Question

Time entry errors

  • 27 February 2024
  • 5 replies
  • 62 views

Userlevel 1

I’d like to know how other teams use the time entry data to catch staff member stop timer errors or other time entry mistakes. Some staff work many different WOs in a day so the sooner we catch time entry errors the better the correction (e.g., at the end of the week details become murky).


5 replies

Userlevel 2
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It’s difficult as team members can enter time manually or use the timer feature on your mobile device to add time to work orders. For the timer, if you don’t manually stop- it will keep going in the background which will result in an inaccurate time worked.
Other teams simply ensure that this would be part of their user training advising techs to ensure that the timer is stopped when the job is done.
Happy to escalate feedback to our engineering team to consider prompts when the timer is on and windows are closed - “Do you want to stop timer and add time to the job”

Userlevel 1

Nick,

I’d like to ask for the MX team to provide a bi-weekly view of their WO history under the TO-DO List scrolling options OR under the RECENT ACTIVITY the Overview screen on the mobile app as well as under the WO History on desktop app. This would allow workers to see there time entered for last week and the current week in time to dispute/change before payroll runs. The bi-weekly view could look like a calendar week that allows scrolling back 1 week. The WO history on the mobile and desktop apps already query the WO database for the user logged in and return WO data so adding the hours logged should not be a significant change.

Userlevel 3
Badge +2

IMO it’d be awesome if the “Start Timer” button just wasn’t there. The value of tracking down to the second doesn’t seem to outweigh the amount of backtracking involved from accidental use, especially when “down to the second” relies on workers remembering to both clock in and out at extremely specific times. In lieu of removing the button, I support the suggestion to consider prompts.

In response to OP, you can use time/cost reporting to track exactly what time entries are made when or even export summary reports. Maybe a weekly export and quick scan for obvious outliers might help your situation? 

Userlevel 1

Mike,

Our general manager likes the start and stop for most staff, but I totally could see our staff enter ing their time (hours and minutes) when they transition off the WO for a break, lunch, end of day, or completion of the WO.

I’ll look again at the time/cost reporting to see if it can be used to track and highlight missed starts/stops and/or time entry, however, it still seems to be way too limited in my opinion. I’ve connected PowerBI to MX for better reporting, but the time and cost details are not available.

I really hate having to manually export data...that is the opposite of what we’re trying to accomplish. We are trying to automate our back office so we can spend time doing real work that supports our customers and generates revenue. The parts, time, and expense areas of MX are “half baked” from a company’s perspective.

Userlevel 3
Badge +2

Mike,

Our general manager likes the start and stop for most staff, but I totally could see our staff enter ing their time (hours and minutes) when they transition off the WO for a break, lunch, end of day, or completion of the WO.

I’ll look again at the time/cost reporting to see if it can be used to track and highlight missed starts/stops and/or time entry, however, it still seems to be way too limited in my opinion. I’ve connected PowerBI to MX for better reporting, but the time and cost details are not available.

I really hate having to manually export data...that is the opposite of what we’re trying to accomplish. We are trying to automate our back office so we can spend time doing real work that supports our customers and generates revenue. The parts, time, and expense areas of MX are “half baked” from a company’s perspective.

We use Looker for a similar purpose. If PowerBI is anything like Looker, there should be a way to automatically pull any data you're capable of exporting manually. I'm no data scientist, so I'm not sure exactly how it's done but it's been possible for the most part on our end.

I couldn't agree more. Less desk time is more wrench time. What kind of qualities do you think the time/cost and parts inventory features are missing?

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