Timer for smartsheet tasks, optimally with comments

Stan Ward

Hi,

 

I was wondering if there is a way to easily log time spent on a task and add, optimally, to add comments when finished.

 

Here is what I envision:

 

There is a little clock or stopwatch icon for every task row.  I click the icon and a timer starts for that task, maybe turning green to indicate I have started that task.  When I click the icon again, it toggles the timer off, and I have the option to enter some information (e.g., what I did).  I have the option to not be prompted for comments if I want to do fast task switching.  I also have the option to come back later and add comments for each time period.  

 

I am currently trying out Time Doctor, which has some of what I am looking for, but what I would really want is for the tasks lists for timing to be my Smartsheet tasks and for the time to go back to Smartsheet somehow.

 

Maybe some of this alread existing in Smartsheet?

 

Thanks,

Stan

 

Heidi Decker

Hi Stan,

This sounds almost like a time clock type function. Question? Would you like to be able to go back to that same task and log additional time aginist it maybe a different day, then have them all add up into 1 cell "Total Time"? I'm just trying get clear on what you're looking for.

Thanks

Stan Ward

@Heidi - Yes, I would want to go back to the task many times, often in the same day, and having a Total Time cell would be great.  As a consuitant, for time reporting reasons, I would want to be able to have total time for a given day and total time for the task (sum of all time kept for the task).   Thanks for your interest. -Stan

Stan Ward

I am very suprised this has not generated more discussion, or better yet, pointing to a solution that already exists for timing Smartsheet tasks.  

 

At this point, it looks like I am going to export out of Smartsheet for my timing of tasks.  

 

Kennedy Stomps

Hi Stan-- I'm not sure of a way to accomplish this completely within Smartsheet, since we don't yet support time tracking, but we do have an integration with an application called Harvest that is specifically a time tracking program. Thanks to the integration, it would be possible to transfer data from Harvest directly into Smartsheet. I haven't worked with it personally, but it might be worth checking out! 

Galen Dalrymple

I would add my vote for a timer as described in this request!

Kennedy Stomps

Hi Galen-- I've added your vote. Thanks for the input!

Stan Ward

Thanks Kennedy.  I have bumped into Harvest a bunch of times, too.  I  have tried it a bit.

 

The thing that I am using today is toggl.  While it does not integrate, I have a "toggl button" as Chrome Add-on, so that I can easily copy the task name, click on the toggl button and paste the task name as I start to work on it.  

 

I also tried out the Time Doctor app yesterday.  I also tried out Harvest.

 

As of this writing, I am leaning towards toggl.

 

Susan Alexander

I use Toggl, too. Wonder if Zapier would work since it integrates with Smartsheet & Toggl...

Stan Ward

For now, what I do is copy and paste the task name to Toggl which is working well.  I use a Toggl report to figure out how much time I spend on the task and then input that into the column I use on Smartsheet.  I am liking it. Smartsheet is for planning and Toggl is the system of record for the details of what I *actually* do.  Since things just come up sometimes, Toggl provides the flexibility to just record it.  Not all of my time makes it back to Smartsheet as it was not originally planned.  I could add rows to Smartsheet for the unplanned work, but that is too much of a hassle at this point.  I will use Toggl for billing clients.  With all the said, I am only in my second week of using Toggl, so stil lots to learn and I do not have the wisdom of time with it.  

 

I did look at Zapier for integrations between Toggl and Smartsheet.  As far as I can tell, there is not something already built, but maybe something could be done.  Honestly, I am kind of happy with where I am at right now. I like that homegrown solution for now without worrying about the dependencies of integration.  In time, an integration might make good sense.  We'll see.

 

With all this said, I still like the idea of a stopwatch feature for Smartsheet tasks.

 

IMProdigal

Good Morning all,

As Toggl is becoming more prominent in the small business market (as is Smartsheet :-)), are we getting any closer to make this happen?

I likewise use Toggl, which I use with extensions for Google Chrome, Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs, (to name a few).   I would like to see the same thing Stan has recommended with a column of Toggl buttons to start a time entry where you could select (at a sheet level) one column for the Task Name (summary or detail column) and the Project Name (personally I'd like to Sheet name to match the Project Title, but a column with the project name would work as well).



If Toggl allowed for URL link to fill in the above I could do it already, but they are all API, so we need Smartsheet to help us make it happen.  

I'll be posting a similar request on the Toggl community to see if they could help us make this happen. 

J. Craig Williams

You might want to check out TrackingTime

https://pro.trackingtime.co

It has some issues, chief for me is that it is a browser memory hog even when not doing anything. But ... I turn it on and off occasionally and come back to it time to time hoping for improvements.

But it DOES integrate with Smartsheet, at least in Chrome. (I would love to know how!, and it might just be the Chrome Extension).

Craig

 

Rania

Another hand raised for time tracking integration over here! I also use toggl (fits our needs better than harvest and any other time tracker i've tried to date). I'd like to get my team onto smartsheet--- if there was a simple way for us to track our time.