Adding a ticket time entry

SECURITY  Ticket access

NAVIGATION   > Service Desk > Search > Tickets > click Search > open a ticket > Quick Add bar > select Time Entry (Alt+1)

IMPORTANT  By default, notes and time entry pages launched from a task or ticket in New, Edit, or View mode open in a modal dialog box. For information about dialog boxes and how they differ from browser pages, refer to Minimizing Dialog Boxes.

Header elements

Button or field Description

Save & Close

Saves the note or time entry and closes the dialog box.

IMPORTANT  If the New/Edit Time Entry or New/Edit Note dialog is saved on the Edit Task or Edit Ticket page, both the details panel and main canvas will be updated. Any unsaved changes in those areas will be kept. Any changes to the Status or Quick Edit fields made on the time entry or note will also be applied to their corresponding ticket fields. If a status or quick edit field supplied by the dialog fields conflicts with an unsaved change on the Edit Ticket page, the dialog’s value will be used.
Information on the Insights panel will not be updated until that task or ticket is saved.

Save & New

Saves the note or time entry and opens a new dialog box.

Save & Forward/Modify (tickets only)

Saves and closes the note or time entry and opens the Forward/Modify Ticket(s) page. Refer to Forwarding and modifying tickets.

NOTE  If the Ticket Note or Ticket Time Entry page is opened from the Edit Ticket page, Forward/Modify is disabled.

Change Task (task time entries only)

Click Yes on the Warning dialog.

  • When you click this button on the New Task Time Entry page, you will be returned to the task selection page.
  • When you click this button on the Edit Task Time Entry page, the Change Task dialog box will open. Refer to Changing the task the time entry is associated with.

Enter Speed Code or Choose Template
  1. Put the form into Edit mode.
  2. Select the template from the Enter Speed Code or Choose Template menu at the top of the form. The available templates are grouped into Recently Used (not available on all forms), Personal, Department, and Organization Your Autotask instance may be configured to use one of the following terms instead: Account, Business Unit, Client Company, Customer, Site. templates. Each section is sorted alphabetically.
  3. To use a speed code, enter it in the field. The template corresponding to the speed code will be highlighted automatically. Either click the template or click Enter to select it.

Form templates follow the limitations of the currently applied category and the user's security settings. If a form template uses a value or provides content that is not allowed in a field by the category or the user's security settings, the field will not be updated. This includes the category field itself.

IMPORTANT  Selecting a form template is the equivalent of manually populating the form. Form template settings will override any previously populated field content, including notification settings, additional contacts, and secondary resources.

Message Description

Ticket detail alert

If a ticket detail alert is set for the customer and appears on the ticket, it also appears on the time entry dialog box.

Contract expiration warning

If the ticket's contract is expired, a warning message appears on the time entry.

Element Description

Task or Ticket entity header

The entity header identifies the parent entity the note or time entry is associated with. It shows the Task Number or Ticket Number, Task Title or Ticket Title, and Organization fields, plus the quick copy icons.

Stopwatch

The stopwatch starts running as soon as you open the task, ticket or time entry page. For detailed information, refer to The task or ticket stopwatch.

If the setting Enable [Entity] Stopwatch is cleared for the entity category, the stopwatch will not appear.

Adding or editing a time entry

  1. To open the page, use the path(s) in the Security and navigation section above.
  2. Complete the fields in the following sections:

By default, users can add, edit, and delete only their own time entries. Your Autotask administrator can enable timesheet approvers, or both timesheet approvers and administrators, to enter time and submit time off requests on other users' behalf. For users who have proxy time entry permission, the Proxy Time Entry section and the Resource selector field will appear on all time entry pages, so they can create a time entry for another user. They can also view users' unsubmitted timesheets.

Proxy time entry is enabled through a system setting. Refer to Proxy time entry.

IMPORTANT  To enter time, approvers must have permission to view the tasks and tickets in question.

To enter time on behalf of a different user or view their timesheet, click the Resource drop-down selector and select the user's name.

Field Description

Status

The Status defaults to the current status of the parent entity when the page or dialog box is opened. The value you select will be set as the status of the parent entity when the dialog box or page is saved.

 

Special situations:

  • If you open this dialog box or page from the Edit [Entity] page, the section containing this field will not appear, and this field will not be editable.
  • If the Can edit Status of Complete tickets (does not apply to Autotask Web Services/API) permission is cleared for your security level and the status of the ticket is set to Complete, this field is disabled.
  • If the ticket has at least one incomplete to-do, and the value in this field is changed to Complete, a confirmation message will ask if you want to complete associated to-dos. If you select Yes, all incomplete to-dos for the ticket to be set to complete when the note or time entry are saved.
  • Time entries only: If the Require user to change ticket status from "New" when entering time setting is selected on the General tab of the ticket category and the status of the ticket is New, you must change the status in order to save the time entry.
  • Time entries only: If the status is changed to Complete, at least one day must contain summary notes. They are required as the reason for completion.

Status as of <date/time stamp>

The date/time stamp indicates the date and time the status was last refreshed from the task or ticket. If you have not clicked the Get current Status link, it will be the date and time you opened the page.

Get current Status

If the time entry page is open for a long time, it is possible for the Status field to be changed by another user or a workflow rule.

  • If you have not changed the status, clicking this link will update the Status field on the time entry dialog box with the current ticket status.
  • If the Status has changed and is now different, you can choose whether to override the task's or ticket's status.
  • If the Status was changed by someone else and you didn't modify the field on the time entry form, the updated version from the task or ticket will prevail over the outdated version on your note or time entry form. Best Practice: always click Get current Status if the note or time entry form has been open for any length of time.

Update Status on {#} incident(s) (tickets only)

This check box will only appear if the ticket to which the note or time entry is being added is a problem ticket with at least one incident.

If you open this dialog box or page from the Edit Ticket page, this check box will not appear.

If the Can edit Status of Complete tickets (does not apply to Autotask Web Services/API) permission is cleared for your security level, you can update the status of incomplete incidents. If it is selected, you can update the status of all incidents.

SECURITY  Permission to change billing settings on ticket time entries. These permissions are assigned to the security level separately, so you could have permission to change some selected settings, or none of them. You will only see the options that you are authorized to change. Refer to Service Desk security settings.

Review the following settings:

Field Description

Role

Default: Your (or the resource's) default Service Desk role is selected.

Selection Options: The drop-down selector will contain the currently selected role, even if it is inactive (if you are editing a time entry), plus all active Service Desk roles associated with you, plus any roles associated through resource-department relationships.

Security: If the ticket category has the setting Role Field on Time Entries cleared, this field is disabled.
Work Type

Default: Defaults to the ticket's work type. If you select a new work type, that work type applies to this time entry only.

Selection Options: The drop-down selector will contain the ticket's work type, even if it is inactive (if you are editing a time entry), plus all active work types.

Security: If your security level has the Can modify Work Type on ticket time entries permission cleared, this field will not appear.

Special Situations:

  • Block hour contracts are not compatible with flat rate billing. Selecting a work type that specifies a flat rate will generate an error message.
  • The Non-Billable and Show on Invoice settings will default to the settings for the currently selected work type. Select the work type first, then change the Non-Billable or Show on Invoice settings, if necessary. For more on these settings, refer to their field descriptions.

Contract

Default: Defaults to the ticket's contract, even if it is inactive. You can change the default contract inherited from the ticket or, if there is no associated contract, you can choose a contract to apply to this time entry.

Selection Options: The drop-down selector will contain all active contracts for the time entry’s ticket’s organization and its parent organization Your Autotask instance may be configured to use one of the following terms instead: Headquarters, Parent Account, Parent Client, Parent Company, Parent Customer., plus the ticket’s contract even if it is inactive. If the user is editing an existing time entry, the current selection will also appear even if it is inactive.

Security: If your security level has the Can modify Contract on ticket time entries permission cleared, this field will not appear.

Special Situations:

  • If a time entry is assigned a work type that specifies a flat rate for billing, do not attempt to change to a block hour contract.
  • If a time entry is associated with a per ticket contract that differs from its ticket's contract, it cannot be approved and posted. You must change or remove the item's contract if you want to post it.
  • If a time entry is associated with a per ticket contract but the ticket is not, a dialog box will appear letting you know that the ticket will need to be associated with the same contract for the time entry to bill correctly. If you click No, you will not be able to proceed, and must remove the contract.
  • If the contract is expired, a warning message will appear.

Service/Bundle

Default:This field will only appear if a recurring service contract was selected. It defaults to the ticket's service or service bundle, even if it is inactive.

Selection Options: The drop-down selector will contain all active services and service bundles for the contract selected in the Contract field, plus the ticket’s service or service bundle, even if it is inactive. If the user is editing an existing time entry, the current selection will also appear even if it is inactive.

Security: If your security level has the Can modify Service/Bundle on ticket time entries and ticket charges permission cleared, this field will not appear.

Non-Billable

If the check box is cleared, the time entry will be billable and will appear on the invoice. This setting will override all defaults.

Default: This check box inherits the setting of the work type selected in the Work Type field. If the Work Type field has a billable setting of Non-Billable - Do not show on invoice or Non-Billable - Show on invoice as “No charge”, it will default to selected. Otherwise, will default to cleared.

Security: If your security level has the Can modify Non-Billable setting on [entity] time entries permission cleared, this field will not appear.

Special Situations:

  • This check box will always be cleared and disabled if the time entry is associated with your organization. Refer to Your local organization in Autotask.
  • When the time entry is set to Non-Billable, the following field, Show on Invoice is enabled.

Show on invoice

Billable time entries appear on the invoice automatically. This check box is only enabled when the Non-Billable check box is selected.

Default: This check box inherits the setting of the work type selected in time entry's Work Type field. If the Work Type field has a billable setting of Non-Billable - Do not show on invoice, it will default to cleared. Otherwise, it will default to selected.

Security: If your security level has the Can modify Show on Invoice setting on [entity] time entries permission cleared, this field will not appear.

Special Situations:

  • This check box will be selected and disabled if the Non-Billable check box is cleared.
  • This check box will always be cleared and disabled if the time entry is associated with your own local organization.
  • This check box will be cleared and disabled if the time entry is associated with a fixed price or recurring service contract.

The Time Entry Details section contains both a visual timeline selector and date and time data fields. They both represent the same data, so updating one automatically updates the other.

By default, the timeline selector and date buttons on the Ticket Time Entry page are enabled for all users.

To enable the timeline selector or date buttons, do the following:

  1. Click the Time Entry Timeline Settings link.
  2. In the Timeline Settings dialog box, select Display the Time Entry Timeline. The Start Point and End Point fields become enabled.
  3. Select the earliest time you usually work on tickets as the Start Point, and the latest as the End Point of the timeline. To extend the timeline to the full 24 hours, select the same time in both fields.
  4. Select Display date buttons if you want the date buttons to appear.
  5. Click Save & Close. The timeline appears above the time entry fields. The current time is indicated by the yellow line, and your company's business hours, by dotted gray lines.
  6. To re-open the Settings dialog box, click Time Entry Timeline Settings or the Settings icon on the right-most square of the date buttons.

To hide the timeline selector or date buttons, do the following:

  1. Click Time Entry Timeline Settings or the Settings icon on the right-most square of the date buttons. The Timeline Settings dialog box will open.
  2. To remove the date buttons, clear Display date buttons.
  3. To remove the timeline selector entirely, clear Display the Time Entry Timeline. Note that if Display the Time Entry Timeline is cleared, the Display date buttons option will be cleared as well. The timeline selector must be enabled to select the Display date buttons option.
  4. Click Save & Close.

To disable the timeline selector or date buttons, do the following:

  1. Click Time Entry Timeline Settings or the Settings icon on the right-most square of the date buttons. The Timeline Settings dialog box will open.
  2. To remove the date buttons, clear Display date buttons.
  3. To remove the timeline selector entirely, clear Display the Time Entry Timeline. Note that if Display the Time Entry Timeline is cleared, the Display date buttons option will be cleared as well. The timeline selector must be enabled to select the Display date buttons option.
  4. Click Save & Close.

The time entry timeline displays today's date and the five preceding days on a series of large buttons. Today is selected by default. To enter time for a different day, do the following:

  1. Click another square or, if the date is outside of the timeline, click the square with the calendar icon.
  2. Use the calendar to navigate to the desired date. Use the -7d or -14d shortcuts if appropriate.
  3. The calendar is closed and the calendar icon is replaced by the selected date.

NOTE  The date selected must be between two years before or after the current date. Time entries outside this time period can be created on tickets through an import. This option is not available for time entries on tasks. Refer to Importing or updating data.

All your existing task and ticket time entries on the selected day are shown as dark blue blocks on the timeline. A light blue block represents the current time entry. If the stopwatch is running on this dialog box or page, the selected area will expand accordingly in real time.

To enter time using the timeline do the following:

  1. Click anywhere on the timeline. If you clicked a time in the past, this time will populate the Start Time field. If you clicked a time in the future, this time will populate the End Time field. You then drag the light blue line to the left or right to highlight an area on the timeline.

    As you drag, the Start Time, End Time, and Time Worked fields will update in 15-minute increments in real time. If you drag the left edge of the selected area into a section of the timeline that represents a different day, the Date field will be updated to that day’s date in real time as well.
  2. Let go of the mouse key to finish your selection.

NOTE  If system settings or ticket category settings determine that ticket time must be rounded, rounding is applied as soon as an area is selected.

IMPORTANT  If the stopwatch has been stopped and restarted, Autotask cannot currently know where during the stopwatch’s runtime it was paused. Because of this, we will still select the full area representing the time between the stopwatch’s supplied Start Time and End Time. In this case, the Time Worked will not equal the difference between these two times.

If the timeline is hidden, you don't want to use it, or you want to override it, you can manually populate the date and time fields along with the Summary Notes and Internal Notes fields. Any changes you make in the fields will immediately be reflected on the visual timeline.

Complete the following fields:

Field Description
Date

The Date defaults to the current date, but you are able to select another date by entering it manually, clicking the calendar icon, or using the arrow keys.

IMPORTANT  If one or more of your work dates are outside the contract period for a fixed price or recurring contract, the contract will still be applied!

NOTE  The date selected must be between two years before or after the current date. Time entries outside this time period can be created on tickets through an import. This option is not available for time entries on tasks. Refer to Importing or updating data.

Start Time, End Time and Time Worked

 Start Time, End Time, and Time Worked are interdependent.

Default:Start Time and End Time default to the current time.

  • You can adjust either field, and the Time Worked field is automatically calculated.
  • You can enter hours and minutes or decimal values in these fields.
  • If you enter hours and minutes into the Time Worked field, the current time is set as the End Time, and the Start Time is calculated. Time Worked is what appears on the resource's timesheet.

For information on time entry shortcuts and formatting rules, refer to Date and time entry format rules.

Special situations:

  • If the start and end times include time outside your regular business hours and an After-Hours Work Type is set up for the time entry's current work type, the time entry will be split into multiple time entries. Refer to After-Hours Time.

  • If you enter a decimal value in the Hours field or a value greater than 59 in the Minutes field, and the other field already has a value, the value in the other field will be discarded. Entering 1.5 in Hours will always result in 1 h 30 m, and entering 90 in Minutes will always result in 1 h 30 m.

System Settings that impact time entries:

Billing Offset

 Time you want to bill to the customer can be more or less than the time worked. Click the plus or minus badge next to the Billing Offset field to toggle between addition and subtraction, and enter the hours and minutes. The translation to decimal hours occurs when the time entry is saved.


You cannot have a billing offset that causes your Hours to Bill value to be negative or greater than 24 hours.

Default: Defaults to negative (-).

System Settings that impact billing offsets:

If the system setting to Round ticket time entries to the nearest # minutes (timesheet and billing entries will be rounded) is enabled, the offset time cannot be greater than the rounded worked time.

Hours to Bill

This read-only field shows the amount of time that will appear on the Approve and Post page in decimal time. It is calculated from the Time Worked plus or minus the Billing Offset.

The hours and minutes are shown in parentheses.

Time Remaining (task only)

The remaining hours on a task are calculated as (Estimated Hours - Actual Hours).

If the original time estimate is too high or too low, you can manually update the estimate of remaining hours here. The difference between the original and the new estimate is accounted for in the Projected Variance field.

For a detailed discussion, refer to Estimates and remaining hours.

NOTE  This manual adjustment will not affect the original estimated hours, which remain unrevised to allow accurate reporting on the difference between the estimated hours and the actual hours.

Projected Variance (task only)

The difference between the original estimated hours and the manually updated Time Remaining. Refer to Estimates and remaining hours.

Summary Notes

The Summary Notes field appears on all types of time entries. You enter a description of the work that was performed. Rich Text is supported. Unlike internal notes, summary notes may be customer-facing and appear on invoices, notification emails, and in the Client Portal.

Your Autotask administrator may have enabled system settings that make the Summary Notes field required. Refer to Require user to enter summary notes when entering ticket time, Require user to enter summary notes when entering project task time, and Require user to enter summary notes when entering regular time.

If summary notes are required, you must enter at least one non-space character.

NOTE  To view summary notes of a regular time entry, you must change to the Report view of the timesheet and select Report Type > All Days, then scroll to the date.
Internal Notes

The Internal Notes field appears on all types of time entries. Rich Text is supported. Unlike summary notes, internal notes are never exposed to customers, and are never required.

Internal Notes visible to Co-managed

This checkbox appears below the Internal Notes field of time entry pages. If checked, the internal notes are created with the Internal & Co-managed publish type.

On the Time Entry form template, select one of the following:

  • Keep current to keep the selected value on the time entry page
  • Yes to create internal notes as an Internal & Co-managed type note.
  • No to create the note as Internal Only
Append Summary Notes to Resolution (tickets only)

If selected, the text entered into the Summary Notes or Description field will be added to the end of the Resolution field of the ticket. If there is already text in the Resolution field, two line breaks will separate the existing text from the text added.

Security: This check box is available even if users do not have permission to edit tickets.

NOTE   If Knowledge Base is enabled and the ticket is used to create a Knowledge Base article, the contents of the Resolution field appear in the article. Refer to Creating Knowledge Base articles from tickets.
Append Summary Notes to Resolution on # incident(s) (tickets only)

This check box only appears for notes and time entries on problem tickets associated with one or more incidents. If selected, the text entered into the Summary Notes (on time entries) or Description field (on ticket notes) will be appended to the end of the Resolution field on all of the ticket’s incidents.
Create Note(s) /Attachment(s) on # incident(s) (tickets only)

This check box only appears for notes and time entries on problem tickets associated with one or more incidents. If selected, the note's Description or the time entry's Summary Notes, Internal Notes, and any new attachments are added to the ticket's incidents, as well. On the incidents, the Internal Notes are created as a reply to the Summary Notes.

Security: This check box is available even if users do not have permission to edit tickets.

In the Quick Notification (Notify via "To") section, you can use check boxes to quickly add common role-based notification recipients to the note or time entry notification email. The selected recipients are added to the To: field; CC: and BCC: fields are not populated.

The check boxes are shortcuts to manually selecting or clearing role-based recipients on the Notification panel. If recipients are added or removed from the To: field on the Notification panel, the matching role-based check boxes will become selected or cleared.

The name of the user who is filling the role is added to the role name. If more than one person is added, +# is added to the first name. If the ticket does not have a value for a role, the check box for that recipient will still be enabled, because they can still be selected on the Notification panel. Adding or changing a value for a recipient via the Quick Ticket Edits section will cause the names next to that check box to be added or changed accordingly.

If the ticket category was configured to display them, additional ticket fields appear in this section on time entries and notes. The ticket category controls which fields appear here and in what order. It also controls if this section is automatically expanded when the time entry or note is opened for creating or editing. For more information, refer to Time Entry/Note Quick Edit Fields.

The current data is loaded when the section is first expanded. If the time entry dialog box is open for a long time, the Quick Edit fields can be changed by another user or a workflow rule. Click Get current values to update field values.

The section will not appear at all if:

  • you opened the Time Entry or Note page from the Edit Ticket page
  • you don't have permission to edit tickets

IMPORTANT  Fields that are not visible cannot be validated. If the Quick Ticket Edits section remains collapsed, you can save the note or time entry without completing required fields. You can modify the ticket category to ensure that the section is expanded when the time entry or note is first opened and that required fields are completed. Refer to Time Entry/Note Quick Edit Fields.

In this section, you add new attachments. They are saved as replies to the note or time entry they are added to.

The Add New Attachments section is always collapsed. When it is expanded on the New Note or New Time Entry form, the New Attachment dialog box will open automatically.

  1. Complete the New Attachment dialog box. As you save each attachment, it will appear on the attachment table. Refer to Adding and managing attachments.

  2. On notes that can become a notification email, attachments can be included. To attach the new attachment to the notification email, select Include Attachments in Email on the notification panel. You can make this a default setting.

  3. To complete the attachment process, you must save the note or time entry. If you close without saving, the attachments will not be uploaded or attached to the parent entity.

NOTE  When opened from the Ticket Time Entry dialog box or page, you can select the Internal Only check box. On the Note dialog box or page, this check box is missing and the attachment inherits the setting of the note.

If you edit a note or time entry that is associated with existing attachments, they appear in a separate Attachments section. This section will be expanded if the note or time entry has at least one attachment. It will not appear on the New Task Note, New Task Time Entry, New Ticket Note, and New Ticket Time Entry pages.

All users can view attachments they uploaded. To view attachments uploaded by other users, Can view Ticket and CRM notes and attachments marked as "Internal Only" and "Internal & Co-managing" permission is required.

This section appears if the ticket's category has the Quick Charges setting enabled. You can add a charge to a ticket with a time entry, without having to open a separate New Ticket Charge form. Refer to Adding or editing a ticket charge.

NOTE  Adding a Quick Charge is an excellent way to track round trip mileage. If you enabled both tracking round trip mileage and Quick Charge on a Material Code called Mileage and selected it on the time entry form, the round trip mileage stored for the customer would automatically populate the Quantity field and allow you to bill the mileage to the customer with just one mouse click. Refer to Tracking round trip distance.

To add a charge to the ticket, complete the following fields:

Field Description
Material Code

Select a Material Code from the drop-down selector.

All active material codes with the Available as a Quick Charge setting enabled are available. Refer to Material codes.

Selecting a Material Code will enable the remaining fields.

NOTE  If you configured charge defaults on the ticket's contract, they will be applied here. Refer to Charge Defaults.

Description, Quantity, Unit Price, Billable Amount, and Billable to Organization check box

Refer to Adding or editing a ticket charge.

Special Situations:

  • If the time entry is associated with a contract that has contract cost and price defaults configured for a Quick Charge, the contract cost and price defaults will be applied, not the standard unit cost and unit price.
  • If the ticket is associated with a contract that is different from the time entry contract, the ticket contract cost and price defaults apply.
  • The contract cost and price defaults are always applied even if the time entry is associated with an excluded role or work type. Refer to Contract Exclusions.

When you edit a time entry, the Last Updated time stamp shows the date, time and resource who created or last modified the time entry.

The New and Edit pages for each entity feature a notification panel that is accessed from a persistent handle at the bottom of the page.

For more information, refer to Notification panel.

  1. Click one of the Save options. If validation fails (a required field was not populated), the notification panel is minimized and unpopulated fields are highlighted one after the other, until all issues are dealt with.
  2. If validation succeeds, Autotask will:
  • apply any contract exclusions. Refer to What happens when you apply an excluded role or work type to a ticket or time entry?
  • check to see if the contract is expired.
  • check to see if the time entry crosses the end of business hours and an after-hours work type is configured. If so, the time entry will be split. Refer to After-Hours Time.
  • send notification emails to any default or selected recipients. Refer to Notification emails.
  • track the time against the ticket.
  • enter the time on your (or the selected resource's) timesheet.
  • move all time entries to Contracts for financial approval and billing.

Time entries on tasks and tickets can be viewed on work entry drill-in tables accessed from your dashboard. Refer to Reviewing your hours worked.

After-Hours Time

If this time entry includes time outside your regular business hours (as defined by the Internal Location assigned to you) and the assigned Work Type has an After-Hours Work Type set up, you will be notified that the time entry will be split into two time entries when you click Save.

A second time entry for the after-hours time will be created. The second time entry will copy the summary and internal notes of the first, and a note about its creation will be added to the internal notes for both time entries. Any offset time will be applied to the latest occurring time entry. The time entries are then independent from each other. Rules such as rounding or Never Bill More/Less than are applied appropriately to each time entry. Refer to After-Hours Work Type.

If the time entry falls entirely outside regular business hours and the assigned Work Type has an After-Hours Work Type set up, you will see a warning letting you know that the After-Hours Work Type will be applied.

NOTE  If no business hours were configured for the resource's internal location, they are assumed to be 8 AM to 6 PM.