A brief introduction to tags
Projects & Tags Tags Handbook Understand time spent on tasks, projects and phases using tags in Timely.Tags are great organizational tools and can be used in many different ways. We mainly use them to track different project phases, tasks, and sub-projects.
Tag lists allow you to standardize the way you report on the hours you log. They can be used to track the phases and activities of a project:

Tags
Tag lists are comprised of individual tags that allow you to track the granular detail of what you work on within a specific project phase or task.
They’re a really simple way of drilling further down to see how users spend their time:

Applying tags to an entry
After creating a new tag list within your global Tag settings, you need to add it to projects so users can start applying tags to their entries. Only the tag lists you add to a project will be visible to your team when they go to log a time entry.
When writing a note for your entry, use the “tab” key to select an existing tag from the checkbox list. Don’t see the tag you want to use? Just click “Manage Tags” to add more (e.g. “Ideation” in the “Stage” tag list):

After adding that tag to the tag list, head to the project and update by adding the new tag to the list:

The next time you add a new entry, you’ll be able to use that tag on your project:

An entry can have as many tags as you want (depending what tag lists you allow on each project).
Use the tag search bar if you can’t find what you’re looking for:


Reporting using tags
Get a visual overview of your tags from an individual project page or when creating a report:

FAQs
Can I edit tags by users within my workspace?
Right now in Timely, tags can only be managed by project or within the global tag management system in Settings.
Can I apply rates or budgets to a tag?
Rates and budgets only apply to users and projects respectively within Timely but if this is something you’d like to see in Timely, please send us a feature request for our team to consider!
Last updated April 14, 2026
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