Activity Tracker
Logging Your Work Automatically
A small free app on your laptop or Android phone notes which program and document you work in. At the end of the day you confirm the suggested tasks, and the time is filled in for you.
Start here
1What it does
Instead of remembering and typing in everything you did, let your devices keep notes for you.
- The app notes which program is in front, and on a laptop the document or web page name, for example “Excel · Q3 budget.xlsx”.
- Time you’re away from the keyboard isn’t counted, and neither are a locked screen or sleep.
- Every 10 minutes or so it sends its notes to FinAccounting.
- Open Activity Tracker → My activity to see your day as a timeline and a list of suggested tasks. Nothing becomes a task until you confirm it.
Set up
2Connect your laptop
Download the app
Get it from Activity Tracker → Devices & apps, or from the Get the App page. Mac (Apple silicon or Intel) and Windows 10/11 are supported.
Open it
On a Mac, open the downloaded .dmg and drag FinAccounting Activity into Applications. The first time, right-click the app in Applications and choose Open. On Windows, run FinAccounting-Activity-Setup.exe and click through it. No admin password is needed. If Windows warns you, choose More info → Run anyway. It adds FinAccounting Activity to the Start menu and desktop.
Get a code
In FinAccounting, go to Devices & apps → Get a connection code. The code works once and lasts 15 minutes.
Type the code into the app
That’s it. The app sits in your menu bar (Mac) or system tray (Windows) and starts with your computer.
To record document and page names as well as program names, allow the app under System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility. The app shows you a button for this. Without it, only program names are recorded.
Set up
3Connect your Android phone
Activity tracking is built into the FinAccounting Android app, so there’s nothing extra to install.
Open the FinAccounting app
Get it from the Get the App page if you don’t have it yet.
Go to Activity Tracker → Devices & apps
Tap Connect this phone.
Allow Usage access
Your phone opens its settings. Turn on Usage access for FinAccounting, then come back.
On a phone, only app names and time are recorded. Android doesn’t share what’s inside apps.
Every day
4Confirm your suggested tasks
Open Activity Tracker → My activity. Use the arrows to look at an earlier day.
- Log as task turns a suggestion into a finished task. Give it a name, a category and, if you like, a project. The time is added as real time entries, so it counts in Task Reports and towards projects.
- Tick several suggestions and choose Log as one task when they were one piece of work, such as a spreadsheet plus the web pages you used for it.
- Dismiss anything that wasn’t work. You can restore it from Show logged and dismissed.
Short bits under 2 minutes aren’t suggested, but they still count in the day’s total.
Every day
Reminders in Today’s Tasks
Until you connect a device, Today’s Tasks shows a short reminder with a Set up button. Choose Not now to hide it for two weeks, or Don’t show again.
What your devices record also shows up right in Today’s Tasks, under From your devices, for example “Q3 budget.xlsx · Excel · 9:12–10:40 AM · 1h 28m”. It updates as your devices send their notes, about every 10 minutes.
- Log turns it into a finished task with its time, using the activity’s name and your last-used category. It then appears under Done.
- ✕ dismisses anything that wasn’t work.
- Started on one device, finished on another? It all lands on the same day’s list. Start a task’s timer on your laptop and complete it on your phone, and an open Today’s Tasks on the laptop catches up as soon as you’re back at it.
- Open Activity Tracker shows the whole day, where you can rename a task, pick a project or combine several activities into one task before logging.
Reference
Privacy and who sees what
| What | Recorded? |
|---|---|
| Program or app name, and how long | Yes |
| Document or web page name (laptop) | Yes, unless you switch it off |
| Keystrokes, screenshots, messages, what you type | Never |
| Time away from the keyboard | Never |
Only you see your recorded activity. Your manager and company admins don’t. They see only the tasks you choose to log, like any other task.
Under Activity Tracker → Privacy you can pause tracking on all your devices, stop recording document names, choose apps never to record (such as WhatsApp or banking), and delete a day or all of your recorded activity. Raw activity is deleted automatically after 90 days. Logged tasks stay.
Reference
Who can use it
The apps are free to download. Using them needs Tasks, because that’s where your work is logged. Anyone whose plan includes Tasks, and whose role in the company includes Tasks, can use Activity Tracker. A company admin can add Tasks to a role under Users.
Reference
Troubleshooting
- Nothing shows up: activity arrives about every 10 minutes. Check the device is listed under Devices & apps with a recent “last seen”, and that tracking isn’t paused.
- “This device was disconnected”: it was disconnected from Devices & apps. Get a new code and connect it again.
- Only program names, no document names, on a Mac: allow the app under Accessibility (see step 2).
- Phone shows no activity: make sure Usage access is on for FinAccounting in your phone’s settings.
What it doesn’t do
Apple doesn’t let any app see which other apps you use, so Activity Tracker can’t work there.
Suggestions never become tasks on their own. You always confirm them, so your task list stays meaningful.