Track Field Technician Time

Timesheets written from memory

Technicians fill in hours on Friday, so a 40-minute drive becomes an hour and a long job becomes a round number.

Two technicians on one job record the same hours twice, or forget the helper entirely.

Time that should be billed on a time and materials job never reaches the invoice.

Why this happens

Time is a separate form instead of part of the job steps.
A shared visit has one timesheet for two people.
Rates change but old hours are costed at the new rate.
Billable hours are copied onto the invoice by hand.

Biznsbook addresses this through automatic time entries, shared visits, labour billing when Field Service is licensed. Customers are parties you already keep. The van is a warehouse. The invoice is one sale invoice for the job.

A second dispatcher, a van, and a deposit are where a private list drifts. Making Biznsbook the place that books the visit, issues the part, and raises the one invoice keeps those three on the same job.

Step-by-step: Track Field Technician Time on Each Visit

Built for owners and dispatchers who send technicians to a customer site in Biznsbook Field Service.

Assign the visit. Book the visit on the dispatch board or the job card. Put every technician who goes on the visit; the first is the lead. Only assigned technicians can take the visit steps.
Tap On my way. This opens a travel entry for that technician and, when the phone or home base and the site have positions, estimates the arrival time for the customer message.
Tap Arrived. Travel closes and on-site time opens. A second technician who arrives later taps Arrived too and gets their own on-site entry on the same visit.
Pause and resume. Pause closes on-site time and opens a break, which is not billable. Resume closes the break and opens on-site time again.
Complete. Completing the visit, or marking it unsuccessful, closes every open entry on the visit for every technician, so nobody is left on the clock.
Correct with a manual entry. If a step was missed, add a manual entry with start and end. The technician’s cost and bill rate are copied onto the entry so later rate changes do not rewrite history.
Bill the time. Bill recorded time on the job card creates labour lines from unbilled time, rounded up to your billing step (15 minutes by default). Time and materials invoices do this automatically. Billed time is never billed again.

Review results after the first full weekly cycle. Adjust roles, mappings, or approvals where the same exception repeats.

Screen names in this guide match Field Service in the product: Home, Jobs, Dispatch, My day, Quotes, Agreements, and Settings.

Common mistakes to avoid

Mistake 1: Time is a separate form instead of part of the job steps. Repeating this each month usually shows up first in double-booked visits, van counts, or a second invoice.
Mistake 2: A shared visit has one timesheet for two people. Repeating this each month usually shows up first in double-booked visits, van counts, or a second invoice.
Mistake 3: Rates change but old hours are costed at the new rate. Repeating this each month usually shows up first in double-booked visits, van counts, or a second invoice.
Mistake 4: Billable hours are copied onto the invoice by hand. Repeating this each month usually shows up first in double-booked visits, van counts, or a second invoice.

Note each recurring gap in the weekly review. Each one should map to a step in this guide.

Best practices that hold up as you scale

Assign the visit — Book the visit on the dispatch board or the job card.
Tap On my way — This opens a travel entry for that technician and, when the phone or home base and the site have positions, estimates the arrival time for the customer message.
Tap Arrived — Travel closes and on-site time opens.
Pause and resume — Pause closes on-site time and opens a break, which is not billable.
Complete — Completing the visit, or marking it unsuccessful, closes every open entry on the visit for every technician, so nobody is left on the clock.

Teams that schedule on the board, issue parts from the van before they invoice, and refuse a second invoice keep the visit and the ledger on the same job.

How Biznsbook supports this workflow

automatic time entries is part of Biznsbook Field Service for companies that send a person to a customer site. The customer is a party you already keep, the address you visit is a site, and the visit sits on a job. Parts move through a van warehouse. The bill is one sale invoice, and a deposit taken first is an advance on that same job. Technicians quote, invoice, or collect only when settings allow it.

shared visits is part of Biznsbook Field Service for companies that send a person to a customer site. The customer is a party you already keep, the address you visit is a site, and the visit sits on a job. Parts move through a van warehouse. The bill is one sale invoice, and a deposit taken first is an advance on that same job. Technicians quote, invoice, or collect only when settings allow it.

labour billing is part of Biznsbook Field Service for companies that send a person to a customer site. The customer is a party you already keep, the address you visit is a site, and the visit sits on a job. Parts move through a van warehouse. The bill is one sale invoice, and a deposit taken first is an advance on that same job. Technicians quote, invoice, or collect only when settings allow it.

Technicians do not quote, invoice, or collect unless those settings are on. Labour cost is for job costing and does not post a wage journal. Email sends through the company’s outbound email and SMS through the company’s own Twilio connection.

Suggested implementation timeline

Week 1: License Field Service, add sites on the parties you already keep, and try automatic time entries on one real job.
Week 2: Create a van warehouse, transfer the stock that is in the van, and issue one part on a visit.
Week 3: Schedule on the board, including one forced conflict, and complete a visit with the checklist rules you actually want.
Week 4: Create the one sale invoice, apply a deposit if you took one, and turn the public page on if customers should request visits.
Ongoing: Weekly review of unscheduled jobs, overdue complete-by times, and van items under minimum, using time, cost, and price.

Product page: Field Service. Trades: field service trades. Decision: field service software vs spreadsheets.

Rolling time out across the team

Start with one technician for a week and compare the recorded hours with what they would have written by hand. The difference is usually travel: short drives that never made it onto a timesheet and long ones that were rounded down.

Set working hours on every technician profile so utilisation means something, and set the labour billing step in settings to match how you quote. If you bill in half hours, set 30 minutes; the labour lines round up to it.

Review the time list on a visit before you invoice a time and materials job. A missed step is easier to fix with a manual entry on the day than after the customer has the invoice.

Shared visits

A two-person job is one visit with two technicians. The lead taps On my way and Arrived; the helper taps the same steps and joins them with their own time. The visit status follows the lead.

When the visit completes, both entries close at the same moment. Bill recorded time creates one labour line per technician, so the invoice shows the hours each person worked.

Metrics to track monthly

Jobs still unscheduled past the attention window
Jobs past their complete-by time
Van items below the minimum you set
Visits forced past a conflict
Jobs completed and not yet invoiced

Start with three metrics; trend direction matters more than a single point-in-time snapshot.

Spreadsheet or paper day sheet vs Biznsbook Field Service

Compare a typical list of jobs with Biznsbook automatic time entries and the rest of the field job.

Capability	Manual / Spreadsheet	Biznsbook
When time starts	❌ When the technician remembers	✅ When they tap On my way or Arrived
Helpers	❌ Shared or forgotten	✅ One entry each on the same visit
Breaks	❌ Deducted by guess	✅ Pause opens a non-billable break
Rates	❌ Today’s rate on old hours	✅ Rate copied onto each entry
Billing	❌ Retyped onto the invoice	✅ Labour lines from unbilled time
Leaving the clock running	❌ Common	✅ Completion closes everyone’s time

Time, cost, and price

Each entry stores the technician’s cost rate and bill rate. Cost flows into job costing; the bill rate (or the category labour rate, which wins when set) prices the labour line. Emergency jobs multiply the labour price by the emergency rate in settings.

Write this into the way the office hands work to technicians, and revisit it when you add a van or a second dispatcher.

Frequently asked questions

Does this replace payroll timesheets?

No. Field time is for job costing and billing. Wages are still paid through payroll.

Is travel time billable?

Travel and on-site entries are billable by default; breaks are not. Untick billable on a manual entry if you do not charge for it.

What rounding is used?

Labour lines round each technician’s minutes on a visit up to the billing step in settings. The default is 15 minutes.

What if the phone was offline?

The page needs a connection to save a step. Add a manual entry for any gap.

How this differs by industry

Retail

An appliance retailer that repairs machines in customers’ homes can see whether repair visits make money once parts and technician time are counted, not just whether the invoice was paid.

Wholesale & distribution

A distributor that installs what it sells can keep the install visit, the parts from the van, and the one sale invoice on the same job as the delivery customer.

Manufacturing

A manufacturer with field engineers servicing installed machines can treat each machine as customer equipment with a service history and an agreement that books the next visit.