Time tracking for MSP's

[brills]

Hello Support,

We understand that CommitCRM suggests tracking time spent on tickets for clients "with all you can eat contracts." It would be great if we could have a field in the ticket that upon completion prompts for time spent.

We could then run a report on time spent, against the client and more specifically we can narrow that report to which user and what types of problems i.e. printer, mobile phone, laptop etc.

We're just fighting the extra step of creating non-billable charges.

I wonder if we input our time spent in the field Est Work Duration, if we could achieve the same thing?

Thank you,
Brian

[Support Team]

Re: Time tracking for MSP's

Hi Brian,

I believe using charges is the right way to go about this. They allow you to log the time spent in the most accurate way, which then also lets you analyze the time spent, as you mentioned. Using charges also affects the contract block (when relevant), which also helps you analyze the contract profitability.

The extra step of creating non-billable charges can be made easier (as I will explain below), so you will only need to click the "new charge", enter the time spent, and you're done.

What you can do is define a default labor item to be used for the contract (from the Contract's Details tab). This will automatically select this item whenever you create a new labor charge for this contract. You then just need to fill in the Hours field, and save the charge.

Note that if you charge an appointment (you can right-click the appointment and use "Charge Appointment"), even the time will be automatically copied to the charge, and you will just need to save the charge.

As for running reports, note that starting with version 4.4. you can use the Secondary Filter feature, which allows you to create super-advanced filters on the report results, and narrow down the results to exactly what you want to see. For example, this means that you can generate Charge reports, and narrow the results by specific ticket type, which reflects the type of problem (i.e. printer, mobile phone, laptop etc.,). This feature is quire powerful, and once you have all the logged work information in the database (i.e. Charges), the analytic possibilities are great. To use the secondary filters option, go to the Report Generation Window, Expand >>> Secondary Filter tab.

I hope this helps.

Sherry