Tracking the total work time spent on incidents

System administrators can configure the calculation of the total work time spent on open incidents, based on the default business hours of your organization. The total work time calculates only the time that staff members have actively worked on an incident. This calculation differs from the total time taken to resolve an incident, which can include the time that customers take to respond to a query or the time that vendors take to complete their tasks.

To track the total work time for incident records, you must configure the appropriate out-of-the-box or custom status records as work status. The work clock calculates only the time for which an open incident is assigned to a status that is configured as a work status. For example, the Opened or In Progress status records can be configured as work status. In this case, the time spent on an incident in the Opened or In Progress status is considered in the total work time. However, the work clock does not calculate the time spent on that incident in any other status, such as Waiting for Reply or Approval Requested.

To track the total work time spent on incidents

1. Select the Work Status check box for the appropriate status records.
   For more information, see Creating status records.
   
2. Ensure that the default business hours of your organization are configured.
   The total work time is calculated based on the business hours for which the Default check box is selected. For more information, see Configuring the default business hours and holidays of your organization.
3. Create a custom report that uses the Total Work Time field.
   For more information, see Creating reports.
4. (Optional) To enable staff members to view the total work time for their incidents, add the Total Work Time field to the Incident list view in the Remedyforce Console.
   Based on your requirements, you can also add the Work Clock Status and Time Spent in Current Status fields to the list view. For more information, see Configuring columns in a list view in the Remedyforce Console.

Fields used to calculate the total work time spent on incidents

The following table describes the fields that are used to calculate the total work time spent on open incidents. These fields are available in the Incident object.

Use case scenario: Tracking the total work time spent on incidents

Consider the following personas in the Remedyforce application.

• Charlotte is a Remedyforce administrator who wants to track the total time that staff members are actively working on an incident. 
• Jackson is the Client who uses the Self Service portal to report issues and request services. 
• Emma is a ServiceDesk Staff member who works on resolving issues that are reported and completing requests that are submitted.

The following scenario describes how the total work time for open incidents is calculated.

1. Charlotte has configured the default business hours as 9 AM to 6 PM, Monday to Friday, and selected the Work Status check box for the Assigned and In Progress status records. 
2. Jackson logs on to Self Service at 4:50 PM and submits a ticket that the printer on his floor is not working.
3. Emma sees the incident submitted by Jackson and assigns it to herself at 5 PM by changing the incident status to Assigned.
   Because the Work Status check box is selected for the Assigned status record, the work clock starts running and calculates the time spent in the current status and the total work time.
4. Emma reviews the incident details and creates a task for the vendor to fix the printer. She changes the status of the incident to Waiting on Vendor at 5:30 PM.
   Because the Work Status check box is not selected for the Waiting on Vendor status record, the work clock is paused and the Total Work Time field value is set to 30 minutes. Also, because the status is changed, the Time Spent in Current Status field value is reset to 0.
5. The vendor fixes the printer and marks his task as complete at 9:30 PM.
   The Time Spent in Current Status field does not consider the default business hours of an organization. Therefore, this field continues to be incremented even though the default business hours are 9 AM to 6 PM, Monday to Friday.
6. Emma logs on to BMC Remedyforce the next day and sees that the vendor’s task is completed. She changes the status of the incident to In Progress at 9:00 AM and completes the required fields in the incident record.
   Because the Work Status check box is selected for the In Progress status record, the work clock starts running again. The Time Spent in Current Status field value is once again reset to 0. Also, because the previous status, Waiting on Vendor, is not a work  status, the time spent in that status is not added to the Total Work Time field value.
7. Emma confirms with Jackson that the printer is working and changes the status of the incident to Resolved at 10:00 AM.
   Because the Resolved status is assigned to the Closed state, the work clock is stopped. The Total Work Time field value is set to 90 minutes (30 minutes spent in the Assigned status and 60 minutes spent in the In Progress status).
8. Now, Charlotte clicks the Create Report button from Remedyforce Administration > Create Reports and Dashboards > Incident Time Tracking. 
   The report containing details on total time spent on the incident is sent to her email address. 
   
   

Related topic

Creating a report on the time spent on each incident