Frequently Asked Questions

Daily works by asking what you are doing. This way you do not have to use timers, typically required by other time tracking solutions. The problem with these timers is that people often forget to use them, which make the resulting time sheets inaccurate with all its consequences.

Daily's unobtrusive way of working combined with its simplicity removes the hassle out of time tracking. Use its resulting data to create invoices, work more efficiently or simply make time tracking much easier.

More information about Daily's unique time tracking approach can be read in our special blog post.

View on the Mac App Store

Right now Daily is only available for Mac but an iOS app is high on our wish list. Do you have suggestions how the app should work or interested in trying out a potential test version? Feel free to reach out by sending an email to [email protected].

Right now Daily is only available for Mac. However, if a Windows version is a must-have for you, please let us know by sending an email to [email protected].

Daily is available in the following languages:

• English
• Dutch
• French
• German
• Spanish

Interested in seeing an additional language being added? Let us know by emailing us on [email protected].

Daily automatically collects and sends crash reports, which we analyse in order to improve Daily. However, you can help us by sending additional logs. You can generate those by following the steps described below.

First, run the following command in your Terminal app, which you can find in the Utilities folder within your Applications folder. Read more about Terminal here. The following command enables debug logging:

defaults write nl.nielsmouthaan.daily.main enableDebugLog true

After this, (force) restart Daily if it is still running. Next, if possible and/or applicable, try to reproduce the issue you are experiencing.

Finally, run the following command in your Terminal app:

zip -rj ~/Desktop/DailyLogs.zip ~/Library/Containers/nl.nielsmouthaan.daily.main/Data/Library/Logs/Daily/.

A file called DailyLogs.zip should now be located in your Desktop folder. Please attach this file to an email containing a clear description of the issue and send it to [email protected].

It is best to run the following command after you are done in order to disable debug logging to increase performance:

defaults write nl.nielsmouthaan.daily.main enableDebugLog false

Uninstalling Daily is similar to uninstalling other apps downloaded from the Mac App Store. Refer to this Apple support page for detailed instructions. In short:

1. Quit Daily by clicking the cog icon located in Daily's bottom bar and select "Quit Daily".
2. Drag Daily from your Applications folder to your Trash.

Daily Time Tracking is a trade name of Niels Mouthaan IT Services, which is registered in the Commercial Register of The Dutch Chamber of Commerce (KvK) with number 71314490.

Niels Mouthaan IT Services
Elisabeth Wolffstraat 75-1
1053TT Amsterdam
The Netherlands

Niels Mouthaan IT Services is registered at the Dutch tax office (Belastingdienst) with number NL001550302B29.

When Daily does not recognise your subscription that you obtained directly from the app, or you get a "Failed restoring subscription" error while restoring, try purchasing the same subscription again using the same Apple ID used during the subscription process. You will not be charged again but the subscription should be automatically picked up. If this does not help, remove Daily from the Applications folder (this will not delete your data), restart your Mac and download Daily again from the Mac App Store.

Subscriptions that you obtained directly from the app can be managed or cancelled via the Mac App Store.

Visit the Mac App Store

Depending on your location, PayPal can be used to obtain a subscription directly from the app. Refer to Apple's support website for more information as the process is handled by the Mac App Store.

Alternatively a manual license can be provided after paying a one-time fee. Please send an email to [email protected] for further instructions.

As a business you can obtain licenses and distribute them among your employees. This alternative subscription mechanism enables you to manage licenses and associated payments in a centralised manner. Among others, this removes the need for your employees to reimburse (recurring) costs and allows you to create invoices.

Payments are processed by Chargebee and Stripe. We do not store any data related to payments.

Visit the Business Licenses Portal

Make sure you have entered a correct license code. It could be that you have entered a subscription ID instead of a license code.

You can manage your business licenses via our Business Licenses Portal.

Visit the Business Licenses Portal

Your subscription ID can be found in various emails we have sent via Chargebee, including:

• Subscription creation confirmation.
• Subscription change confirmation.
• Subscription cancellation confirmation.
• Sent invoices.

Alternatively, you can sign in on Chargebee and find your subscription ID there.

Payment details and invoices can be seen and managed via our subscription billing partner Chargebee.

Visit Chargebee

Daily runs in your status bar, where you can also find the clock, volume control, battery status, etc. You cannot find Daily in your dock.

Click the Daily icon to open its dashboard. From there you have access to other functions and settings.

While simplicity rules, Daily offers enough adjustable settings enabling you to make Daily fully compatible with the way you work. From dialog appearance to keyboard shortcuts, they can all be changed.

To access and change Daily's settings, open the dashboard and click the cog icon located on the right side of the bottom bar and select "Preferences...".

Daily enables you to create timesheets for a specific day, week, month and year and even allows you to view all data ever recorded. To toggle between these ranges, click the down arrow located on the right in the top bar when viewing the dashboard.

To navigate to a previous or next day, week, month or year, depending on the range selected, respectively use the left or right arrow shown next to shown date.

To navigate to a specific date (range), click the shown date and type the date (range), for example "January 1" and press enter. Daily also understands relative dates, for example "Yesterday", "This year" or "Last week". More about this can be read in a related blog post.

Daily has two types of dialogs that are shown automatically, both asking for an activity:

• Random dialog, shown randomly asking what you are currently doing.
• Inactivity dialog, shown when your Mac has been inactive for a configurable amount of time, asking what you have been doing while you have been away.

The behaviour when dismissing the dialog (by clicking the X icon in the bottom bar) is different for each dialog type:

Random dialog
Dismissing this dialog type allows a user to skip providing an activity. It is useful when (temporary) working on a trivial activity that should not be recorded. Instead, the time is divided over already registered activities. Hence, this will not affect your total recorded time.

Inactivity dialog
When dismissing this dialog type, nothing will be registered for the period you have been away from your Mac. This is useful for breaks such as when having lunch, assuming you do not want to record this as work. Hence, this will affect your total recorded time.

You can manually add and edit entries when viewing a specific day. The ability to add and edit is disabled when viewing a week, month, year or all data.

In order to add an entry, click the plus (+) button located on the right in the bottom bar when viewing the dashboard. Enter or select an activity and provide a duration. Various formats are supported, including:

• "30m" to apply 30 minutes.
• "1h 30m" to apply an hour and a half.
• "45" to apply 45 minutes.

Note that you can also leave the duration empty when time tracking is enabled. This results in the same behaviour as providing an activity when Daily would have asked what you are currently doing.

In order to edit an existing entry, click its duration. Note that the label becomes editable. Apply a new duration using the following formats:

• "+30m" to add 30 minutes.
• "-1h 30m" to subtract an hour and a half.
• "0" to remove the entry.
• "45" to apply 45 minutes.

Activities can be managed by opening Daily's preferences and clicking "Activities". This allows you to:

• Disable an activity, hiding it from the list when being asked to provide an activity and optionally from the dashboard and exported reports too.
• Add an activity.
• Remove an activity.
• Rename an activity.
• Merge activities, either by dragging an activity in another activity or renaming it to an existing activity.

Daily includes a scheduler that enables you to only track time during specific times of certain days. It can be configured by opening Daily's preferences and clicking "Scheduler". At all times you are able to override the scheduler by enabling or disabling time tracking either via the dashboard or via the configured keyboard shortcut.

When "overtime modus" is enabled, Daily will continue to track time until you stop working on your Mac for a while. When returning, Daily will behave according to the scheduler configuration. This feature is handy when working a bit longer than expected without the risk of not tracking this time.

Daily allows you to prevent itself from asking what you are currently doing by automatically applying an activity. This is useful when presenting, sharing or recording your screen as no dialog will be shown automatically. In order to configure this, open Daily's dashboard and click "Time tracking is enabled" located on the left in the bottom bar. Next, select "Apply activity automatically" and enter or select an activity that needs to be applied automatically. Optionally, you can provide a duration that specifies for how long the activity should be applied automatically.

You can control Daily directly using your keyboard, even when working from a different app. By default, the following global keyboard shortcuts are configured:

• Shift+Control+D to open the dashboard.
• Shift+Control+F to focus the visible dialog.
• Shift+Control+S to apply the selected activity.
• Shift+Control+X to manually add an event.
• Shift+Control+R to enable or disable time tracking.
• Shift+Control+Z to automatically apply an activity.

You can change keyboard shortcuts by opening Daily's preferences and clicking "Shortcuts".

Keeping Daily's dashboard open when switching to another app can be handy when you need to manually enter shown information into another app or website. You have two options:

• Double click Daily's icon in the status bar to keep the dashboard open, even when it loses focus.
• Enable the "Keep window visible after losing focus" option in Daily's preferences to keep the dashboard open when it loses focus. You can close the dashboard by clicking Daily's icon in the status bar.

Daily uses a specific algorithm in order to calculate durations in the most accurate way. It uses information from different sources for this, either provided by the user (such as an activity) or automatically collected from the system. When new information becomes available, Daily evaluates previous recorded activities too, potentially changing their duration slightly. It essentially tweaks already recorded data in a more accurate way, based on new knowledge.

More information about Daily's unique time tracking approach can be read in our special blog post.

From version 1.14.0, available for macOS Catalina and higher, Daily supports iCloud. As a result your data is automatically synchronised, making it available on all your devices. Additionally, your data is being backed up automatically. In order to restore this data, all you need to do is download Daily and ensure iCloud has been configured on your Mac. Refer to this Apple support page for additional information related to setting up iCloud on your Mac.

For versions prior to 1.14.0 or when iCloud has not been configured on your Mac, a backup can be made by running the following command in your Terminal app, which you can find in the Utilities folder within your Applications folder. Read more about Terminal here.

zip -rj ~/Desktop/DailyBackup.zip ~/Library/Containers/nl.nielsmouthaan.daily.main/Data/Library/Daily

A file called DailyBackup.zip should now be located in your Desktop folder containing Daily's data files.

In order to restore this back-up, first ensure Daily is installed, has run once and is not running now. Next, run the following command:

unzip -o ~/Desktop/DailyBackup.zip -d ~/Library/Containers/nl.nielsmouthaan.daily.main/Data/Library/Daily

iCloud Drive not only includes files in your Desktop & Documents folder, but it also includes data from apps utilising iCloud to store and synchronise data. Hence, disabling iCloud Drive entirely also affects Daily. You can manage individual parts of iCloud Drive separately by clicking "Options" when viewing the iCloud settings on your Mac. This way, you can disable storing and synchronising files using iCloud but still continue to use iCloud for Daily.

It is recommended to keep iCloud enabled for Daily as it will automatically create a back-up of your data and takes care of synchronisation between multiple devices if applicable. If you decide to disable iCloud for Daily, be aware that your data will be removed as it will fall back to a local data file. This is default macOS behaviour. Enabling iCloud for Daily again will result in data being loaded from iCloud, which might take a few minutes.

Refer to this macOS User Guide page for additional information related to setting up iCloud on your Mac.

First, ensure Daily is not running on your Mac. Next, run the following command in your Terminal app, which you can find in the Utilities folder within your Applications folder. Read more about Terminal here.

rm -rf ~/Library/Containers/nl.nielsmouthaan.daily.main/Data/Library/Daily

Finally, delete Daily from iCloud my managing your iCloud storage. Refer to this macOS User Guide for instructions.

Daily allows you to export data in various formats. Using the resulting files, you can import data into your favourite spreadsheet, invoicing & billing or project management application. To export data, open the dashboard and click the cog icon located on the right side of the bottom bar and select "Export data...". The following formats are available:

CSV

CSV is a common data exchange format that is widely supported by software that allows importing data. Examples include Apple Numbers and Microsoft Excel. Click on the links to find application-specific instructions.
You can export two different data sets:

• Summarized overview, containing an aggregated overview for the date range provided.
• Daily overview, containing day-specific information for the date range provided.

JSON

JSON is another common data exchange format typically used to (automatically) transfer data between applications, potentially over a network. It is especially useful when importing data from Daily into a custom (web) application.
You can export three different data sets:

• Summarized overview, containing an aggregated overview for the date range provided.
• Daily overview, containing day-specific information for the date range provided.
• Activities, containing a list with activities and their properties stored within Daily.

Toggl

While technically CSV (making it potentially applicable for other applications too) this format exports a file that directly can be imported into Toggl. Different formatting options are available causing data to be automatically mapped between Daily and Toggl according to your preferences. Refer to the in-app instructions for more information. Refer to this Toggl article for instructions how data can be imported.

You have just witnessed the beauty of Daily: there is no active activity currently being tracked. Daily works by sampling activities, typically occurring when Daily asks you what you are doing. Using this and other information it generates accurate timesheets for you without the need of (manually) starting & stopping activities.

More information about Daily's unique time tracking approach can be read in our special blog post.

In order to have Daily synchronise data between your devices, you will need to:

• Be logged in using the same iCloud account on your Mac. Refer to these instructions from Apple.
• Ensure Daily is configured to use iCloud by opening iCloud settings in System Preferences and click "Options..." next to iCloud Drive.
• Have at least version 1.14.0 of Daily installed and running on all your devices.

Be aware that synchronisation can take up to a few days to happen. This behaviour is entirely controlled by Apple and Daily is not able to speed up this process.

Daily supports automating the following tasks using AppleScript:

• Enabling or disabling time tracking.
• Adding, changing or removing entries.
• Managing activities.
• Exporting reports.

Refer to other frequently asked questions on this page for examples. Additionally, Apple’s Script Editor User Guide is a good resource for understanding AppleScript.

You can run AppleScript scripts from Terminal using the osascript command. For example:

osascript -e 'tell application "Daily" to print json with report "summary" from (current date) - (1 * days) to (current date)'

For more information, refer to Apple's Terminal User Guide.

Refer to the following examples:

tell application "Daily"

set InOneHour to (current date) + (1 * hours)

get registration mode

set registration mode "off"
set registration mode "silent" with activity "Meeting"
set registration mode "silent" with activity "Customer presentation" that ends InOneHour
set registration mode "ask"

end tell

Refer to the following examples:

tell application "Daily"

set Yesterday to (current date) - (1 * days)

add "Documentation"
add "Homework" with duration 10
add "Phone call" with duration 10 for Yesterday

edit "Lunch" with duration 15
edit "Coffee" with duration 15 for Yesterday

end tell

Refer to the following examples:

tell application "Daily"

add activity "Diner"

rename activity "Diner" to "Breakfast"

merge activity "Diner" into "Breakfast"

enable activity "Breakfast"
disable activity "Coffee"

hide activity "Lunch"
unhide activity "Diner"

delete activity "Breakfast"

export activities to file POSIX file "/Volumes/Macintosh HD/Users/YourUsername/Desktop/activities.json"

print activities

end tell

Refer to the following examples:

tell application "Daily"

set LastWeek to (current date) - (7 * days)
set Today to (current date)

set Location to choose folder with prompt "Please select a folder where you want to store the exported files:"

export csv with report "summary" from LastWeek to Today with delimiter "," with duration format "H:mm:ss" to file POSIX path of Location & "summary.csv" with time rounding

export csv with report "daily" from LastWeek to Today with delimiter "," with duration format "minutes" to file POSIX path of Location & "daily.csv" without time rounding

export json with report "summary" from LastWeek to Today with duration format "text" to file POSIX path of Location & "summary.json" with time rounding

export json with report "daily" from LastWeek to Today with duration format "seconds" to file POSIX path of Location & "daily.json" without time rounding

print json with report "summary" from LastWeek to Today with duration format "minutes" with time rounding

end tell