Instructions for Office Admin Entering Sub-Contractor Time Entries in AutoTask

Instructions for Office Admin Entering Sub-Contractor Time Entries in AutoTask



General notes: 


  • The purpose of the time entry is (1) to document time spent on assignments, (2) to help us decide what to bill the customer for, and (3) to justify the charges to the customer 4) to document solutions to issues that may arise again. 

  • The time entry appears on the customer invoice. So it is important to have as much detail as possible in the time report. 


  • Person entering time entry in AutoTask is responsible for:
  1. proofreading reports for sense, completeness, grammar and spelling
  2. confirming tech has supplied details on the setup of any new hardware 
  3. If the customer is a managed services customer, documenting any changes or additions in IT Glue. 
  4. If the customer is a managed services customer, creating ne configuration items in AutoTask for printers, UPS's, netork devices, etc. 
  5. taking action on follow-up items from the internal notes (for example, creating a new ticket or discussing issue with customer or with tech)


  • Once a time entry has been approved and posted by Roberta, you cannot edit the time entry.  Direct any issues to Roberta. 


  • Ideally, finish time entries promptly, by the next business day, after they are received.  At the very latest, everything submitted by Thursday night must be entered by Friday


(Techs are required to submit time within 24 hours of completion of job. Deadline for Techs to be paid the following Monday is submission by Thursday end of day. )

 


  • Time Entries for a REMOTE assignment may have 2 or more “sessions”.  Enter each session as a separate Time Entry.  Make sure that the description specifies what was done in each session.

If there is only 1 description for work that was completed in 2 sessions, contact the tech to get the breakdown for each session. 

Enter Time: 

  1. Right-click ticket in ticket board or open ticket. Choose to add a new time entry. 
  2. Mark the job status as “complete” or "follow-up needed", as appropriate. 

3. Important time entry templates to be aware of

Typically, no template is used and defaults are accepted. However, the following templates are sometimes used:

  • “MSA TIME ENTRY” – Use for work done under MSA plan. Ticket must also be set to MSA. Contract should ideally be set in ticket but if not it will need to be set in time entry. 
  • “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. 


Work type: Only edit the work type if you are NOT using a template. Typically, this will be either “onsite support” or “remote support”. However, if the tech indicates “after-hours rate” on the time submission, change the work type to either “after hours on-site support” or “after hours remote support” as appropriate.  

Enter, start and end time and date. The time entry must exactly match the time entered in tech’s time submission and 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. 

  1. Under summary notes, enter the work details, proof-reading and editing as needed. Note that this summary will 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”. 


Remove or avoid any extraneous commentary such as “arrived onsite” or “customer was very happy”. This area is strictly for details about the work performed.


4. Internal notes (optional) may include items we need to follow up on (take action as needed) or expenses we need to reimburse or bill for. As the office admin, you are responsible for following up. 


If hardware is brought by the tech to the site, subcontractor should list the item and price on the OSSR form.  If it is already onsite when he/she arrives then the tech does not have to add it to the form.*

Add any items 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”

Under description, enter what it is. Tech should mention this in time entry. 

            Cost Type: not important

For managed services customers: Check box for “create configuration item” if it’s an item we need to document. This will open a new window when you save the charge. 

Verify the customer charge by looking at the OSSR form. This will indicate the retail price. The retail price is what we will pay the tech (the “unit cost”) and is also what we will bill the customer (the “unit price”). 

It is the responsibility of the tech who performed the work to submit this info to the office admin, and the responsibility of the admin to make sure the charge is created. If the customer is MSA then office admin is also responsible for creating a configuration item and documenting relevant details in IT Glue. 

Note that this only applies to items purchased by the tech. Items purchased by us for the customer will typically have been added as a charge at the time we make the purchase, so items purchased by GG should not need to be entered when the time entry is done. 


5. Change ticket status (can be done from AT time entry form) to "complete" unless follow-up is required. In that case set appropriate status (“follow-up needed”, “waiting customer”, etc.) 


6. Save time entry.


7. Give the OSSR form (linked to in every onsite time submission) a quick once-over to make sure it was signed and time matches the tech’s submission. Also make sure it was filled in correctly. 

8. If this was an onsite assignment and the OSSR has not been included with an onsite time submission, ask the tech to resubmit. (Remote assignments do not require an OSSR.) Check that any hardware or software sold is mentioned on PDF and reconciles with "charges" on ticket. 

9. If the OSSR was not filled out properly, notify the tech so s/he knows how to do it correctly the next time. 


If there's a gap of time not worked between when tech started started job and completed job,  use the Billing Offset box.  Use a minus sign to subtract time: