Track time expenditure with time entries

Time entry capabilities help field service organizations better track the time that technicians spend during work orders and other scenarios.

Time entries are useful for:

• reporting
• understanding utilization
• billing and invoicing for service

Note

Field Service time entry utilizes the same entity that Project Service Automation has always used. This creates a consistent time capture process, regardless of whether your organization uses Field Service, Project Service Automation, or both. However, the custom calendar control introduced by Project Service is tailored to work specifically for Project Service type Time Entry records. Field Service time entry is not compatible with the Project Operations control for time entries.

There are three ways time entries are created in Dynamics 365 Field Service:

• automatically during the work order process
• manually for custom business processes
• automatically for time-off requests

For a guided walkthrough, check out the following video.

Automatic time entries

Time entries are automatically created during the work order process. As a work order is scheduled and performed, booking status changes are tracked in booking timestamps.

When the work order booking status is changed to Completed, time entries are created based on the booking timestamps. If another user updates the booking status to Completed on behalf of a technician, the booking’s end time preserves the previous end time value.

When the work order system status (different than the booking status) is changed to Closed-Posted, actual records are created based on the time entries. These records represent the internal cost of the technician's time.

Manual time entry

Time entries can also be created manually. From a desktop, go to Field Service > Time Entries > +New.

Add a start time, end time or duration, and the bookable resource to which the time entry relates.

You can relate the time entry to other records - like work orders and bookings - as needed.

You can also view and create time entries on the Field Service mobile app.

Time off

Time-off requests are automatically recorded as time entries as well.

First, submit a time-off request. Submission can be done in the desktop browser or from the mobile app.

A time entry record will automatically be created. The type will be Vacation by default and the entry status will be submitted.

Next, approve the time-off request. Approval is only required if the resource on the time-off request requires approval, as defined on the bookable resource record.

The time entry Entry Status will be updated as approved.

Making changes to the date or duration of the time entry will update the time-off request and vice versa.

Configuration considerations

• While out-of-the box security roles have been adjusted to allow for time entry usage and time entry automatic creation from time-off requests, organizations should expect to add time entry permissions to their custom security roles. Without permissions on time entry, users will be blocked from creating time entries and time-off requests due to their interconnected automation, even if they could previously create time-off requests.

• If you do not want time entries created automatically for the work order process, go to Field Service > Settings > Field Service Settings and set the Time Entry Generation Strategy to Manual.

• Time entries are created based on booking timestamps, and booking timestamps are created based on the Timestamp Frequency setting in Field Service Settings. See the article on booking timestamps to understand how timestamps can be created based on the booking statuses or Field Service booking statuses.

Additional notes

Time entries are only automatically created for work order bookings and not for independent bookings or bookings related to other entities such as cases or custom entities.

Time entries are not created in offline mode, but are created upon sync.

The Project Service introduced calendar control is built specifically to display project service type time entries. Field Service and other time entries will, in most cases, be filtered out of displayed data from the control regardless of the parameters defined in the view.