Frequently Asked Questions

Daily tracks your time by periodically asking what you are doing. Hence, no toggling timers, stopwatches or note-taking anymore. This way, you will never forget to track any billable hour. Additionally, Daily helps prevent procrastination by letting you confirm your current activity regularly.

This article explains more about Daily's unique time tracking approach.

A companion app for iOS is available that allows you to view and edit timesheets when not behind your Mac. Visit this article for more information and availability.

Right now Daily is only available for Mac. However, please send an email if you are interested in having a Windows version.

Daily is available in the following languages:

• English
• Dutch
• French
• German
• Spanish

Please send an email if you are interested in another language.

Please send an email containing the following:

• Description of the issue
• Daily version
• macOS version
• Steps to reproduce (if possible)
• Screenshots or screen recording (if applicable)

Optionally, include the crash report (if Daily has crashed) and log files, which can be generated by running the following commands in Terminal:

defaults write nl.nielsmouthaan.daily.main enableDebugLog true

Debug logging is now enabled. If possible, try to reproduce the issue. If not, use Daily until the issue occurred again. Next, run the following command to archive the log files:

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

The logs are now located in a file name DailyLogs.zip on your desktop. Please attach it to your email.

Finally, disable logging again:

defaults write nl.nielsmouthaan.daily.main enableDebugLog false

Daily has been in development since 2013 by Niels Mouthaan, an independent software developer registered as a sole trader in Sweden.

When Daily does not recognise your license obtained in the app or you see an error while restoring it, try obtaining the same license again using the original Apple ID. You will not be charged again but the license should be automatically picked up. If this does not help, reinstall Daily (this will not delete your data) and try again.

Manage or cancel a recurring license (or its trial) obtained in the app via the Mac App Store. See this article from Apple for more information. If you do not see an active subscription you either signed in using a different Apple ID, or you are on a trial that does not automatically convert into a paid license (hence, there is nothing to cancel).

Manage or cancel your business account via Chargebee.

Apple supports Paypal as a payment method in multiple countries. See this article to find out if it does for you. If it does not, please send an email so we can sort something out.

Setapp is a subscription service for Mac and iOS apps that allows you to use more than 200 apps using a single subscription. Daily is available too and can be found here.

As a business you can obtain multiple licenses and distribute them among your employees without the hassle of reimbursement and payments. Payments are processed by Chargebee and Stripe.

Manage business licences via the business portal.

A business licence is permanently assigned to a single device. Deactivate it to make its slot available for a new license that can be assigned to a new device by following these instructions:

1. Open the business portal.
2. Click Manage Licenses.
3. Enter your subscription ID. See Where can I find my subscription ID if you need help finding it.
4. Find your license based on your email address and device ID (which is the same as your Mac's serial number), uncheck the checkbox on the left and click Update Licenses.
5. At the bottom in the Add License section, enter your email address and click Add License.
6. Follow the instructions in the email you received to activate the license on your new device.

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 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 its functionality and settings.

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". This article provides additional information.

From version 1.21.0 onwards, Daily allows you to group activities. For example, by category, client, or project. Refer to this article for more information.

By default, Daily discards time when closing the dialog asking what you are doing or have been doing. Refer to this article for more information.

Before version 1.18, dismissing the dialog (asking what you are doing) would preserve time by distributing it over existing activities recorded for that day. It does this by taking into account each activity's duration relative to the total time recorded for that day, hence, pro-rata.

If you prefer this behaviour instead, go to Daily's preferences, click on Dialog, and set Upon closing dialog to Preserve 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.

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 leave the duration empty when time tracking is enabled, which results in the same behavior as providing an activity when Daily would have asked what you are currently doing.



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 via the activity manager, which can be opened via the menu or by clicking an activity or group. The activity manager allows you to add, remove, rename, hide and merge activities and manage their groups. Refer to this article for more information.

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.

Read more about controlling when to track time in this article.

You can track time silently by clicking the red record icon on the dashboard and select Track time silently.... Next, provide an activity and optionally provide how long you want Daily to track this activity silently. During this period, Daily will not ask what you are doing. This is useful when in a meeting or when you do not want to get disturbed. Read more about controlling when to track time in this article.

You can operate Daily using your keyboard, also from within other apps. By default, the following keyboard shortcuts are configured:

• Shift+Control+D to open the dashboard.
• Shift+Control+X to manually add time for today.
• Shift+Control+R to toggle time tracking.
• Shift+Control+Z to silently track time.
• Shift+Control+F to focus the visible dialog.
• Shift+Control+S to allocate time to the selected activity.
• Shift+Control+C to close the visible dialog.

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.

This article explains more about Daily's unique time tracking approach.

Daily uses iCloud to automatically synchronize data, making it available on all your devices. This also ensures a back up is made. To restore this data, all you need to do is download Daily and ensure iCloud has been configured on your Mac using the correct Apple ID. Refer to this article for more information about setting up iCloud.

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 Terminal:

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

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

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.

To have Daily synchronize data between your devices, you will need to:

• Be logged in using the same iCloud account.
• 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 hours to complete. This behaviour is entirely controlled by Apple and Daily is not able to speed up this process.

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

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

Daily lets you export your data in multiple formats. You can then import the exported files into your favourite spreadsheet, invoicing, billing, or project‑management application. To export data, open the dashboard, click the cog icon in the bottom‑bar’s right corner, and select Export data…. The available formats are:

CSV
CSV is widely supported by data‑import tools such as Apple Numbers and Microsoft Excel.
Choose one of three report types:

• Summary – An aggregated overview for the selected date range.
• Daily – A matrix with activities as rows and days as columns.
• Timesheet – A detailed, day‑by‑day list of activities, each on its own row.

JSON
JSON is ideal for (automatic) data exchange between applications.
You can export:

• Summary – Aggregated overview for the specified date range.
• Timesheet – Detailed records for each day in the range.
• Activities – A complete list of all activities available in Daily.

PDF
PDF generates a clean, printable report. Available report types:

• Summary – Aggregated overview for the chosen period.
• Timesheet – Day‑specific breakdown of your activities.

Toggl
Although this is a CSV export, it’s preformatted for direct import into Toggl. You can customise how fields map between Daily and Toggl—see the in‑app instructions for details. For more information on importing CSV files into Toggl, refer to this Toggl support article.

Daily does not have an active activity. Instead, it tracks time by periodically asking what you are doing. Hence, it samples activities. This unique time tracking method prevents the need to toggle timers whenever you switch tasks.

This article explains more about Daily's unique time tracking approach.

Daily has been designed to report hours, create invoices, and analyze how you have spent your time. Only knowing the duration per activity is typically sufficient for those purposes. For simplicity reasons, Daily only shows the duration of each activity and does not show when (during the day) you started and stopped working on each specific activity.

Daily supports automating the following tasks using AppleScript:

• Toggling time tracking.
• Adding, changing and removing time.
• Managing activities and their groups.
• Exporting data.

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 "Diner" in "Food"
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
add "Diner" in "Food" with duration 20

edit "Lunch" with duration 15
edit "Coffee" with duration 15 for Yesterday
edit "Diner" in "Food" with duration 15 for Yesterday

end tell

Refer to the following examples:

tell application "Daily"

add group "Food"

delete group "Food"

add activity "Diner"
add activity "Diner" in "Food"

delete activity "Diner"
delete activity "Diner" in "Food"

rename activity "Diner" to "Breakfast"

merge activity "Diner" into "Breakfast"

archive activity "Breakfast"
unarchive activity "Coffee"

archive group "Food"
unarchive group "Food"

move activity "Diner" in "Food" to "Food & Drinks"
ungroup activity "Diner" in "Food"

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 "/Users/niels/Desktop/"

export csv with report "summary" from LastWeek to Today to file (POSIX file (Location & "summary.csv")) with time rounding
export csv with report "daily" from LastWeek to Today to file (POSIX file (Location & "daily.csv")) with time rounding
export csv with report "timesheet" from LastWeek to Today to file (POSIX file (Location & "timesheet.csv"))
export csv with report "timesheet" from LastWeek to Today to file (POSIX file (Location & "timesheet.csv")) for group "Food"

export json with report "summary" from LastWeek to Today with duration format "text" to file (POSIX file (Location & "summary.json")) with time rounding
export json with report "timesheet" from LastWeek to Today with duration format "seconds" to file (POSIX file (Location & "timesheet.json")) with time rounding
export json with report "timesheet" from LastWeek to Today with duration format "seconds" to file (POSIX file (Location & "timesheet.json")) for group "Food"
export json with report "timesheet" from LastWeek to Today with duration format "seconds" to file (POSIX file (Location & "timesheet.json")) with groups as separate values and archived activities excluded

print json with report "summary" from LastWeek to Today with duration format "text" with time rounding
print json with report "timesheet" from LastWeek to Today with duration format "seconds" with time rounding
print json with report "timesheet" from LastWeek to Today with duration format "seconds" for group "Food"
print json with report "timesheet" from LastWeek to Today with duration format "seconds" with groups as separate values and archived activities excluded

export pdf with report "timesheet" from LastWeek to Today to file (POSIX file (Location & "timesheet.pdf"))
export pdf with report "timesheet" from LastWeek to Today to file (POSIX file (Location & "timesheet.pdf")) for group "Food" with time rounding
export pdf with report "summary" from LastWeek to Today to file (POSIX file (Location & "summary.pdf")) with groups as separate values and archived activities excluded

export toggl from LastWeek to Today with email "[email protected]" using format "%client%: %project%" and fallback "client" with tags "" billable "yes" to file (POSIX file (Location & "toggl.csv"))

export activities to file (POSIX file (Location & "activities.json"))
export activities to file (POSIX file (Location & "activities.json")) with groups as separate values and archived activities excluded
export activities to file (POSIX file (Location & "activities.json")) for group "Food"

print activities
print activities with groups as separate values and archived activities excluded
print activities for group "Food"

end tell