Report showing no hours logged between Task Statuses

[rebeccabirkholz47]

I'd like to build a report that will show tasks that have no time logged when a task moves from one status to another. This is for our creative services team as they are working on artwork for the clients, and is intended to be a safety net in case the artist forgets to log their time as a task moves from their queue to someone else's.

For example, a single task might go through these status changes:

New

With Account Services

Edits Required

With Account Services

Ready for Print File

Complete

I'd need a report to capture when time isn't logged by an artist as it moves from New > With Account Services or Ready for Print Files > Complete. The report would need to only consider those status changes and whether time was logged or not; it can't look at the task as whole to see if time was logged.

[Sven-iX]

Hi @rebeccabirkholz47 

I was going to suggest a task report and filter where

status = With Account Services

previousStatus = New 

hours = zero

But those are the total task hours.

If you need to check whether the artist logged hours "while in New and before With Account Services" I think you'll need Fusion, because you're going to have to track the time interval between status changes and then see if there are hours records by that artist in that period.

I would break this out into several tasks, so you can check hours on the specific task, ie.

Creative work

Account Svcs review

Ready for Print files

Final review

[Doug_Den_Hoed__AtAppStore]

Hi @rebeccabirkholz47,

Building on the initial idea @Sven-iX suggested, it might be possible to pull this off without Fusion:

• using Targeted Auditing, create a calculated parameter that captures the Opening Hours (Task Level) if the Current Status does not match the Previous Status (e.g. New > Current = 0)
• similarly, creating the Current Hours if Current Status DOES match the Previous Status (e.g. Current = Current, so 0, if someone simply edited the description of the task, or something else, but has not entered time)
• once someone does enter some time, the Current Hours will update accordingly (e.g. 4)
• if users change the status of tasks in a task view, you could use conditional formatting to then show the status column in RED if Opening Hours = Current Hours (huh: and perhaps use the groovy new Business Rules feature to PREVENT changing the Status in such or certain cases...needs some testing...)
• you could also expand on the concept to include more direct warnings (e.g. "Status Check: Not Ready, Must Enter Hours Before Changing Status" to guide the users
• etc.

Alternatively...it might also be worth considering an Approval Path to force Good Behavior.

Regards,

Doug

[Sven-iX · Accepted solution]

@Doug_Den_Hoed__AtAppStore I was thinking about that approach with calc'd fields and it made my head hurt   

I like your idea of using approval paths - but I think @rebeccabirkholz47 wanted to track the process step of the artist (since approvals may take a while). That's why I thought in her case they should use separate tasks. 

Fusion or calculated fields - I feel it's a workaround for a problem that shouldn't exist: A task should not cover artist work, Account Services review, and more artist work. Those are 3 different steps following each other - the definition of tasks with predecessors. In my experience, once we begin building such workarounds for incorrect use of Workfront, it becomes a maintenance mess and therefore a risk. So my advice is to keep it simple, use WF as it was intended.  

[Doug_Den_Hoed__AtAppStore]

Sage advice @Sven-iX. I concur.

@rebeccabirkholz47 if you can use Workfront the way it was intended, do. 

In our world - helping Workfront Sponsors who cannot do so but (despite that) are determined to solve their challenges - we usually start with bending the rules, but often break the rules, then share our solutions.

Regards,

Doug