Time tracking

From 0.17.1. Time tracking lives on the ticket page, in a timer tray in the top bar, and on My time (/time). Schools set it up under Admin, Tickets, Time tracking; see ticket settings.

It is the Time tracking module (module.timeTracking). It is on by default for every school that has Tickets, and it goes off whenever Tickets is off. To switch it off on its own, use Admin, Features. Off hides every time control described on this page, the server refuses the time routes and the two time reports, and nothing already logged is deleted. Switch it back on and the time is all still there.

On a ticket

The Time chip and the estimate

The Time chip above the ticket’s tabs shows the time logged so far. When the ticket has an estimate it reads, for example, 1h 20m of 2h, with a bar that turns amber at 80% of the estimate and red once the logged time goes over it. Select the chip to open the ticket’s time. People who can update the ticket also see Add, which opens the Log time form, and Set estimate while there is no estimate.

The estimate is in Ticket details. Type a duration such as 2h or 90m and press Enter, or clear the field to remove the estimate. A ticket without its own estimate uses its category’s default, shown as a hint such as 2h (default). The estimate is recorded in the ticket’s history.

The timer

Each person has at most one timer per ticket, and only one of your timers runs at a time: starting one pauses any other timer you have running. Timers are kept on the server, so closing the tab or moving to another computer does not lose them.

How a timer starts depends on the school’s timer mode:

Timer mode	What happens
Automatic when writing (the default)	Your first keystroke in the reply or note box starts a timer on that ticket, if you do not already have one. Opening a ticket does not start anything
Manual	Choose Start timer above the tabs
Off	No Start timer. A timer you already have still shows so you can log or discard it

A running timer shows its clock above the tabs, with Pause or Resume beside it. The Timer actions menu holds Log and Discard. Logging turns the elapsed time into a time entry, rounded to the nearest minute and never less than one, and removes the timer.

A timer that has run longer than the school’s long-timer threshold (four hours unless changed) asks first: Keep the full time, or type a shorter time and log that instead. The usual reason for a long timer is that somebody forgot it. A timer past 24 hours has to be trimmed, because no single entry can be longer than a day.

The timer tray

While you have a timer, a clock appears in the top bar beside the bell. It shows the running timer’s time or, when several are paused, how many there are. Open it to see every timer you have, each linking to its ticket, with Pause or Resume, Log and Discard. Discard asks you to select Confirm discard. Only tickets you can still see are listed. With no timers, the tray is not shown.

Logging time with a reply or note

People who can update the ticket get a time field above the composer’s toolbar. While a timer runs on the ticket, the field fills from it and says from timer; type over it to log something else. It takes:

You type	Logged
`25`	25 minutes. A number on its own is minutes
`25m`, `25 min`, `25 minutes`	25 minutes
`1.5h`, `1.5 hours`	1 hour 30 minutes
`1h30`, `1h 30m`	1 hour 30 minutes
`1:30`, `:45`	1 hour 30 minutes, 45 minutes

Anything from one minute to 24 hours. Minutes cannot be decimal, so 1.5 on its own is refused rather than guessed at. The +5, +15, +30 and +1h chips add to whatever is already in the field.

Beside the time, choose a work type. It starts on the default for the ticket’s category when the school has set one. When the school tracks billable time there is also a Billable tick box.

The send button then says what will happen, such as Send reply · log 25m or Add note · log 25m. The message is always saved first and the time second, so time never holds a message up. If the message saves but the time does not, the desk says so and offers Check time log and Finish without retrying time. Check before adding more, so nothing is logged twice. If the time came from the timer, the timer is logged and removed. If the timer has run past the long-timer threshold, the composer asks you to Keep or Trim it before sending.

Time logged this way is linked to the message it went with, and the message shows a badge such as 25m · On-site. The message text is not copied into the time entry.

The Work tab

The Time tracking section on the Work tab is the ticket’s time ledger:

The total, against the estimate when there is one.
A split by work type, and by person when more than one person has logged time.
Every entry, grouped by day (Today, Yesterday, then dates), showing who logged it, its work type, Billable, and Added after close when it was logged while the ticket was resolved or closed. An entry logged with a message links to that reply or note, and one logged as a start and end shows both times.

You can edit or delete entries you logged. Editing or deleting somebody else’s needs workflow.manage.

Log time at the foot of the section takes either a Duration or a Start – end time on one day, a date, a work type, an optional staff-only note and, when enabled, Billable. The date can go back as far as the school’s backdating window (14 days unless changed) and not into the future. Editing an entry older than the window keeps its own date.

Merged tickets

A merged ticket keeps the time it had, read-only. New time, edits and timers are refused; log the time on the ticket it was merged into. Deleting an entry from a merged ticket is still allowed.

Before resolving

When you move a ticket to a resolved or closed status and have logged no time on it yourself, the desk can ask about time first. The school’s rule decides:

Rule	What you see
Nudge (the default)	No time from you on this ticket. Add some? with +15m and resolved, +30m and +1h, which log that time and change the status, or change the status without time
Required	The same buttons, without the option to skip. Log your time to resolve
Off	Nothing

Time logged from here uses the category’s default work type. Cancel leaves the status alone.

My time

My time (/time) is in the navigation’s People group and in the Account menu. It shows your week: time on tickets and quick time together. It needs ticket.view.

The week runs Monday to Friday; tick Show weekend to add Saturday and Sunday. Move with Previous week, Next week and This week. The summary reads, for example, 18h 40m of 38h: your total against the daily target times the weekdays shown. The week, the weekend setting and the view are kept in the address, so a link opens the same screen.

Each day shows its total and a target meter:

A day that reaches the daily target is marked as met.
A day under target is flagged only once it is over. Today and later days are still in progress, whatever they hold.
Weekends have no target, and a school with a target of 0:00 sees no meters.

Days follow the school’s time zone, the one set for service levels.

Each entry is a tile. A ticket entry opens that ticket’s time; change it there. A quick time entry opens its own form.

Quick time

Some work has no ticket: a walk-up question, a meeting, travel between campuses. Choose Add time on a day, then under Log it against pick Ticket to search for a ticket, or No ticket (quick time). Enter a duration or a start and end, a work type and a note. Add time appears on days inside the backdating window, up to tomorrow.

Open a quick time tile to edit it, Delete it, or Make it a ticket. Making it a ticket asks for a subject and an optional category, creates a resolved ticket with no requester, assigned to you, and moves the time onto it. That needs ticket.create. You change your own quick time; changing somebody else’s needs workflow.manage.

Quick time is filed under your campus when you work at exactly one. If a staff account is removed, its logged hours stay.

Team

People with report.view see a Week and Team switch. Team lists everyone who logged time in the week you are looking at, with each day, the week’s total and their top two work types. Days under target are marked. It follows campus scoping: ticket time follows the tickets you can see, and quick time is limited to your campuses. Team is read-only.

Reports

Two reports read ticket time. Both need the module on, and both apply the school’s report rounding to each entry, rounding it up. The stored minutes are never changed.

Ticket effort shows hours by technician, grouped by category, or by work type, campus, department or requester using Group by.
Estimate vs actual lists tickets raised in the period that have an estimate, their own or their category’s, with the time logged and the difference in hours and as a percentage.

Quick time is not in either report. See reports.

What is recorded

Logging, editing and deleting time, changing an estimate, changing the time settings and every quick time change are written to the audit log. Edits record the before and after. Starting, pausing and discarding a timer is your own stopwatch and is not recorded; logging one is.

Permissions

No new permissions. Time uses the ones you already assign:

Permission	Allows
`ticket.view`	See a ticket’s time, your timers and My time
`ticket.update`	Log time, run timers, set an estimate, and edit or delete your own entries
`ticket.create`	Make quick time into a ticket
`report.view`	The Team view on My time, and the time reports
`workflow.manage`	Edit or delete anybody’s time entries and quick time, and change the time settings

Ticket settings for the timer mode, targets, work types and estimates.
Modules for switching time tracking off.
Tickets for the rest of the ticket page.