Ability to calculate loop screen time fields (consecutively)

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thomas savine

It would be useful if I was able to calculate time fields in a looped screen, with ability to summarise in number format (for csv output)

Example:
- User selects drop down address
- User selects tasks on loop screen
- User selects time down using time field (I.e. ‘1 hour 15mins’)
- Summary page shows the total time spent in number format (I.e. ‘1.25’)

There is a (long winded) workaround using a dropdown box + reference file; although it would be more mobile user friendly in making use of the time field for this task.

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    Nathan Holmes

    This might be a way to achieve what you're after:

    Add these to a loop screen:

    • 2 time fields, "time in" and "time out" (or whatever works in your use case) 
    • 1 calculation field (which can be hidden by turning off mobile visible under the "more" section"), "time difference" for example:

    And then set the calculation field to time out minus time in

     

    Then go to your summary screen, add a Summary field and set it to:

    Field type: Summary

    Style: Number

    Summary Screen:  (The loop screen where you added the time fields and calculation)

    Summary Field: "time difference" (or whatever you named your field)

    This will provide the time difference for each loop entry and then the total time difference on the summary page.

    Is that what you're looking for?

    ---

    In case you're interested, there's also an enhancement request to allow optionally rounding time fields to the nearest 15, 30, or 60 minute interval:

    https://help.gocanvas.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/360024918933-Allow-rounding-time-to-nearest-15-30-or-60-minutes

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    Sara Kaplow, Community Manager
    • Edited

    You're amazing, Nate! This is a great solution. 

    From an end-user perspective, I like the Reference Data version as well - click on the field, find the duration, and you're done. It's definitely a process creating that file initially, but in this instance it's a set-it-and-forget it situation (unless time changes, in which case... we have bigger problems). 

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    thomas savine

    Thanks Nate. Sara, 


    Both solutions are viable; the issue we suffer is (no pun intended) the time it takes to book time! 

    - Reference option limits to select time intervals (i.e. every 15 min's). The increase this my Minute / hour would create a list circa 1080 items long (which I don't think is viable), therefor limited to set intervals of time. 

    - I'm confident the 'time between' option utilising the time field will gather negative feed back from my field users. By introducing 2 time fields to determine the time spent in between will open me up to angry engineers (who are already questioning why I am gathering timescales on set works - I'm using this to learn & develop the efficiency of our business & staff). As an example, my engineers will be booking approx. 50 items per day (meaning 100 time fields will need adjusting) whilst having to remember the physical times attended to each item of work. 

    Feeble excuses for this feature to be developed, but very relevant to trying to make these systems compatible with staff with little patience! 

    I will be employing the 2 time field solution in the hope a single time field is able to consecutively quantify in the near future!

     

    Thanks for your help guys - great forum by the way. 

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    Sara Kaplow, Community Manager
    • Edited

    Thanks for elaborating on your use case - it's definitely helpful for letting Product Managers know why the work-arounds won't really work. 

    I think I might have another way to look at this. You'd have to split up the hours portion and the minutes portion, but it looks like this: 

    So you have them enter the full hours (eg 1) and then the minutes spent (eg 15). The first Calculation Field divides the minutes spent by 60, getting to your .25 then the second Calculation Field adds that to the hours. This will give you the total for this task in the loop. 

    To get all of those added together, you'd need a Summary Field outside of the loop pulling from that second Calculation Field: 

    Note here: both of the Calculation Fields and Summary Field will need decimals, so open up the More tab and make sure you're allowing for decimals. 

    Here's what all that looks like on mobile: 

    Do you think that'll work better for your team?

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    Alan Vasey

    This has been an interesting thread.  I am tidying up an App by combining two screens into one.  The first screen collects time doing  chargeable and non chargeable activities (looped Screen) and the second collected a daily dairy also a looped screen.  By combining the two we save space and make it easier to complete the form (hopefully).  Like Thomas above I was/am looking for a way to eliminate entering start finish times and ideally just have start times and a time calculation.  Ideally I'd like to have looped screen with the time in 15 minute blocks from a reference data file as the first field followed by the activity a radio button chargeable or not and then the time worked calculated for chargeable time. However  I cant see my way around having to enter start and finish times for each activity.  Oh there would be a summary field outside of the loop.

     

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    Sara Kaplow, Community Manager

    Hey Alan,

    Are you trying to calculate the end time based on the start time + the time worked? I think there might be some incredibly complicated ways to do that with a combination of calculations and conditional fields, but there isn't an easy way to do that math and have it spit out a time, unfortunately. 

    If the goal is to have a separate total for chargeable and non-chargeable times coming from the same loop, I think that's possible, but I'm not sure if that's what you're going for here (happy to work that one through if it is, though!). 

    Thanks,
    Sara

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