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2Timer Help

Practical guides for humans, with structure that is easy for AI systems to parse.

Getting Started

From a fresh start to a meet that is ready to time: choosing how much 2Timer decides for you, creating the meet, loading athletes, numbering bibs, setting up timing, and testing before race day.

What you need to start

  • A browser on a computer, tablet, or phone, with 2Timer open at manager.2timer.app. No account is needed to run a meet.
  • To read timing files from a folder (FinishLynx, IPICO, MYLAPS, ChronoTrack, Generic RFID), a browser that can read folders, such as Chrome or Edge on a computer. 2Timer only offers the systems your browser can run.
  • Optional: your athlete list as a spreadsheet, a Hy-Tek file, or a RunSignUp export.

How much should 2Timer decide for you? Basic and Standard

The first time you open 2Timer, before your first meet, it asks How much should 2Timer decide for you?

  • Standard (preselected) shows every choice. Press Use Standard.
  • Basic keeps each screen to the most common path and makes the optional choices for you, using the same defaults Standard starts with. Press Use Basic.

Basic is the same 2Timer with fewer controls on screen. Anything Basic shows is in the same place and does the same thing at Standard, so a meet and its results come out the same at either level. Basic is a preference, not a paid plan, and it belongs to this device, not to the meet: a meet opened on another device uses that device’s level.

Switch any time in Settings → Preferences → Experience Level. Switching never changes a meet or its results. Switching to Standard shows the choices Basic had made for you, so you can change them.

Find your way around a meet

Inside a meet, the sidebar groups its pages by job:

  • Dashboard, Setup, and Connections sit at the top. Connections holds every system the meet talks to: timing, registration, scoreboards, and live results.
  • People & events: Athletes, Teams, Events, and Entries.
  • Organize: Divisions and Groups for every sport; Sessions and Seeding for track and field; Waves for road and cross country.
  • Timing: Chips and Markers (road and cross country), Stopwatch, and Reads.
  • Output: Scoreboard, Reports, and Labels.

Leagues isn’t in the sidebar: open Teams and choose Leagues. When the sidebar is narrowed to icons, a line separates each group.

What Basic leaves out

At Basic these are left off the screen, and each keeps the value Standard starts with:

  • Sidebar pages: Waves, Scoreboard, and Labels for every sport. On track and field, Sessions, and Reads until the meet has a timing connection.
  • Import: the Import page lists only Spreadsheet. Chip files still load from the Chips page, and a backup still restores from the home screen’s Import a meet.
  • Export: three choices: Backup (.2t), Results web page, and Results spreadsheet. No Lynx, Hy-Tek, or TFRRS exports.
  • Reports: a shorter list for your sport, with fewer Customize choices, and no Custom report, templates, favorites, or report filters.
  • New cross country meet: scoring isn’t asked; the meet starts on 5 scorers, 7 displacers, no ghost runners, and the default tie-break, all changeable on Setup.
  • Track and field: the seeding rules panel, Seed visible, team lane slots, event precision and individual relay scoring, wind readings and Hip # on Entries, and several Setup fields (track length and shape, straight lanes, results status, seeding profile, hip numbers, place rules, and scorer limits).
  • Athletes: the Wave column and field, and on cross country and track and field the contact, misc, and external link sections.
  • Timing systems: the lists show ONETIME for road and cross country, and FinishLynx, FlashTiming, Eagle Eye, and Time Machine for track and field. Adding registration, results, or scoreboard systems isn’t offered.
  • Sample data: the Generate Sample actions.

Never left out at any level: a running stopwatch, results waiting for review, data issues, a connection in error, Assign Bibs, Clear Bib Numbers, rounds, combined races, and the purge tools.

Find a page Basic hides from the sidebar

A page Basic leaves out of the sidebar still works; it is reached another way:

  • Sessions (track and field): Setup → Manage sessions and start times…
  • Labels: Reports → Print bib and packet labels…
  • Scoreboard: on Connections, the scoreboard’s card → Manage sends on the Scoreboard page
  • Reads (track and field): it returns to the sidebar once the meet has a timing connection.
  • Waves: no link at Basic. Switch to Standard to set up waves.

A bookmarked address to any of these pages also still opens it.

Step 1: Create a meet

On the home screen, press the card for your sport: Running / Road Race, Cross Country, Indoor Track & Field, or Outdoor Track & Field. To import a meet your registration site, a Hy-Tek file, or a 2Timer backup already holds, use Import a meet on the same screen. It also takes a RaceTab, Athletic.net, or RunSignUp file, and a meet’s link from MileSplit, RunSignUp, or Athletic.net (see Starting a Meet). Each of those has the same Systems step; a meet restored from a backup keeps the systems it had.

The new-meet wizard’s steps depend on the sport:

  • Road race: Basics, Events, Age Groups, Systems, Review.
  • Cross country and track and field: Basics, Rules, Divisions, Events, Systems, Review. At the Basic level, the Rules step is skipped and its defaults are used.

What each step asks:

  • Basics: the meet’s Name, Genre, Start Date and End Date, and Venue. The sport comes from the card you pressed. Track and field also asks Events/Rounds: Use prelims/finals defaults, Finals only, or Start with a blank meet (no divisions or events yet).
  • Rules: cross country scoring (scorers, displacers, ghost runners, team tie-break), or the track and field Seeding profile.
  • Divisions and Events: which divisions and races to create. Cross country distances can be set to Other — custom distance.
  • Age Groups (road races): an age-group preset for awards.
  • Systems: How will you time this meet?, plus lines for registration, results, and scoreboard systems.
  • Review: check it, then press Create Meet (or Create Blank Meet).

The meet opens on its dashboard, which always shows the next step (see The Meet Dashboard). Whether places go by gun time or net time, and other meet settings, are on Setup afterwards (see Meet Setup).

Step 1b: Choose how you’ll time the meet (the Systems step)

The new-meet wizard’s Systems step asks How will you time this meet? It lists your timing systems for that sport, then Hand timing (a hand-held watch or 2Timer’s stopwatch), then Another timing system with every other system this browser can run.

  • It starts on what you chose or used last time for that sport. The first time, nothing is chosen and the button reads Skip for now, which leaves the dashboard to ask later.
  • A timing system you choose is set up with the meet, paused, so on race day you only press start.
  • A system that needs something only the meet can give, such as the folder MYLAPS saves reads in, isn’t set up yet: the meet opens with Finish connecting and the system, and its form has everything 2Timer remembers filled in.
  • Settings → Systems has Set up my usual systems in new meets, which decides whether new meets start with your usual systems.

Step 2: Check the events

Open Events to check what the wizard created. Each event has an Event #, a name, a gender, and a distance, and usually a division. Keep event numbers matching your Hy-Tek or FinishLynx setup if you exchange files.

For track and field, each event’s type and discipline decide seeding, scoring, and display. Rounds (prelims and finals) are on each event’s Round Setup. See Track and Field Setup.

Step 3: Load or enter athletes

From the meet dashboard, press Import… and pick the source:

  • Spreadsheet: .csv, .xlsx, .tsv, .html, or pasted rows. You map your columns to 2Timer’s fields.
  • Hy-Tek meet file: .hy3 and similar files, with divisions, events, athletes, teams, and entries.
  • RunSignUp participants: a RunSignUp participant CSV, with each runner entered in their race. For repeated syncing, add RunSignUp as a registration system on Connections instead.

At the Basic level, the Import page lists only Spreadsheet.

After the import, check the counts and any warnings. Use Athletes for roster clean-up and Entries to confirm each athlete is entered in the right event (see Athletes and Entries).

For scored cross country or track and field meets, team codes matter: they feed team scoring, relay display, league reports, double duals, and team-lane seeding. To keep a team in the meet without it scoring, turn off its Scored? toggle on Teams.

Step 4: Number the bibs

If your athletes don’t have bib numbers yet, press Assign Bibs on Athletes. Choose who gets bibs (everyone, or only athletes entered in an event), the order (for example by team, so each school gets its own run of numbers), and the number ranges, then review and apply. See Athletes and Entries.

Step 5: Load chips (chip timing only)

If your timing system sends chip IDs rather than bib numbers:

  1. Open Chips.
  2. Press Import from file… for your vendor’s chip-to-bib file, or Quick Add for one chip.
  3. Check that each chip shows the right athlete.

See Chips.

Step 6: Check the markers (road and cross country)

The wizard already created the markers: a Start and a Finish for each road race, and a Finish for each cross country race. Their finish windows come from the race distance; a 5K accepts finishes from 12:26 to 1:15:45. Open Markers and widen a window if your field is unusual, such as a walk division. Track and field meets have no Markers page.

See Markers and Reads.

Step 7: Connect the timing system

  • If you chose your timing system in the wizard, its connection already exists, paused. On race day, press its start button on Connections.
  • If the dashboard says Finish connecting and names your system, open it: its form has what 2Timer remembers filled in. Add what’s missing and press Create Connection.
  • Otherwise, open Connections and add your timing system. One of your systems that is Ready is added in one click, paused; any other opens its form. Folder systems ask for the folder the reader or FinishLynx writes to.

If you’re timing by hand, there’s nothing to connect: use the built-in stopwatch (see Hand Timing with the Stopwatch).

See Setting Up Each System for each system’s settings.

Step 8: Test before race day

  1. Start the timing connection on Connections.
  2. Cross the finish mat with a test chip, or have FinishLynx write a test result.
  3. On Reads, the read should show the right marker and bib. Before the race starts it shows Before Start, which is correct.

If a read shows No Bib or No Marker, check the chip on Chips or the connection’s Read Routing. See Markers and Reads.

Setup details that are easy to miss

  • Cross country: scorers, displacers, and any ghost-runner rule your meet uses.
  • Track and field: seeding profile, round counts, team scoring ladders, and scorer limits.
  • Team-scored meets: teams that shouldn’t score have Scored? off on Teams.
  • Team-lane meets: each team has the intended Lane Slot.
  • Conference or head-to-head meets: leagues are set up, or Generate Double-Dual Leagues has been run.

Getting started: checklist

  • Sport and genre are right.
  • Every athlete is entered in the right events.
  • Bib numbers are unique.
  • Teams that shouldn’t score have Scored? off.
  • Chips map to the right bibs (chip timing).
  • Each race has a Finish marker with a sensible window (road and cross country).
  • A test read shows the right marker and bib.
  • The timing connection starts and receives reads.

Metadata

  • Last Updated: 2026-10-24
  • Document Version: 1.1
  • Status: Active