When managing breaks in Abtrac you can choose to only log actual work time, and leave breaks unrecorded. Or, you can choose to explicitly track break time – either by logging it as personal time against a non-billable internal project, or by recording it as part of time spent for a billable project.
All time logged against a billable project is counted as billable time in Abtrac, so how you log break time against billable projects can affect your productivity reporting.
Read on for suggestions on how to handle breaks appropriately to ensure billing accuracy.
Ignoring/leaving break times unlogged
The simplest approach is to only log the time worked, leaving breaks as gaps in your timesheet entries.
For example:
- 9:00am – 12:00pm: Logged time
- 12:00pm – 12:30pm: Break (not logged)
- 12:30pm – 5:00pm: Logged time
This method is clean and ensures total hours reflect only productive or billable time.
Logging Breaks Explicitly
Alternatively, you can choose to record break periods as distinct timesheet lines. This gives greater visibility of non-productive time and helps with internal analysis.
You can use a combination of Projects, Tasks and Activities to log break time.
Typically breaks are logged in one of two ways
- Against an internal, non-billable project (e.g., Admin or Internal/Personal Time)
- As a named entry against a billable project.
Logging Breaks against an internal (non-billable) project
Logging breaks against an internal job allows a company to review productivity and downtime as a whole. You can report on non-billable project time, for a named project, you can further classify break time using activities if required.
- 9:00am – 12:00pm: Logged time
- 12:00pm – 12:30pm: Break (non-billable project)
- 12:30pm – 5:00pm: Logged time
Read more about setting up internal and administrative jobs here
Logging Breaks against a billable project
If you need to report break time with your project hours, for health and safety or other reasons, you can log this time within the billable job code (as a named task or activity, or just by using timesheet comments).
All time logged against a billable project is counted as billable time in Abtrac, so how you log break time against billable projects can affect your productivity reporting. There are two options:
Logging break time for the billable project as a separate task or activity
When break time is logged against the same billable project, even as a separate entry with different comments, task, or activity, it still contributes to the total billable hours recorded for that project.
- 9:00am – 12:00pm: Logged time
- 12:00pm – 12:30pm: Break (same billable project, different comments, task or activity)
- 12:30pm – 5:00pm: Logged time
Logging break time for the billable project by reducing total time spent on site
To log break time against the same billable project, without contributing to the total billable hours recorded for that project you can add break time as an negative value adjustment on a separate line.
- 9:00am – 5:00pm | 8.0 units | Logged time
- 12:00pm – 12:30pm | -0.5 units | Break – as a negative units adjustment (same billable project, different comments, task or activity)
This approach reduces the employee’s total timesheet hours and ensures the project’s billable total accurately reflects time worked, excluding breaks.
Double-Account the reduced break project time – for internal tracking
For clarity in internal reporting, some organisations choose to also log the break time against a non-billable project. This creates a full record of time spent while still keeping billing accurate.
- 9:00am – 5:00pm | 8.0 units | Logged work time
- 12:00pm – 12:30pm | -0.5 units | Break (negative adjustment on billable project)
- 12:00pm – 12:30pm | +0.5 units | Break (logged as time against a non-billable/internal project)
This double-entry method improves visibility in timesheet reports and can help differentiate productive vs. unproductive time, while keeping billable totals accurate.
Legacy Option: “Includes Break” Checkbox
There is also an optional setting available for some accounts, where a checkbox can be used to automatically deduct 0.5 units (30 minutes) from a timesheet line.
- You log time as usual (e.g., 07:30 – 18:00 = 10.5 hours)
- If the “Includes Lunch Break” checkbox is selected, 0.5 units are subtracted from the line
- Your recorded start/stop times stay the same, but the total hours are reduced to 10.0
This feature is only available in:
- Linear Form
- Linear View
- Cross Tab Form in the web application
It is not supported in:
- Cross Tab (Grid) timesheets
- Abtrac Mobile app
It’s not possible to prevent staff from entering time in a screen that doesn’t contain the includes break option.
Abtrac does not validate whether the break is appropriate based on the actual hours entered. Users must take care when adjusting units manually.
The break applies per timesheet line, not per date/day.
Because of these limitations, this checkbox feature is only used by a small number of legacy clients and is not recommended for general use.
Abtrac KB# 2215