TL;DR: Studio Designer Mobile Time is a time tracking app that lets interior designers log billable hours from their phone at the moment the work happens. You choose the client, project, and activity, set a duration or a start and end time, add a short description, and save. Each entry is logged to Studio Designer using the same clients and projects your firm already manages there, so time spent at a showroom, a job site, or a client meeting reaches your records the same day instead of being pieced together at the end of the week.
Key takeaways
- Time gets captured where design work actually happens. Mobile Time puts time entry on your phone, so hours from site visits, installs, sourcing trips, and client meetings are recorded on the spot.
- Logging an entry takes a few taps. Pick a client, a project, and an activity, set the time, and save. Mobile Time fills in the end time from the start time and duration for you.
- Entries use your existing Studio Designer data. Clients and projects come straight from Studio Designer, and the project list narrows to the client you select.
- Every entry stays editable. You can open any saved entry to change the client, project, activity, date, or time, or delete it entirely.
- The time log shows where hours went. Day, Week, and Month views summarize total hours, entries, and days worked, with filters by client, project, and activity.
Why do interior designers lose billable hours?
Interior designers lose billable hours because much of their work happens away from a desk, and time that isn’t recorded right away is usually recorded late, rounded down, or forgotten. A typical week for a designer includes showroom visits, vendor calls, site walkthroughs, installs, and client meetings. Very little of that happens in front of a computer where a timesheet is open.
When time entry depends on getting back to the office, most designers reconstruct their hours from memory, a calendar, or notes on their phone. The large blocks usually survive that process. The short ones, like a 20-minute call with a workroom or a quick stop at a showroom to check a fabric, are the first to disappear.
The cost depends on how the firm bills:
- Firms that bill hourly lose revenue directly, because unrecorded time is time that never makes it onto an invoice.
- Firms that charge flat or fixed fees lose visibility, because without accurate hours there is no reliable way to tell which projects are profitable and which are quietly running over.
- Firm owners and principals lose the data they need to price future projects, staff their team, and spot where hours are going.
| How time gets recorded | When hours are entered | What typically gets lost |
| Paper notes or a spreadsheet | Whenever someone transfers them | Notes that never get transferred, inconsistent project names |
| Desktop timesheet at the end of the week | Days after the work happened | Short tasks, accurate start and end times, activity detail |
| Studio Designer Mobile Time | At the moment the work happens | Very little, because the entry is made in context |
What is Studio Designer Mobile Time?
Studio Designer Mobile Time is the mobile time tracking app built by Studio Designer, the business management platform built for interior design firms. It gives designers and their teams a fast way to record, review, and correct time entries from a phone, using the clients, projects, and activity types already set up in Studio Designer.
With Mobile Time, you can:
- Log new time entries by client, project, and activity, with a date, duration, start and end time, and a description of the work.
- Edit or delete saved entries when a meeting runs long, an hour was logged to the wrong project, or a task needs a better description.
- Review your time log by day, week, or month, with totals for hours, entries, and days worked.
- Filter your hours by client, project, or activity to see exactly where your time went.
Mobile Time is part of the Studio Designer product suite alongside Timesheets, Team Management, Studio Payroll, StudioPay, Catalog, and Design Boards.
To log time in Mobile Time, tap the plus button on the Time log screen, choose a client, project, and activity, set the time, and tap Save. The full process looks like this:
- Open a new entry. From the Time log screen, tap the blue plus button to open the Log Time form.
- Choose the client. Your Studio Designer clients appear as tappable options across the top of the form. Tap one, or tap All to see the full list.
- Choose the project. Once a client is selected, the project list shows only that client’s projects, so you can’t accidentally log hours to the wrong job.
- Choose the activity. Select the type of work, such as Admin, Client Meeting, or Concept Design.
- Set the date and time. Pick the date, then enter a duration in hours and minutes using the clock-style picker, a start time, or both. When you enter a start time and a duration, Mobile Time calculates the end time automatically. For example, a 1 hour entry that starts at 1:10 PM is filled in as ending at 2:10 PM.
- Describe the work. Add a short note in the description field, such as “Client work” or “Fabric selection at showroom.”
- Confirm and save. A plain-language summary under the form confirms the hours, project, and activity before you commit. Tap Save, and an “Entry saved” confirmation appears as the entry is added to your time log.
How do you edit or delete a time entry?
To edit a time entry, tap it in your time log, make your changes, and tap Update. You can change the client, project, activity, date, duration, start and end times, or description. To remove an entry entirely, open it and tap the trash icon in the top corner of the screen.
How can you see where your time went?
The Mobile Time time log shows every entry you’ve recorded, grouped by day, with summary totals at the top of the screen. It’s the first screen you see when you open the app, so your hours are always one tap away.
- Day, Week, and Month views let you switch between a close look at today and a broader view of the month.
- Summary totals show total hours, number of entries, and number of days worked for the selected period. In a typical week, that might read as 7 hours across 7 entries over 4 days.
- Filters for client, project, and activity narrow the log to a single client, a single project, or one type of work, such as every Client Meeting this month.
- Daily groupings with daily totals show each entry’s client, project, time range, and hours, along with a Logged status confirming it has been recorded in Studio Designer.
How does Mobile Time work with the rest of Studio Designer?
Mobile Time runs on the same client and project data as the rest of Studio Designer, so there is nothing to set up twice and no separate list of jobs to maintain. The clients and projects you see in the app are the ones your firm already manages in Studio Designer, and every saved entry is marked Logged once it’s recorded there.
This matters because a standalone time tracking app creates a second system that has to be reconciled with the first. Hours tracked in a generic timer app still need to be retyped or exported before they can inform billing, project budgets, or payroll. With Mobile Time, the entry made on a phone at a job site becomes part of the same records your team uses across Studio Designer.
Who should use Mobile Time?
Mobile Time is built for anyone at an interior design firm whose work happens outside the office, and for the people who rely on that time data afterward.
- Designers and design assistants can log time between site visits, showroom appointments, and client meetings without waiting until they’re back at a desk.
- Project managers get a more complete picture of the hours spent on each project, which makes it easier to catch scope creep before a project runs over budget.
- Firm owners and principals gain accurate data on how the team’s time is divided across clients, projects, and types of work.
- Office managers and bookkeepers spend less time chasing missing hours and correcting entries at the end of each billing period.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best way for interior designers to track billable hours?
The most reliable way for interior designers to track billable hours is to record time at the moment the work happens, in the same system the firm uses for clients, projects, and billing. Studio Designer Mobile Time does this by putting time entry on your phone and logging each entry directly to Studio Designer.
Can I log time for a past date in Mobile Time?
Yes. The Log Time form includes a date field, so you can record time for an earlier day if you missed an entry.
Do I need to enter both a start time and an end time?
No. You can enter a duration in hours and minutes on its own. If you also add a start time, Mobile Time calculates the end time for you.
Can I change a time entry after I’ve saved it?
Yes. Tap any entry in your time log to update its client, project, activity, date, time, or description, then tap Update. You can also delete an entry using the trash icon.
Can I see how many hours I’ve logged this week?
Yes. The Week view in the time log shows your total hours, number of entries, and number of days worked for the week. You can filter those totals by client, project, or activity.
Is Mobile Time available on iPhone and Android?
Yes. Download them here:
iOS (App Store): https://apps.apple.com/us/app/id6792874949
Android (Google Play): https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.studiodesigner.mobile
Studio Designer is the leading digital platform for interior designers managing and growing their design businesses, featuring fully integrated project management, time billing, product sourcing, and accounting solutions.
Want to learn how Studio Designer can work for your design firm? Schedule a call with our team: https://www.studiodesigner.com/get-a-demo/
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