Have timer "button" in all views with link to task
M
MGT Candice Gallion
My team and I have started to utilize your time tracking feature. For the most part it is good. The main issue with how you have it set up is that there are a lot of clicks (steps) to get to the timer for the project I am working on which often leads to me or my team not using the timer. For example, I am working on moving data from Asana into SmartSuite. I have a subtask table set up in my master task list. However, now I have to go into that table, find the task, click on the timer for the task, then I need to go out of the table and then go into the Solution I am actually working on.
I tried to find this option to vote on but I don't see it in the list so I am adding the request. I apologize if it is already a request and maybe I didn't see it.
My suggestion is to put this "button" at the top, inside the header. If you put it at the bottom it interferes with the view of what we are working on as sometimes the "intercom" button does.
Jon Darbyshire
Hello MGT Candice Gallion! I have a few more questions for you:
- Can you provide more details about the specific steps you would like to see reduced in the process of accessing the timer?
- Are there any other areas in the application where you would like to see the timer button implemented?
- How often do you and your team use the timer feature and how critical is it to your daily operations?
M
MGT Candice Gallion
Jon Darbyshire
Thank you for getting back to me on this issue. I have included screenshots from another application that I currently use. I was going to switch our team into this other application from Asana but, I found that, although it has very robust capabilities, the view was too cluttered for us, and I knew that we would just not keep up with the amount of organization that it required to keep it from becoming a visual dumping ground. However, there are some key features that this program has. I am not telling you the program on purpose because I don't want to cause trademark issues for your organization.
- See images for specific examples. You need more quick access options. Right now I find SmartSuite amazing but clunky. The interface is not intuitive and it is difficult to find the information that we need. Having a quick access tool for the timer to connect to any task or any solution would be very helpful (as well as a quick access pop up option would be helpful. Right now you have "starred items" and pinned items. This quickly becomes visually overwhelming since often times one person has to work in multiple solutions. It is not organized nor can it be categorized for ease of use.
- Right now the timer is very basic. It would be helpful if the individual notes were easier to access without having either click on them to see them. Also, within the sub items, there is no way to have an active timer. you have to just add your Duration so to me this is not useful and I don't use it. Also, there should be an easy way on the mobile app to use the timer, across multiple users so that we can see what people are working on since our admin team is entirely remote. Our in office team doesn't usually use computers since we are providers so having to log into a computer to use the software isn't practical for us. For our industry specifically (healthcare), it would be a God send to have multi timers that we can access by all users. I have yet to find this in any application. We would use this to run our rooms and to see what everyone is doing at one time.
M
MGT Candice Gallion
Jon Darbyshire
I wrote a long reply and then realized I needed to reduce the word count but I don't have enough time to edit it all so I am including a 2nd reply instead.
- I personally use the timer every time I use SmartSuite, however I am finding that I am not taking the time to find the task I need to use the timer in so my use rate is actually much lower than it would be if I had a quick access way to start the timer and then link it to a task from the main screen without having to find the solution, open the solution, find the task, click on the timer. We also rely on timers for auditing work loads. We need to know for example: that one new patient takes 45 minutes to input into our system for billing purposes. We need to know that a patient that is already in our system actually only takes 5 minutes to process. This is essential so we don't over schedule our staff members on tasks since our tasks are more one off. recurring tasks and not large projects.
The timer and data that we collect from the timer in addition to just cutting down on chat conversations to "check in" with the staff is a very high priority. Because your system does not offer real time asynchronistic oversight, my team is often chatting too much in our company chat about the daily process and not actually working as much as they should be because we cannot actually see what project they are working on or what task they are working on at that time.
M
MGT Candice Gallion
Jon Darbyshire
Good morning, I wanted to share a brief update on this issue and a work around that I need to do in order to use the timer without forgetting or without just not doing it out of sheer inconvenience. I am using links from one solution to the other with the timer access so that it is built in the solution I am working on at the time. I created a shared link to the solution I am working on building and updating but the actual location of the task is in a different solution. This is why I think having a timer that has access from the home page to all solutions would be the actual "solution". Pun intended.