Hi,
This behaviour is actually normal in Dynamics, even though it feels wrong in starting.
The key thing to understand is that Actual Duration is not tracking “time spent working” on a case. It only tracks how long the case stays in an active status, and even then it has some limitations.
A few things that commonly cause Actual Duration to show 0.00 minutes:
First, it only counts whole minutes. If someone takes ownership, sets the case to In Progress, does the work, and resolves it within the same minute, Dynamics will record that as zero. This happens more often than people realize.
Second, ownership and edits don’t start the clock. Opening the case, taking ownership, filling in fields, or saving the record doesn’t matter. The timer only starts once the case is actually in an Active status (like In Progress). If someone works the case while it’s still in New and then resolves it, Actual Duration will stay at zero.
Another thing I’ve seen a lot is status changes without a clean save. If a user changes the status, fills required fields, and resolves the case very quickly (or in one save), Dynamics sometimes never registers a measurable “active” window.
Automation can also play a role. Workflows, Power Automate flows, SLAs, or plugins that automatically change status or resolve cases can open and close the active state so fast that no duration is captured.
This also explains why audit history looks correct but Actual Duration doesn’t. Audit logs show what changed and when, but they aren’t what Dynamics uses to calculate duration. You can clearly see time passing in the audit and still end up with 0 minutes.
That’s why you’re seeing inconsistencies where:
- The same user
- Doing the same type of work
- Gets duration on one case but not another
It usually comes down to timing, status sequence, or automation — not user behavior.
If you want Actual Duration to calculate more reliably, the safest pattern is:
- Set the case to In Progress
- Save the record
- Let it sit in that status for at least a minute
- Then resolve it
Even then, it’s important to be realistic: Actual Duration was never meant to be a true time-tracking field. It’s more of a rough lifecycle metric.
If you need accurate effort tracking (meetings, analysis, report work, etc.), most teams end up using Time Entries, activities, or a custom timer instead of relying on Actual Duration.
Hope that helps.
Thanks!
Inogic
