> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.msportal.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Time ticket work with a timer

> Start a timer on a ConnectWise, HaloPSA or Autotask ticket or checklist item, then review the time before it is logged to your PSA.

**Audience:** MSP staff who log time to tickets in ConnectWise PSA, HaloPSA or Autotask. Company users do not see timers.

Start a timer when you begin work on a ticket or on one of a project ticket's checklist items. Nothing is written to your PSA while the timer runs. When you stop it, you review the date, start time, end time and note, and only **Log time** posts the entry to the ticket.

## Before you start

* Your MSPortal user must be linked to a technician (agent or resource) in the PSA. Without that link, **Log time** shows "You are not linked to a PSA user" and nothing is posted; ask an admin to link your user under the PSA connection's users.
* Service ticket timers need permission to add ticket notes. Project ticket and checklist timers need permission to add project notes.
* One timer runs at a time. That includes project timers on MSPortal projects.

## Start a timer

<Steps>
  <Step title="Open the ticket">
    Open the ticket from **Tickets**, or a project ticket from its project.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Start the ticket timer or an item timer">
    Select **Start timer** at the top of the ticket. On a project ticket you can instead start the play control beside an open checklist item, so the time is tied to that item.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Keep working">
    The running time shows on the ticket and in the timer pill at the bottom of every page, so you can move around MSPortal. On a phone the pill is a round clock button. After 12 hours the pill turns amber and asks **Still working?**
  </Step>
</Steps>

If another timer is already running, MSPortal asks you to log or discard it first. Log it from its stop control or the timer pill, or choose **Discard it and start** to throw that time away and start the new timer.

## Stop and log the time

<Steps>
  <Step title="Stop the timer">
    Select the running timer on the ticket, its checklist item, or **Stop timer** in the pill. Completing a checklist item whose timer is running also stops it.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Review the entry">
    Check **Work date**, **Start time** and **End time**; the duration updates as you edit. A checklist item's title starts the note. Add what you did and set **Billable**. One entry covers one day: if the timer ran past midnight, the end time starts at 23:59 so you can adjust it.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Log it">
    Select **Log time**. MSPortal posts one time entry to the ticket in your PSA and the timer ends. If the PSA refuses the entry, the error shows in the review and the timer keeps running, so no time is lost.
  </Step>
</Steps>

**Keep running** closes the review and leaves the timer going. **Discard** stops the timer without posting anything to the PSA.

## FAQs

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="Does checking a checklist item start a timer?">
    No. The play control starts the timer; the checkbox still means done. Checking an item whose timer runs stops that timer and opens the review.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Which PSAs support ticket timers?">
    ConnectWise PSA, HaloPSA and Autotask. Syncro tickets do not show a timer.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Can I change the times before logging?">
    Yes. The review is editable, and nothing reaches the PSA until you select **Log time**.
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>


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