Tracking your time spent

Tracking your time spent

The Time Tracking feature allows you to track time spent on tickets and activities (i.e., tasks, events and, calls) at the most granular level possible while also adding billable time entries based on predefined costs. Depending on how your administrator has set up the feature you can have your time tracked manually or automatically. Whichever mode is enabled, tracking time is a lot easier with the timer.

Timer 
The timer is a simple stopwatch on the top of the page that keeps track of the amount of time you spend working on a ticket or an activity. You can press pause and start to pause and resume the timer as needed. When you click pause, the accumulated time is held for you. You can restart the timer to pick up where you left off, or you can apply the accumulated time to your timesheet. There is also a refresh button to reset the timer, allowing you to start the timer over.



Note:
  • Timer displays accumulated time in the HH:MM:SS format, starting at the one-second mark.
  • You can run timers on multiple tickets at the same time.

Manual Tracking 
The manual tracking mode requires you to start and stop the timer every time you work on a ticket. Click the Start Timer button before you begin your work. When you finish working, simply click on the Stop and Save Time button to automatically enter the time spent in the Time Entry.

For Activities
Tracking time for activities is quite similar to tickets. The only difference being that your administrator could restrict you from running the timer on multiple activities at a time. In which case, there appears a pop-up in the upper right area of the screen that prompts you to submit the time spent on the current task, event, or call before starting the timer on the new one. 



For example in the image above, click YES to submit the accumulated time for the current task (displayed inside the pop-up) and start the timer on the new task.

Tracking Active Timers
Although you could run the timer on multiple tickets and activities, it's useless if you don't remember to stop and submit their time. When you have lots of work on your head, paying extra attention to a timer is the last thing you want to do. That's why Zoho Desk has - My Active Timers,  a view that lists all of your active timers in the department.



To view your active timers:
  1. Log in to your Zoho Desk.
  2. Click the Pending Activities icon (  ) on the bottom toolbar.
    A new window slides open on the right side of the screen.
  3. Click the My Active Timers icon (  ) at the top of the window.
Your active timers along with their accumulated time are listed here. You can pause, stop or reset the timer corresponding to a ticket or an activity from here.

Automatic Tracking for Tickets 
In automatic tracking, the timer starts every time a ticket is opened in your browser and stops when an action is completed. The actions to be tracked are set up at the department level by your administrator. For example, sending a reply, drafting a response, leaving a comment, etc. If no action is completed the timer does not record an entry. Also, while you can pause, resume, and reset time on an automatic timer, you cannot stop or submit your time since it gets added as and when you complete an action on a ticket.

Note:
  • The timer is visible only if your administrator has enabled your ability to view the timer under settings. Otherwise, your time will be submitted in the background.

Reviewing Time
If you started the timer one hour ago, but at some point, you took a 15 minutes break, you must discard this time before submitting it. That's why Zoho Desk allows you to review and edit your time spent on a ticket. A pop-up window appears with the choice to submit or ignore the spent time. You will have 10 seconds to review the time before it gets auto-submitted.



For example in the image above, you have 10 seconds from when the window appears to submit the accumulated time for the ticket. Failing to do so will automatically submit the displayed time. However, if you need more than 10 seconds for review, click on the tracked time to remove the countdown and remain on the window.

Notes:
  • The review window is visible only if your administrator has enabled your ability to edit your time spent on tickets.
  • You cannot review or edit the spent time in manual tracking mode.


Also Read:          Setting up Time Tracking

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