> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.reclaimtime.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # How tracking works > Sessions, the inactivity cutoff, the four separate time figures, multi-window consolidation, working hours, and when data is uploaded. This page describes the mechanism, for anyone who needs to explain a number rather than just read it. If you only want to read the dashboard, [Statistics](/admin/statistics) is enough. ## One row per window session The client watches the windows on the machine. A **session** is a continuous period of using one application, or one website inside a browser. When the session ends it becomes one row of activity. Sessions are keyed on the application, and for a browser on the application and the site together. So switching between two tabs on the same site is one session, while switching to a different site starts a second one. ## Four separate times Every session carries four independent figures, all in seconds. They measure different things and they are not alternatives to each other. | Figure | What it counts | | ---------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **Focused time** | The window was in the foreground and the person was using the keyboard or mouse | | **Visible time** | The window was on screen, whether or not it was being used | | **Typing time** | Typing was detected. A duration only. Nothing about what was typed. | | **Meeting time** | The session was recognised as a call or a meeting | Meeting time is part of focused time, not additional to it. Visible time is always at least focused time, and the gap between them is the passive use case: a queue or a dashboard open on a second monitor while the person works elsewhere. ## The inactivity cutoff If there is no keyboard or mouse input for a short while, the session is closed. The idle period is deducted from the accumulated time rather than counted, so a session does not keep growing while somebody is away from the desk. Meetings, video and fullscreen work are given longer before the session closes, because in all three the person is genuinely engaged without touching anything. That stops a training video, a meeting or a presentation being cut into fragments. It does not add time that was not spent: the idle period is still deducted when the session finally closes. A session also ends when the screen is locked. Idle time is tracked by the client but is not yet shown anywhere in the dashboard. ## Meetings Meetings are recognised for Microsoft Teams and Skype. This works for Teams and Skype and not for anything else. A softphone, a browser-based dialler or another conferencing tool is recorded as ordinary focused time in that application. A team that spends the day on a softphone will show almost no meeting time, and that is a limitation of the detection, not a finding about the team. ## Multi-window applications An application with several windows open, which is normal for Teams and Outlook, is consolidated into one session rather than one per window. When the windows are combined: * Focused, typing and meeting time are **added up**, because only one window can be in the foreground at a time, so there is no double counting. * Visible time takes the **largest** of them, because several windows can be on screen at once and adding them would invent time that did not exist. Before this behaviour existed, a multi-window application produced a stream of fragmented one and two minute rows. If you are comparing against data from before March 2026, that is why the shape changed. ## Working hours The client records **nothing** outside the working days and hours configured for the organisation, or for the individual where they have their own schedule. This is a recording boundary, not a display filter. Evenings and weekends are not collected and then hidden, they are never collected. Widening the hours cannot recover earlier data. ## When data is uploaded | Moment | What happens | | ---------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------- | | About a minute into a session | The row is created on the server | | Every couple of minutes after that | The same row is updated with the time so far | | When the session ends | The row is finalised | Uploads only happen inside working hours. If the machine is offline the rows are held on the machine and sent when the connection returns, marked so they can be told apart from live ones. Nothing is lost and nothing is dropped. The dashboard hides rows less than **15 minutes** old. Between the upload cadence and that delay, allow about 20 minutes before treating a person as not reporting. ## Very short sessions A session of only a few seconds is discarded. Alt-tabbing past a window does not create a row. ## What this means for a number you are questioning | Question | Where the answer usually is | | --------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | "This is lower than the hours they worked" | Focused time is not attendance. Reading, thinking and phone calls away from the keyboard are not focused time. | | "They have no meeting time and they are on calls all day" | Meeting detection only covers Teams and Skype. | | "There is a gap in the middle of the day" | A break, a lock, a meeting away from the desk, or time on sites that are not on the corporate list, which is recorded without a name. | | "Nothing at all for this person" | Working schedule, or the client cannot sign in. See [First login and SSO](/first-login). | *** *Checked against ReclaimTime client 8.0.0.9 and dashboard V3 on 5 September 2026.*