Entering Ticket Time Entries in AutoTask
This article is about ticket time entries. This is not about task time entries.
The purpose of the time entry is to:
- document time spent on assignments,
- help us decide what to bill the customer for,
- justify the charges to the customer
- document solutions to issues that may arise again. and
- Ensure that we have an accurate record of work performed for both immediate follow-up and future reference.
- Document when an issue is resolved.
It's imperative that time entries be added as soon as possible, and ideally immediately after work is performed. Occasionally, you may not have time immediately following the job. You can use the ticket's "Time Entries Done?" User-Defined Field as a reminder to complete your time entries. If this field is set to "Time Entries Not Completed", a WF rule will fire when the ticket is past due reminding the techs assigned to the service call and the primary resource that a time entry is due.
You should use the report of your service calls that is emailed to you every Friday afternoon to make sure you have entered a time entry for each service call for the week. To see all your time entries (for comparison with the list of service calls) in Autotask go to Timesheets. For the correct week, mouse over the hamburger menu and click "View Timesheet."
The time entry appears on the customer invoice. So it is important to enter as much detail as possible.
The tech entering their time entry in AutoTask is responsible for:
- proofreading reports for sense, clarity, completeness, grammar and spelling
- separately advising office administrator of necessary follow-up items (by creating a ticket note, using the "tech handover to office admin ticket" template, or creating a new ticket)
- entering any changes in customer's Hudu documentation.
- editing the Status field and making sure it is correct. (This can be done from the time entry form.)
Other fields that can be edited from the time entry form include Due Date and Queue. You can see these under the section called TICKET QUICK EDITS. If there’s more work to be done, you can change the due date and queue directly from the time entry form.
Multiple Remote Sessions
- A REMOTE assignment may have more than one “session”. Enter each session as a separate Time Entry. Make sure that the description specifies what was done in each session.
Once a time entry has been approved and posted by Management, you cannot edit the time entry. Direct any concerns to Management.
How to Enter Time
- Right-click or mouse over ticket hamburger menu (depending on ticket board) and click on "Time Entry" under the "Add" heading OR open the ticket and click the icon to add a new time entry.
- Choose a template. (See details below on different templates.)
- Enter start and end time and date. For onsite visits, the time entry must exactly match the time entered on the OSSR form. Time that may need to be subtracted as break time or for another reason is entered in “offset” field with – sign for subtracting time.
- Under summary notes, enter the work details, proof-reading and editing as needed. Note that this summary may be visible to client, so delete anything inappropriate for the client to see. If there are private notes, put them in the ticket under “internal notes”.
- Internal notes (optional) may include items Roberta needs to follow up on or should know. Also add items you need to be reimbursed for if you had to purchase something while onsite. Please note: the office admin does not necessarily see time entries or time entry internal notes so this is not the place to request follow-up from office admin!
- Always edit the ticket status as appropriate.
- If there is more work to do, extend the due date.
- After an onsite appointment, upload a scan of the signed OSSR as an attachment on the time entry form in PDF format. (Please don’t use the customer’s scanner.)
- Save time entry.
Ticket Time Entry Templates
When possible, please choose the correct template for billing purposes. If you're not sure, leave the default and Roberta will fix it when posting the entries.
- “on-site support”
- “remote end user support”
- "after hours onsite support."
- "after hours remote support"
- “Managed Services Support” – Use for work done under managed services. Only available if the ticket category is set to Managed Services Support/Maint.
- “INCLUDED IN SET-UP FEE” – work done under a flat set-up fee such as setting up a new hosted Exchange or RMM customer.
- “COURTESY – NO CHARGE” – situation where customer should not be billed. (The time entry will show up on the customer's invoice with a "zero" charge.)
- "Administrative Work" Administrative work that should not be visible on the customer invoice such as time spent uploading paperwork.
- "Added As A Charge - Do Not Invoice" Use for flat-rate services that will be added as a ticket "charge" (data wipes, wiring jobs, etc.) . The purpose is to account for the labor internally but it should not show up on the invoice.
Please note that the office admin is not alerted to internal notes on the time entry form. If office admin needs to follow up, use an internal ticket note and confirm office admin is cc-ed.
Ticket Charges
Add any items you purchased for the customer that are listed on the OSSR form to the ticket as a charge on the ticket:
“Product” “Equipment”,
Under “Material Cost Code: “Hardware”
Cost Name “Equipment”
If another tech assisted you, it's appropriate to mention it in the time entry's "internal notes" section. It's neither necessary nor advisable to mention it in the front-facing time entry.
If you assist another tech, add a ticket time entry in Autotask. Roberta will determine if this is billable time.
It is the primary resource's responsibility to make sure ticket status is correct.
The Billing Offset
If, in the course of an appointment or session, there's a gap of time during which you were not working, use the Billing Offset box. Use a minus sign to subtract time:
What to Do with Paper OSSR Forms
Please hold onto the original paper copies. If it gets to be too much paper to manage, occasionally you can send a batch to Roberta via postal mail and you will be reimbursed for the postage.
Best Practices
- Use the "active voice", not the "passive voice" to describe what you did. For example, it is more clear to say, "I updated the device" (active voice) than to say "The device was updated" (passive voice).
- For long checklists: While it is not necessary to enter every checklist item in the time entry, you should indicate that work was done by you. The phrase "completed several checklist items," for example, is appropriate. The phrase "completed" by itself is not adequate.
- Comments about how thrilled the customer was, while personally rewarding, do not belong in the time entry. If you feel it's warranted, you can add them in the internal note section.
- Please do not use time entry internal notes to advise the office admin of follow-up items as they will not be seen.
- If you resolved the issue in the session for which you're entering the time, note in the time entry that the issue was resolved.
- Do not put screenshots in time entries unless you are certain the time entry will not appear on a customer invoice. (Eg, for backup checks it's acceptable to add screenshots.) Images will not transfer to the invoice.
Optional: Entering Your Time Entries via Email
For simple time entries, you can submit a ticket time entry via email. You can include the following indicators in the first line of the email body to tell Autotask what action to take. Remember to include the ticket number in the subject line.
- #T= tells Autotask to add the email text as a time entry (rather than a note). (You must include this option or your message will be interpreted as a regular ticket note.)
- #S= when used with #T=, changes the status of the ticket or task to the one specified after the indicator. (Optional.)
Example:
The email body below will create a 45-minute time entry (#T=.75) on the ticket and complete the ticket (#S=Complete). The time entry description is entered on the next line:
============================
#T=.75 #S=Complete
I applied the solution as discussed and it resolved the issue.
============================
Adding a ticket time entry via email will not send a note to any customer contacts on the ticket. Internal resources will receive a notification.
Please remember that if there are uncompleted items on the ticket checklist, the ticket will automatically re-open.
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