Terms and Concepts

This page defines the key terms and concepts used throughout AbleTime. Refer back here whenever you encounter unfamiliar vocabulary in the application or this documentation.

Views

• Flow Board — the Flow Board is a stage-based kanban board where tasks move through columns from left to right (backlog, todo, doing, done). If your project has stages enabled, both backlog and doing may be further divided into custom sections like "Design" or "Testing".

• Timeline — Timeline is a Gantt-style date-range chart showing tasks plotted against a calendar. Tasks appear as horizontal bars spanning their start and end dates, with milestones shown as markers.

• Ledger — there are several Ledgers that offer a sortable table listing all Time Flow tasks with columns for reference, state, stage, title, scope, hours worked, dates, and more.

• Epics — Epics a are a grouping of similar-goal tasks designed to achieve a spicific goal. The Epics tab is dedicated view for browsing and managing Epics, with scope, progress, and budget information.

Projects and Data

• Project — a deliverable or body of work belonging to a client. Projects contain categories and can have their own Time Flow board.

• Client — the organization or customer a project belongs to. See Create a Project

• Category — a type of work within a project (for example, Development, Design, or Meetings). Each category has a color, an optional hourly rate, and a billable flag. See Categories

• Tag — a label you can attach to time entries for filtering and grouping in reports. See Tags

• Capacity Type — a skill or role (for example, Developer or Designer). Capacity types are assigned to users (with weekly hours) and to categories, and are used for workload planning. See Capacity Types

Time Entry

• Time Entry — a single record of time logged against a project and category. Each entry has a date, start time, end time, duration, and optional description and tags. See Tracking Time

• Timer — a live time entry that is still running. The timer counts elapsed time until you stop it, at which point it becomes a regular entry. See Timers

• Billable — whether a time entry counts toward client billing. The billable flag is set by the category but can be changed on individual entries. See Billing Overview

• Duration — the length of a time entry, displayed in H:MM format.

Time Flow

• Task — a single work item with a title, description, estimated hours, start and end dates, assignee, priority, and stage. Tasks belong to a project category and optionally to an Epic. See Tasks

• Epic — a container grouping related tasks within a project. Epics have their own scope (the sum of their task estimates), budget, and progress tracking. See Epics

• Milestone — a target date within a project. Milestones define cycle boundaries and appear as markers on the Timeline. See Milestones and Cycles

• Cycle — the work window between two milestones. Cycles track total scope, tasks completed, velocity, and projected completion date. See Milestones and Cycles

• Stage — the workflow column a task occupies: backlog, todo, doing, or done. Tasks move through stages on the Flow Board. See Flow Board

• Backlog — items tracked but not yet in the active workflow. Backlog tasks appear in a separate column on the Flow Board and can be excluded from the Timeline.

• Dependency — a link between two tasks where one must complete before the other can begin. A parent dependency that is not yet complete prevents the child task from appearing in Time Entry. See Timeline

• Dependency Chain — a series of tasks connected by dependencies. When you move a task in a chain, the connected tasks shift with it. See Timeline

• Task / Epic Reference — a short identifier for a task (for example, PROJ-123) or epic (EP-3), shown in the Ledger, Flow Board, and Timeline. These are configured when Managing Projects

• External Reference — an optional link from a task or epic to an item in another system, such as a ticket number or URL.

Metrics and Indicators (see Time Flow / Pulse Dashboard and Progress Reports)

• Pressure — compares work demand against your available capacity. Displayed as a multiplier (for example, 1.2x). Thresholds: On Track (up to 1.1x), Behind (up to 1.3x), At Risk (up to 1.5x), Overloaded (above 1.5x).

• Velocity — hours logged per day across all work, including done, in-progress, and overhead. Shown as hrs/day.

• Overhead — time logged that is not linked to a Time Flow task. Also referred to as Friction. Displayed as a percentage of total time. Examples include meetings, administration, and unplanned interruptions.

• Momentum — hours per workday spent on Time Flow tasks specifically, calculated as a rolling average. The counterpart to Overhead.

• Budget Burn — the percentage of estimated hours or cost budget consumed. Shown as a percentage with color indicators (green, yellow, red).

• Estimated Load / Scope — the sum of estimated hours for planned tasks. Scope Burned tracks cumulative hours logged against completed tasks over time.

• Capacity — the number of hours per week a user is allocated to a capacity type. Used for workload planning and pressure calculations.

• Estimate Accuracy — how close actual time logged was to the original estimate.

• Lead Time — the average number of days from when a task starts to when it is completed.

• Throughput — the number of tasks completed per period.

Dashboard (see Time Flow / Pulse Dashboard)

• Pulse — the dashboard view showing project metrics over time, including burn rate, velocity, overhead, and pressure across your projects.

• Attention List — a list of items requiring action, categorized as overdue, capacity concerns, or at-risk items.

Billing (see Billing Overview)

• Invoice — a billing document generated from time entries for a client.

• Invoice statuses: Draft (being edited, not yet finalized), Generated (finalized and ready to send), Due (sent and awaiting payment), Paid (payment received), Overdue (past the due date without payment), Void (cancelled), Uncollectible (written off).

Roles (see Managing Users)

• Owner — full access to all features and settings, including subscription and billing management.

• Admin — can manage projects, personnel, settings, billing, and reports.

• Account Manager — can view projects, personnel, clients, billing, and reports.

• Manager — can view and manage assigned projects, Time Flow tasks, and team dashboards.

• User — can track time, view their own entries, and work on assigned Time Flow tasks.