--- title: "Time Spent in Roles Add-on Overview" description: "The Time spent in roles add-on lets each member record what share of their working time goes to each role, and turns those percentages into FTE figures on circle pages, role pages and member profiles." category: structure-governance section: roles-and-assignments type: Tutorial lastUpdated: 2026-08-26 locale: en canonical: https://support.talkspirit.com/en/structure-governance/time-spent-in-roles-add-on-overview --- # Time Spent in Roles Add-on Overview ## Time Spent in Roles Add-on Overview Time spent in roles is a paid add-on for the Structure module. Each member records what share of their working time goes to each of their roles, and Talkspirit turns those percentages into Full Time Equivalent (FTE) figures that everyone in the organisation can read on circle pages, role pages and member profiles. This article explains what the add-on gives you and how the numbers are produced. To switch it on, see [Activating the Time Spent in Roles add-on](/en/structure-governance/activate-the-time-spent-in-my-roles-add-on). ## What the add-on changes Once the add-on is active, four things appear: - A **Time spent in roles** entry in your profile menu, at the top right of the screen. - FTE figures on circle pages, role pages, the **Members** tab and member profiles. - A **Time spent in roles** page under **Structure settings**, for administrators. - A **Time Spent Reminder** row in your own notification preferences. The add-on works by revealing surfaces rather than by locking data. When it is off, these surfaces are simply not shown. It is sold as a separate purchase alongside the Structure module and costs the same on every paid plan, so you do not need to move up a tier to use it. ## Where you record your time 1. Click your **profile icon** at the top right of the screen. 2. Click **Time spent in roles**. 3. Under **Work Schedule**, choose **Full Time** or **Part Time**. Part Time lets you enter your own number of days per month. 4. Move the slider on each role to the share of your time it takes. 5. Click **Save Changes**. ![The Time Spent in Roles dialog: a Work Schedule selector set to Full Time, one slider per role, and a Time Distribution chart reading 100 percent, Perfect allocation.](/images/structure-governance/time-spent-in-roles-add-on-overview/01-time-spent-in-roles-modal.png) Each slider shows the percentage and its equivalent in days per month, so 50% of a 20-day month reads `~10d`. The **Time Distribution** panel adds your percentages up and labels the result **Under allocated**, **Perfect allocation** or **Over allocated**. Going over 100% is allowed. Talkspirit flags it, in the dialog and later as an **Over-allocated** badge on your profile, but it never refuses the save. If you hold no roles, the dialog explains that time allocation becomes available once you are assigned to one. The same dialog opens on its own when you follow the link in a reminder email, so you can go straight from the reminder to your sliders. ## Time is recorded per role, not per circle The dialog lists your **role** assignments only, with the parent circle named underneath each role for context. There is no slider for a circle. Circle figures are always a sum of the roles the circle contains. ## Where the numbers are read Every member of the organisation can see the figures. They appear: - On a **circle page**, in the **Composition** panel: a `Total: X FTE` chip for the circle's roles, and an FTE value on each role row, sub-circle row and member row. - On a **role page**, in the assigned-members panel: a total for the role and a value per member. - In the **Members** tab of a circle or role, as a sortable **Time spent** column. - On a **member profile**, under **Roles**, as a coloured bar with one segment per role. Hovering a segment gives the role name and its percentage. ![The Composition panel of a circle, showing ROLES 3, a Total 0.5 FTE chip, and a Product Manager role listed at 0.5 FTE.](/images/structure-governance/time-spent-in-roles-add-on-overview/02-circle-composition-fte.png) The conversion is simple: **one FTE is 100% of one person's time**. A member who puts 50% on a role contributes 0.5 FTE to it, and a role held by three people at 20%, 30% and 80% shows 1.3 FTE. Two points worth knowing: - A part-time schedule changes the **days** figures, not the FTE. Somebody working 10 days a month who puts 50% on a role still shows 0.5 FTE, because the percentage is a share of their own working time. - A circle's total covers the roles inside that circle. Roles held in its sub-circles are counted on the sub-circle, not added into the parent. Where nobody has recorded anything, no figure is drawn at all, so an empty FTE column means the data is missing rather than zero. ## What administrators configure Open **Structure**, click **Structure settings** at the bottom of the left panel, then **Time spent in roles**. ![The Time spent in roles settings page: Number of Working Days by Month set to 20, and a Notification schedule card with reminder notifications turned off.](/images/structure-governance/time-spent-in-roles-add-on-overview/03-time-spent-settings.png) **Number of Working Days by Month** sets what a full-time month means for the whole organisation. It starts at 20 and accepts any value from 1 to 31. It is what drives the days figures in every member's dialog. **Notification schedule** turns on a periodic reminder asking members to review their allocations. Choose **Daily**, **Weekly** or **Monthly**, the hour it goes out, and the day of the week or of the month. Click **Save**. The reminder is an email, and it links straight to the member's own sliders. Each member can turn it off for themselves under **Profile and preferences**, in the **Notifications** section: the row is called **Time Spent Reminder**, in the **Structure** group. The **Export** tab on the settings page is not connected yet. It shows format, date-range and scope selectors, but choosing them and clicking the generate button produces no file. Treat time spent data as read on screen for now. ## What happens when someone leaves a role When a member is unassigned from a role, or removed from it, the time recorded against that role is switched off straight away. It stops counting toward the role, toward the circle and toward the member's own total, and it disappears from their sliders. The figure itself is kept in an audit trail, so history stays intact. Deleting the role is not the same thing. Deleting a role removes it from the chart, but it does not release the time recorded against it, so that share keeps counting toward the holder's own total with no slider left to change it. If a role is going away and its holders will not simply be moved, unassign the members first, then delete the role. ## What the add-on does not cover Marking a role as **Hiring** so that people can apply to it is part of the Structure module itself, not of this add-on, and it works whether or not time tracking is switched on. See [Applying for a role, or leaving one](/en/structure-governance/how-do-i-apply-or-resign-from-a-role). ## What's Next? - [Activating the Time Spent in Roles add-on](/en/structure-governance/activate-the-time-spent-in-my-roles-add-on) - [Roles in Talkspirit](/en/structure-governance/role-overview) - [How do I assign a role to a member?](/en/structure-governance/how-to-assign-or-remove-a-member-from-a-role)