Responding and Logging Work
Adding responses to a work request and recording time, parts, and costs.
Once a work request exists, most of what happens to it happens through responses — the running conversation and work log attached to the request. This page covers responding and recording what the work actually took.
Adding a response
Select Respond on a request to add one. A response can be as simple as a comment ("Waiting on a part, back Thursday") and supports mentioning other users by name to pull them into the conversation. Who can respond to which requests is controlled by your user type; generally you can edit or delete your own responses, while touching someone else's requires additional permission.
Private responses
If your organization uses them, a response can be marked with the Make private checkbox, limiting it to staff who can read private responses — useful for internal notes ("requester has called twice, prioritize this") that the original requester shouldn't see. Some organizations default new responses to private; check the box's state before posting if it matters.
Logging time, parts, and costs
Responses aren't just conversation — they're where the cost of the work gets recorded, and the same fields appear when resolving a request. Depending on your organization's configuration, a response can carry:
- Worker time — hours worked, by whom. Combined with each worker's labor rate, this becomes labor cost.
- Used inventory — parts and materials pulled from stock. See Using Inventory on Requests for how quantities and item costs work.
- Cost — other expenses that aren't labor or inventory, entered as a money amount.
Everything logged this way rolls up into the request's cost totals and, if your organization uses Financial Planning, into actual spend against budgets — see How Actual Spend Is Tracked.
Some organizations also track time live: a worker starts a timer when they begin work on a request and stops it when done, instead of entering hours after the fact.
Logging as you go vs at resolution
You don't have to save cost logging for the end. A multi-visit repair is easier to reconstruct if each visit's response records that day's time and parts. When the request is finally resolved, the resolution can record the last of it — see Work Request Statuses for where resolution fits in the lifecycle.
A worked example
A technician gets assigned a failed AHU fan motor. Day one, he diagnoses it and posts a response: 1.5 hours of worker time, a note that a replacement motor is ordered, and a private response flagging that this unit has failed twice this year. Day three, the motor arrives; he installs it and resolves the request, logging 2 more hours and the motor from inventory. The request now shows the full history and the true cost — labor from both visits plus the part — without anyone reconstructing it from memory.