Tracking Time on a Job

Summary

The job card has its own time tracker, separate from the shift clock-in you do at the start of the day. When you clock into a job, a running timer starts and your minutes are recorded against that work order. Clocking into a job that has not started moves it to In Progress, whoever clocks in. You can only be clocked into one job at a time, so switching to a different job stops the previous timer first. You can log time on any job in your garage, including a colleague’s job you are helping with, and your time is always recorded against your own name. If you forgot the timer, or the job is already finished, you can add the time by hand afterwards. The Time tab on the job card shows every session that has been logged for that job.

Prerequisites

• You are signed in with a technician account.
• You can open the job card. Any job in your garage counts, whether it is assigned to you, to a colleague, or to nobody.
• For the live timer, the vehicle is marked as on site (checked in or customer waiting). To record time on a job that is already finished, use Add time instead (see below).

Steps

Clocking into a job

1. Open the job card from the My Jobs dashboard or the kanban view.
2. The job card header shows a clock button.
   • If you are not clocked into anything, the button is blue and says Clock In.
   • If you are already clocked into this job, the button is red, shows the running time, and a green dot pulses next to it.
   • If you are clocked into a different job, the button still says Clock In but tapping it opens the Switch Job dialog (see below).
3. Tap Clock In. The button turns red, starts ticking, and a “Clocked in” message confirms.
4. If the job had not started yet, clocking in moves it to In Progress, whoever you are. The job’s appointment starts too, so the card moves on the board.
5. If the job has more than one appointment, clocking in starts the one happening now. If none is happening now, it starts the next one coming up, and if there is none, the most recent.
6. If that appointment was not assigned to anyone, clocking in assigns it to you, the same as tapping Start Job.

Switching from one job to another

1. If you are already clocked into another job and you tap Clock In on a different job’s card, a Switch Job dialog appears. It shows the job you are currently on (by reference code or description).
2. Choose:
   • Stay on current to keep the existing session running and dismiss the dialog.
   • Switch to this job to clock out of the current job and clock straight into the new one. The previous session ends with the time it had at that moment.

Logging time on a colleague’s job

1. Open the colleague’s job from the Jobs board on My Jobs. The board shows every live job in the workshop.
2. Tap Clock In. Your timer starts and your time is recorded against that job under your own name.
3. If the job had not started, your clock-in moves it to In Progress, the same as it would for the assigned technician. It does not change who the job is assigned to.
4. The one-job-at-a-time rule still applies. If you are already clocked into your own job, tapping Clock In here opens the Switch Job dialog. Switching pauses your own job while you help.
5. You can also tick the job’s tasks, add findings and photos, and sign it off. Everything you do is recorded under your name. See Viewing and working on jobs from My Jobs.

Adding time manually (Add time)

Use this when you forgot to run the timer, or when the job is already finished.

1. On the job card, open the Time tab and select Add time.
2. Choose how to enter the time:
   • Start and end - pick the date, start time, and end time. The duration is worked out for you.
   • Just minutes - pick the date and type the number of minutes.
3. Add optional notes.
4. Select Add. The entry appears in the time log straight away, recorded against your name.

Adding time by hand never changes the job’s status and never reopens a finished job. It works on completed and cancelled jobs.

Deleting a time entry you logged

1. In the Time tab, find an entry you logged.
2. Select the delete (bin) icon on that entry and confirm.
3. The entry is removed and the total updates.

You can only delete your own entries, and only entries that have finished (not a session that is still running). You cannot delete another technician’s time.

The running timer

1. While clocked in, the timer in the header counts up in HH:MM:SS in real time.
2. The same running timer also appears in the Working On tile on the My Jobs dashboard, and as a small green dot in the application header so you can see at a glance that you are still on the clock.
3. The timer keeps running if you navigate away to other pages. It only stops when you clock out or switch jobs.

Clocking out of a job

1. Tap the red running-timer button in the job card header. The Clock Out dialog opens. The dialog shows your total time on this session.
2. You can add optional notes about what you did - useful when you stop mid-job to record where you got to. The notes save against this specific time session.
3. Tap Clock Out (or Clock Out with Notes if you typed something). A toast confirms and the timer resets to zero.

Clock-out reminder after long shifts

1. If you stay clocked into the same job for around 8 hours, a reminder dialog appears warning that you have been clocked in for an unusually long time and prompting you to clock out.
2. Choose:
   • Still working to dismiss the reminder for another two hours.
   • Clock out now to open the clock-out dialog.
3. The reminder is to catch the case where you forgot to clock out at the end of the day, or finished the job and forgot to stop the timer. It only shows while that job card is open. A timer left running on a job is closed with its full elapsed time the next time the technician switches to another job, which can add many hours to the job. Check the job’s time before invoicing or paying commission on it.

Viewing the Time tab

1. On the job card, open the Time tab. This is the time log for this specific work order, not the whole day.
2. The tab shows a total at the top (e.g. “Total: 3h 42m”) and a list of every session below.
3. Each session entry shows:
   • The date and start/end times.
   • The duration.
   • The technician who logged the time (useful when more than one technician has worked the job).
   • Any notes captured at clock-out.
4. The active session, if any, is highlighted in green and tagged Active.

How job-level time differs from shift time

1. The shift clock (kiosk or header widget) tracks whether you are at work for the day. It feeds payroll, reports, and the live status board.
2. The job clock on the job card tracks how long you spent on that specific work order. It feeds invoice line items and technician commission reporting.
3. You can be on the shift clock without being clocked into a job (e.g. cleaning the workshop). You cannot be clocked into a job without first being on the shift clock.

Expected Outcome

• The clock button in the job card header reflects your current state correctly: blue for clock in, red and ticking for clocked in to this job, blue with a switch dialog if clocked into another job.
• Switching jobs is one confirmation - no need to manually clock out first.
• The Time tab on the job card shows every session ever logged for that job, with totals and notes.
• The dashboard, the application header dot, and the job card all show the same running timer.

Troubleshooting

Problem	Cause	Fix
Clock In button shows an error “Vehicle not on site”	The vehicle has not been checked in.	Check the vehicle in yourself from the job card header, or ask the service advisor to. Then clock in.
Cannot clock into a finished job	The live timer does not run on a completed or cancelled job.	Use Add time on the Time tab to record the time you spent. It does not reopen the job.
The running timer disagrees with the Time tab total	The Time tab total only counts ended sessions; the active session is separate.	Clock out, refresh the tab, and the active session merges into the total.
The clock-out reminder keeps popping up	You snoozed it but stayed clocked in for another two hours.	Either clock out (you have probably forgotten to) or dismiss again if you really are still on the job.
Switching jobs gave me a tiny session on the previous job	You clocked into the new job almost immediately after the old one.	This is expected. The previous session is recorded with whatever duration it had, even if that is a minute or two.
Time tab shows a session for a different technician	More than one technician has worked the job.	This is expected. Each session lists the technician who logged it.
My timer is still running on a job a colleague completed	Completing or signing off a job only stops the timer of the person who did it. Torqueflow never stops a colleague’s clock for them.	Clock out yourself. If the time is now wrong, delete your entry and use Add time to record the right amount.
Clocking in started an appointment I did not expect	The job has several appointments and none is happening right now, so the next upcoming one was started.	Open the job and check its appointments. Tell the office if the wrong visit moved on.

Notes

• Notes captured in the clock-out dialog stick to that one time session. To add general work notes, use a task note or a finding instead.
• If you forget to clock out at the end of the day, the 8-hour reminder will catch you the next morning when you reopen the job. If an entry is wrong, you can delete your own entries from the Time tab and add the time again with Add time.
• The shift clock and the job clock are independent. Clocking out of a job does not clock you out for the day, and clocking out at the kiosk does not affect any active job sessions (though leaving a job session running across days is unusual and the reminder will flag it).

Permissions

• Requires the my_jobs.access capability. You can log time on any job in your garage, not only jobs assigned to you.
• Time sessions are visible to managers and owners through the time tracking reports.