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Time Tracking & Timesheets

Cyver Core allows pentesters and managers to accurately track time spent on specific tasks, either through an automated timer or by manually logging hours. This ensures effort is correctly captured for reporting, billing, and team workload management.

Precondition: The Planning tab must be enabled for the project to use these features.

Time Tracking Definitions

Before tracking time, it is important to understand how Cyver Core defines and categorizes time fields across workflow tasks:

  • Duration: Actual time spent completing the task.

  • Estimated Time: Expected time the assignee estimates is needed to complete the task.

  • Effort: Planned time allocated by managers when assigning and scheduling the work. (This can be modified at the project level when editing a workflow activity).

Use Case 1: Start Activity from a Workflow Task

As a tester, you can start a live time tracker directly from a workflow activity.

  1. Navigate to the Project Overview.

  2. Locate the specific task you will be working on within the Pentest Workflow card.

  3. Click the three dots (...) next to the task and select Start Activity.

  4. The Start Activity modal will appear. The Status and Workflow Task fields are pre-filled and read-only.

  5. Enter your Estimated Time in the HH:MM format. (Important: This is a required field. If left at 0:00, the activity will immediately auto-finish upon starting).

  6. Add an optional Note.

  7. Click Start. The task's status badge on the overview will automatically update to In Progress.

(Note: Starting an activity triggers an automated email notification. To ensure these are sent, please verify your Project and User Notification Settings detailed at the bottom of this article).

Use Case 2: Register Time from a Workflow Task

If you forgot to use the live timer or simply prefer to log your hours after the fact, you can manually register time for a specific workflow task.

  1. Navigate to the Project Overview.

  2. Locate the task within the Workflow card, click the three dots (...) next to it, and select Register Time.

  3. The Register Time modal will appear. The Status and Workflow Task fields are pre-filled based on the task you selected.

  4. Select the Date on which the work was performed.

  5. Enter your worked Duration in the HH:MM format.

  6. Add an optional Note to describe the work done.

  7. Click Save.

Use Case 3: End Activity Manually

While an activity timer is running, you can manually stop it at any point before your estimated time runs out.

  1. Navigate to the Planning tab.

  2. You will see an Active Timer banner at the top of the screen showing the Workflow Task, Status, Started at time, Elapsed Time, and Estimated Time.

  3. Click the Stop Activity button to finish. 

(Note: Stopping an activity manually triggers an "End Activity" email notification. See the settings section below to configure this).

Use Case 4: Auto-Stop Activity

Cyver Core includes an auto-stop feature to ensure your time tracking remains accurate even if you forget to stop the timer.

  • When the Estimated Time you set during the Start Activity phase is reached, the system will automatically stop the active timer.

  • An "End Activity" email notification is sent out exactly at that time.

  • You always retain the option to manually finish the activity before this limit is reached (see Use Case 3).

Use Case 5: Start Activity from the Timesheets

You can also launch the live timer directly from the Planning tab instead of the Project Overview.

  1. Open your project and navigate to the Planning tab.

  2. Select the Timesheet sub-tab.

  3. Click the Start Activity button.

  4. In the modal, manually select the related Status and Workflow Task from the dropdown menus.

  5. Enter your Estimated Time (HH:MM) and an optional Note.

  6. Click Start. The Active Timer banner will immediately appear at the top of the screen.

Use Case 6: Register Time from the Timesheets

Sometimes you need to log hours for activities that are not directly tied to a specific, predefined workflow task.

  1. Open your project and navigate to the Planning tab.

  2. Select the Timesheet sub-tab.

  3. Click the + Register Time button on the right side of the screen.

  4. In the New timesheet record modal, the Workflow Task is not required. Simply fill in the Pentester, the related Status, Date, Duration (HH:MM), and add an optional Note.

  5. Click Save. The newly logged time will appear as a row in the Timesheet table.

Configuring Workflow Timesheet Notifications & Email Templates

Whenever a workflow timesheet activity is started, manually stopped, or auto-stopped, Cyver Core can send automated alerts. For these alerts to function, the correct notification settings must be enabled at both the project and user levels.

1. Project Notification Settings 

You must explicitly allow the project to send timesheet notifications to pentesters or clients.

  1. From your specific Pentest, click the Actions dropdown at the top right and select Settings.

  2. Navigate to the Notifications tab.

  3. Ensure the main toggle for Pentester Users Notifications (or Client Users Notifications) is turned ON.

  4. Scroll down to the Pentest notifications section and check the boxes for Timesheet activity started and Timesheet activity stopped.

  5. Click Save.

2. User-Level Email Settings 

Individual users must also opt-in to receive these alerts in their personal settings.

  1. Click the Bell Icon (Notifications) at the top right of the navigation bar.

  2. Click Settings to open your Email notification settings modal.

  3. Scroll down to Pentest email notifications.

  4. Check the boxes for Timesheet activity started and Timesheet activity stopped.

3. Customizing Email Templates (Admin) 

Administrators can customize the wording, branding, and data included in these automated emails. Cyver Core uses two specific system templates for these alerts:

  • Timesheet activity started: Notifies relevant parties that an activity has begun. It automatically pulls in dynamic project data using tokens like {WorkflowTaskTitle}, {PentestName}, and {SentByFullName}.

  • Timesheet activity stopped: Notifies parties that the activity has ended. It includes the same project details, plus the total logged time using the {Duration} token.

Note: For a detailed guide on how to navigate to these templates, customize their content, set global defaults, or assign specific email branding to different clients, please refer to our full Email Template Versions article.

 

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