How does time registration in the AdminPulse integration work?

In this help article we'll explain how time registration in the AdminPulse integration in Vectera works. Time registration is used to automatically generate a price based on the duration of a meeting and the price list item linked to the meeting host(s).

 

Imagine a situation where you as an accountant have a meeting with a client. The client is a relation in AdminPulse and the meeting room is linked to that relation. If you have a 1 hour meeting with the client and the price list item for meetings is €50, then the relation will automatically be billed €50 in AdminPulse*.

If you want to connect the integration, set up the price list items or link meeting rooms to AdminPulse relations, please read this help article.


*Note: The billable time will be displayed in AdminPulse 5 minutes after the meeting


Basics of time registration

To understand the basics of time registration we will first explain the terminology that will be used in this help article.

 

A meeting has participants, and those participants have certain rights. So a meeting consists of hosts and guests:

  • A meeting host: This is the owner of the meeting room and team members or other people with 'Is host' rights. In the Invite settings you can see who has host rights. A meeting host has access to everything in the meeting room.
  • A meeting guest: A guest has no 'Is host' rights and has limited access to certain parts of the meeting room. (E.g. a guest can't see the private notes)


In the example of the accountant and the client, the accountant would be the host of the meeting and the client would be the guest.

 

A meeting has multiple ways to register the duration during which hosts and guests are present. To calculate a price we will use the Billable time, which is a combination of start and end times of the meeting hosts and guests:

  • A meeting start time: The moment a host or guest enters the meeting room. This is different per user.
  • A meeting end time: The moment a host or guest leaves the meeting room. This is different per user most of the times.
  • The billable time: This is the period during which at least one host and one guest are in the meeting room and have at least one active stream (e.g. an enabled camera or microphone). 
    • If a guest or host leaves the meeting room but returns within 5 minutes, the billable interval will continue. (E.g. The guest has connection issues and is gone for 2 minutes)
    • If a guest or host leaves the meeting room but returns after more than 5 minutes, a new billable interval will start. Thus a meeting can have multiple billable times (see Meeting situations).

 

Example: The host joins the meeting room at 9.55AM, the guest joins the meeting room at 10AM. The guest leaves the meeting room at 10.45AM but the host stays for another 10 minutes. In this case the billable time will be 45 minutes (10AM to 10.45AM).

 

Meeting situations

In the above example we showed the most basic situation with 1 host and 1 guest and a meeting that ends with no interruptions. Of course, there are multiple possible situations. In those situations interruptions make a big difference, that's why we explain the difference between short and long interruptions for each billable situation:

  • Short interruption: an interruption where the host or guest (if only one guest) leaves the meeting room for less than 5 minutes. e.g. an internet connection drop
  • Long interruption: an interruption where the host or guest (if only one guest) leaves the meeting room for more than 5 minutes. eg. the client has an emergency and leaves for 15 minutes. Afterwards the client rejoins.

 

In the case of a short interruption the billable time will continue. In the case of a long interruption the billable time will end and a new billable time will start when the host/guest rejoins. The number of guests does not influence the billable time (except 0 or 1).

 

Here we list some examples, to make time registration clear for you:

 


1 host + 1 guest situations

1 host + 1 guest with no interruption

This is the situation we showed in the 'Basics of time registration'. The billable time will be the duration during which both the host and the guest were in the meeting room. In the example below the billable time is 45 minutes.

1 host + 1 guest with short interruption

This situation is similar to the above one, but here the guest leaves the meeting room for 2 minutes. Since this interruption is less than 5 minutes, the billable time will continue and thus be 45 minutes.

1 host + 1 guest with long interruption

In this case the guest leaves for more than 5 minutes. Meaning that the first billable time will stop and when the guest returns a second billable time will start. In this case there will be two billable times of 15 minutes.


Multiple hosts + 1 guest situations

Below are some scenario's in which 2 accountants are joining a meeting with 1 client. In these situations one of the hosts will leave at a certain point which will impact the billable times. 

 

Multiple hosts + 1 guest with no interruption

The 2 hosts and their client have a meeting that is not interrupted. Both for host 1 and host 2 a separate billable time will be created of 45 minutes.

Multiple hosts + 1 guest, 1 host leaves early

In this case host 1 will do the full meeting and host 2 only joins for half an hour. Meaning that host 1 will have a billable time of 45 minutes and host 2 a billable time of 30 minutes.

 

Multiple hosts + 1 guest, 1 host leaves early but returns within 5 minutes

In this meeting host 1 joins for the entire time but host 2 leaves for 3 minutes due to connection issues. Both hosts will have a billable time for the entire meeting, since the interruption is less than 5 minutes.

 

Multiple hosts + 1 guest, 1 host leaves early but returns after more than 5 minutes

In this meeting host 1 joins for the entire time but host 2 leaves for 15 minutes and then rejoins. In this case host 1 will have a billable time of 45 minutes, but since host 2 left for more than 5 minutes they will have 2 billable times of 15 minutes.


No billable time

Multiple hosts + no guests

If a meeting consists of multiple hosts but has no guest(s) than there is no billable time calculated.

 

Host has no AdminPulse account

If the Vectera host has no AdminPulse account or the email address is not exactly the same, then the meeting won't create a billable time.

 

No active streams

When a host and a guest are in a meeting room but there are no active streams (camera or microphone), there won't be a billable time until somebody activates a stream.

 

If there have been active streams, but for some reason all the streams are stopped and hosts and guests are still in the meeting room, the same will happen as for leaving the meeting room:

  • Less than 5 minutes: billable time continues.
  • More than 5 minutes: billable time is stopped.

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