Time tracking and dispatch

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On the MSP plan, the time your team logs is what client invoices are built from. Time can be logged on a ticket or on a project task, and both go through the same billing rules. This page shows how to log time so it bills correctly, how to time work on a ticket, how to see your own work and your day across clients, and how to book technicians on the dispatch calendar.

Before you begin

You are on the MSP plan.
Logging time on a ticket needs ticket:write. Logging time on a project task needs project:time. Managing appointments and time off, scheduling a ticket, and seeing My day need project:calendar.
For time to bill, the client needs an active agreement. See Client agreements.

Log time on a ticket

The ticket’s Time tab logs the time and, if you write one, a note about the work, in one step.

Open the ticket in the client’s workspace and select the Time tab.
Enter Minutes. To time the work as you do it instead, use the timer. See Time work with the timer.
Check Charge type. It is preselected with the Default charge type of the client’s active agreement. When the agreement names none, or the client has no active agreement, it is Labor.
Billable is selected by default. Clear it when the time is not charged to the client.
Optionally, write a note in the box below. It opens on Internal note, which only technicians see. Select Public reply to send the note to the requester instead.
Select Log time.

The time and the note are saved together, or not at all. A note is optional, but attaching files needs one. An entry logged with a note shows View note, which opens the note in the ticket’s conversation.

Every time entry has a charge type. If Charge type shows Agreement default, the agreement’s default could not be shown, for example while it is still loading. The entry still gets that default, or Labor.

See Tickets.

Time work with the timer

Each technician has one timer, kept by your Outpost, so it follows you to any browser or device you are signed in on. Opening a ticket does not start it.

Select Start timer on the ticket’s Time tab or on a project task to start it. When it is running on other work, the button is Switch timer here, which stops and logs the running timer first.
The running timer shows in the header. Select it, then Stop and log to log the time, with the minutes editable, or Discard to throw it away.

The time is logged on the ticket or task the timer was on. See Time your work with the timer.

Log time on a project task

Open the task from the project’s Tasks tab, or from My work.
In the task’s time section, enter Minutes and a Note.
Choose a Charge type. It decides how the agreement prices the work.
Billable is selected by default. Clear it when the time is not charged to the client.
Select Log time.

Select Edit or Delete on an entry to change it. An entry marked Invoiced is already on a finalized invoice and cannot be changed.

With psa:write, Reprice prices an entry again with the client’s current agreement rules, for example after the agreement changed. See Reprice an entry.

How logged time reaches an invoice

When you log it, the client’s active agreement classifies the entry by its rules: Covered, Prepaid, Billable, or Excluded. On a project, the project’s billing mode decides first. See How a project bills.
Until it is on a draft invoice, it is listed on Client billing > Unbilled time. After that it shows only in the Everything view. Changing an entry’s minutes, start, or charge type classifies it again.
When the client’s period is drafted, billable entries become lines on the draft invoice at the rate recorded when the entry was classified. Prepaid entries are taken off the prepaid block. Covered and excluded entries add no line.
When the invoice is finalized, the entries are marked invoiced and cannot be changed. If the invoice is voided, they return to Unbilled time.

An entry not marked Billable is never billed, whatever the agreement says. An entry with no outcome shows Unclassified. That means the client had no active agreement when it was logged. It is classified by the agreement’s rules when the client’s next invoice is drafted. See Invoice clients.

Every entry also appears on the technician’s timesheet for the week, and when that week’s timesheet is approved, the technician’s entries in it cannot be changed until an approver reopens it. See Timesheets.

See your own work

Select Projects > My work. It lists the tasks assigned to you across every client that are coming due, with today’s calendar beside them. Overdue tasks are marked Overdue.

The page opens on the This week view. Today and overdue and Next 30 days are the other built-in views, and Due within in the filters sets the range. Select Start to move a task to in progress, and Done to finish it.

See your day

Select Projects > My day. It lists the appointments booked for you today, earliest first, in your time zone. Each row shows the time, the title, the client, and where an on-site visit is. A row booked for a ticket opens that ticket.

An appointment that started before today shows Earlier as its start, and one that runs past today shows later as its end. Canceled appointments are left out.

Book technicians on the dispatch calendar

Select Projects > Dispatch to see who is where, and when.

Day shows every technician’s day.
Week shows one technician’s week. Choose them in Technician.
Technicians shows every technician’s week.

Previous, Today, and Next move through the calendar, and Date jumps to a day.

Book an appointment

Select New appointment.
In What, choose A project task, A ticket, Something else, or Time off.
Pick the task or ticket, or enter a Title.
Choose the Technician and the Date.
Enter when it Starts and how long it is For.
For a visit, select On site and enter Where. To send the client’s contact a calendar invitation for an on-site visit, fill in Tell the customer.
Select Save.

For Time off, the form asks for a range of days instead, ending on the Last day off.

Booking somebody over their capacity or outside working hours is allowed. The calendar shows it rather than refusing it. To cancel, open the appointment, select Cancel appointment, and confirm with Cancel it. Anybody who was invited gets a cancellation.

Technicians are reminded before an appointment starts, as set in Projects > Settings. Each technician’s weekly capacity is set there too. See Projects.

Schedule a ticket

To book work on a ticket without leaving it:

Open the ticket and select More > Schedule.
Check the New appointment form and change anything that is wrong. It opens on A ticket with this ticket chosen. The Technician is the ticket’s assignee, or you when the ticket is unassigned. The appointment is today, starting at the next half hour in your practice’s time zone, for one hour.
Select Save.

Without project:calendar, Schedule is shown but cannot be selected.

Verify

After logging time on a ticket, the entry is on Client billing > Unbilled time, with the Everything view, showing the outcome the agreement’s rules gave it.
An entry logged with a note shows View note on the Time tab, and the note is in the ticket’s conversation.
On the day a scheduled ticket is booked for, it is on the booked technician’s Projects > My day, and the row opens the ticket.
A new appointment appears on Dispatch for the technician and the day you chose.

Next steps

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