Classifications are how belsimple maps time entries to reporting categories. They’re the bridge between “what your team works on” and “what your tax filing or grant program needs to see in your reports.”
Concepts
- A classification is a grouping scheme (e.g., “Frascati R&D categories”).
- A class is a category within a classification (e.g., “Fundamental research”, “Industrial research”).
- A task can have multiple classes from multiple classifications.
- When someone logs time against a task, the task’s current classes are snapshotted onto the time entry.
Setting up classifications
- Go to the Classifications page.
- Click New classification or choose a built-in template:
- Frascati R&D categories — Fundamental Research, Industrial Research, Experimental Development, Non-R&D.
- Simple R&D eligibility — R&D, Non-R&D.
- Add classes within the classification.
Templates are a starting point — you can rename, add, or remove classes after creating from a template.
Assigning classes to tasks
- Go to the Tasks page.
- Select a task.
- In the classification panel, assign the appropriate classes.
- Child tasks inherit their parent’s classifications by default. You can override at any level.
How classification snapshots work
When a team member creates a time entry, belsimple records the task’s classifications at that moment. If you later change a task’s classification, existing entries keep their original snapshot. This means:
- Historical reports always reflect what was true when the time was logged.
- You can safely reorganise classifications without rewriting history.
Bulk reclassification
While preserving historical snapshots is the default, there are times when you need to rewrite history—for example, if a project’s classification rules were set up incorrectly and time was already logged.
As a manager, you can recalculate the historical snapshots for a task:
- Go to the Tasks page and locate the task.
- Ensure the task’s current classifications are correct.
- Click the Bulk reclassify (sync) icon on the task row.
- By default, only entries logged directly against this task are reclassified. You can optionally restrict by date range, or toggle Include subtasks to extend the operation to entries on descendant tasks.
- Click Preview to see how many entries and users will be affected.
- Click Reclassify to update the historical entries.
This action permanently overwrites the old snapshots on the affected time entries with the task’s current classifications and is recorded in the audit log.
If no entries match your filter, nothing is written and the count is zero — so a tight date range is safe to use as a dry run beyond Preview.
Renaming classes
You can rename a class at any time. Because snapshots are reference-based (they point to the class record, not a copy of the name), renaming a class changes how it appears in all reports — including historical ones. This is worth noting when considering a rename.
Classification rules
Classification rules let you define logical relationships between classes. For example: “if any work package class is assigned, the R&D class should also be present.” These rules produce warnings — they never block you from saving.
To manage classification rules, click the Classification rules button on the Classifications page, or go to /classification-rules directly.
See the dedicated Classification rules article for details.
Archiving
- Archive a class — it stays on tasks where it was assigned but won’t be snapshotted onto new entries.
- Archive a classification — cascades to all its classes.
- Unarchive a class — reactivates it on all tasks that have it. Also unarchives the parent classification if needed.
- Unarchive a classification — does not cascade to classes. You must unarchive individual classes separately.