Time tracking: Need your feedback on Timer! ⏱️

I don't think anyone in our organisation uses the timer. When Wrike was first introduced, some users activated the timer, but quite often forgot to turn it off, resulting in huge timelog entries.

Hi Alina,

We have been unable to migrate from our existing time tracking method to Wrike due to the extra effort of having to remember to start the timer. It would be a great addition to us if we could trigger the timer to start or stop via the task status, we would like this enhancement to be added via an Automation Engine rule if possible.

That would allow us to trigger the timer once the user moves the task to in progress and stop the timer once they have completed or put the task on hold.

I really appreciate the timer function in Wrike. Since my job involves working extensively within Wrike, I’m always conscious of whether the timer is running. I understand how those who need to leave Wrike for their tasks might forget to turn it off.

I allocate effort to my tasks, many of which are recurring daily. At the end of each quarter, I run a report to see how long these tasks have actually taken. I then adjust the effort estimates for recurring tasks to accurately reflect my workload. This process also helps me plan my capacity for the day and week. One significant benefit I’ve noticed is that the timer allows me to calculate a good estimate of how long certain requests will take, allowing me to schedule them effectively and communicate timelines to stakeholders.

We use the timer extensively at our organization. Some of the challenges I've heard from the team include:
It would be great if the timer was always visible at the top of the UI so someone could start a new timer quickly versus having to navigate to a task.

In that same vein, having a folder/project and item picker directly in the timer would make it easier to start a timer from that always visible location.

Having the entry automatically added when the timer is stopped.

The ability to start a timer without selecting an item, to reduce the friction when wanting to quickly log a time.

Mostly, the feedback I've heard boils down to wanting more ability to start a timer quickly without having to find the exact task first.

We use timelogs but not timer functionality, our team insert their time at the end of the tasks.
I think can be very useful if timer will start on some status and end automatically on other.

quick access to timetracking in search results – Wrike Help Center

The timer functionality is good, but like a few have stated, users will forget to click it. Retroactively updating the time always feels inaccurate, although a good way to get around users forgetting.

I like Alex's idea of automatically starting/stopping the timer using the automation engine through something like a status change. I think this could remove the human error aspect of it and manage it through workflow. I have seen similar things achieved in other platforms.

Be more helpful for our team, if we could add times that aren't associated with task.

I think the time tracking has the potential to be really powerful but it requires support to be a more intuitive, autonomous feature. Especially in regulated industries, having to rely on manual intervention is a bit risky - if you could create automations/rules to have the timers start and stop based on actions carried out then it removes a big headache and administrative overheard to rectify timesheets.

Huge thanks for sharing your thoughts here, everyone! 🙌

Lisa Community Team at Wrike Wrike Product Manager Become a Wrike expert with Wrike Discover

Lisa Wrike Team member Become a Wrike expert with Wrike Discover

The timer might adopt the activity sensing feature found in Microsoft Teams. You could start the timer, and it would keep running as long as you are ”active” on your computer, and then stop after n amount of inactivity. Just like your Teams status switches from green to yellow.

Two other ideas that came to mind:

1. As mentioned before, monitoring for activity, so if someone leaves a timer running but isn't active, give them the ability to remove that inactive time, Harvest and Clockify have this feature
2. Ways to more quickly start a timer on an item, for example like the new "Files" column in the table view, add a "Timer" column with the timer icon to quickly start a timer on an item in the table view without having to open the item details. 

Some members of our enterprise find the timer to be very helpful, but I agree with other's here, there needs to be an alert that the timer is still running. We already have set our business work hours. If there was an automation or feature that can send an alert to the user that the timer is running after business hours so they may stop the timer could be useful.  

Thanks a lot, everyone 🤗

Lisa Community Team at Wrike Wrike Product Manager Become a Wrike expert with Wrike Discover

Lisa Wrike Team member Become a Wrike expert with Wrike Discover

I personally like to use the timer myself in Wrike but I'm certain I am the only one in my org doing so. It would be helpful for collaborators users to be able to leverage the timer. We are working on adding a level of capacity planning and leveraging resource management tools in Wrike, and everybody being able to use the time would be so helpful. 

Appreciate your feedback here as well Lynn Graham 🙌

Lisa Community Team at Wrike Wrike Product Manager Become a Wrike expert with Wrike Discover

Lisa Wrike Team member Become a Wrike expert with Wrike Discover

I'd actually love to be able to use the timer feature to be available for request forms so that we can have our non-computer based staff clock in and out via a form.

Thanks Corina Reynolds, that's a very interesting idea! 🙌 Our team is all ears! 

Lisa Community Team at Wrike Wrike Product Manager Become a Wrike expert with Wrike Discover

Lisa Wrike Team member Become a Wrike expert with Wrike Discover

Estamos usando o Wrike há cerca de um mês, e a adaptação ao rastreador de tempo é desafiadora. Ele funciona muito bem para mim, mas para a equipe como um todo, causa bastante frustração. Seria útil se ele enviasse lembretes no início do dia e no final do dia para evitar esquecimentos. O que geralmente acontece é que eles inserem o dia inteiro de trabalho (8 horas) sem contabilizar os intervalos para almoço e café, o que leva a imprecisões nos relatórios.