---
title: "Build and save reports — Clock Clerk user guide"
description: "Reporting in Clock Clerk: building a report of hours or expenses by client, project, person and period, value at the rate card versus cost to deliver and who sees each, saving and sharing a report, downloading it as Excel or CSV, and printing it, step by step."
url: "https://clockclerk.com/guide/workflows/report-on-your-time"
---

Workflows

# Build and save reports

Managers, Finance and administrators report on the organization's time under **Reports**: recorded hours or expense claims, cut by client, project, person, dates and approval, grouped and subtotaled the way you choose, and counted in hours or money. A report you will want again is saved, shared with the other managers or pinned to the top of your list, and any report can be downloaded or printed.

## Who sees what

| What | Manager | Finance and administrators |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Whose time and claims | Everyone's, on the projects they manage: where their grant on the project comes out as **Manager**. Nothing booked to any other project. | The whole organization, with no grants needed. |
| Hours, and Value at the rate card | Yes, priced with the rates of their own projects and clients. | Yes. |
| Cost: what the time cost to deliver | No. | Yes, on a plan with team costs: Team, Enterprise and the trial. |
| The **Cost of internal work** standard report | Not offered. | Yes. |
| Save, share, download and print | Yes. | Yes. An administrator can also rename and delete a report another manager shared. |

Users and guests have no **Reports** in their menu, and opening its address tells them *You don't have access to this area*. Where a manager's reach comes from is explained under [Grants and project teams](https://clockclerk.com/guide/roles.md).

## 1. Open a report

1. Choose **Reports** in the menu, under **Manage**. It opens [Saved reports](https://clockclerk.com/guide/screens/saved-reports.md): the standard reports every organization has, then the reports you and the other managers have saved.
2. Choose a report's name to open it, or **New report** to start from a blank one: hours for this month, grouped by client, then user, then activity. Where nothing in your organization asks for an activity, activity is left out of it, and of the filters and fields below (see [When activities are off](https://clockclerk.com/guide/screens/reports.md)).

A saved or standard report opens on its results: the tiles, the chart and the table, with a line such as *Value · Last month · grouped by client → project → user → activity / task type* saying what it is. Its filters and **Fields & summaries** are behind **Edit**, beside the save button; **Done** hides them again. A new report opens with them showing, since there is nothing to show until you build it. See [Edit and Done](https://clockclerk.com/guide/screens/reports.md).

**Jump to** (`Ctrl` + `K`) opens a report without the list: type part of its name, or *New report* for a blank one. Reports you opened lately are also under **Recents**, at the top of the menu.

Going straight to [/reports](https://app.clockclerk.com/reports) opens this list. Nothing reopens on its own: your default report, if you have one (step 7), is the first row of the table of saved reports, under **Pinned**, below **Standard reports**.

## 2. Choose what it counts

![The Billing by client standard report for a Manager as it opens, titled Value report, for last month, September 2026. The controls read Time and Expenses, then Hours and Value, with no Cost. Below the title are Edit, Save a copy…, Download and ⋯, then the line Value · Last month · grouped by client → project → user → activity / task type. The tiles show 219.00 hours, 176.00 billable, 43.00 non-billable, $33,251.00 value, a blended rate of $151.83/h, 7 people and 3 projects, each change measured against August.](https://clockclerk.com/guide/img/reports-manager.webp)

A manager's report: their own three projects, and Hours or Value only.

Two switches at the top right decide what the report is a list of and what it counts:

- **Time** or **Expenses**: recorded hours, or the expense claims people made.
- For time, **Hours**, **Value** or **Cost**. The heading follows it: **Hours report**, **Value report**, **Cost report** or **Expense report**.

**Value** and **Cost** are two different amounts of money, and a report counts one at a time:

- **Value** is what the time is worth to a client, at the rate card in force on each day (see [Billing rates](https://clockclerk.com/guide/screens/finance.md)). Time that is not billed is worth nothing: hours on a **Non-billable** project, or under an activity that is not billable, are counted at $0.
- **Cost** is what the time cost you to deliver, from each person's [team cost](https://clockclerk.com/guide/screens/finance.md): an hourly cost as it stands, and a monthly or annual salary spread over the hours the person recorded that month. Every hour counts, billed or not, which is what makes it the measure for internal work. Only Finance and administrators are offered it, and only on a plan with team costs.

Both are shown to the cent, as they are in the downloads.

An expense report counts **Claims** and their **Amount**, also to the cent. Declined claims are listed and tagged but left out of every total.

![The Cost of internal work standard report for a Finance user, titled Cost report, with Cost chosen beside Hours and Value. The line under the title reads All clients · all projects · all users · non-billable only · Sep 1, 2026 – Sep 30, 2026, and the one under the buttons Cost · Last month · grouped by user → project. The tiles show 129.00 hours, all non-billable, a cost of $13,009.00 and a blended rate of $100.84/h across 8 people and 5 projects.](https://clockclerk.com/guide/img/reports-cost.webp)

Cost basis, which only Finance and administrators have: what last month's non-billable work cost.

## 3. Narrow it down

The filters under the heading decide which time or claims are in the report. On a saved or standard report, choose **Edit** to see them. The line under the title repeats them, such as *All clients · all projects · all users · non-billable only · Sep 1, 2026 – Sep 30, 2026*.

- **Client** and **Project**. Choosing a client cuts the project list to its projects.
- **Date range**: **This week**, **Last week**, **This month**, **Last month**, **This year**, **Last year** or **Custom**, which adds **From** and **To**. The dates a choice works out to are shown beneath it; choosing them turns it into a custom range you can adjust. Weeks run Monday to Sunday, as they do on My Week.
- **Activity** and **Billing role**, for time.
- **Billable**: **Billable and not**, **Billable time only** or **Non-billable time only**. For expenses: **Billed to clients only** or **Not billed only**.
- **Billing type**: how the project is sold, **Time and materials**, **Fixed** or **Non-billable**.
- **Approval**: where the week each hour was filed in stands, **Awaiting approval**, **Approved**, **Returned** or **Not submitted**.
- **Users**: tick the people to include. **All** and **None** tick or clear everyone, and **Search people…** narrows the list without changing what is ticked.

## 4. Group and subtotal it

**Fields & summaries**, beside the table once **Edit** is chosen, decides how the rows are grouped. Tick a field under **Grp** to group by it, and under **Σ** to print a subtotal line under each of its groups. Groups nest in the order the fields are listed, and **↑** and **↓** move a field.

- The fields are **Client**, **Project**, **User**, **Activity / task type**, **Task**, **Billing role**, **Month**, **Week**, **Billing type** and **Approval status**. An expense report has **Expense category** instead of task, billing role and activity, which a claim does not have.
- **Approval status** is printed on a week or month row under a person, because that is the one row that stands for one person's filing.
- **Show individual time entries** (or **Show individual claims**) lists each entry under its group, led by the comment written on the day. The screen shows the first 1,000; a download has them all.
- **Include groups with no hours** lists every client, project, person and so on in the filters, even where nothing was recorded.
- Clearing **Show summary tiles and chart** takes the tiles and the chart off the top. On a money report, clearing **Show rate** takes the rate off the tiles, the table and the report's download.
- **Only weeks with no time recorded, by person** turns the report around: it lists each person's weeks in the range, up to today, in which they recorded nothing at all, and where each of those weeks' filings stands. Only the people and approval filters apply to it. The **Weeks with no time — last month** standard report is this, over last month.

## 5. Read it

- **The tiles**: **Hours**, **Billable**, **Non-billable**, then on a money report **Value** or **Cost** and the **Blended rate**, then **People** and **Projects**. Hours, money and rate show their change against the same stretch of the period before, named under the tiles, such as *vs Aug 1, 2026 – Aug 31, 2026*. An expense report shows **Claimed**, **Billable to clients**, **Reimbursable** and **Claims**.
- **The chart**: the hours or money over the range, so the total has a shape.
- **By billing role**, beside the table: the hours or money split by billing role, with each role's rate on a money report.
- **The table**: **Description**, **Date**, **Hours**, and on a money report **Rate** and **Value** or **Cost**. Group rows are shaded, subtotals follow their groups, and **Report total** closes it. Above it, the grouping is spelled out, such as *Grouped by client → project*.

What a report shows is what was recorded, as it is now: an hour changed after a report was downloaded is changed in the next one. The screen reference, [Reports](https://clockclerk.com/guide/screens/reports.md), goes through each part.

## 6. Save it

![The Save report dialog over the Billing by client report, for a Manager. The Name is Northwind and Atlas, last month, with the hint Shared reports can be opened by every manager, but only you can change this one. Who can open it is set to Every manager rather than Only me, with Cancel and Save report.](https://clockclerk.com/guide/img/reports-save.webp)

Saving a copy of a standard report, shared with the other managers.

1. Build the report. Once it differs from the report you opened, **Unsaved changes** shows beside the buttons.
2. Choose the save button. It says **Save as…** on a new report or on somebody else's (an administrator gets **Save** on those), **Save a copy…** on a standard report, and **Save** on one of your own, which keeps your changes in it straight away and says *Saved*.
3. In **Save report**, give it a **Name** of up to 120 characters. Under **Who can open it**, choose **Only me**, or **Every manager** to share it.
4. Choose **Save report**. The report is now yours: it is listed under **My reports** on Saved reports.

A saved report keeps the report's settings, not its figures: the filters, the grouping and a range such as **Last month**. Opened next month, it shows the new last month. The address in your browser carries the same settings, so it can be bookmarked or sent to a colleague, who sees it cut to their own projects.

The **⋯** menu beside **Download** holds the rest:

- **Saved reports** goes to the list.
- **Save as a copy…** keeps your report under a new name and leaves the original as it was.
- **Rename…** and **Delete report…**, on your own reports. Deleting asks first, saying *Anyone who opens this report from their own screen — or has made it their default — will lose it.*, and leaves the report on screen as an unsaved one.
- **Make default report** or **Clear default report**, and on a standard report **Save a copy as my default…** (step 7).
- **Reset to a blank report**.

## 7. Share it, or pin it

- **Every manager** means everyone who has Reports: managers, Finance and administrators. Each sees the report cut to what they can see, so a manager opening a report shared by Finance gets their own projects' part of it, and a cost report is shown at its value instead (see below).
- Sharing a report never hands over the right to change it. Only its owner can save over, rename or delete it, and administrators can as well. Anybody else who changes it keeps their version with **Save as…**.
- **Make default report** lists a report first in the table of saved reports, below **Standard reports**, for you alone, under **Pinned** and marked **Default**. **Clear default report** puts it back in its place. A standard report cannot be a default itself, so **Save a copy as my default…** saves a copy of it and makes that the default.
- Leaving a saved report you changed and did not save asks **Discard unsaved changes?**. **Discard changes** leaves, and **Cancel** stays.

## 8. Download it

![The Download menu open on a Value report, for a Manager. Under This report: Excel (.xlsx), CSV (.csv) and PDF…, with the note Opens your browser's print dialog — choose Save as PDF as the destination. Under All entries: Excel (.xlsx) and CSV (.csv).](https://clockclerk.com/guide/img/reports-download.webp)

Four files and a PDF, named by what each one holds.

**Download** saves the report as an Excel workbook. The **▾** beside it offers the rest:

| Choice | What you get |
| --- | --- |
| This report: Excel (.xlsx) | The report as you built it, to read. Each group is named once, on its own line, with the outline buttons at the left of the sheet to fold a level away. Hours are numbers and money is currency, the header row stays in view, and an **About** sheet records the report's name, what it reports on, its dates, what it measures, every filter, the grouping and the day it was downloaded. |
| This report: CSV (.csv) | The same rows, to work with in a spreadsheet: one column per grouped field, with every row carrying all its group names, so it can be sorted, filtered and pivoted. |
| This report: PDF… | Your browser's print dialog, as Print below. Choose **Save as PDF** as the destination. |
| All entries: Excel or CSV | Every entry in the report's filters, one row each, oldest first, whatever the grouping: **Date**, **Client**, **Project**, **Task**, **User**, **Billing role**, **Activity**, **Comment** and **Hours**, and on a money report **Rate** and **Value** or **Cost**. On an expense report it is **All claims**. |

- In the report's files, subtotal lines are left out, because each group's figures are on its own row; the approval status gets a column of its own, and a column appears only where something fills it.
- The money column is named for what it counts, **Value** or **Cost**, so a file read a month later still says which.
- Each file is named for the report, its rows and its dates, such as *billing-by-client-report-2026-09-01-to-2026-09-30.xlsx* or *report-entries-2026-09-01-to-2026-09-30.csv* for an unsaved report's entries.
- The files are made in your browser from the report on screen, so they hold exactly what you can see.

## 9. Print it

**Print**, above the table, and **PDF…** both open your browser's print dialog. The page prints the report alone: its heading, the line saying what it covers and any notes under it, the tiles and the chart if they are shown, and the table, with its shading. The menu, the filters, the switches, the buttons, **Fields & summaries** and the billing role split are left off. Like the screen, a printout lists up to 1,000 individual entries; download the report for more. Leave **Margins** on **Default** under **More settings** in the print dialog, so the printout keeps its own margins.

## When something goes wrong

- **No Reports in the menu, or *You don't have access to this area*.** Reports are for managers, Finance and administrators.
- **A client, project or person is missing.** A manager's report covers only the projects they manage. Ask an administrator for a grant ([Roles](https://clockclerk.com/guide/roles.md)).
- ***Parts of this report are outside what you can see — showing all clients…*** The report was saved by somebody who sees more than you: what you cannot see is left out, and the line says which filters were widened.
- ***This report is costed at what the time cost to deliver, which only an administrator or finance user can see — showing its value at the rate card instead.*** A cost report opened by a manager. Saved as a copy, it stays a cost report, so Finance and administrators still see its cost.
- ***This report is costed at what the time cost to deliver, which your organization's plan doesn't include — showing its value at the rate card instead.*** Cost reporting is on the Team and Enterprise plans ([Plans and your trial](https://clockclerk.com/guide/screens/trial.md)).
- ***No team costs are recorded yet, so every hour here is counted at nothing. Set them under Finance → Team costs.***, or ***… has no cost recorded for part of this range, so those hours are counted at nothing.*** Add the missing costs on [Team costs](https://clockclerk.com/guide/screens/finance.md); the report is too low until then.
- **A cost report opened from a link shows hours instead.** **Cost of internal work** is only for Finance and administrators; anybody else following a link to it gets a blank report to build on.
- ***No time entries match these filters. Widen the date range or clear the client and user selection.*** Nothing recorded fits the filters.
- ***The To date is before the From date.*** or ***A custom range needs both a From and a To date.*** Fix the custom range.
- ***You already have a report called “…”.*** Names are yours alone, regardless of capitals. Choose another, or open the one you have.
- ***This report couldn’t be loaded. Check your connection, then try again.*** Choose **Try again**.
- **Saving is refused.** Your organization is read-only. Opening, downloading and printing reports still work (see [Roles](https://clockclerk.com/guide/roles.md)).