Ensuring Accurate Time Tracking in Freshdesk and Freshservice: A Custom Solution to Prevent Time Entry Manipulation

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Ensuring Accurate Time Tracking in Freshdesk and Freshservice: A Custom Solution to Prevent Time Entry Manipulation

Lee Robinson

Benny

- January 2, 2025

7 min read

Freddy copilot

In businesses that rely on service management platforms like Freshdesk and Freshservice, accurate time tracking is crucial for both operational efficiency and employee compensation. Agents are typically paid based on the number of hours they spend working on tickets, making it essential for the company to have reliable systems in place to track the time spent on each task.

However, many organizations face a significant challenge: time entry manipulation. In some cases, agents may alter their time entries for past days to claim more hours than they actually worked, leading to overpayment. This issue not only causes financial discrepancies but also undermines the integrity of the time tracking process, leading to a lack of transparency and trust.

To address this issue, we have developed custom applications for both Freshdesk and Freshservice, specifically designed to prevent agents from manipulating their time entries. This custom solution provides an effective way for companies to maintain accurate and reliable time tracking, improve accountability, and ensure fair compensation.

The Problem: Time Entry Manipulation

In many organizations, agents are compensated based on the hours they work on individual tickets. This often involves agents logging their hours manually or through an automated system. While this approach helps organizations accurately measure the effort put into each ticket, it also opens the door for potential misuse.

One common problem that businesses encounter is agents modifying their time entries for past days to claim more hours than they actually worked. This could happen due to a variety of reasons—some agents may want to earn more money, while others may seek to meet productivity targets. Regardless of the reason, time entry manipulation can create significant issues, such as:

  • Overpayment: Agents could end up being paid for hours they didn’t work.
  • Inaccurate Reporting: Financial and performance reports may be skewed, leading to misinformed decision-making.
  • Erosion of Trust: Manipulating time entries undermines trust between agents and management, damaging the organization’s work culture.

This is where our custom applications come in to address the issue and restore accuracy and transparency to the time tracking process.

The Solution: Custom Applications for Time Entry Control

To prevent time entry manipulation in Freshdesk and Freshservice, we’ve developed custom applications that give admins greater control over agent time entries. By using this feature, admins can classify agents who work on hourly-based compensation and restrict them from altering their time entries without obtaining approval from the person in charge or the admin.

How It Works

The custom applications work by introducing restrictions and controls around time entries. This is how the feature functions:

  • Classification of Agents: Admins can classify agents who are paid based on the hours they work. This classification helps to differentiate between those agents who need stricter time entry controls and those who don’t.
  • Time Entry Restrictions: Once classified, admins can restrict agents from editing or modifying their time entries without approval. This means that agents can no longer alter their own past time entries without the explicit consent of their manager or the admin.
  • Approval Workflow: If an agent attempts to modify their time entries, the change triggers an approval request. The admin or manager in charge must review and approve or reject the modification. This ensures that only legitimate time entries are logged, preventing manipulation.
  • Increased Visibility: Admins now have the ability to track agent efforts with greater visibility. By restricting unauthorized changes to time entries, admins can monitor the accuracy of reported hours and ensure they align with the actual work done. This also helps in identifying discrepancies or potential fraud early on.
  • Prevention of Cross-Agent Manipulation: One of the key features of the application is that it prevents agents from altering other agents’ time records. In larger teams, this can prevent situations where one agent may try to change another’s logged hours, ensuring the integrity of all time entries across the team.

Granular Control: Customizable Restrictions

One of the key advantages of this custom solution is the flexibility it offers to admins in restricting access to time entries. Admins can apply restrictions across different time frames and in different dimensions. Here are some examples of how admins can fine-tune the restrictions:

  1. Restricting Time Modifications by Period (Month, Week, Day) Admins can limit agents from altering their time entries for specific periods. For example:
  • Current Month: Agents can’t modify their time entries for the current month.
  • Current Week: Agents may be restricted from adjusting time logs for the current week.
  • Current Day: Agents may not be able to change the hours they worked on the current day.
  1. This feature helps maintain the integrity of time logs for active and recent work, reducing the potential for manipulation after the fact.

  2. Restricting Access to View or Edit Time Entries In some cases, admins may want to limit agents’ access to viewing or editing their own time entries entirely. For example:

  • Viewing Permissions: Admins can completely restrict agents from viewing their time entries, especially if the time logs are sensitive or need to be approved before being viewed.
  • Editing Permissions: Admins can prevent agents from editing their own time entries altogether, requiring approval for any changes.
  1. Team-Level Restrictions Admins can set restrictions not just at the individual agent level, but also for teams. For example:
  • Team Restrictions: If a team is working on a specific project, admins can prevent team members from altering each other's time records, ensuring that the entire team’s hours remain accurate.

Benefits of the Custom Solution

The implementation of this custom application offers several significant benefits for both admins and agents:

  • Increased Transparency: With the ability to track and manage time entries more accurately, admins have better visibility into agent work efforts and the overall workload of the team.
  • Improved Trust and Accountability: By preventing time entry manipulation, the solution fosters a culture of honesty and accountability among agents. This can lead to higher morale and a better working environment.
  • Accurate Billing and Reporting: For businesses that rely on billing clients based on agent time, accurate time tracking is essential. This custom solution ensures that the hours logged by agents are legitimate, leading to more accurate financial reporting and client invoicing.
  • Enhanced Compliance: By setting up approval workflows and restricting modifications, businesses can ensure compliance with internal policies and industry standards, particularly in industries where accurate time tracking is legally mandated.

Conclusion

Time entry manipulation is a real problem faced by many companies using Freshdesk and Freshservice, but with the help of our custom applications, businesses can now take full control of agent time tracking. By restricting agents from altering their time entries without approval, admins can ensure more accurate and transparent tracking of billable hours, improve accountability, and prevent fraud.

These custom applications help restore integrity to the time tracking process and enable businesses to accurately measure and compensate agents for the work they perform. Whether you're running a small support team or managing a large workforce, this solution can help streamline your time tracking processes and improve operational efficiency.

Know more?

Saasly offers a straightforward and accessible iPaaS Solution; simply get in touch with us. We are a trusted technology and solution partner for Zendesk, Microsoft, Shopify, Zoho, and Freshworks, focusing on platform integration services and app development. Our expertise shines in delivering iPaaS integration and implementation solutions on a global scale, particularly for seamlessly integrating Custom and Commercial Marketplace applications with SaaS products. Our objective is to optimize and automate your organization's business operations by harnessing the capabilities of iPaaS Solutions, providing more than just a service – a highly productive solution.