When does time count as idle?
After a few minutes with no keyboard or mouse (3 minutes unless your company changed it). Idle time isn’t counted as tracked or worked time: not in hours, overtime or the payroll Excel. It’s shown on its own.
Calls aren’t idle: while you’re in a call — a microphone in use, in Zoom, Teams, Google Meet or any other app, even on a second screen — time without keyboard or mouse still counts as work, for up to 2 hours unless your company chose another limit (30 minutes to 4 hours). Owners and admins can change the limit, or switch it off, in Settings → Organization → Video calls.
Timerfly never records or hears any audio: it only checks whether a microphone is on, like the orange dot on a Mac. A call app just left open (a Teams chat) with no call going is idle as usual.
Locking the computer counts as idle straight away, and the Team page shows Screen locked.
Reading without touching anything can show as idle. If it was work, add it as offline time.
Owners and admins change the limit in Settings → Organization → Idle after — or for one department or person in Settings → Departments & people (Business).
More on the desktop app
- How do I start and stop my work day?
- Does Timerfly start tracking by itself, or do I press Start?
- How do breaks work?
- Can I pause tracking for something personal?
- What do Total, Productive and Effective in the app mean?
- What happens at the end of my shift?
- What if someone forgets to press Stop work?
- What notifications does the Timerfly app show, and when?
- What if the internet goes off?
- How does the app update?
- Does the app start when the computer starts?
- I use two computers. Is my time counted twice?
- How do I sign out of the desktop app, or quit it?
- How do I record time on a project from the app?