For field-based engineers, keeping accurate records of where their time goes can be surprisingly difficult. When you’re travelling between customer locations, carrying out installations, resolving issues or working on-site, sitting down at a laptop to update a timesheet is rarely at the top of the priority list.
Unfortunately, leaving time tracking until the end of the day — or even the end of the week — can create problems. It becomes harder to remember exactly how much time was spent on each activity, potentially resulting in inaccurate project costs, missed billable hours and incomplete project information.
That’s where the Mobile App Time Logger in Mission Control can make a real difference. By providing a mobile-friendly way to record time against project Actions, team members can capture their hours while they’re working in the field rather than having to reconstruct their week when they return to their desk.
What is the Mobile App Time Logger in Mission Control?
The Mobile App Time Logger is a mobile-friendly component within Mission Control that enables users to record and manage project time through the Salesforce Mobile App or through a mobile browser when logged in as a Community User.
Instead of relying on a traditional desktop timesheet, users have quick access to the project Actions that are relevant to them and can record their time directly against those Actions. The component provides three main tabs — Action List, Find Action and Submit for Approval List — helping users manage the different stages of the time logging process from one mobile-friendly interface.
For a field-based engineer, this means time recording can become part of the job itself rather than an administrative task that needs to be completed later. Finish two hours of work on an installation? Log it. Spend 45 minutes resolving an unexpected issue? Record it there and then. Move on to another project? Start tracking time against the next Action.
The Action List is particularly useful for this way of working. By default, it displays Actions assigned to the Role associated with the user for the current week, including Actions where that Role is either the Action Owner or a Contributor. Users can also switch between This Week, Last Week, Next Week and This Month, with their selected filter remembered when they return.
This provides engineers with a focused view of the work that’s relevant to them without requiring them to navigate through large project plans or search through unrelated records every time they want to record their hours.
Key Features of the Mobile App Time Logger in Mission Control
One of the biggest advantages of the Mobile App Time Logger is the ability to quickly record time against multiple Actions. From the Action List, users can enter the number of hours completed manually or use quick +15m and +1h options to increment the amount of time being recorded.
There is also a Start/Stop timer for situations where you want to track the actual amount of time spent on an Action. Selecting the green clock starts the timer, and the Action moves to the top of the list with a red clock showing that time is currently being tracked. When the work is finished, clicking the red clock stops the timer. This can be particularly useful for engineers moving between different jobs throughout the day.
Users can also control whether an individual Time Log is Billable or Non Billable, subject to the settings of the associated Action. Additional information can be captured using the edit option, including details such as Time Log Notes and Time Log Type. This means users aren’t limited to simply recording a number of hours — they can provide the context that makes those hours useful to project managers and other stakeholders.
Another valuable feature is Find Action. There will inevitably be occasions when an engineer works on something that wasn’t originally assigned to them. Perhaps they’ve been asked to help another engineer or have been pulled into an unexpected customer issue. If the relevant Action isn’t displayed in their Action List, they can use Find Action to manually locate it by selecting the relevant Project, Milestone and Action before creating the Time Log.
The Mobile App Time Logger also supports organisations where Time Logs need to go through an approval process. The Submit for Approval tab displays Time Logs with an Approval Status of Pending. Users can edit individual entries before submitting them and can either submit Time Logs individually or submit all of their pending Time Logs together.
Importantly, the information presented to mobile users can also be configured using Field Sets. Administrators can determine which fields appear within the Action List, which additional fields users can populate when recording time, and which fields are shown when Time Logs are being submitted for approval. This gives organisations flexibility to make the mobile experience fit their own time tracking processes rather than forcing every team to work in exactly the same way.
How to use the Mobile App Time Logger in Mission Control
Before users can access the Mobile App Time Logger from the Salesforce Mobile App, it needs to be added to the mobile navigation. An administrator can do this by navigating to Setup > Apps > Mobile Apps > Salesforce > Navigation, ensuring Time Logger appears in the Selected column and saving the configuration.
Once enabled, users can access Time Logger directly from the Salesforce Mobile App navigation menu. For most engineers, the Action List will be the natural starting point because it provides quick access to their relevant Actions for the selected period.
When you’ve completed work against an Action, simply find it in the list and enter the time you’ve spent. You can manually enter the number of hours or use the +15m and +1h controls for faster entry. If necessary, you can toggle the Billable/Non Billable setting and use the edit option to capture additional information such as notes or the appropriate Time Log Type.
Alternatively, if you’re about to begin working on an Action and want a more precise record of the time spent, you can use the Start/Stop timer. Click the green clock when you start working and Mission Control will begin tracking your time. The Action will move to the top of the list and display a red clock along with the length of time tracked. When you’ve finished, click the red clock to stop the timer.
It’s important to remember that stopping the timer doesn’t automatically save the Time Log. Once the timer has stopped, you still have an opportunity to update the Billable/Non Billable setting or add additional information. You then click the Save icon in the top-right of the component to save the record.
If the Action you’re working on doesn’t appear in the Action List, switch to Find Action. From here, you can select the relevant Project, Milestone and Action, complete the required information and save the Time Log. This means unexpected work can still be captured against the appropriate project records.
Finally, if your organisation uses Time Log approvals, head to Submit for Approval. Here you’ll find your Time Logs currently awaiting submission. You can review and edit the information before submitting individual Time Logs or submitting everything together.
The result is a straightforward workflow: do the work, record the time, add the necessary context and submit it — all without needing to return to a desktop computer.
Conclusion
For a field-based engineer, accurate time tracking shouldn’t mean remembering everything you’ve done during the day and entering it into a system when you finally get back to the office. By that point, details can easily be forgotten, and small inaccuracies across a large engineering team can quickly add up.
The Mission Control Mobile App Time Logger brings time recording much closer to where the work actually happens. Engineers can quickly log time against their assigned Actions, use a Start/Stop timer to track work as it happens, find Actions that weren’t originally assigned to them, distinguish between Billable and Non Billable time, add supporting information and submit Time Logs for approval.
That convenience benefits more than the individual engineer. When time is recorded promptly and against the correct project work, project managers have access to more accurate information about effort, costs and progress. Finance and operations teams can have greater confidence in billable time, while the business gains a clearer picture of how its resources are actually being used.
For engineers, however, perhaps the biggest benefit is simply making time tracking less of a chore. When you can pull out your phone and record your time while you’re still on-site, there’s less administration waiting for you later — and a much better chance that every hour of valuable project work is accurately captured.
Mission Control is a comprehensive Salesforce Project Management software application. Make sure you check out our other Project Management Best Practices.
