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Importing logs from your team

You can add the logs of your colleagues to your own Tracer data. The dashboard then shows the time of everyone you imported, and the By user chart shows who spent how much time on what.

Importing logs adds to your data. It never replaces or changes your own profile, your own logs, or the clients, projects and tasks you already have.

Overview​

  1. Each colleague exports their data and sends you the file.
  2. You import each file on the Import Logs page.
  3. You review what will be added, and decide what to do with any entries that look like duplicates.
  4. You apply the import.
tip

If your team uses a shared configuration, the shared clients, projects and tasks are recognised automatically, and there is usually nothing to review.

Step 1: Get the files from your colleagues​

Ask each colleague to:

  1. Open Import / Export in Tracer.
  2. Click Export to file.
  3. Send you the .tracer.json file.

This is the same file they use as a backup. See Your data and backups.

Step 2: Load the file​

  1. Click Import Logs under Analytics in the sidebar.
  2. Click Select .tracer.json file and choose the file.
danger

Use Import Logs for colleagues' files, not Import / Export. Importing a colleague's file on the Import / Export page would replace all of your data with theirs.

Step 3: Review the import​

Tracer compares the file with your data and shows a review page.

New items​

Clients, projects, tasks and users from the file that you do not have yet are listed under New items. They are added automatically. The colleague who exported the file is usually listed here as a new user.

Conflicts​

A conflict is an entry in the file with the same ID as one of yours, but which was created separately. This happens when two people each typed in a project "P-1024" by hand. Tracer cannot tell for sure whether they mean the same thing, so it asks you.

For each conflict, the table shows the type, the ID, the name in the file and your existing name. Choose an action:

  • Merge with existing (the default): treat them as the same. Your colleague's logs are attached to your existing entry, and no new entry is added. Choose this when both mean the same client, project or task.
  • Import as new: keep them apart. The entry from the file is added next to yours. Choose this when they only happen to share an ID.

Entries that come from the same shared configuration are never conflicts. Tracer knows they are the same and uses your existing entry.

Log entries​

At the bottom, Tracer shows how many log entries the file contains. Logs that you already have are skipped, so you never get duplicates.

Step 4: Apply​

Click Apply import. A confirmation shows how many clients, projects, tasks, users and log entries were added. Click Import another file to continue with the next colleague.

To stop without changing anything, click Cancel on the review page.

After importing​

  • The imported logs appear on the Dashboard and in the Logs table, with the colleague's name in the User column.
  • They do not appear in your calendar on the Home page, which only shows your own logs.
  • The colleague's profile is added as a user, so shared configurations they own will show their name as owner.

Importing again later​

You can import a newer file from the same colleague at any time, for example every week. Only logs you do not have yet are added.

warning

Logs you imported earlier are not updated. If a colleague changed or deleted a log after you imported it, your copy stays as it was. To refresh a colleague's logs completely, delete their logs in the Logs table first (filter the User column to find them), then import their latest file.

Shared configurations are not transferred through log imports. If you need a colleague's shared configuration, ask them to export it from the Shared Configurations page. See Distributing and updating a shared configuration.