Time targets set the hours a user is expected to record. Clio Operate compares recorded time against the target on a schedule, and raises an event where the target is missed, so a firm can follow up with a notification or a task.
Time Targets are set in Time Recording Global Feature Configuration, but how to configure them and how they are used is explained here.
How targets are scoped and inherited
Targets are held at three levels.
Clio Operate resolves a user's target by taking the most specific record that exists, in this order.
- A record set against the user.
- A record set against the user's primary team.
- A record set against the user's working day calendar.
Resolution takes the whole record, not individual categories. A user level record replaces the team and calendar records outright. Where a category is left at 0 on the user level record, it resolves to 0. It does not fall back to the team or the calendar value.
Team targets match on a user's primary team only. Membership of a secondary team has no effect.
Where the blade opens on a user who has no record of their own, the values displayed are inherited from the team or the calendar, and a warning displays at the top of the blade:
Warning: Values are inherited on work types, saving these values here breaks the inheritance.
Saving from that state creates a new record at the user level. The parent record is left untouched, and the user no longer follows it. The warning displays for the user scope only, because team and calendar records are always held at their own level.
DANGER: Saving over an inheritance warning is a one way change, it cannot be reversed. Only do it where you intend that person's targets to be maintained separately from that point on.
Configure targets
Configure a target
Open the Time Target Settings blade for the calendar, team, or user you want to configure.
| Trigger time targets on total hours |
Set Trigger time targets on total hours to reflect how you want misses evaluated. Controls how a missed target is evaluated. Disabled, a miss event is raised when any single category falls short of its target. Enabled, a miss event is raised only when the total hours recorded across all categories falls short of the combined target, so over-recording against one category offsets a shortfall against another. Either way, the event payload lists each category that fell short, with its target and its actual hours. |
| Monday to Sunday |
Enter the target hours for each category, for each day of the week. Each section lists every active time category with an hours box, accepting a value between 0 and 24. Leave a category at 0 for days where no time is expected. To leave a category untargeted at that scope, enter 0 across all seven days.
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| Total |
Displays the sum of the hours entered for that day. Read-only. Check the Total for each day against the working pattern you are modelling.
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Select Save.
Clearing Targets
There is a Remove button on the toolbar. This sets all the hours boxes on the blade to 0. It does not delete the record. To apply the change you still need to select Save, and the record remains in place afterwards at that scope.
Clearing an hours box to blank has the same effect as entering 0. A blank target is read as 0 when targets are checked, so neither value removes the target. A target of 0 can never be missed.
This matters most at the person level, because inheritance depends on whether a record exists at that scope, not on the values it holds. Once a person level record is saved, it continues to take precedence over the team and calendar records whatever the hours are set to. As mentioned above, saving over an inheritance warning is irreversible. Only do it where you intend that person's targets to be maintained separately from that point on.
Turning User time targets or Team time targets off in the Time Targets Configuration blade does not reverse this. Those settings control whether the pickers display, and have no effect on records that already exist or on how targets are resolved when checks run.
Warning: Removing a person or team level record, so that targets inherit again, is a database operation. Raise it with your implementation contact rather than attempting it from the interface.
How targets are checked
Two scheduled checks compare recorded time against the configured targets.
- The daily check takes the previous day, reads the target for that day of the week, and compares it against time recorded on that date.
- The weekly check sums all seven days per category, and compares the total against time recorded in the previous week. The week is treated as starting on Monday.
Weekly Check Leeway (Days), in the Time Targets Configuration blade, delays the weekly check by the number of days you specify from Monday. This allows time for the previous week's entries to be submitted. Accepted values are 0 to 6.
Only submitted time counts
Missed Targets
Where a target is missed, a daily-time-target-missed or weekly-time-target-missed event is raised for the user.
Nothing consumes these events by default. Configuring a response, such as a notification or a task, is an implementation activity. Until that is done, a missed target is recorded in the logs and produces no visible outcome.
Where targets display
The Time Radar widget compares recorded hours against target hours for the people working on a matter.