Fanurio allows users who prefer to organize their work with a calendar application to import calendar events as time entries. The recommended way to do this is to create a separate calendar for each project so you can export them as iCalendar files (.ics).
iCalendar is the standard Internet format for exchanging calendar information. iCalendar is used and supported by a large number of products, including Google Calendar, Apple Calendar (formerly iCal), Microsoft Outlook, Yahoo! Calendar and the Lightning extension for Mozilla Thunderbird.
Follow these steps to import the events of an iCalendar file (.ics) as time entries in a project:
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Go to the Projects view.
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Right-click the project where you want to import the events of an iCalendar file and select from the popup menu.
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Select an iCalendar file (.ics).
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Make sure the import period is set correctly. By default, the import period is set to [project start date ... project due date].
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Click Import to import the events as time entries.
Fanurio will import new events and update existing ones under some conditions:
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Invoiced time entries will not be updated if they are reimported to prevent invoices from being altered.
For instance, at some point you import a calendar and invoice the imported time entries. After that, you go back to your calendar application and edit some of the events that were already imported and you add a few more. When you will import the calendar again, the changes that you made to the invoiced time entries will not be imported.
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Only newer time entries will be updated (older versions of an event are skipped).
If you import the events of a calendar regularly (for instance at the end of each week), only new events are imported and events that you changed in the calendar after the last import.
When importing time from an iCalendar file, Fanurio allows you to specify an import period that limits the events that are imported.
For recurring events, if the period is not bounded (for instance it is set to All Dates or it is set to import everything after a certain date) Fanurio will use a bounded period nevertheless. That's because a recurring event may occur indefinitely and Fanurio can't convert it to an infinite number of time entries. If the period is not bounded, Fanurio will import all occurrences of a repeating event from when it was started until the time when the import is performed.
If your calendar file contains recurring events it's probably best that you import them after they occurred otherwise you may import future events that may be cancelled. In this case, the import period should be a past period like last week or last month.
If you reimport in Fanurio a recurring event that has a changed start time, its new occurrences will be imported along the old ones. Although it's unlikely that you import a recurring event in Fanurio and then edit all its occurrences in your calendar application, we're documenting this case here just to let you know how Fanurio deals with it.
Let's assume you have a recurring event for "Meeting from 9:30 to 10:30 each Monday" and you import some of its occurrences in Fanurio. For some unknown reason (that's why we say this is unlikely) you need to change all occurrences of this event to "Meeting from 9:00 to 10:00 each Monday". The next time you will import this event in Fanurio you will have time entries for both the old event and the new event.
If you need to edit an event in a calendar, make sure you edit specific occurrences or only future occurrences so that the past occurrences are not altered.
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