Start and stop a timer

Start a timer from Log time on a job, customer or the Schedule, start it earlier if you forgot, switch jobs in one step, and stop it from the green timer at the top of every page.

A timer is time you are logging right now: start it when you begin and stop it when you finish, and Nova works out the duration. You can start one from the work order, task, project or customer you are on, from the Schedule at /schedule, or from Log time on the Time Entries page at /work/time-entries (sidebar: Projects & Tasks, then Time & Mileage, then Time Entries).

Before you start

• Your organization has to allow timers, and your role needs the Clock in/out time entries permission. Without them the timer buttons do not appear and you type time in instead; see Log time on a work order, project or task.
• Starting or stopping a timer at an earlier time needs Start or stop a timer at an earlier time (up to 12 hours back). Technicians, dispatchers, admins and owners have it unless your admin changed the role.

Start a timer on the work order you are on

1. Open the work order, task or project and press Log time, or choose Log time in the customer’s ⋯ menu. Select Start timer in the drawer. The record is already chosen.
2. On the Schedule, open the item and press Log time, or hover over it and use the clock icon named Log time. Select Start timer in the time drawer, then press its start button. A project milestone logs to its project. A booking logs to its work order, or to its customer when it has no work order yet.
3. The record's ⋯ menu has the same action as Log time.

Forgot to start it?

1. Press Log time (on the record, in its ⋯ menu, or on the Time Entries page) and select Start timer.
2. Turn on Started earlier? and tap one of the choices (15 min, 30 min or 1 hr ago), or Other time to type the clock time.
3. Press the green button. It shows the start time you chose.

A timer can start at most 12 hours ago, never in the future, and never on top of time you already logged. If you pick a start that overlaps, Nova offers the earliest start that fits. A draft you discarded does not count as time already logged, so its slot is free again.

A start or stop within two minutes of now counts as now, so a phone clock that is a little off never needs the permission.

When opened from a timed Schedule item, the “Use scheduled start” switch shows the item's start time and can start the timer there. It appears only after the start has passed and requires permission to backdate a timer. The same overlap and 12-hour limits apply.

Switch to another work order

Open the next work order and press Log time, then select Start timer. The drawer says your current timer stops when this one starts. Press Switch to this: one tap stops the old timer and starts the new one at the same moment.

Turn on Switched earlier? if you changed over a while ago. The switch time has to be after your current timer started; the drawer tells you when that was if you pick a time before it.

A switch happens all at once or not at all. If the new timer cannot start (you cannot log time to that record, or the time runs over time you already logged), nothing changes: your old timer keeps running and the drawer says why.

Stop a timer

1. While a timer runs, a green clock shows at the top of every page, phone included (on a phone it shows the minutes and seconds, or hours and minutes after the first hour). Press it. On the work order itself the button reads Stop timer with the running time.
2. Add what you did under What did you get done? if you like. If your role can edit breaks, choose No break or a break length.
3. Turn on Stopped earlier? if you left a while ago.
4. Press Stop timer. Keep it running closes without stopping.

The stopped timer becomes a draft time entry, ready to submit; see Submit and approve time entries. The time Nova confirms is the time it saved, after your organization's rounding rule.

Starting a timer is arriving

When you start your own timer on a work order, the work order moves to its started status, if your role can change work order status. A work order that is already in progress, completed or canceled stays as it is. Starting a timer for someone else never changes the work order's status.

Timers on the phone app without signal

The phone app keeps a start or stop you make with no signal and sends it once you are back online, with the time you pressed it. Nova takes it as it is when it arrives within 4 hours. Later than that it counts as starting or stopping at an earlier time: it needs the same permission, and one from more than 12 hours ago is refused.

If something looks different

• Your organization requires a note: add it before starting. If another timer is running, use Switch to this.
• No Started earlier? switch: your role cannot start or stop a timer at an earlier time. Start it now and ask an admin to fix the start later.
• On the Time Entries page, Running timers lists everyone's running timers you can see; the stop button on a row opens the full stop dialog with Now or Custom end time and Final duration.