---
title: "Getting started — Clock Clerk user guide"
description: "The Clock Clerk user guide: what Clock Clerk is, the five steps from planning work to billing it, and where to start whether you fill in time, approve it, run the organization, handle finance or are a client guest."
url: "https://clockclerk.com/guide/"
---

User guide

# Getting started with Clock Clerk

Clock Clerk is where a team plans its work, talks about it, records the hours it took, gets them approved and bills them. This guide walks through each job step by step, and says who can do it.

## The five steps

Work moves through Clock Clerk in the same order every month. Each step has its own part of this guide; the pages marked *soon* in the contents are being written.

### 1. Plan

Each project has a **board**: its tasks as cards, in stages you choose, and each task can carry a budget of hours. Tasks can be brought in from Jira, Azure DevOps, Trello or Notion. Covered in [Plan work on a board](https://clockclerk.com/guide/workflows/plan-work-on-a-board.md).

### 2. Collaborate

Every project has a conversation under **Messages**, and every task has its own, opened from its card on the board. In them you mention people and refer to tasks. A project can share a conversation with the client's own people as guests. Covered in [Talk with your team and clients](https://clockclerk.com/guide/workflows/talk-with-your-team-and-clients.md).

### 3. Track

Everyone records their hours on [**My Week**](https://clockclerk.com/guide/screens/week.md) or [**My Day**](https://clockclerk.com/guide/screens/day.md), one line per project and task, and submits the week when it is done. A week that runs into a new month is submitted month by month. Expenses go under [**My Expenses**](https://clockclerk.com/guide/screens/expenses.md). Covered in [Record and submit your week](https://clockclerk.com/guide/workflows/record-your-week.md) and [Expenses and reimbursements](https://clockclerk.com/guide/workflows/expenses-and-reimbursements.md).

### 4. Approve

Managers approve the weeks of the people on their projects under **Approvals**, or send one back with a reason. Approved hours are locked. Covered in [Review and approve time](https://clockclerk.com/guide/workflows/review-and-approve-time.md).

### 5. Bill

Finance raises **invoices** from approved hours, pays contractors for their months, builds **reports** and exports to QuickBooks or another ERP. Covered in [Bill a client](https://clockclerk.com/guide/workflows/bill-a-client.md), [Pay contractors](https://clockclerk.com/guide/workflows/pay-contractors.md), [Build and save reports](https://clockclerk.com/guide/workflows/report-on-your-time.md) and [Export to an ERP or QuickBooks](https://clockclerk.com/guide/workflows/export-to-your-erp.md).

## Where to start

What you see in Clock Clerk depends on your role, which an administrator of your organization sets. [Roles](https://clockclerk.com/guide/roles.md) explains each one.

- ### You fill in your time

  [Sign in](https://clockclerk.com/guide/signing-in.md). [Home](https://clockclerk.com/guide/screens/home.md) shows how this week stands; open **My Week** and type your hours against the projects you are on. Submit the week when it is complete. [Record and submit your week](https://clockclerk.com/guide/workflows/record-your-week.md) walks through it.
- ### You approve other people's time

  Read what a [Manager](https://clockclerk.com/guide/roles.md) reaches and how [grants](https://clockclerk.com/guide/roles.md) decide whose weeks come to you, then open **Approvals**. [Review and approve time](https://clockclerk.com/guide/workflows/review-and-approve-time.md) walks through it.
- ### You run your organization

  Start a trial from [Start free trial](https://app.clockclerk.com/signup), or read what an [Admin](https://clockclerk.com/guide/roles.md) does. [Set up your organization](https://clockclerk.com/guide/workflows/set-up-your-organization.md) walks through inviting people, setting their roles, and adding clients and projects.
- ### You handle the money

  [Finance](https://clockclerk.com/guide/roles.md) reviews everyone's time without grants, and keeps the rates, costs, invoices and contractor payments.
- ### You are a client guest

  You were invited into a conversation by email. [Signing in as a guest](https://clockclerk.com/guide/signing-in.md) explains the link, and [Guest](https://clockclerk.com/guide/roles.md) what you see.
- ### You are a contractor

  You log your hours like everyone else, and submit each month under **My Month**. [Contractor](https://clockclerk.com/guide/roles.md) says who signs it off and pays it.

Whatever your role, choose your name at the foot of the menu, then **Account settings**, for [My profile](https://clockclerk.com/guide/screens/profile.md), where you set your language, the look of the app and the email you get, and **Feedback** above your name to tell the team what is missing. [Your account and your data](https://clockclerk.com/guide/workflows/your-account.md) covers both.

![My Week from Monday to Sunday, with this week's hours so far against the Ingest service hardening task of Northwind Utilities' Grid Telemetry Platform, the total against a 40-hour target, the week marked Draft, not submitted, and Submit week above the grid. The menu down the left shows My Day, My Week, My Expenses, Messages and Boards.](https://clockclerk.com/guide/img/week-sheet.webp)

My Week, where most people spend their time: one line per task, a cell per day, and the week submitted once it is complete.

## A few words

- **Organization:** your company's own space in Clock Clerk, with its people, clients and projects. Nothing in it is visible to another organization.
- **Client** and **project:** a project belongs to one client, and hours are booked to a project's tasks.
- **Line:** one row of your week, for one project and task.
- **Submit:** hand in a week. A submitted week is locked against edits while it is reviewed.
- **Approve** and **send back:** what a reviewer does with a submitted week. A week sent back is open again, with the reviewer's reason.
- **Grant:** the level of access an administrator gives someone on a client or a project.

Something the guide doesn't answer? Ask your organization's administrator, or write to Clock Clerk: see [Contacting Clock Clerk](https://clockclerk.com/guide/troubleshooting/index.md).