Hubstaff Integrations: Task Management Sync, Payroll Setup, and Insights Tips

Your team already tracks tasks, ships code, sits in meetings, and gets paid through a stack of tools that existed long before time tracking software like Hubstaff entered the picture. Integrations are how all of that connects, so tracked time lands on the right task and approved hours turn into payments without manual work.

We hosted a webinar to walk through the integrations customers use most. Aubrey Nekvinda, Product Marketing Manager at Hubstaff, moderated, and Cody Rogers, our Chief Product Officer, handled the audience Q&A.

Presenting were Aurora Arjonilla, a member of our customer success team, and Cassia Napier, a product manager at Hubstaff.

You can watch the full recording below or read on for the key takeaways.

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Connect Hubstaff to your task management tools

Aurora opened with the project management side. Hubstaff integrates with platforms like Jira, GitHub, and Asana, so time tracking lines up with the work your team already manages elsewhere:

• Jira. Track time directly on Jira issues and link worklogs for better sprint planning.
• GitHub. Monitor development progress by linking commits and pull requests to tracked time.
• Asana. Sync tasks and projects automatically, so time gets tracked against assigned work.

She then set up the Asana integration live to show how simple the process is. From the integrations page in your settings, connecting runs through three steps: authenticate with your credentials, choose which projects to sync, and add the users who can track time to them.

You can sync every project or pick from a list, and anything you link can be unlinked later from the project management page. Once connected, synced projects appear in the desktop app for your team to track time against.

The integration page also controls sync frequency. Tracked time can flow back to your project management tool daily, hourly, on a delay, or the moment a time entry completes.

Capture meeting time with the Google Calendar integration

Beyond task tracking, the Google Calendar integration pulls meeting events into Hubstaff automatically. It’s included with the Hubstaff Insights add-on and breaks down time spent in meetings against total working time.

Aurora shared her own Insights page as an example. She had 34 meetings in November, which amounted to 12% of her total work time, with Wednesdays as her most meeting-heavy day.

The detailed view goes further. You can see how much meeting time was external versus internal, what share of meetings included three or more participants, and which times of day fill up fastest.

How unusual activity detection works

Since the Google Calendar integration lives inside Insights, Aurora used the moment to cover two other parts of the add-on, starting with unusual activity detection.

Hubstaff surfaces five types of unusual activity instances: suspicious applications, unusually high activity, unusually consistent activity, sustained high focus time, and breakless work.

Every instance also carries a confidence score, rated high, medium, or low based on how far it deviates from average work metrics:

• High. The activity likely involves dishonest work practices, because the observed metrics are extremely rare.
• Medium. The activity may involve dishonest time tracking practices.
• Low. The pattern could involve dishonest work or could be completely normal, but it’s still worth a look.

Aurora was clear that no score on its own proves anything fraudulent, and further investigation is always encouraged.

Clicking into an instance shows why the score was assigned, along with timestamps, the keyboard and mouse breakdown, overall activity percentage, screenshots, and apps and URLs where those settings are enabled.

The unusual activity page also includes a previous 60 days column, which compares the selected period’s total against the preceding 60 days so you can spot whether a pattern is new.

Smart notification templates worth setting up

The second Insights area Aurora covered was smart notifications, which trigger alerts based on parameters you define.

The template library includes some of the most requested alerts: members using AI websites, members on social media sites, and members with unproductive work time.

Notification rules can also use time spent on a specific application or URL as a metric. Attach a list of apps or sites to the rule, set a usage threshold, and Hubstaff notifies you when someone crosses it.

Paying your team through Wise

Cassia took over for the payments half of the session, starting with the Wise integration. Setup follows the same simple pattern: connect your Wise business account from the integrations page, make sure the account is funded, and add team members to payroll.

Adding members works two ways. If you know each person’s Wise email, name, and currency, you can enter the details yourself, or you can toggle on invites and let team members fill in their own information inside Hubstaff.

Currency flexibility is the part customers use most. You can fund payroll in US dollars while a team member in the Philippines receives pesos and a Canadian colleague receives Canadian dollars, all from the same run.

Payroll settings worth reviewing

Before the second integration, Cassia walked through the settings that shape how any Hubstaff payroll runs:

• Pay rates and pay periods. Each member’s profile has a bill and pay tab where you manage rates, set how often they’re paid, and decide whether timesheet approvals are required.
• Manual or automatic payments. Manual means you click a button to create the payment when you’re ready, while automatic sends payments at the end of each pay period on its own.
• Payroll delay. Add a buffer of a couple of days after the period ends to finish approvals or add adjustments before money moves.

She also drew a line between the two ways to pay. Pay for hours collects everything tracked in a date range you choose, while timesheet approvals add a review layer, so managers confirm the hours first and then pay the approved timesheets.

Handle bonuses and deductions with payroll adjustments

Payroll adjustments cover the line items that otherwise require manual edits every cycle. The feature works with the Wise integration:

• Additions. Recurring extras like a bonus, a cell phone stipend, or transit costs get added automatically each time payroll runs, for whichever members you select.
• Deductions. Amounts like insurance costs come off the member’s payment through the same system.

Everything is managed from the payroll adjustments tab, so the extras land in the regular run without anyone touching a spreadsheet.

Paying contractors through Deel

The Deel integration works with Deel’s independent contractor pay-as-you-go contract type.

The flow builds on timesheet approvals. During the pay period, the timesheet’s sync status shows as pending, and the moment a manager approves it, the tracked time syncs to Deel for payment.

Cassia recommended two settings for larger teams. Turn on timesheet approvals for everyone at once from the organization settings, so new hires are covered automatically, and keep the whole team on a consistent pay period.

Beyond the direct integrations

Aubrey closed the presentations with a reminder that the direct integrations are only part of the catalog.

Connecting Hubstaff through Zapier unlocks around 1,000 more integrations, so a tool missing from the integrations page may still connect that way.

From the Q&A: Funding, fixed rates, and payment timing

Cody fielded questions throughout the session. The highlights:

Does the Wise account fund itself automatically?

No, you fund the business account outside Hubstaff. Most customers look at the previous pay period’s total and add a small buffer, and reports summarizing hours and costs can help you estimate the amount.

What’s the minimum for a one-time payment?

One dollar. The one-time payment feature also covers mid-cycle needs like expense reimbursements or unused time off payouts, and a CSV import lets large teams pay hundreds of people different amounts in a single upload.

What’s the difference between a job title and a job type?

Job type is the one that matters for Insights, because it determines how apps and URLs are classified and benchmarked for each person’s kind of work. Both fields live on the employment tab of a member’s profile.

Can you pay team members who aren’t hourly?

Yes. Members can be on a fixed rate instead of an hourly one, and they can still track time, submit timesheets, and show up in productivity metrics.

Fixed rates stay locked for the current pay period but can change between periods, and members working across projects can carry different rates per project.

When should timesheets be approved for automatic payroll?

Before the pay period closes out, so approve promptly once members submit. Managers get email reminders, and team leads can be set up to approve for their own teams.

With a zero-day payroll delay, approved timesheets get queued and typically go out for payment the following day. Unapproved timesheets don’t get included, so timely approvals are what keep automatic payroll on schedule.

Ready to connect your tools?

Every integration in the session points at the same outcome: tracked time that flows to the right place on its own, whether that’s a Jira ticket or a contractor’s bank account.

If you want help picking the right setup for your stack, book a demo and we’ll walk you through it.