Time Logs

Overview

Time Logs provide a clean and simple way to track time worked, and can be used very flexibly with Tasks and/or Tickets.

• Viewing Time Log totals for a task or ticket
• How time logs are meant to be used
• Creating Time Logs
• Editing Time Logs

Viewing Time Log totals for a task or ticket

Anything that can be linked to a Time Log - such as a Task or Ticket - has a Time Logged field. This is a special summary field that adds up all the duration values for all the linked Time Logs. For example:

Description of the Time Logged field shown above:

• .7 days: This represents the duration total of all Time Logs linked to the Compositing task. This number always appears in days, and the calculation used to convert smaller units of time (hours and minutes) into days is based on the Hours in a work day scheduling preference.
• (+) button: Clicking this immediately brings up the new Time Log form - so you can log time right on the task
• (i) button: Clicking this brings up the Time Log focus window, allowing you to see all the Time Logs linked to the Compositing task. 

How Time Logs are meant to be used

Suppose you have a Task called Compositing. The task itself might stretch over 7 days from start to end, but the total work done on this task might amount to something different than the end date minus the start date. For instance, maybe the work was done on 3 separate days by 2 different people, spread over 9 days. Time Logs allow you to track this easily, without the mess of creating several additional duration fields on Tasks. Here's how:

A coordinator sets up the project schedule

The example below shows a few tasks for the Gunslinger project, grouped by Task Name.

Artists work on their assigned tasks

Artists working on their assigned tasks can easily log time right from their My Tasks page using the Time Logged field's (+) button.

New Time Log form lets you create new Time Logs

Click on the Time Logged field's (+) button to bring up the new Time Log form.

Time Log totals are updated as Time Logs are created

The Time Logged field that exists on all tasks is automatically updated to reflect the current total of time logged as Time Logs are created, edited, or deleted.

Bring up the TIme Log focus window to see all Time Logs for any given Task

If you'd like to take a closer look at why the Time Logged totals are adding up the way they do, just click on the Time Logged field's (i) button. Once the focus window is open, you can create a new Time Log form by clicking on the (+) button in the header.

Creating Time Logs

There are 2 ways to log time: right on the task or ticket, or on a Time Log page.

Creating a Time Log on the task or ticket
From a task or ticket page, just hover over the Time Logged field, then click on the (+) button to bring up the new Time Log form.

Creating a Time Log on a time log page
Go to a Time Logs page, then click on the (+) button in the header to bring up the new Time Log form.

Note: In addition to the 2 methods shown above, if TIme Logs have been added to the global New menu (described here), users can create Time Logs from any page.

Editing Time Logs

There are 2 ways to edit time logs: individually, or editing multiple. This process is the same as editing any other entity type in Shotgun. There are also a few Time Log specific permissions that Artist users should be aware of - described below:

Time Log permissions for Artists

• Artists can never delete any Time Logs
• Artists can never edit any Time Logs that don't belong to them (where the Person field is set to some other user)
• Artists can never edit the Person field of any Time Log
• Artists can edit the Date, Description, Link, and Project fields for all Time Logs that belong to them (where the Person field is set to them)