Kaizen #187 - Building a Timer and Worklog Widget (Part 1)

Kaizen #187 - Building a Timer and Worklog Widget (Part 1)



Howdy Tech Wizards!

Welcome back to a fresh week of Kaizen! 

This time, we are diving into a two-part series where you will learn how to build a Timer and Worklog Widget for Zoho CRM. This widget helps track active work time and log multitasking sessions using Zoho CRM APIs, Client Script, Functions, and Workflows.

Why It Matters?

Zoho CRM effectively captures stage/status transitions, like tracking when a case moves from Open to In Progress or On Hold. However, in dynamic work environments, employees juggle multiple work items and engage in impromptu tasks or conversations. 

Let’s take the On Hold status as an example. 

While it can be used to indicate pauses in progress, it does not always align with real-world workflows. Consider these scenarios:

Not all interruptions justify a status change 

Moving the case to On Hold for every minor detour (to clarify something with a colleague or respond to another emergency work item) would be impractical and could lead to under reporting actual work hours. Over time, this untracked effort adds up, creating a gap in visibility.

Frequent status changes may dilute their meaning 

In many teams, On Hold signifies a legitimate blocker like waiting on customer input or an external dependency. Using it frequently to reflect quick shifts in attention could compromise that clarity. 

A timer widget solves this by:
  • Capturing hands-on work items.
  • Logging context switches (unrelated tasks) with descriptive entries.
  • Feeding structured entries into a custom module for reporting and subform sync.

Business Scenario: IT Service Desk & Ticket Resolution

A tech support team uses the Cases module to resolve customer issues. Some tickets are straightforward; others require follow-ups, escalations, or cross-team coordination. While CRM timestamps (like stage transitions or picklist tracking) track when changes happen, they do not reflect how long someone actively worked on a case.

This Timer Widget can be the ultimate solution to track down the active time spent on each case through out the day.

What are we Building?

By the end of this two-part guide, you will know how to:
  • Build a timer widget to track time per task or any CRM record.
  • Log work sessions into a custom module every time the timer is started/stopped.
  • Automatically populate a subform in the corresponding record module using workflows and Deluge functions.
  • Leverage the Reports module to analyze work patterns, SLA adherence, and productivity trends.
 In Part I, we will focus on:
-> Building and configuring the Timer Widget.
-> Capturing each timed session as a record in a custom module.

Prerequisites

1. Create a Custom Module

Create a custom module named Timer Entries to log work details and generate reports from the Reports module. A new record will be added to this module each time a timer is started.

Set up the following custom fields in the Timer Entries module:

Custom Fields
Data Type
Start Time
DateTime
End Time
DateTime
Total Duration (in mins.)
Formula 
DateBetween(${Timer Entries.Start Time},${Timer Entries.End Time},'Minutes')
Related to Case
Lookup to Cases module
Work Description
Multi Line


2. Add a custom picklist option

Add a custom picklist option called In Progress to the Status picklist field in the Cases module for precisely identifying the status of the cases. 

Follow this Add/Remove Picklist Values help section for more details. 

3. Setup Custom Views for Contextual Filtering

To streamline the widget experience and ensure users only see relevant records to associate while tracking time, set up two smart custom views—one in the Cases module and another in the Timer Entries module. 

Active Cases View (Cases Module)

Create a custom view in the Cases module to list only the active tickets the logged-in user is working on. Use the following criteria tips:
  • Use the Status field to filter records with values like In Progress, On Hold, or Escalated.
  • Use the Case Owner field to show records that are assigned only to the currently logged-in user.
This view powers the drop-down inside the widget where users select the case they want to start the timer for.
Active Timers View (Timer Entries Module)

Set up a second custom view in the Timer Entries module to track entries where the timer has been started but not yet stopped. These represent active timers. Use the following logic for criteria:
  • The End Time field is empty (i.e., timer still running).
  • Timer Entry owner field matches the logged-in user.
This view is used internally by the widget to detect if a timer is already running and update the same entry once the timer is stopped.
Follow the Managing List View help page and use the specifications shown in the following image.

Building the Timer Widget 

Step -1: Review Basics

Refer to our earlier Kaizen on CLI Installation, Creating a Widget Project, and Internal hosting of the same.

Step 2 - Develop the Widget

After initializing your widget project using CLI, implement the timer logic:

Fetching Active Cases

On page load, the populateRecordsDropdown function initiates a Get Records API call to the Cases module, using the Active Cases custom view ID. This fetches all active case records assigned to the logged-in user. 

These records are then listed in a dropdown, allowing users to quickly select the relevant case they are about to work on.

async function populateRecordsDropdown() {
            const recordsDropdown = document.getElementById("moduleRecords");
            recordsDropdown.innerHTML = ""; 

            try {
                const recordsResponse = await ZOHO.CRM.API.getAllRecords({
                    Entity: casesModule,
                    cvid: casesCVID,
                    per_page: 10
                });

                if (recordsResponse.data && recordsResponse.data.length > 0) {
                    recordsResponse.data.forEach(record => {
                        const option = document.createElement("option");
                        option.value = record.id;
                        option.textContent = record.Subject || "Unnamed Record"; 
                        recordsDropdown.appendChild(option);
                    });
                } else {
                    const placeholderOption = document.createElement("option");
                    placeholderOption.value = "";
                    placeholderOption.textContent = "No records found";
                    placeholderOption.disabled = true;
                    placeholderOption.selected = true;
                    recordsDropdown.appendChild(placeholderOption);
                }
            } catch (error) {
                console.error("Error fetching records:", error);
            }
        }

Starting the Timer and Creating an Entry

Once the user starts the timer, The createRecord function triggers a Create Record API call to log the session in the Timer Entries custom module. The record captures the start time and the related case and description (if provided).

Even if no details are entered or case is selected, a timer entry is still created with the start time. This ensures that spontaneous work sessions are tracked and not lost.

async function createRecord(startTime) {
            try {
                const workDescription = document.getElementById("workDescription").value;
                const selectedRecordId = document.getElementById("moduleRecords").value;
                const selectedRecordText = document.getElementById("moduleRecords").options[
                    document.getElementById("moduleRecords").selectedIndex
                ].text;

                const data = {
                    Start_Time: startTime,
                    Owner: currentUserId,
                    Work_Description: workDescription,
                    Related_to_Case: selectedRecordId, 
                    Name: selectedRecordText 
                };

                const response = await ZOHO.CRM.API.insertRecord({
                    Entity: timerModule,
                    APIData: data
                });

                console.log("Start time recorded successfully");
            } catch (error) {
                console.error("Error creating record:", error);
            }
        }


Stopping the Timer and Updating the Entry

When the timer is stopped, the widget uses the Active Timer Entry custom view to locate the most recent Timer Entry record created by the logged-in user that does not have an end time. 

The updateRecord is then triggered to update that active entry using the Update Record API call. It updates the End time of the session and the related case, descriptions, if it was not already provided when the timer was started.

async function updateRecord(endTime) {
            try {
                const workDescription = document.getElementById("workDescription").value;
                const selectedRecordId = document.getElementById("moduleRecords").value;

                const response = await ZOHO.CRM.API.getAllRecords({
                    Entity: timerModule,
                    cvid: timerEntriesCVID,
                    per_page: 1
                });

                const latestRecord = response.data[0];
                if (latestRecord) {
                    const recordId = latestRecord.id;
                    const data = {
                        id: recordId,
                        End_Time: endTime,
                        Work_Description: workDescription,
                        Related_to_Case: selectedRecordId 
                    };

                    await ZOHO.CRM.API.updateRecord({
                        Entity: timerModule,
                        APIData: data,
                        RecordID: recordId
                    });
                    console.log("End time updated successfully");
                }
            } catch (error) {
                console.error("Error updating record:", error);
            }
        }

Step 3 - Validate and Pack the Widget

  • Follow the steps given in the Widget help page to validate and package the widget.
  • Go to Zoho CRM > Setup > Developer Hub > Widgets and click Create New Widget.
  • Fill in the required details as shown in this image and ensure to select Button as the widget type.

Step 4 - Associate it with Flyout

  • Go to Setup > Developer Space > Client Script. Click New Script.
  • Enter a name and description for the script. Choose Command type in Category. 

  • Create a Flyout and render a widget within it using its details like the API name of the widget, title, size, and animation type. You can get the Widget API name from the widget's detail page. 
let allowedUserEmails = [];
allowedUserEmails.push('user1_email_address');
allowedUserEmails.push('user2_email_address');
allowedUserEmails.push('user3_email_address');
let currentUserEmail = $Crm.user.email;
if (allowedUserEmails.indexOf(currentUserEmail) == -1) {
    ZDK.Client.showMessage('Command access resticted', { type: 'error' });
    return false;
}
ZDK.Client.createFlyout('myFlyout', {header: 'Timer', animation_type: 4, height: '600px', width: '500px', top: '10px', left: '10px', bottom: '10px', right: '10px' });
ZDK.Client.getFlyout('myFlyout').open({ api_name: 'Timer', type: 'widget' });
return true;

Refer to Creating a Client Script help page for more details. 

Try It Out!

A complete working code sample of this widget is attached to this post.

Now, let us see how this Timer widget works:

1. Start the Timer 

Open the widget and select an active case from the dropdown. As soon as you start the timer, a new record will be automatically created in the Timer Entries module to capture the session.

2. Stop the Timer 

When the task is complete, provide a description of the work you have done and stop the timer. The same Timer Entry record (created when the timer was started) will be updated automatically with the end time and your work description.

This forms the foundation for accurate time tracking at the record level. 

In Part 2, we will show how to:

-> Use a workflow and Deluge function to transfer these entries into the Work Log subform inside the relevant Cases record.
-> Use CRM Reports to slice and dice work time for better SLA and productivity insights.

In the meantime, would you like us to address any of your pain-points or have a topic to discuss? Let us know in the comments or reach out to us via support@zohocrm.com.

Until next time, Happy Coding! 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Related Reading

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Idea
Previous Kaizen: Client Script Support for Subforms | Kaizen Collection: Directory


    • Sticky Posts

    • Kaizen #198: Using Client Script for Custom Validation in Blueprint

      Nearing 200th Kaizen Post – 1 More to the Big Two-Oh-Oh! Do you have any questions, suggestions, or topics you would like us to cover in future posts? Your insights and suggestions help us shape future content and make this series better for everyone.

    • Kaizen #226: Using ZRC in Client Script

      Hello everyone! Welcome to another week of Kaizen. In today's post, lets see what is ZRC (Zoho Request Client) and how we can use ZRC methods in Client Script to get inputs from a Salesperson and update the Lead status with a single button click. In this

    • Kaizen #222 - Client Script Support for Notes Related List

      Hello everyone! Welcome to another week of Kaizen. The final Kaizen post of the year 2025 is here! With the new Client Script support for the Notes Related List, you can validate, enrich, and manage notes across modules. In this post, we’ll explore how

    • Kaizen #217 - Actions APIs : Tasks

      Welcome to another week of Kaizen! In last week's post we discussed Email Notifications APIs which act as the link between your Workflow automations and you. We have discussed how Zylker Cloud Services uses Email Notifications API in their custom dashboard.

    • Kaizen #216 - Actions APIs : Email Notifications

      Welcome to another week of Kaizen! For the last three weeks, we have been discussing Zylker's workflows. We successfully updated a dormant workflow, built a new one from the ground up and more. But our work is not finished—these automated processes are

    • Recent Topics

    • Item with name in different languate

      Hello, is there a way to have an item with its name in different languages? For example: I sell an item in different markets and I'd like to have a Proposal and the Invoice with the Item Name in a specific language. Rino Bertolotto Zoho Specialist, STESA srl

    • Email notification for followers

      Is there a way to enable email notification for followers of a support ticket? ie: Ticket #123 is owned by Agent#1, Agent#2 adds themselves as a follower. Whenever ticket #123 receives an email from the customer, Agent#1 receives an email. Agent#2 would

    • Migration of emails from Yandex to Zoho

      I am trying to migrate an yandex mail account to zoho mail account. I am confused with all the related articles/informations in the net. Could someone please outline the process to do it, just thinking about me as a novice with limited knowledge or experience. A couple of questions from the knowledge gained. 1. I believe we have to delete the yandex current MX from the website records and add Zoho MX. What happens to the emails as we remove the mail exchange record. Yandex stops updating emails and

    • Auto-fill from logged-in user's profile for Name Fields in Subforms

      Hi, The Name field is great, but I see you can't tick the Initial Value option of "Auto-fill from logged-in user's profile" when it is on a Subform, why not? Thanks Dan

    • Calling a function within another function

      Hello there, I have just found out that you can simply call up functions in other functions, regardless of the department. You can't create functions with the same name twice, even though you are in a different department. If you try it, you don't get

    • 【続々公開】Zoholics Japan 2026 セッション情報を更新しました！

      ユーザーの皆さま、こんにちは！ Zoholics Japan 2026のセッション情報を続々と公開しています！ 今年は3つのトラックで、Zohoの最新情報やAI活用、製品アップデート、 活用事例など、多彩なセッションをお届けします。 現在公開中のセッション（一部） ・Zoho CRM 製品アップデート ・Zoho CRM Plus 製品アップデート ・Zoho Community セッション ・Zoho Desk セッション ・中堅・成長企業の人事DX ～AI時代に何から始めるべきか？～ ・Zoho

    • Zoho CRM Community Digest - July 2026 | Part 1

      Hello everyone, July is here! The first two weeks brought six CRM updates ranging from privacy-ready webforms to a significantly more powerful Layout Rules engine, two community wins worth a look (a dashboard workaround for spotting leads with no activities,

    • New Ways to Personalize, Organize, and Share Your Notes

      We're excited to introduce a new set of enhancements in Zoho Notebook that make your note-taking experience cleaner, more flexible, and easier to share. With this update, you can create notes that automatically adapt to your device theme, browse your

    • Zoho Commerce B2B

      Hello, I have signed up for a Zoho Commerce B2B product demo but it's not clear to me how the B2B experience would look for my customers, in a couple of ways. 1) Some of my customers are on terms and some pay upfront with credit card. How do I hide/show

    • Introducing spam detection for webforms: An additional layer of protection to keep your Zoho CRM clean and secure

      Greetings all, One of the most highly anticipated feature launches—Spam Detection in webforms—has finally arrived! Webforms are a vital tool for record generation, but they're also vulnerable to submissions from unauthenticated or malicious sources, which

    • Rich-text fields in Zoho CRM

      Moderation Update: During the initial release of Rich Text fields, it was supported only in the Enterprise and Ultimate editions. We have gradually extended Rich Text fields to all the paid editions of Zoho CRM. Hello everyone, We're thrilled to announce

    • Add Large Lists to Choice-Based Field Rules

      Hi, The new Large List is good, but you can't then use the Choice-Based Field Rules with it to limit the Group Choices or Choices? Thanks Dan

    • Email-Data Synchronization with Zoho Analytics

      Hello, Enterprise Support Community! We're excited to announce the availability of Email Data Synchronization with Zoho Analytics! This highly requested enhancement allows you to sync email data from Zoho CRM into Zoho Analytics, making it easier to analyze

    • Zoho - shopify sales order - invoicing

      we have integrated zoho with shopify. so now , when an order comes through shopify-it raises a sales order in zoho. And at this time- the inventory goes down in shopify, according to the sale. Then we manually convert the sales order to an invoice, and

    • Enable Replenishments Option not Available

      I'm looking to turn on the replenishment option in Zoho Inventory and I'm not finding settings for it in Zoho Books or Zoho Inventory. This is the tutorial I was following from Zoho. Is there a step I'm missing to have Replenishments be available in Zoho

    • Kiosk Page Refresh

      We have a Kiosk running from a button in contacts to update values and also add related lists, which works great, but when the kiosk is finished the page does not refresh to show the changes. Is there a way to force the contact to refresh/update when

    • [Solution] Analyze, Act and Automate with Drill Actions

      Insights create value only when they lead to action. Traditional dashboards excel at helping you understand what is happening, but acting on those insights often requires manual intervention leaving the dashboard, opening another application, finding

    • Building extensions #6: Handling modal boxes to enhance user experience

      In our previous post, we explored creating custom graphical user interfaces using widgets. In this post, we'll learn about enhancing user experience through modal boxes. What is a modal box, and where is it used? A modal box is essentially a widget interface

    • Improve User Onboarding in Zoho Projects with Zoho DAP

      Rolling out new processes or onboarding new users in the tool comes with a familiar challenge: the employees need guidance at the moment they are doing the work. Traditional training sessions and knowledge sharing often require users to leave the application.

    • Zoho Social API for generating draft posts from a third-party app ?

      Hello everyone, I hope you are all well. I have a question regarding Zoho Social. I am developing an application that generates social media posts, and I would like to be able to incorporate a feature that allows saving these posts as drafts in Zoho Social.

    • Your CRO data is now on your AI Assistant: PageSense is live on Zoho MCP

      Hello Everyone, We are excited to announce Zoho PageSense is now live on Zoho MCP servers. Here is what that means for you. Every answer about your website lives behind tons of data across different modules. Which test is winning. Where visitors bail.

    • Feature Enhancement Request – Bulk Download of Signed Documents in Zoho Sign

      Hi Team, We would like to request a Bulk Download feature for signed documents in Zoho Sign. Currently, Zoho Sign allows users to send documents in bulk using an Excel sheet, but there is no option to download the completed signed documents in bulk. Users

    • delete a user on Zoho Desk

      Kindly I Need help to delete a user on Zoho Desk but I deactivated but not deactivated with licenses so what can I Do?

    • Unable to open Attendance Regularization request, reason?

      Unable to open Attendance Regularization request.

    • What's New in Zoho Inventory | June 2026

      Hello users, June 2026 introduces a range of exciting enhancements to Zoho Inventory. With the full rollout of the Zoho Inventory Windows application, the launch of Terminal Payments, and new tracking combinations in Advanced Inventory Tracking, you can

    • Tax/Vat Number Field As Standard - Customer & Vendor

      Hello, when are you'll going to have the customer & vendor tax/vat number as a standard field under the relevant profile pages? I find it strange that after 6 years of using Zoho Inventory that I still have to use a custom field for a tax/vat number,

    • Zoho CRM - Feature Request - Conditional Lead Conversion

      Hi CRM team, My feature request is to allow admins to create some conversion logic in the Lead Conversion settings. It is a common case where we want to convert a Lead to a Commercial or Residential Deal layout. Layout rules are not ideal because the

    • Zoho CRM Approval Process based on Field Update

      Hello, In current structure, Zoho CRM send records to approval based on record creation and edit.  I think, it should be to set approval process trigger based on any field update in record. When the user update any field, the record can assign to approval

    • Free webinar: Automate signature workflows with Zoho Sign and Zoho WorkDrive

      Hi there! Are you still storing and managing physical paperwork before and after signing? This traditional method is bulky, costly, and impractical at scale. Attend our free webinar to learn how you can connect Zoho Sign, our digital signature app, with

    • Global Sets for Multi-Select pick lists

      When is this feature coming to Zoho CRM? It would be very useful now we have got used to having it for the normal pick lists.

    • Introducing the Zoho Projects Learning Space

      Every product has its learning curve, and sometimes having a guided path makes the learning experience smoother. With that goal, we introduce a dedicated learning space for Zoho Projects, a platform where you can explore lessons, learn at your own pace,

    • Leave request problem on mobile phones

      Hello, When any employee attempts to submit a leave request on an Android or iOS phone, the error shown in the attachment appears. How can we solve this problem?

    • [Webinar] Digitizing forms and form-based workflows

      Live webinar on August 13, 2026 | Time: 2 PM IST | 2 PM EDT Hi, Struggling with paper forms, manual data entry, disconnected approvals, and form data that never reaches the apps that need it? Join our live webinar to learn how Zoho Writer's fillable templates

    • Multi-currency and Products

      One of the main reasons I have gone down the Zoho route is because I need multi-currency support. However, I find that products can only be priced in the home currency, We sell to the US and UK. However, we maintain different price lists for each. There

    • Price Book in foreign currency

      We have many customers who buy in foreign currency (USD), where our base currency is our local currency (AUD). It would be normal (it is in Zoho Books, Zoho Inventory etc.) to assign a currency to a price book, but I cannot find this option in Zoho CRM

    • Assign Price Book to Accounts (again!)

      I can see this topic has been bumping about for over 10 years and unfortunately Zoho hasn't seen the need (or use case) in CRM to be able to assign an account to a price book to automate quoting (amongst other things). Strange given they DO assign price

    • Remove "Subject" as a required field on quotations

      Not sure why, but Zoho has made 'Subject' a system defined required field. I'm not entirely sure why subject would be required as a key field (i.e. you cannot deactivate it or change it from required). It doesn't make much sense on many product quotations,

    • Approve records efficiently: Useful enhancements to My Jobs module and Approval process in Zoho CRM

      Dear Customers, As you might know, approval process is a process automation tool that allows you to automate approvals in your organization and My Jobs is where you approve requests from a single point of view. Here's how you'd go about it: You’d add

    • Text/SMS With Zoho Desk

      Hi Guys- Considering using SMS to get faster responses from customers that we are helping.  Have a bunch of questions; 1) Which provider is better ClickaTell or Screen Magic.  Screen Magic seems easier to setup, but appears to be 2x as expensive for United States.  I cannot find the sender id for Clickatell to even complete the configuration. 2) Can customer's reply to text messages?  If so are responses linked back to the zoho ticket?  If not, how are you handling this, a simple "DO NOT REPLY" as

    • Need complete Zoho Commerce theme ZIP example and safe staging workflow

      I want to build a complete custom Zoho Commerce storefront through Edit Code, including: • Global header and footer • Responsive homepage • Category, search and filter pages • Product cards and product-detail pages • Cart and checkout wrapper • Mobile

    • Next Page