Track number of hours spend on a customer project

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Hello,

After submitting a quote to a customer from CRM online, when customer response is positive then we can start working on his project and for that we validate the Quote as Won, which then create a customer Order reference with which we can settle different task to be done for the project.
In our business we are building software and on current customer order we need to track the number of hours spend on the project by each people working on it.

To do that actually we are using an Excell sheet that each developer working on the project fill up weekly. Which is not the best solution as it is not directly linke to customer order in CRm.

I was wondering if there is a way to do such thing in the sense that from customer Order we can fill up a date, developer name, number of hours spend ?

At the end we can then compare the payed hours with real working one.

Thanks for advise

regards

serge

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pmdci 1,032 on at

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This is an interesting required.

If you install Dynamics CRM 2013 SP1 (service pack 1), there is a new controller called a timer that you can use to track the time spent working in a record. This is originally added to the Service entity in with SP1.

This is the first thing I would look into. Then you of course will need some custom fields to take track of the total time and the billable time, and workflows that will consider the status of the record (billable, not billable) in order to calculate the hours.

Regards,
P.

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Where is this timer controller stuff could not find it.

I am using CRM online.

I think tracking the time with a roling timer would be difficult because, developer could bedisturbed by a phone call for instance and then would need to stop that timer each time they gets disturbed on the project with what we called "noise work".

Will there be a manuall approach first more simpler to validate ?

ragrds

serge

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pmdci 1,032 on at

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You might need to enable the SP1 features in CRM online under settings. Bear in mind that this operation is not reversible.

The example you gave about noise work comes with the territory. Seems no different to me than solicitors, consultants, etc. The manual process would be for the individual to change the status of the record and place it on-hold to stop the timer.

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Thnaks for your reply.

when you said :

"Then you of course will need some custom fields to take track of the total time and the billable time, and workflows that will consider the status of the record (billable, not billable) in order to calculate the hours"

Could you detail a bit how to do this, I have never play with workflow.

Where extra field need to be added? in Order form ?

If you can provide a step by step guide that will help to catch

reagrds

serge

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pmdci 1,032 on at

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Hi there,

First things first... Make sure you enable the SP1 product updates. This is what will give you the timer control.

This will allow you to insert the time control into forms.

Then you need to look into combining the use of this control with the workflows and custom fields. I'm afraid that for this solution, the use of workflows are a necessity so I reckon you would have to learn how to create these.

You might find this video useful:

[View:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uo5aQJlmsm4:550:0]

I reckon that it will not be possible for me to provide you a fully fledged solution (i.e. from requirements to delivery) because this would be a consultancy work in which we would have to sit down, discuss requirements, specify those in specs (functional/technical), test, fine-tune, etc -- which is simply impractical (at least for me) in a community forum. But I hope the information provided can point you into the right direction.

Regards,
P.

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thanks will check that.

reagrds

serge

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Hello,

I have check how workflow work that seems quite simple. In order to setup this I might need you advise on where I should better place field knowing that when a Quote is complete, an Order is created. Then in this order a set of task need to be done to fulfill the order, based on that

- can I have that counter associated to each task and then a summary info which make the Sum of all those counter ?

- How can I place that counter in each tasks associated to the Order ?

Or does my path is wrong and should work with only one counter at Order level form ?

Thanks for advise

regards

serge

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Hosk on at

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I would create a new entity called Project Time

On this entity you could have a date field and an number field. You could have a lookup to user to specify which user did the time. Also have a lookup field for Account or Order.

Then for a project, quote, order you then create a new project time entity each time you want to allocate some time to the project. Somewhere you will need to add these together probably using a plugin.

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Thanks ben for your reply.

Creating a new entity is not an issue as it just a matter has defining a new table with field in CRM but building a plug-in is the tricky part for me has never done this and do not know how to do.

Is there a more simpler approach without developing anything new?

regards

serge

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I would have them attach New Order Lines to the CRM Order; entering quantity for the number of hours spent and choosing the appropriate product based on the work being performed. If you don't want to affect the Order Total then you can setup the product to have a $0.00 price and use just the quantity.

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