Spotlight feature: Calculating with date and time

You have been waiting for it for a long time and it’s finally there: From now on you can calculate with time and date.

This will also bring important new features:

• The new module "Period Result"
• New formula functions for calculating with date and time

The most frequently requested use case by our customers can now be easily implemented: working time tracking.

You can track the number of hours worked daily as well as the weekly working time. It´s also possible to calculate hourly rates in a simplified way. Different services with different hourly rates can be used and generate a total. Let's assume you want to track one working day of a service engineer and, ideally, use this data to create the invoice. This can now be easily achieved with a smap for time tracking.

The smapOne Designer

Let's take a closer look at the example in the smapOne Designer. The depicted smap shows the scope of the new feature:

With the first module we see the new "Period Result" as a predefined travel time of 30 minutes. This value is assumed as a lump sum, it is displayed in the app and used for further calculations.

Note: With the module Period Result, values of the type Period calculated by a data binding formula can be output or stored as intermediate results. The value cannot be changed by the user in smap, but is included in the data record when the form is submitted and can also be output in the report.

In the Repeating Group right after that module, the working time is now recorded: this means start and end of work using the Date and Time Selection module. In the field "working_hours" the number of hours is calculated using the formula SUB_DATE({to}, {from}).

With the entered hourly rate, the total costs can then be calculated using the formula MUL({hourly_rate}, TOTALHOURS({total_hours}) in the corresponding Number Result module. If you want to track different times with different cost rates, use another Repeating Group for that. In this way, the service engineer can quickly track different tasks and an invoice for the customer can be created quickly and easily afterwards.

The smapOne App

After we have created the smap in the Designer, let's take a look at the result in the smapOne App. It becomes clear that also for the service engineer on site it's easy to do the time tracking:

More information

In addition, other new features have been added, such as new data types in the formulas. Also in our "Tips & Tricks" there is additional information about calculating with date and time. Please take a moment and have a look at our documentation. There you will find more detailed descriptions and further details.

Of course, many more use cases can be implemented than the one described above. You are welcome to try it out! If you are stuck at any point or have a question about this new feature, please have a look at our FAQs or get in touch with us.