Get started
Getting started with Sumhour takes three short screens: name the workspace, pick what you want to do first, then choose how to begin.
Create your account
Section titled “Create your account”Open the sign-up page and press “Continue with Google”, or enter “Your name” and “Work email” and press “Email me a sign-up link”. Sumhour emails you a link. Open it within 15 minutes to finish creating the account. If it doesn’t arrive, check spam, or press “Send it again” (it unlocks after 30 seconds). Typed the address wrong? Press “Use a different email”; the plan you picked stays selected.
There are no passwords. To sign in, press “Email me a sign-in link” or “Use a passkey”. To add a passkey (Touch ID, Face ID, Windows Hello or a security key), open the menu under your initials, choose “Sign-in and security” and press “Add a passkey”.
Set up the workspace
Section titled “Set up the workspace”After you sign up, three short questions shape the workspace. Every answer can be changed later.
Step 1: name and team size
Section titled “Step 1: name and team size”Give the workspace a name, usually your agency’s. You can rename it later in workspace settings. Then answer “How many people will use Sumhour?”:
| Choice | What Sumhour suggests next |
|---|---|
| Just me | Track my own time |
| 2 to 5 | Invoice clients and get paid |
| 6 to 10, 11 to 25, 26 to 50, More than 50 | Collect and approve the team’s hours |
The box for product news starts empty and stays that way unless you tick it. On Sumhour Cloud you do not enter a card here: every plan starts with 30 days free.
Step 2: what you want to get done first
Section titled “Step 2: what you want to get done first”Pick one of four goals: “Invoice clients and get paid”, “Keep projects profitable”, “Collect and approve the team’s hours” or “Track my own time”. The team size from step 1 preselects one. This only decides which checklist you see in the sidebar. Every part of Sumhour stays available.
Step 3: how you want to start
Section titled “Step 3: how you want to start”| Option | Where you land |
|---|---|
| Explore with sample data | Your timesheet, with the timer ready to start |
| Bring my data from Harvest, Toggl or Clockify | The Import page |
| Start empty | The new project form, or the new client form first if you have no clients |
If you said more than “Just me” in step 1, this screen also has “Invite your team (optional)”. Paste up to 20 email addresses, separated by commas or new lines. They join as members, and you can change their roles later under People. Press “Start tracking” to finish.
Both step 2 and step 3 have “Skip setup”, which takes you straight to the app.
Sample data
Section titled “Sample data”Sample data adds three clients (Northwind Retail, Larkspur Health and Bloom & Co), one project for each and a few weeks of logged time, so reports and invoices have something to show. The three projects cover the main project types: Brand refresh is a retainer, Patient portal is a fixed fee and Spring campaign is hourly. It also adds four tasks: Design, Development, Meetings and Admin.
If you skipped it, an owner or admin can press “Add sample data” on the Projects page while there are no projects. Archive the samples when you are done (see projects and clients).
Import from another tool
Section titled “Import from another tool”The Import page lives under workspace settings and needs the admin or owner role. It takes Harvest data over its API (you paste a personal access token and the account id) and CSV exports from Toggl Track, Clockify or any other time tracker. You get a review step before anything is written, and every import can be reverted afterwards.
Start your first timer
Section titled “Start your first timer”On the Timesheet, press “Start timer” or the T key and pick a project. The running timer shows in the top bar on every page. Everything else about logging hours is in tracking time.
The getting-started checklist
Section titled “The getting-started checklist”Owners and admins see a small “Getting started” card in the sidebar with a count like “2 of 5”. The steps depend on the goal you picked:
| Goal | Steps |
|---|---|
| Invoice from your hours | Add a client, add a project with a rate, track some time, create an invoice from that time, send it |
| Project profitability | Add a project with a budget, set what an hour costs you, track some time, invite the people who work on it |
| Team timesheets | Invite your team, add a project, track some time, submit a week, approve a week |
| Your own time | Add a project, start your first timer, log time you forgot, track from your editor or an AI app |
Each step links to the page where you do it and ticks itself off when the thing really happens in the workspace. Sample data does not count, so the list starts empty even after loading it. The card goes away when every step is done. You can also press “Hide this list” to remove it for good.
Invite people
Section titled “Invite people”Owners and admins invite people from the People page. Under “Invite someone”, enter an email, pick a role and press “Send invite”. Owners can give any role, and admins any role except owner. The role defaults to member.
The person gets an email with a link. The page also shows the link after you send it, so you can pass it on yourself. An invitation expires after 48 hours. To accept, the person signs in with the address you invited and presses “Accept and open workspace”. Pending invitations are listed on the People page. On Sumhour Cloud, open invitations count towards your seats.
For what each role can see and do, read team and roles.
Install the app
Section titled “Install the app”Sumhour installs like an app on a computer or a phone, with its own window and icon, and opens straight to your Timesheet.
- Chrome or Edge on a computer: open the account menu (your initials, top right) and choose “Install the app”, or use the install icon at the end of the address bar.
- Android: in Chrome, open the browser menu and choose “Add to home screen” or “Install app”.
- iPhone and iPad: in Safari, tap the share button and choose “Add to Home Screen”.
The installed app is the same Sumhour, so everything you do there is in the browser too. It needs a connection; without one it shows a short notice, and a running timer keeps counting on the server.