How does MONA track my time automatically?

Quick answer: Install MONA for Mac, sign in with your email code, grant the Accessibility permission, and pick the apps you want tracked. Each morning MONA drafts the hours it measured, grouped by project, at monaverse.com/time. You accept, correct, or discard them. Nothing is billable until you accept it.

MONA collects metadata only. It sees which app you are in, the title of the window, and the name of the open document. It does not see what is in the document, what you typed, or what is on your screen.

What MONA collects, and what it never collects

This is the same promise printed in the app, in the Clipper, and on the download page:

• Metadata only. No screenshots, no keystrokes, no page or document content, no audio.
• Only apps you allow are sampled. Private and incognito windows are never sampled.
• Raw activity stays on this device and is deleted after 14 days. Only work MONA could match to one of your projects is sent, as a project, an app name, a duration, and the words that matched.
• Studio admins see the hours you accept, never your activity.
• Pause any time. Delete everything any time. Revoke this device from Settings, then Time.

How do I install MONA for Mac?

1. Download the app. Go to monaverse.com/download and click Download for Mac. Open the DMG and drag MONA to Applications. It needs macOS 14 or later.
2. Sign in with your email code. Same sign-in as the website: your email address, then the one-time code MONA emails you.
3. Read what is collected. The app shows the privacy contract above before it asks for a single permission.
4. Grant Accessibility. MONA opens System Settings for you. Switch MONA on under Privacy and Security, then Accessibility. This is the one permission the app needs, and it is what gives MONA the window title and the open document name. MONA never asks for Screen Recording.
5. Pick your tracked apps. Design and office apps are on by default. Everything else is off, and off means it is not sampled at all.
6. Review your hours. Open monaverse.com/time in the morning. Each row shows the evidence, for example 2.5 hrs in SketchUp and Mail on Henderson_kitchen.skp, so you are confirming a memory rather than auditing a number.

How does MONA know which project I was working on?

It matches what it can see on your Mac against the studio's own project graph, in this order:

1. A rule you already taught it. Accepting, correcting, or discarding a suggestion, or using Assign in the menu bar, records a rule for that file, website, folder, or app. Rules are per person and are consulted first.
2. The open document. File names and folder paths are matched against your project names, client last names, and street names from project addresses.
3. The window title. Email subjects, Zoom meeting names, Canva design names, and browser tab titles are matched against the same vocabulary.
4. Nothing. Work MONA cannot attribute stays on the Mac as Unattributed, shown with the app name and a duration only. Click Assign to teach it, or leave it and it is deleted after 14 days.

You can see everything MONA has learned, and delete any of it, under Settings, then Time.

How do I track browser time without installing the Mac app?

Install the MONA Clipper from the Chrome Web Store (setup in How do I use the MONA Clipper?), open its side panel, and switch on Track browser time for MONA. It counts vendor sites, Gmail, Google Docs, Houzz, and Pinterest toward the right project using the same matching rules, with no OS permission and no new install. Incognito tabs are never sampled.

How do I log site visits from my phone?

In the MONA iPhone app, open the header menu and tap Time, then switch on Site visits. iOS asks for Always location access, which is what makes arrival detection work in the background. Your project addresses are geocoded on the phone, arrivals are matched there, and only matched visits are sent, as a project, a duration, and the project name. Anything that does not match one of your projects is dropped on the device.

Only projects with an address on the Overview tab can be matched, so add the job-site address to any project you want counted.

How do I stop or remove tracking?

• Pause: click the MONA icon in the menu bar and choose an hour, the rest of today, or until you turn it back on.
• Revoke a device: on monaverse.com go to Settings, then Time, and click Revoke. It stops sending immediately.
• Delete local data: in the app's Settings click Delete all local data. Raw activity is deleted after 14 days regardless.
• Turn suggestions off entirely: the switch at the top of Settings, then Time.

How do I approve my team's time?

Owners and admins can require that every entry a teammate logs is approved before it can be invoiced.

1. Turn it on. Go to Settings, then Time, and switch on Team time entries need approval. Entries your team logs wait for an owner or admin to approve them before they can be invoiced. Your own entries are approved automatically.
2. Review. On the Time page, open the Review tab. Filter by person, project, date range (This week, Last week, This month, Last month, or Custom), and status. The strip above the table totals the hours, amount, cost, and count for everything the filters match, not just the rows on screen.
3. Approve or send back. Tick rows and click Approve selected, or approve one row at a time. To send an entry back, click Reject and write what to fix. The person who logged it sees your note, edits the entry, and clicks Resubmit.
4. Export. Export on the Review tab downloads exactly what the filters show, as a PDF or a CSV (spreadsheet). The CSV carries status, who reviewed it, when, and the note on every row.

Each person can see their own hours by project for any date range under Summary on the Time page, and export that as a PDF or CSV for their own billing. Team members only ever see and export their own rows. You can also ask MONA in chat: "show me the time waiting for approval this week", "approve Shelbi's entries from Monday", or "what are my hours for September?"

Submitting a timesheet

If your team bills the studio for their hours (contractors, for example), each person submits a timesheet for the dates they are billing, and an owner or admin approves the whole period at once.

1. Submit. On the Time page open Timesheets and click Submit timesheet. The dates start the day after your last timesheet and end today; change them if you need to. MONA shows your hours by day and project before you send it. Click Submit.
2. No double billing. Dates you already submitted cannot be submitted again. MONA tells you where to start instead, for example "You already submitted through Sep 26. Start on Sep 27." The Timesheets tab always shows the date you last submitted through.
3. Review. Owners and admins get an email and a notification, and the timesheet waits in Timesheets with the hours (and pay) by day and project. Click Approve, or Return with a note saying what to fix. A returned timesheet frees its dates so the person can fix their entries and submit again.
4. Choose who gets the email. In Settings, then Time, add the addresses under Email timesheet notifications to. Leave it empty to email the owner and admins.

Once you submit, the entries on that timesheet are locked for you. Ask an owner or admin to return it if something needs to change. You can also ask MONA in chat: "submit my timesheet for last week" or "show me the timesheets waiting for me".

Billable by default, and exporting a PDF

Billable by default. On the Time page, New entry and Start timer start with Billable unticked; tick it when the time is for a client. If your team logs time to bill the studio rather than your clients, an owner or admin can also switch off New entries are billable by default in Settings, then Time, so the hours MONA logs for you in chat and the hours it suggests from your activity start non-billable too. Anyone can still mark an entry billable, and entries already logged are not changed.

PDF export. Every Export button on the Time page (the page header, the Review tab, and Summary) offers PDF and CSV (spreadsheet). The PDF is grouped by person, with the date, project, start and stop time, description, hours, billable, status, rate, and amount on each row, a subtotal per person, and a grand total. It uses the same filters as the screen, and team members only ever get their own entries. You can also ask MONA: "send me a PDF of my hours for September."

How do I attach a receipt to an expense?

Bought something for a project? Log it as an expense with the receipt on it, so whoever approves it can see what it was.

1. Log the expense. On the Time page click New entry, then switch to Expense. Pick the project, say what you bought, and enter the amount.
2. Attach the receipt. Click Attach receipt, or drag a file onto the box. Photos (including iPhone HEIC photos) and PDFs work, up to 10 files of 25 MB each per expense. On a phone the picker offers Take Photo, and the MONA app has a Log expense button on its Time screen.
3. Add or open one later. Click the paperclip on the expense row, or the pencil to edit it. Click a receipt to open it, or the trash icon to remove it. Removing it only takes it off the expense; the file stays in your Library.

Only the person who logged the expense, an owner, an admin, or the studio's bookkeeper can open its receipts. Other teammates see the paperclip count only. Once an expense is on an invoice its receipts are locked, like the rest of the entry. You can also ask MONA in chat: "attach this receipt to my Home Depot expense on Henderson."

Frequently asked questions

Answers to the most common questions are in the FAQ section of this page, including what is sent to MONA servers, whether admins can see your activity, and how accurate the project matching is. The full data-handling terms are in the Privacy Policy under "MONA desktop and mobile activity tracking".