Last Modified On: October 8, 2024
Modified to include the new features and enhancements to Time Tracker that will be available with Inspire Planner's OCT 2024 (1.366) - MAJOR Release.
The Inspire Planner Time Tracker allows users to view and log time spent on each project task. Project Managers can define the Planned Effort for each task within the Project. As the assigned resource logs time against the task, it rolls up to Actual Effort. This allows Project Managers to see how much effort is actually spent on each task and allows them to better measure planned effort for future projects.
This article explains how to define Planned Effort and how to log time using the Time Tracker. You can use the following quick links to jump to a specific section.
Planned Effort is the estimated amount of time needed to complete a specific Project Task. Project Managers can choose to populate the Planned Effort for each task. This helps users see how long a specific task is expected to take. To populate Planned Effort, double-click on the cell for the project task under the Planned Effort column of your Project.
You can choose how much of the Task Planned Effort is allocated to each assigned resource. Double-click on the Assigned To cell of the Project Task and click on the arrow.
For each assigned resource, you adjust the unit, which is the percentage of the task Planned Effort allocated to each resource. For example, let’s say the task Planned Effort for is 4 hours. Setting the Unit to 50% for a specific resource means the Planned Effort for that resource is 2 hours (50% of 4 hours). Inspire Planner then uses the Task Planned Effort, % allocation and task duration to plot resource utilization. For more information, please see Resource Lightning Web Component (Resource LWC).
Actual Effort is the actual time it took the assigned resource(s) to complete the task. While Planned Effort is defined by the Project Manager, Actual Effort automatically rolls up from the time logged in the Time Tracker.
While time is logged by the resource in hours and minutes, Actual Effort time is defined as total number of hours. For example, let’s say a user logs 1 hour and 45 minutes against a task. The hours are logged as 1:45 in the Time Tracker, but the Actual Effort will be 1.75 hours, or one and three-quarter hours.
Inspire Planner users can log their time using any of the following options:
The Time Tracker Interface consists of two (2) sections - the Records List and the Time Tracker.
The Records List on the left, by default, will display only Projects that are "In Progress" or "Not Started" and where there are tasks assigned to you. Tasks that have been assigned to you will be displayed in a List View under Records List, grouped project. Click the > arrow to expand a project and see the tasks underneath. The task list provides details beside it such as the parent task, planned and actual effort, start date, finish date and status for each task. The Records List will display projects in alphabetical order.
If you have custom Project Status values, you will need to define them in Custom Settings so that Time Tracker displays these Projects in the Record List. To learn how, please visit Define Project Status for Time Tracker.
Remember that the list will only display Tasks for Projects where the Project Status is "In Progress" or "Not Started" and where there are tasks assigned to you. However, when you search for tasks, it will return all projects with tasks assigned to you. The task subject is truncated but will display the full task subject when you hover over it.
It is possible to exclude specific Projects from being displayed in Time Tracker. To learn how, please see Exclude Projects from Time Tracker.
The Non-Project Tasks section lists all of your booking tasks such as Vacation or Future Project (created from Resource Utilization) so that you can log time for them if needed. For more information on how to create booking tasks, please see Resource Lightning Web Component (Resource LWC).
You can hide/collapse the Records List by clicking on the bar that separates the Records List and the Time Tracker. Click on the bar again to display/expand the Records List.
To enter time for a task, click on the task subject.
The New Time Entry window will open.
Because you have selected the task for which you need to enter time, the first two fields (Object Type and Record) will be pre-populated for you and do not need to be changed.
Time Tracker defaults to the Weekly View and will display all tasks assigned to you where the task duration spans the current week. The Weekly view allows you to quickly and easily log time for multiple project tasks. If you do not want Inspire Planner to load your weekly tasks by default, this can be disabled by your Salesforce System Administrator. For more information, please see Time Tracker - Disable Default Tasks in Weekly View.
By default, the week runs from Sunday to Saturday. However, you can choose which day your work week starts in Time Tracker settings. For more information, please see Time Tracker - User Settings.
Please note:
If there is time already logged for a task, Time Tracker will display all time entries that have been logged for the task on a project you own, including those that were logged by other users. If you would like the time tracker to only display time entries you own, you can adjust your settings. For more information, please see Time Tracker - User Settings.
To switch between weeks, you can use any of the following methods:
1. Click on the Calendar icon and select a date in a different week from the applicable month.
2. Click on the < or > arrows to move through weeks, one at a time.
As you move between weeks, the page will update and only display tasks whose duration spans the week you select. You can add tasks from the records list to the time tracker component. Just click on Select Records either at the top or the bottom of the Time Tracker.
From the Records List on the left, select the tasks you would like to log time for. You can select multiple tasks across multiple projects. Then click on Add Records to add them to the Time Tracker.
Now you can enter the time for each of the tasks you added, for each day of the week displayed.
Enter your time in hours:minutes format. For example, if you spent 1 hour and 30 minutes on a task, enter it as 1:30. Once you've entered all your time for the week, click on Save. You must click on Save before navigating to a different week, otherwise you will lose your unsaved entries.
Please Note:
The daily totals at the bottom of each day and the weekly total to the right may take up to 2 minutes to update as the rollup is done by the Inspire Planner Beacon. The total time spent on each task rolls up to the Actual Effort of the task.
To edit or add details to a time entry, click on the Edit Icon to the right.
A dialogue box will open which will allow you to then edit or add details to each entry for the week displayed. "Logged By" is the time entry owner. You can edit time entries you own, as well as time entries owned by other users.
The ability to edit other users' time entries can be restricted by your Salesforce System Administrator (for more information on this custom setting, please see Admin Guide - User Can Only Edit Own Time Entries). If the ability to edit time entries you do not own is restricted, then time entries owned by other users will be grayed out. If you do not wish to see time entries owned by other users, you can adjust this in your Time Tracker settings (please see Time Tracker - User Settings).
Remember to click on Save to save your changes.
To remove a task from the time tracker, click on the Delete icon. Be careful as deleting a row will delete all the time logged against that task for the week.
To switch to the Daily View, click on the Daily Tab. The Daily view shows you all the time logged for your assigned tasks for the current date, including time logged by other users for projects you own. If no time has been logged for the current date, no task will be displayed in the Time Tracker. If you would like the time tracker to only display time entries you own, you can adjust your settings. For more information, please see Time Tracker - User Settings.
To view time logged for a different date, you can use any of the following methods:
1. Click on the Calendar icon and select a date from the applicable month.
2. Click on the < or > arrows to move through dates one day at a time.
3. Click on a day of the week.
Project Tasks will be displayed for the date selected only if time has been recorded. To add a new time record for a specific date, click on New Entry either at the top or the bottom of the page.
A New Time Entry window will open.
This is the same window displayed when you create a new time record using the Records List. The only difference is that the Record field is blank since it does not know which specific task you would like to log time for. Therefore, you will need to search for the task. Start typing the first few letters of the task name and tasks that match what you have entered will be displayed. Select a task by clicking on it.
The Time Tracker component is also available in Salesforce Tasks. This is an ideal option to use when you are already working on a task and would like to update the details of a task (i.e. status, priority, etc.) as well as log your time spent.
In the Salesforce task record, click on the Time Tracking Tab.
The Time Tracker you see in a Task record is the same as the Time Tracker component you see in the Time Tracker tab, where you have both a daily and a weekly view. You will also see time entries logged by other users for the task, if you are the project owner or if you have "view all/modify all" permissions to the Time Entry object. If you would like Time Tracker to only display time entries you own, you can adjust it in Time Tracker - User Settings.
You log hours the same way.
For Weekly view, if no hours have been logged for the week, you will log hours by clicking on New Row. This will add a row for time entry.
Enter the time you spent on the task in hour:minute format, for each day of the week. For example, if you spent 1 hour and 15 minutes, then enter it as 1:15. Click on Save when you are finished entering your time for the week. It is important that you save your time entries before navigating to a different week. Otherwise you will lose your unsaved changes.
The total time for each day is displayed at the bottom while the total time logged for the week is displayed on the right.
This feature is available with Inspire Planner's OCT 2024 (1.366) Major Release.
You can log time on behalf of another user as long as you have access to the task. To log time for another user, in the time entry dialogue, you just need to populate the Logged By field with the user's name. "Logged By" is the time entry owner.
You can also change the time entry owner of an existing time entry record. Just edit the "Logged By" field and populate it with the name of the user who should be the time entry owner. When searching for users, it will only return users who have been added as project team members in the project.
If your time tracker settings are set to only display time entries you own, then any time entry you create for another user will not display in the time tracker. This means that when you click on save, it will create the time entry, but you will not see it in the time tracker component since you do not own it.
The Actual Effort on the task is automatically updated every 1-2 minutes by the Inspire Planner Beacon. While time is logged by the resource in hours and minutes, Actual Effort is defined as total number of hours. For example, let’s say a user logs 1 hour and 45 minutes against a task. The hours are logged as 1:45 in the Time Tracker, but the Actual Effort will be 1.75 hours, or one and three-quarter hours.
Another way to log time is to use the Inspire Planner Stopwatch Component. To learn more about this feature, please see How to Use the Inspire Planner Task Stopwatch Component.
If a project task is unassigned from a resource and the resource has already logged time on the task, the related SF Task is maintained (not deleted). This means that although you no longer see the resource in Assigned To, their time entries will continue to exist, are included in Actual Effort and will display in reports.