Timer - But No Charge

[sj.andrew]

Hi,

Is there a way to log the time to a history note WITHOUT having to create a charge?

Our support contracts are for an unlimited amount of time, but we like to log how long our helpdesk spend on each element of the support query/ticket so we can produce a monthly report to see where time is being spent etc, and are able to show our customers how long their support queries take.

Currently, we are having to create a charge and mark it not billable, when really we'd like to be able to just create a history note and log the time within it. This creates issues when the 'billable' box is accuidentally left ticked, and also means our helpdesk are having check both the 'Resolution/History' tab AND the 'Charges' tab on each ticket.

Are we missing something?

Many thanks

[Support Team]

History Notes are "just" notes. They do not capture time and they are not meant to. I don't think that this is going to change anytime soon. Had it been supported it was very confusing what to use Charge vs. Note all the time. Also, this would mean that a large set of reports for such "smart" notes should have been developed etc.

So, what you should do is use Charges exactly for this. By using the correct Contract all Charges will be logged as Not Billable by default. All available reports that track time for employees/tickets/customers/contacts are already available for you. Not only this but also - even if you do not bill the client for such logging charges, you can still look at the $ amount of such charges (with the standard billing rates) and compare it with the actual amount you get from your client.

Hope this makes sense.

[sj.andrew]

Thank you.

Whilst this makes sense, there is no contract option that allows us to create the correct contract type - all our contracts are annual support agreements with an unlimited amount of time etc, and so the only contract which works for us is the 'Global' option.

Perhaps it might be an idea to add an option when creating a contract to define whether timer charges are preset either as billable or not-billable when adding them to a ticket, so helpdesk technicians don't need to worry about un-ticking a box...

[Support Team]

Our recommendation here is to create Block of Time Contract and set the Block value to a high number in order for it to cover all labor and prevent the overage warning message from popping.

Using Block of Time Contract will set all Labor charges as 'Not-Billable' by default.

Also, using a block contract with a number of hours will help you analyze your performance. Even if the customer pays for an all-you-can-eat contract you still had a number of hours behind it (even if for internal purposes). For example, if they pay you $10,000/yr for AYCE, still, you may not want to renew it next year with the same price in case you've spent 300 hours...

In case you need any Charge (Labor/Expenses/Parts) to be set as 'Not-Billable' by default - you can use Block of Money Contract for this. Same principles as above applies here.

Note: you always can always modify the Contract's initial block value using the 'Contracts' menu after selecting the contract to modify.

HTH