Kaizen #188 - Building a Timer and Worklog Widget (Part 2)

Kaizen #188 - Building a Timer and Worklog Widget (Part 2)



Welcome back, Tech Wizards!

In Part 1, we developed a Timer Widget that logs active work sessions into the Timer Entries module. 

Now, let's enhance this functionality by transferring these entries into the Work Log subform within the Cases module using a workflow with Deluge function and APIs. We will also explore how to generate insightful reports from the Timer Entries module data.

Here is a consolidated view of the outcomes we aim to achieve through these sequential posts.



The following data model illustrates the modules and subforms involved in this use case to help you understand the structure more clearly.


Learn more about the Data Model and how it helps to simplify the understanding of complex processes.

Auto-Syncing Timer Entries to Case Work Logs

For automating the data transfer from the Timer Entries module to the Work Log subforms within Cases module, we will create a workflow rule with an instant action defined in Deluge function. 

Prerequisites

Create a subform named Work Log in the Cases module with the following fields. 

Field Name
Data Type
Actual Time Taken(in mins.)
Aggregate

(sum of Total Duration (in mins.) field in related case )
End Time
DateTime
Related to Case
Lookup to Cases
Related to Current Case
Checkbox
Start Time
DateTime
Timer Entry
Lookup to Timer Entries
Total Duration
Aggregate 

(sum of all the Total Duration (in mins.) field )
Total Duration (in mins.)
Number
Work Description
Multi Line

Follow the Building a Subform and  Working with Custom Fields help pages for creating the subform and fields in Zoho CRM UI, or you can also make Post Custom Fields API calls to create the custom fields in the subform. 

Step 1: Create a Workflow

  • Login to your Zoho CRM and go to Setup > Automation > Workflow Rules and click Create Rule.
  • Choose the Timer Entries module from the dropdown. Provide name and description for the workflow rule.
  • In the 'When' section of the workflow, choose the trigger as Record Action. In record action, define the trigger as when the End Time field is modified to any value. 
  • In the 'Condition' section, choose all timer entries. In the 'Instant Actions' section, select Function and choose Write your own. 

Step 2: Create a Deluge Function

  • In the pop box that appeared after choosing to write your own function. Fill in the following details as shown in the image and click Create.
  • A code editor will open, where you have to define the data transfer logic in Deluge. 

Code logic

The UpdateDataInWorkLog function automates the process of syncing a completed Timer Entry with its associated Cases in Zoho CRM by populating the Work_Log subform for each case.

Fetches Target Case Records

The function uses a predefined custom view (cvid) that we created in Part I of this post to retrieve a list of Case records that are eligible for update. It extracts their record IDs and prepares them for bulk processing.

paramMap = Map();
paramMap.put("cvid","5545974000011183885");
getRecordsResponse = invokeurl
[
type :GET
parameters:paramMap
connection:"crm_oauth_connection"
];
responseDataArray = getRecordsResponse.get("data");
idList = List();
for each  item in responseDataArray
{
idList.add(item.get("id"));
}
caseRecordsToUpdate = idList;

Retrieves Timer Entry Details

The selected Timer Entry (identified by recordId received through workflow trigger) is fetched to extract its key details like, Start and end times, Total time spent (duration), Work description, the Case it’s directly related to (if any).

record = zoho.crm.getRecordById("Timer_Entries",recordId,Map(),"crm_oauth_connection");
startTime = record.get("Start_Time");
endTime = record.get("End_Time");
totalTime = record.get("Total_Duration");
workDescription = record.get("Work_Description");
relatedToCaseId = "";
if(record.get("Related_to_Case") != null)
{
relatedToCaseId = record.get("Related_to_Case").get("id");
}

Prepares Work_Log Subform Entries

For each retrieved Case, a new subform entry is created in the Work_Log subform. This entry contains the time details, work description, and a reference to the Timer Entry. A flag (Related_to_Current_Case) marks whether the Timer Entry is directly associated with the Case.

caseRecordIds = caseRecordsToUpdate;
if(!caseRecordIds.isEmpty())
{
recordUpdateArray = List();
for each  caseRecordId in caseRecordIds
{
TimerArray = List();
TimerObj = Map();
TimerObj.put("Work_Description",workDescription);
TimerObj.put("Timer_Entry",recordId);
TimerObj.put("Related_to_Case",relatedToCaseId);
TimerObj.put("Start_Time",startTime);
TimerObj.put("End_Time",endTime);
TimerObj.put("Actual_Duration_in_mins",totalTime.toNumber());
info totalTime;
TimerObj.put("Related_to_Current_Case",caseRecordId == relatedToCaseId);
TimerArray.add(TimerObj);
recordUpdateObj = Map();
recordUpdateObj.put("id",caseRecordId);
recordUpdateObj.put("Work_Log",TimerArray);
recordUpdateArray.add(recordUpdateObj);
}

Bulk Updates Case Records

All Case records are updated in bulk via the Update Records API. Each gets its Work_Log subform updated or appended with the latest Timer Entry details.

updateRequestBody = {"data":recordUpdateArray};
updateResponse = invokeurl
[
type :PUT
parameters:updateRequestBody + ""
connection:"crm_oauth_connection"
];
}

Once done, click Save and associate the merge field (Timer Entry ID) with the function.


This workflow is triggered when the timer widget is stopped and the end time is updated in the corresponding timer entry record. 

Following is a GIF that illustrates how the data sync reflects in the case records.

Generating Reports from Timer Entries

With the Timer Entries and Work Log data in place, you can create comprehensive reports to analyze work patterns, SLA adherence, and productivity trends.
  1. Navigate to the Reports module and click Create Report.
  2. Choose Cases as the primary module and include the Work Log subform.
  3. Select the desired fields like Case Subject, Start Time, End Time, Total Duration, and Work Description. 
  4. Group data by fields like Case Owner or Status to gain insights into workload distribution and case progress.
  5. Apply filters as needed, such as date ranges or specific case statuses.

Refer to the Understanding and Building Report help page for more details. 

With the Timer Widget, automated data transfer to Work Logs, and insightful reporting, we have established a robust system to track and analyze multiple active work times within Zoho CRM.

If you have specific scenarios or challenges you'd like us to address in future Kaizen posts, feel free to share them in the comments or reach out to us at support@zohocrm.com.

Cheers!

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

Additional Reading 

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


    • Sticky Posts

    • Kaizen #197: Frequently Asked Questions on GraphQL APIs

      🎊 Nearing 200th Kaizen Post – We want to hear from you! 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 #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.

    • Celebrating 200 posts of Kaizen! Share your ideas for the milestone post

      Hello Developers, We launched the Kaizen series in 2019 to share helpful content to support your Zoho CRM development journey. Staying true to its spirit—Kaizen Series: Continuous Improvement for Developer Experience—we've shared everything from FAQs

    • Kaizen #193: Creating different fields in Zoho CRM through API

      🎊 Nearing 200th Kaizen Post – We want to hear from you! 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.

    • Client Script | Update - Introducing Commands in Client Script!

      Have you ever wished you could trigger Client Script from contexts other than just the supported pages and events? Have you ever wanted to leverage the advantage of Client Script at your finger tip? Discover the power of Client Script - Commands! Commands

    • Recent Topics

    • Error 550 5.4.1

      I’ve tried sending an email to someone but keep receiving this back. Any help would be greatly appreciated 

    • Billing Management: #2 Fair way of Billing- Prorated Billing

      Hello, From speaking about the traditional ways of billing in the previous post, we are moving into the deep sea of billing. We are now in a zone to break out the most complex yet, I would call it the fairest way of billing, the Prorated Billing. Prorated

    • Automatic Matching from Bank Statements / Feeds

      Is it possible to have transactions from a feed or bank statement automatically match when certain criteria are met? My use case, which is pretty broadly applicable, is e-commerce transactions for merchant services accounts (clearing accounts). In these

    • Has Anyone successfully integrated Zoho and Sage Intact?

      Hey all, We’re evaluating Zoho One + Sage Intacct and I’m trying to connect with anyone who has actually implemented the two together.Specifically, I’d love to know: -- Which functions you kept in Zoho vs. Intacct (e.g., Product Catalog, AR/AP, invoicing,

    • How can I filter a field integration?

      Hi,  I have a field integration from CRM "Products" in a form, and I have three product Categories in CRM. I only need to see Products of a category. Thanks for you answers.

    • Adding image in HTML report page

      Hi, I want to know two things: 1. Can anyone advise how to add an image in HTML report. The tagged used is <img> but what path do I mention for the image to be added in the HTML report. 2. Also, I want to know if I am creating an application for the market

    • How to change view of HTML report based on device but always print in A4

      Hello everyone, I am aware that HTML report view can be configured to adjust according to the screen size like Laptop, Tablet and mobile using media queries. But my concern is no matter on which device the reports is opened when printed should always

    • Age Calculation

      I've attempted to calculate the age of someone based on their birthday input by using the formula field. It works but I don't want all those decimals on there. I then tried to use "set variable" after birthday input but I get a field type mismatch, long vs. floating. Any ideas would be wonderful.

    • Search on Custom Field

      We're working on an integration with the Zoho FSM API and are trying to retrieve companies based on a custom field we added to the Companies module. However, we can't find a way to filter or query records using custom fields through the API. We have a

    • Sendmail function / custom action?

      I've setup a function hoping to email various business departments the details of a record once all work in that record is complete so gone about setting up a custom action in such way that each record line on the report has a button to click. Question is how do I actually include data from that record in the email that is sent when the button is clicked? I had thought that since this were being sent per record the email would include the data which had been entered

    • API to post drafts for social media

      I we want to post draft posts to our zoho social account and then approve and schedule them within Zoho social. is this possible with for example: https://apis.zoho.com/social/v2/post TIA Jon

    • Canvas View in Zoho Recruit

      Is it possible or would it be possible to have the new 'Canvas View' in Zoho Recruit?

    • What impactful sales coaching techniques have you used to boost your team's performance?

      I'm curious about the real-world impact of sales coaching on team performance. What specific techniques or strategies have you found most effective in driving consistent improvement and growth in your sales team? Any success stories or lessons learned

    • Adding Taxes to paid consultations in Zoho Bookings

      I created a 'paid' consultation under Zoho Booking and integrated it with payment gateways for online/instant payment before a booking is done. How can I add 'taxes' to the price of consultation? I can add taxes to other Zoho apps (liks Books, Checkout,

    • Zoho Finance Suite - Customer Custom Tabs - Dynamic Link

      Hi Finance Suite team, When creating a Custom Tab for a Client Portal, there is no option to add dynamic parameters. This would be very helpful for adding Zoho Analytics dashboards which can be dynamically filtered through the URL to only show information

    • Feature Request - Insert URL Links in Folders

      I would love to see the ability to create simple URL links with titles in WorkDrive. or perhaps a WorkDrive extension to allow it. Example use case: A team is working on a project and there is project folder in WordDrive. The team uses LucidChart to create

    • How to Calculate MTTR (Mean Time to Resolve)

      We want to calculate MTTR (Mean Time to Resolve) in our Zoho Analytics report under Tickets. Currently, we are using the following fields: Ticket ID Ticket Created Time Ticket Closed Time Ticket On Hold Time We are planning to calculate MTTR (in days)

    • Possible to bold or indent text in the description field?

      As part of one item, I often have a detailed description that would be much easier to read if there was the ability to have a bulleted list or bold text and the like. Is this possible? My last invoicing software allowed markup in the field so, for example, an asterisk meant a bullet. I haven't been able to find any documentation related to this.  Any information would be appreciated. Thank you.

    • How can I setup Zoho MCP with Chat GPT

      I can set up custom connections with Chat GPT but I cat an error when I try to set it up. The error is: "This MCP server can't be used by ChatGPT to search information because it doesn't implement our specification: search action not found" Thoughts?

    • Formatting of Balance Sheet and Profit & Loss Reports

      The default format of the Balance Sheet and P&L Reports are based on the Account Types and then the individual accounts within the Chart of Accounts. These are then ordered alphabetically under these sub-headings and one is unable to re-order these or

    • UK MTD reports concerning turnover and cerash accounting

      Hi I am a sole trader, and I have just started with Zoho Books in order to comply with the new HMRC requirements. I use 'cash basis' - which I understand to mean that income is when the cash comes in (not the invoice date) and expenses are when they are

    • Retainer Invoice.

      Why ZOHO not have facilities to deduct partially advance payment from an invoice.

    • IMAP Server not responding.

      Trying to connect a phone via IMAP and getting "imap.zoho.com not responding." Is the server down, for maintenance or otherwise? I've tried this on two different devices and got the same error on both.

    • Share saved filters between others

      Hi, I am in charge to setup all zoho system in our company. I am preparing saved filters for everybody, but the only one can see its me. How can others see it? Thanks

    • GST Slabs Redefined: Stay Compliant Using Zoho Books!

      Hello Everyone! The Government of India is rolling out new GST rates, a major reform aimed at simplifying the current tax structure starting 22 September 2025. GST will move from four slabs (5%, 12%, 18%, 28%) to two main slabs (5% and 18%), plus a special

    • Kanban view on Zoho CRM mobile app!

      What is Kanban? The name doesn't sound English, right? Yes, Kanban is a Japanese word which means 'Card you can see'. As per the meaning, Kanban in CRM is a type of list view in which the records will be displayed in cards and categorized under the given

    • Presenting ABM for Zoho CRM: Expand and retain your customers with precision

      Picture this scenario: You're a growing SaaS company ready to launch a powerful business suite, and are looking to gain traction and momentum. But as a business with a tight budget, you know acquiring new customers is slow, expensive, and often delivers

    • No practical examples of how survey data is analyzed

      There are no examples of analysis with analytics of zoho survey data. Only survey meta data is analyzed, such as number of completes, not actual analysis of responses, such as the % in each gender, cross-tabulations of survey responses. One strange characteristic of Zoho analytics is that does not seem aware of how Zoho Survey codes 'multiple response' questions. These are questions where more than one option can be selected from a list. Zoho Survey stores this data as text, separated by commas within

    • Zoho Creator as LMS and Membership Solution

      My client is interested in using Zoho One apps to deploy their membership academy offer. Zoho Creator was an option that came up in my research: Here are the components of the program/offer: 1. Membership portal - individual login credentials for each

    • Adding Chargebee as a Data Connector

      Is it possible to get Chargebee added as a Zoho Analytics data connector?

    • Webform & spam

      Hi, We set up 2 webform on our website, fowarding the content to Zoho CRM. Since it has been opened up, we are getting lot of spam message (for now about 20 a day). To lower the  amount of false new leads we added the captcha field and new enquieries are send to the Approval Leads list. However we still get some spam. Is there any "anti spam" mechanism built in Zoho CRM, or how is the best way to avoid these kind of spam ? Thanks

    • Dropbox to Workdrive

      Namaste, Trust you all are doing well. Wanted to check how this can be done with Zoho flow. I typically receive dropbox links from my clients. Is there a way where I can provide the link to Zoho flow and it downloads the files from dropbox link to a work

    • Deals by Stages Funnel not showing in correct order

      Using the Stage-Probability Mapping for the Deals module we have created a steps our deals will pass through, RFQ, Closed/Lost, Declined/No-Go, Pricing, Submitted, Negotiations, Won. However when I view the Deal By Stages Funnel it does not show in the

    • Adding a developer for editing the client application with a single user license

      Hi, I want to know that I as a developer I developed one application and handed over to the customer who is using the application on a single user license. Now after6 months customer came back to me and needs some changes in the application. Can a customer

    • Turning off the new UI

      Tried the new 'enhanced' UI and actively dislike it. Anyone know how to revert back?

    • Confirmation prompt before a custom button action is triggered

      Have you ever created a custom button and just hoped that you/your users are prompted first to confirm the action? Well, Zoho knows this concept. For example, in blueprint, whenever we want to advance to the next state by clicking the transition, it is

    • Cost of good field

      Is there a way we can have cost of good sold as a field added to the back end of the invoicing procedure and available in reports?

    • How to create auto populate field based on custom module in Zoho CRM?

      Hello, i'm still new to Zoho CRM and work as administrator in my company. Currently, I'm configuring layout for Quotes Module. So, the idea is, I've created a read-only field in Quotes called "Spec". I want this field automatically filled with Specification

    • Rich Text For Notes in Zoho CRM

      Hello everyone, As you know, notes are essential for recording information and ensuring smooth communication across your records. With our latest update, you can now use Rich Text formatting to organize and structure your notes more efficiently. By using

    • Change Last Name to not required in Leads

      I would like to upload 500 target companies as leads but I don't yet have contact people for them. Can you enable the option for me to turn this requirement off to need a Second Name? Moderation update (10-Jun-23): As we explore potential solutions for

    • Next Page