---
title: "Activities — Clock Clerk user guide"
description: "The Activities tab under Settings in Clock Clerk: the kinds of work people choose on each line of their week."
url: "https://clockclerk.com/guide/screens/admin-activities"
---

Screens

# Activities

The one list of kinds of work for your whole organization, such as development, testing or meetings, and whether people are asked to pick one when they record time. Every timesheet line is booked on an activity, and whether an activity is billable decides, with the project, whether its hours are billed to the client.

![Activities as an administrator, under the kicker Global catalog, with the tag 5 active · 5 total and New activity at the top right. A note says every timesheet row picks its activity from here, beside the figures 5 Activities, 4 Billable and the number of time entries. The table lists Code Review (CR), Development (DEV), Documentation (DOC), Meetings (MTG) and Testing (QA) with their Billing, Billable except Meetings, which is Non-billable, their time entries, Active, and Edit and Deactivate on each row.](https://clockclerk.com/guide/img/admin-activities-list.webp)

The Activities screen.

## Who sees it

Administrators only: it is **Activities** under **Settings** in the menu, at [/admin/activities](https://app.clockclerk.com/admin/activities). Anyone else who opens the address is told *You don't have access to this area*. It is on every plan.

A new organization starts with one activity, **Project work**, billable, and with activities turned off, so people can record time from the first day without being asked for one. Turn them on, rename **Project work** and add the others you need. Organizations that used Clock Clerk before activities could be turned off still have them on.

## What an activity is

- A timesheet line is one task under one billing role and one activity. Where a line's project asks for an activity, people pick it when they add the line on [My Week](https://clockclerk.com/guide/screens/week.md), and can change it there or on [My Day](https://clockclerk.com/guide/screens/day.md) until the week is locked. Each person can set a **Default activity** on their profile that new lines start with. Where the project doesn't ask, nobody picks one: the line is booked on your organization's default activity, and the screens don't show it (see Asking for an activity).
- Hours are billed to the client only when both the activity and the project say so: an activity marked **Non-billable** keeps its hours off the bill on every project, and a non-billable project keeps all its hours off whatever the activity says.
- Reviewers see each line's activity on [Approvals](https://clockclerk.com/guide/screens/approvals.md) and [Team](https://clockclerk.com/guide/screens/team.md) where its project asks for one, and reports can be grouped and filtered by it.

The list is the same for every client and project. There is no list of activities per project.

## Asking for an activity, and the default

Above the list, under **For the whole organization**, are two settings.

- **Ask for an activity on time entries**: on, people pick an activity for every line they add. Off, nobody picks one, and time is booked on the default activity. Either way, a project can be set to ask or not to ask on its own: whoever can edit the project chooses that on [Projects](https://clockclerk.com/guide/screens/projects.md), and the project's setting wins.
- **Default activity**: the activity time is booked on where its project doesn't ask for one. Only active, billable activities are offered. The list marks it **Default**.

Each saves as soon as you change it. Neither changes time already recorded: lines keep the activity they have, and only lines added or changed afterwards follow the new setting. A line on a project that no longer asks moves to the default activity the next time its task or billing role is changed, or it is moved. Typing hours or a comment on it leaves its activity as it is.

Where a project doesn't ask for an activity, [My Week](https://clockclerk.com/guide/screens/week.md), [My Day](https://clockclerk.com/guide/screens/day.md), [Approvals](https://clockclerk.com/guide/screens/approvals.md) and [Team](https://clockclerk.com/guide/screens/team.md) leave the activity out of its lines, and the **Default activity** preference on [My profile](https://clockclerk.com/guide/screens/profile.md) is hidden while your organization doesn't ask. One exception: if a project stopped asking after people had already booked it on more than one activity, those lines keep showing their activity, so two lines for the same task don't look like one line twice.

Where nothing in your organization asks for an activity, [Reports](https://clockclerk.com/guide/screens/reports.md) and [Invoices](https://clockclerk.com/guide/screens/invoices.md) stop offering activity as a grouping or filter, since every hour is on the default activity. A saved report or invoice profile that already uses activity keeps it, and shows the hours under the default activity's name.

The switch can't be changed while your organization has no default activity, which is only while it has no active, billable activity. The first active, billable activity you add becomes the default; or make an existing activity active and billable and choose it under **Default activity**. The live demo, which everybody shares, keeps both settings as they are. You can also answer the question while [setting up your organization](https://clockclerk.com/guide/screens/setup.md).

## The list

- At the top, how many activities are active and how many there are, for example *5 active · 5 total*, and the figures **Activities**, **Billable** and **Time entries**.
- One row per activity, in name order: the **Activity**, marked **Default** on your organization's default activity, its **Code** (a dash where it has none), its **Billing** (**Billable** or **Non-billable**), how many timesheet lines use it under **Time entries**, and its **Status**, **Active** or **Inactive**.

## Adding and changing an activity

1. Choose **New activity**, or **Edit** on an activity's row.
2. Fill in the **Activity name** and, if you use them, a short **Code**.
3. Pick the **Billing treatment**, **Billable** or **Non-billable**, and the **Status**.
4. Choose **Create**, or **Save changes**.

A rename shows on every line that uses the activity, past weeks included. Changing the billing treatment changes whether the hours already logged under it count as billable: on reports, on approvals and on the next invoice. An invoice already made keeps its own copy of what it billed.

## Deactivating an activity

Activities are not deleted, because past hours are recorded under them. **Deactivate** takes an activity out of the picker for new lines and out of the choice of default activity on people's profiles. Lines that already use it keep it. **Activate** offers it again.

Your organization's default activity can't be deactivated or made **Non-billable**. Time on a project that doesn't ask for an activity is recorded under it, so it has to stay on offer and billed. To retire it, make another active, billable activity the default first. See [The default activity has to be active and billable](https://clockclerk.com/guide/troubleshooting/messages.md).

## Buttons and when they appear

| Button | What it does | When you have it |
| --- | --- | --- |
| New activity | Opens **New activity**. **Create** is disabled until there is a name. | Always. Disabled while your organization is read-only. |
| Edit | Opens **Edit activity** to change the name, code, billing treatment or status. For the default activity, **Non-billable** and **Inactive** are not offered (see Deactivating an activity). | On every row. While your organization is read-only it still opens, but its **Save** is disabled. |
| Deactivate | Makes the activity **Inactive** at once, without asking. | On an active activity's row, except your organization's default activity's. Refused while your organization is read-only. |
| Activate | Makes the activity **Active** again. | On an inactive activity's row. Refused while your organization is read-only. |

Each change is checked again when you press it: only an administrator can change the activities (see [Roles](https://clockclerk.com/guide/roles.md)).