While most labor and travel costs are generated automatically when a technician completes a scheduled appointment on their mobile app, there are times when office staff need to intervene.
You can manually add ad-hoc labor, log travel expenses, or adjust existing time records directly from the job record to ensure your final profitability figures are perfectly accurate.
Adding manual labor
You can add manual time entries for ad-hoc work or hourly travel time that wasn't tracked through a formal diary appointment.
Open the job record and click the Costs tab.
In the left-hand sidebar, under Actual costs, click Labor.
Click Add labor in the top right of the grid.
In the side panel, select the technician, the date, and the specific Labor type (e.g., Standard Labor or Travel Time).
Choose your preferred time entry method:
Date/Time entry: Enter the exact start and end times (e.g., 09:00 AM to 11:30 AM). The system will automatically calculate the duration and cost.
Total Time entry: Enter the total hours and minutes worked (e.g., 02:30 for two and a half hours) without specifying exact clock times.
Review the calculated total cost and click Save.
Note: if there are Advanced labour rates configured, those pricing rules are applied to records using exact date/time entries.
Editing labor records and managing appointment connections
If a technician forgot to log their time or made an error on site, you can edit their submitted labor record.
From the Labor grid, click Edit next to the record you want to change.
Make the required adjustments to the time, date, or assigned technician.
Click Save to update the cost.
Understanding connected paired records
When a technician completes a scheduled appointment, the system automatically generates two paired cost entries: one for their Travel time and one for their Labor time.
These two records are chronologically linked together by the exact time the technician arrived on site. The end of their Travel time serves as the start of their Labor time. Because of this link, editing one record can easily impact the other.
Editing exact times and chronological limits
Adjusting the exact clock times (Date/Time entry) on a record will not disconnect it from the diary. However, the system enforces a strict chronological sequence between paired records.
You cannot create an impossible timeline, such as making the Travel time end after the Labor time begins. If you enter overlapping times, the system will prevent you from saving the record and will prompt you to adjust the paired record's time accordingly so the chronological sequence is maintained.
What causes a disconnect?
A cost record becomes "disconnected" from the original diary appointment if you manually break its structural logic entirely. This happens if you switch the entry method from exact clock times to a bulk Total Time.
The paired disconnection rule: If you break the logic on one record (e.g., Travel), its paired record (Labor) is automatically disconnected from the diary as well. Once disconnected, any future scheduling changes made to the appointment in the diary will no longer automatically update these specific costs.
Reading warning messages
Because editing one paired record often impacts the other, the system will display informational banners and warnings inside the edit panel. It is highly recommended to read these messages carefully before saving.
If a record is prevented from saving due to an overlapping time, the banner will guide you on what needs adjusting. If a record becomes disconnected, the banner will explicitly state the root cause of the disconnect—whether it was caused by changes made to the current record you are viewing, changes made to its paired record, or changes made to both.
How to reconnect
To restore a disconnected record back to the diary, you must edit the record(s), ensure the entry method is set back to Date/Time entry, and fix the start and end times so they follow a logical chronological sequence that aligns with the diary event.
Adding manual travel costs
Use this section to log vehicle-related travel costs based on your company's hourly travel rate.
In the left-hand sidebar, under Actual costs, click Travel (or Mileage, depending on your account configuration).
Click Add travel in the top right of the grid.
In the side panel, select the technician, the date, and the Travel type.
Enter the travel duration or required quantity. The system will automatically calculate the total cost based on your system-level Travel rate (which accounts for vehicle depreciation, maintenance, and fuel).
Click Save to add the cost to the job.
Travel time vs. travel expenses
It is important to know which section to use based on how your company calculates travel:
Use the Labor section for actual time spent traveling. This calculates cost based on the technician's hourly labor rate.
Use the Travel section to log vehicle-related travel costs. This calculates the cost based on your system-level Travel rate (a predefined hourly rate that accounts for vehicle depreciation, maintenance, and fuel).
Read more about the job record and using the job tabs.
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