting a Task later does not change how its earlier backlog time is billed.
How backlog hours appear on an invoice
When you create or edit an invoice that covers backlog hours, a summary shows the total backlog time and its value, marked INCLUDED (green) or EXCLUDED (red) to match the billing setting:
When Include backlog hours in billing is on, backlog hours are added to the invoice like any other billable time — they count toward the subtotal, discount, tax, and total.
When it is off, backlog hours are left out of the subtotal and every figure below it, but they are still listed in the invoice editor so you can see what was logged in the Backlog and why it is not being charged.
To change how backlog hours are billed, see your organization’s Billing settings.