Question

Time Tracking

  • 28 October 2022
  • 4 replies
  • 68 views

I am wondering the best tool to use for tracking time that can integrate with Cooper? We want to track how long it takes for tasks to be completed. 


4 replies

Userlevel 2
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Do you want to track the time between open and close in Copper? I suggest to capture the updates on Tasks with a tool like Zapier or Make.com and store it in either Google sheets or Airtable. In both tools you can process further outside Copper. 

Three60.io has a tool that comes with a subscription fee to store Copper data in and external datasource. 

Userlevel 7
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Hi @NeoSakura, thanks for posting! @Jaco Koppelaar has a great question - are you looking the amount of time between the creation date and completion date of a Task?

Now, Jaco mentioned some out-of-platform tools you could use, but you can also use our Workflow Automation tool to automatically capture the number of days between a Task’s creation and its completion. This is what the result would look like:

Once you’ve got the numbers flowing in, you can do things like filter and sort on it. Or if you need more sophisticated breakdowns (e.g. average amount of time it takes for each user to complete a task), you can use this data in our reporting system.

 

How would you set this up? There would be two steps.

 

Step 1: create a custom field to store the number

The easiest way to do this is to open up any task and click the +Add new field button. 

Make sure the type is “Number Field”

 

Step 2: create a workflow automation rule to fill in that number

Go to Settings > Automation > Workflow Automation > Add Workflow. You can use the exact Trigger and Action below:

This trigger basically says: whenever the completion date of the Task is after Jan 1 2000 (which should be always!), do the Action below
This Action says: calculate the number of days between the Task’s creation date and its completion date, and store it in the custom field we created earlier.

The formula for the action is DAYS(date_created,completed_date) .

 

Let me know if this addresses your question 🙂

Good Afternoon Michelle, 

I am wondering how to access or setup the below that you mentioned?

Or if you need more sophisticated breakdowns (e.g. average amount of time it takes for each user to complete a task), you can use this data in our reporting system.

 

Thank you.

Userlevel 7
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Hi @NeoSakura! The first step would be to do the setup from my previous reply. Then, you can add the data to our reporting system.

To access the reporting system, look in the purple sidebar in Copper. You should see a pie chart icon called Reports. If you don’t see it, you may need to ask your account admin to grant you access.

Once you enter the Reports section follow these screenshots to add #Days to complete task as a data option for when you build the report later.

Next, I actually recommend waiting a few days so that the system can collect that data for each task that gets completed. Otherwise you’ll be trying to build a report on data that doesn’t exist yet.

If you prefer not to wait, you can jump into building the report - after the system refreshes its data. I actually need my demo account to refresh in order to show you the rest of the steps 😅 So I’ll have to explain the rest tomorrow.

In the meantime, I recommend you follow the steps in my previous comment and above so that you’re in a good place to move forward soon. 🙂

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