Method:Classic General Q&A

Re: TimeKeeping in Field Service vs Employee Center

Matt — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 22:11:58 GMT

Lillian,

You could try adding 2 job items to the work order. 1 for the service that is being performed and 1 for the travel time. You would set the charge to $0.00 for the travel time and could also un-check the "On Invoice" box for the travel time. This way there would be a place to record the time for both, but the customer would only be billed for the service that is performed at their property.

Hope that helps!

Re: TimeKeeping in Field Service vs Employee Center

Method_Michael — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 21:44:59 GMT

Hi LilAaron,

Currently I don't believe there is a means in Method to handle travel times but you should be able to handle it through some customization.

The solution I can see for this is to track the Time In / Time Out in field services for each job as you normally would but then create a screen based on the TimeTracking table with actions that will take into account the employees Start and Stop times for the day minus the time spent on lunch and then subtract the total time for all the services that employee has had for the day effectively giving you the ‘Travel Time" you can then take the Travel Time and insert it into the TimeTracking table.

For example:

Jobs For the day
Job 1: 60 mins
Job 2: 20 mins
Job 3: 100 mins
Total Job Times: 180mins

Total work day
Start: 9:00AM
Stop: 6:00PM
Lunch start: 1:000PM
Lunch Stop: 2:00PM
Total actual work time: 480mins (8 hours)

Difference from Job times: 300mins (6 hours)

Travel time would be inserted into the TimeTracking table with duration of 300 minutes

Please note then you would need to take into account the specific employee and Date when creating these actions.

HTH

-Michael

TimeKeeping in Field Service vs Employee Center

LilAaron — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 19:50:12 GMT

How does one handle travel time for service technicians that is not charged to the job but for which the technician would be compensated? I understand that, with programming, we can have a Start/Stop/(less lunch)/Start/Stop for the technician. However, how do you handle the time between jobs (such as travel) in Field Services? Here's the scenario:

1) The technician is paid from the time they arrive at the company office, less lunch time until the time they check out in the afternoon at the office.

2) The customer is charged only for the time the technician is working at the customer's site.

So how (and where) is the time entered so the technician receives his full pay and the customer is only charged for time spent at his site? This needs to be kept simple for the technicians.

Thanks!