[Tickets #6550] Re: Support accumulating timers and ask for time entry when creating timer

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Ticket URL: http://bugs.horde.org/ticket/6550
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 Ticket             | 6550
 Updated By         | php at ideacode.com
 Summary            | Support accumulating timers and ask for time entry when creating timer
 Queue              | Hermes
 Type               | Enhancement
 State              | New
 Priority           | 1. Low
 Milestone          | 
 Patch              | 
 Owners             | 
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php at ideacode.com (2008-03-31 17:03) wrote:

See also Ticket 2667 and Ticket 6549.

Our particular usage, as developers, is to accumulate time on given
tickets.  For example, work on Ticket #1, finish it, turn it over to test,
move on to Ticket #2.  Later, test comes back and complains that Ticket #1
isn't finished, so we "switch" back to Ticket #1 and repeat.  In a given
day, I might have 6-12 tickets under way in this waterfall type process.

Another time this arises in when we double duty "on the desk," taking
support calls.  We'll be working away on Ticket N, when the phone rings and
we go into support mode.  So, we "switch" our task and want to accumulate
time on the right one.

Today, one way we handle this is to track our hours in a spreadsheet at
our desks: at the end of the day, we sprinkle the worked hours around
roughly on all the tasks we worked.

Timers are more accurate, and it seems like timers would be more generally
useful if the following modifications were made:
1. When you create a timer, you must fill in the time entry's "static"
information: client, job type, cost object as well as a "name" for the
timer.
2. When you click the timer, you see (but cannot edit) the previously
entered information.  You also see (but cannot edit) the date and
accumulated hours.  You are prompted to enter a description and optionally
notes.  You have two options: Save and continue timing, or Save and stop
timing.

The idea here is to focus the information you enter at each stage of the
timer -- creation and click -- to just the needed information, and to give
you the option to continuing timing.  

Thoughts?