Install it. Answer questions for a week. Then leave it alone.
Daytide has three stages, and only the middle one asks anything of your team. Here is each of them, including the parts that are less than perfect.
Day one
Set up the firm and install the app.
You sign up and answer eight short setup questions. Most are a single choice. Then each person installs the Daytide app on their Mac or Windows computer and signs in.
Your line of work
Pick the template closest to your firm. It decides which tools Daytide already knows and which questions it asks first.
Team size and how you bill
By the hour, by fixed fee, by retainer. This shapes the reports.
Autopilot or Detailed
The setup explains both honestly. Most firms want Autopilot.
What gets recorded
Three presets: Balanced, Minimal and Detailed. You see the notice your staff will see before you confirm.
Clients and projects
Paste a list, import a file, or skip it and let Daytide learn the names as it goes.
Invite people
By e-mail. Each person gets their own account.
Install the app
Download, open, approve the pairing in your browser.
Help, if you want it
Optional assisted onboarding for $250.
The app is deliberately small
It lives in the menu bar on a Mac and in the tray on Windows. On a Mac it asks for one permission, Accessibility, which lets it read the name of the window in front. It does not ask for screen recording. On Windows it needs no special permission.
Before it records anything it shows a notice of what is and is not recorded. Each person has to acknowledge it.
Days one to seven
Calibration week: it watches and asks.
For the first seven days Daytide records what your settings allow and applies nothing by itself. It is learning: who your clients are, which folders and sites belong to which project, what your working hours look like, which tools mean client work.
It learns by asking. The questions arrive in one place, the chat. There are five a day at most for each person, they can be answered with a tap, and an unanswered question disappears after three days. Nobody is chased.
- Daytide: Yesterday about two hours went into a Revit model in a folder that starts with 2417. Which project is that?
- You: 2417 Harbour Street housing
- Daytide: Thanks. I will put work in that folder on Harbour Street from now on. Should other folders that start with 2417 go there too?
- Yes, all of them
- Only this folder
- Ask me each time
- 22%Day 15 questions
- 41%Day 25 questions
- 61%Day 34 questions
- 70%Day 43 questions
- 78%Day 53 questions
- 83%Day 62 questions
- 86%Day 71 question
Day seven: “here is what I learned”
At the end of the week Daytide writes a summary: the clients and projects it found, which tools it links to which work, the habits it noticed. You confirm it or correct it in chat, and so does each person for their own part. Then the workspace switches to the mode you chose.
From day eight
Autopilot: it sorts what it is sure of and shows why.
In Autopilot, time that Daytide can place with confidence is placed for you. Each entry is marked as automatic, shows the evidence behind it, and can be changed in one click. Anything a person has corrected is never overwritten.
Time it is not sure about is left as unsorted. It asks about the biggest pieces first, two questions a day at most. A day does not have to add up to a neat eight hours.
Why here
Left as general e-mail
- Outlook, 25 min
- Messages to four different clients, none longer than a few minutes
Short e-mail across several clients is not split up. It is counted as e-mail.
Why here
Sorted automatically, from your earlier answers
- Excel, 1 h 20: “Harbour Dental October figures”
- Word, 35 min, in the same folder: ~/Clients/Harbour Dental/2026-10
- On Tuesday you confirmed that this folder belongs to Harbour Dental Group
Wrong? Change it in one click. Daytide will not overwrite your correction.
Why here
You marked this time private
- 15 min
- Only the length is kept. Not the app, not the site, not the window.
Why here
Sorted automatically, from the meeting window
- Teams call, 1 h 05
- Window title: “Mill Lane School weekly”
- “Mill Lane” is on your client list
- 12:20 to 13:05AwayScreen locked, not counted45 min
Why here
Sorted automatically, from the file and folder
- Word, 1 h 25: “Mill Lane fee proposal v3”
- Folder: ~/Clients/Mill Lane School/Proposals
- A PDF from the same folder, 15 min
Why here
Not sorted. Daytide asks instead of guessing.
- A spreadsheet called “Q3 reconciliation”, 14 min
- xero.com, 11 min
- Two of your clients are in Xero and the file name does not say which
The question is in your chat with three answers to tap. If nobody answers in three days it expires and the time stays unsorted.
Why here
Sorted automatically, from a rule you approved
- PDF reader, 1 h 10: “Kessler supply agreement”
- Your rule: files with “Kessler” in the name belong to Kessler & Daughters
Rules are personal, visible in your settings and can be switched off.
Why here
Sorted automatically, from your earlier answers
- Excel, 30 min: “Harbour Dental October figures”
- Outlook, 20 min, messages about the same report
- Working time
- 7 h 30
- Sorted without asking
- 7 h 05
- Private
- 15 min
- Questions waiting
- 1
What the owner and managers get
A weekly report of where the team's time went, by client, project and kind of work, and what changed against the week before. On the Firm plan, also a list of repetitive work that looks worth handing to AI or automation, with rough hours a month.
And the chat. Ask it “how much time went into Mill Lane this month?” and it answers from the record.
Optional
Detailed mode, for firms that must account for every hour.
Some firms need a complete, signed-off record: every working minute in an entry, checked by someone. That is Detailed mode. Each person completes their own day, with the chat helping to fill the gaps. A reviewer approves the day or sends it back with a note.
It is more work for everyone, and it is closer supervision. Choose it only if you need it, and tell your team why before you switch it on.
| Aspect | Autopilot | Detailed |
|---|---|---|
| Time Daytide is sure about | Sorted automatically, marked as automatic | The person completes and confirms the day |
| Time it is not sure about | May stay unsorted | Must end in an entry |
| Questions | Two a day at most | An end-of-day review in chat |
| Sign-off | None | A reviewer approves each day |
| Plan | Team and Firm | Firm |
Where it falls short.
The first week is the weakest. Daytide knows little about your firm and says so. Work away from a computer is invisible until someone mentions it in chat. And a title such as “Document1” tells it nothing, so some time will stay unsorted for good. That is the reason the trial is 30 days and not seven.
Give it one normal week.
Install it, answer a handful of questions, and look at the picture on day seven. The trial runs for 30 days, so you see three more weeks after that before you decide anything.
No card needed to start. Want someone to set it up with you? Assisted onboarding is $250, credited to your first annual invoice.