#Getting Started with ScreenJournal

Updated on 8 July 2026

Understanding your team's work shouldn't mean drowning in dashboards or playing surveillance games. ScreenJournal is an AI work visibility tool that reads on-screen work as it happens, turns it into a detailed timeline of what each person actually did, and then deletes the raw screen data. Timelines accumulate into a searchable chronicle of everyone's work history, and from them ScreenJournal generates timesheets and reports automatically and drafts standup summaries on request, answering questions about any of it in plain English.

#Why ScreenJournal?

Traditional tools create two problems:

1. For managers: Dashboard overload with raw data you have to interpret yourself
2. For employees: Feeling surveilled instead of supported

ScreenJournal solves both:

• AI Work Visibility - Continuous reading of on-screen work analysed by AI, not random screenshots
• Weekly Reports - Intelligence delivered to your inbox, not dashboards to check
• Transparent Scoring - Employees see their own metrics and understand them
• Anomaly Detection - AI flags risks before they become problems

#Key Features

#1. AI Work Visibility

Unlike screenshot monitoring that captures moments, ScreenJournal reads on-screen work continuously and uses AI to understand the full picture, then deletes the raw screen data immediately during processing. What is retained is the derived timeline, never footage:

• Multi-display support reads all work activity
• Frontier AI models analyse patterns and behaviour
• Context-aware understanding of different roles
• Automatic processing that writes a timeline and discards the raw screen data immediately during processing

Why this matters: Employees can't game random screenshots by staging "productive" screens. The AI reads the complete work pattern.

#2. Effort Score (0-100)

Every team member receives a transparent Effort Score based on:

Role Normalisation: The AI understands that a call centre agent handling back-to-back calls looks different from an account manager doing strategic outreach, which looks different from a developer coding. Scores are calibrated per role so everyone is evaluated fairly.

#3. Weekly AI Reports

Every Monday morning, you receive a comprehensive AI-generated report:

• Team Rankings - Top performers with explanations of what makes them successful
• Risk Alerts - Early warning signs explained with context and recommended actions
• Anomalies Detected - Unusual patterns worth investigating (overtime, idle abuse, burnout signals)
• Actionable Suggestions - Specific recommendations to improve team productivity

No more dashboard diving. The AI does the analysis; you make the decisions.

#4. Anomaly Detection

ScreenJournal's AI continuously monitors for patterns that indicate problems:

Productivity Risks:

• Idle abuse (frequent extended idle periods)
• Context drift (excessive time in non-work applications)
• Phantom overtime (logged hours without screen activity)

Wellbeing Alerts:

• Burnout signals (consistent overwork, late nights, weekend patterns)
• Declining productivity trends
• Schedule irregularities

When anomalies are detected, they're included in your weekly report with clear explanations and recommended next steps.

#5. Voice Analysis

For teams where work happens through conversations, call centres, sales teams, support desks, ScreenJournal records and transcribes voice alongside on-screen work and analyses the two together. If you run a call centre or outsourced team, see BPO and call centre monitoring for how this maps to agent QA.

Two audio streams, one intelligence layer:

• Microphone audio: What your employee says, tone, professionalism, script adherence
• Screen audio: What's playing on their machine, customer voice on a call, training videos, hold music

The AI separates these streams to understand the full picture of call-based work:

Voice is handled differently from screen data. Raw screen data is deleted immediately during processing, but call and meeting audio is recorded, transcribed, and kept as a business record, 12 months by default and adjustable per client contract. Recording is disclosed in-app, and clients and their employees consent at signup and sign-in. Employees can redact voice entries and switch voice capture off, except where a client's compliance requires complete recordings. Playback is permission-scoped by role and logged, and agents can replay their own calls. Managers see sentiment scores and quality signals in their weekly report.

#Setting Up Your Team

#Step 1: Install the Desktop App

ScreenJournal runs as a lightweight desktop application:

• Supported Platforms: available for Windows and macOS, with Linux and mobile support coming soon
• System Impact: Minimal CPU/memory usage
• Processing: Configurable capture quality, with raw screen data discarded immediately during processing

The app runs quietly in the background, starting automatically when the computer boots.

#Step 2: Configure Your Preferences

Customise ScreenJournal for your organisation:

• Work Hours: Define expected schedules per team or role
• Capture Settings: Adjust quality and framerate
• Privacy Options: Configure what's analysed and how voice capture works
• Report Delivery: Choose weekly report recipients

#Step 3: Communicate with Your Team

Transparency is essential for building trust:

Tell your team:

• What ScreenJournal reads (on-screen work) and that the raw screen data is deleted immediately during processing
• What the AI analyses (patterns, not personal content)
• How Effort Scores work
• That they can see their own metrics

Emphasise the benefits:

• Fair, objective evaluation
• Early burnout detection protects them
• Transparent methodology they can understand
• Focus on improvement, not punishment

#Step 4: Establish Baselines

The first 2-3 weeks are a learning period:

• AI establishes normal patterns for your team
• Effort Score calibration happens automatically
• Initial anomaly thresholds are set
• First weekly reports provide early insights

After this period, the AI delivers increasingly accurate and actionable intelligence.

#Best Practices

#Focus on Patterns, Not Policing

Use the timeline and reports to identify:

• Team-wide productivity trends
• Process bottlenecks affecting multiple people
• Training opportunities
• Workload balance issues

Avoid using data to micromanage or punish individual moments of inactivity.

#Act on Weekly Reports

The power of ScreenJournal is in the AI insights. When you receive your weekly report:

1. Review rankings - Understand who's excelling and why
2. Address risks - Follow up on flagged issues promptly
3. Investigate anomalies - Context matters; talk to people
4. Implement suggestions - The AI recommendations are based on real patterns

#Combine AI with Human Judgment

Data informs decisions but doesn't make them. Always:

• Talk to team members about concerning patterns
• Consider context the data can't capture
• Use insights to support, not just evaluate
• Celebrate successes identified by the AI

#Frequently asked questions

#How do I set up ScreenJournal for my team?

Install the lightweight desktop app on each machine, set work hours and privacy preferences for each role, then brief your team on what is read and what is deleted. ScreenJournal starts building timelines straight away, and after two to three weeks of baselining the weekly reports become accurate and actionable.

#Is my screen data stored?

No. ScreenJournal reads on-screen work and deletes the raw screen data immediately during processing. What it keeps is the derived timeline of what you did, never footage or a screenshot archive. You get the intelligence without your company warehousing sensitive screen recordings that could later leak.

#Can employees see their own data?

Yes. Every team member sees the same activity view and Effort Score their manager sees, with the factors behind each score laid out plainly. Scores are contestable, so if a number looks wrong an employee can challenge it. Transparency is the point: the tool is built to coach, not to catch people out.

#What does ScreenJournal analyse on screen?

It reads the work itself, which app you are in and what you are doing, and summarises it in plain English. Personal activity is skipped in real time and any PII is removed during processing, so the timeline records your work, not your keystrokes, messages or private documents.

#What if someone works unusual hours?

Configure expected schedules per person or team. ScreenJournal measures adherence to that person's own schedule rather than a one-size-fits-all workday, and scores are normalised by role, so a night-shift support agent and a nine-to-five developer are each judged fairly against their own baseline.

#What Sets ScreenJournal Apart

#Next Steps

Ready to transform how you understand your team's productivity?

1. Start your free trial - See ScreenJournal in action with your specific use case
2. Test with a small team - Pilot with a few team members first
3. Read the fundamentals - See how the work timelines are built, what AI work visibility means in practice, and how derive-and-discard keeps the raw screen data from ever being stored