The Smart Support Time Tracking add-on allows support teams to record how much time agents spend working on support tickets. Instead of only tracking ticket replies or status changes, Time Tracking helps you understand the actual effort required to resolve customer issues.
With Time Tracking, agents can start a live timer while working on a ticket, pause and resume the timer when needed, stop the timer when the work session is complete, or manually add time if the work was done outside the ticket screen.
Time entries are connected to the related ticket and agent, making it easier for administrators and support managers to review workload, billable time, non-billable time, and support productivity.
What Time Tracking helps you measure
Time Tracking is useful when your team wants to understand how much work goes into each ticket. For example, an agent may spend time investigating a bug, checking customer details, reviewing logs, writing a reply, or coordinating internally before sending a final response.
You can use Time Tracking to record time spent on:
- Investigating customer issues
- Reproducing reported bugs
- Checking logs or account details
- Writing customer replies
- Troubleshooting internally
- Coordinating with another team member
- Reviewing total ticket effort
- Separating billable and non-billable support work
Where Time Tracking appears
Once the Time Tracking add-on is installed, licensed, and active, a Time Tracking panel appears inside the ticket view sidebar.
This panel allows agents to:
- Start a timer
- Pause a timer
- Resume a paused timer
- Stop a timer
- View the ticket’s total logged time
- Add manual time, if manual time entry is enabled
A separate Time Tracking page is also available under the Smart Support admin menu. This page allows administrators and authorized users to review logged time across multiple tickets.
How time entries are stored
Each time entry is saved with important details, including:
- Ticket ID
- Agent/user who logged the time
- Time amount
- Entry type, such as timer or manual entry
- Billable status
- Description or note, when added
- Date and timestamp
This makes it possible to review both individual ticket effort and overall support workload.
Timer-based tracking
Timer-based tracking is used when an agent wants to record time while actively working on a ticket.
The basic timer flow is:
- Open a ticket.
- Start the timer.
- Work on the ticket.
- Pause the timer if needed.
- Resume when work continues.
- Stop the timer when the session is complete.
When the timer is stopped, the time is saved to the ticket automatically.
Manual time tracking
Manual time entry allows agents to add time without using the live timer. This is useful when an agent forgets to start the timer or completes work outside the ticket page.
For example, an agent may manually add time after:
- Calling a customer
- Testing an issue on another system
- Reviewing logs outside the ticket screen
- Discussing the issue with another team member
- Completing work before remembering to start the timer
Manual time entry can be controlled from the Time Tracking settings.
Billable and non-billable time
Time Tracking supports billable status on time entries. This helps teams separate time that can be charged to a client from time that should only be tracked internally.
For example:
- Billable time may include direct client troubleshooting, paid support work, or contracted assistance.
- Non-billable time may include internal review, training, admin checking, or unpaid investigation.
The Time Tracking reports can summarize billable and non-billable totals.
Who should use Time Tracking?
Time Tracking is useful for:
- Support agents who need to record work sessions
- Team leads who review support workload
- Agencies that bill clients for support time
- Product teams that want to understand ticket complexity
- Administrators who monitor agent productivity
- Businesses that want better reporting on support operations
Common use cases
Support workload review
Managers can see which tickets took the most time and identify complex or recurring customer problems.
Billing review
Teams that provide paid support can use billable time entries to help review client support usage.
Agent productivity analysis
Time Tracking helps compare time spent across agents, tickets, or date ranges.
Ticket complexity analysis
A ticket with few replies may still require a lot of hidden investigation. Time Tracking makes that effort visible.
The Smart Support Time Tracking add-on gives support teams a clear way to measure work performed on tickets. It supports live timers, manual entries, billable tracking, ticket-level totals, and reporting views, making it useful for both daily support work and long-term performance analysis.