Time tracking in excel

Question

I am trying to get excel to time stamp now when a cell is filled with data but I am getting #name? when using the following formula =IF(B3<>” ”,IF(C3<>””,C3,NOW()),””). I would also like for a time stamp to happen when the same cell is cleared but I am not sure this is possible.

What is the best way to try to track how long it takes for a process to happen in excel from start to finish? The goal is to log how long it took for a response to happen once a request was put in. (start the timer with the now statement once the request is put in, and stop it once the request has been cleared). right now the times I have in there have been manually added, I am looking for them to be added upon the need being filled in or cleared.

Workstation	Need	Timer Started	Timer Stopped
WSACC001	TRAINER	#NAME?	1:00:00 AM
WSACC002	TEAM LEAD	4:15:00 AM	4:30:00 AM

Answer 1

it actually works with the VBA code and I entered the following formula in the cell =Mytimestamp(b3) and it puts the time stamp in the cell. I also created the VBA to put a time stamp in cell C3 once b3 is cleared and that works as well.

Answer 2

You cannot use a formula for this, even if it uses a VBA function.

As I wrote, the simplest way is entering the time manually, but if you want it to be automatic, you'd need to provide detailed information on how it should work.

Answer 3

I got this macro to work , however every time there is a change anywhere in the form all of the times updates I am assuming this is because of the now function. I need the times to remain stagnant unless their corresponding/reference cells change.

Function MyTimestamp(Reference As Range)

If Reference.Value <> "" Then

MyTimestamp = Format(Now, "hh:mm:ss am/pm")

Else

MyTimestamp = ""

End If

End Function

Answer 4

You're using curly quotes ”” in your formula, but Excel requires straight quotes "" in text strings.

But a formula won't do what you want - the NOW() function is recalculated whenever Excel calculates any formula.

I'd simply click in the cell and press Ctrl+Shift+; to insert the current time.

Otherwise you'd need to use VBA code, but that might be overkill.