Shop Floor  ·  Special Scans

ADDTIMERSPLIT — Splitting One Timer Across Multiple Jobs

A special barcode scan that divides a single running timer's elapsed time evenly across several jobs the moment it stops — without starting any additional timers. Scan ADDTIMERSPLIT to add a job to the split list, VIEWSPLITTIMER to preview the division before you commit to it, and STOP to actually create the split time logs.


What ADDTIMERSPLIT Does

Sometimes a block of work genuinely touches more than one job, or more than one task in the same job, but there is no practical way to stop and rescan every time attention shifts from one to the next — a production run that moves from welding to metal finishing to deburring with no clean break in between, for example. Stopping and restarting a timer at each transition would be disruptive on the shop floor and the exact minute-by-minute split would be guesswork anyway.

ADDTIMERSPLIT solves this differently than starting more timers. It keeps exactly one timer running the whole time. As each additional job comes up, you scan ADDTIMERSPLIT followed by that job's project (and task or category) to add it to a list attached to the running timer. When you finally scan STOP, Standard Time® takes that one timer's total elapsed duration and divides it evenly across the original job plus every job you added — creating one completed time log per job, all with equal duration.

The division is always equal, by count. If a 3.54-hour timer collects two additional entries via ADDTIMERSPLIT, STOP divides it into three time logs of 1.18 hours each — regardless of how much of that 3.54 hours was actually spent on each job. ADDTIMERSPLIT does not track proportions; it trusts you to add each job once for a fair equal share.
Tip: You can find ADDTIMERSPLIT, VIEWSPLITTIMER, and CLEARSPLITTIMER in the full list of scannable items at Things to Scan on the Shop Floor.
Pie chart showing a 3.54-hour timer divided into three exactly equal wedges of 1.18 hours each — the original job plus two added entries — regardless of how the work was actually divided between them
Three equal slices, one per job — ADDTIMERSPLIT counts entries, it doesn't measure how long each one actually took.

Collecting Split Entries With ADDTIMERSPLIT

ADDTIMERSPLIT only works while a timer is already running. Scan it, and Standard Time® clears the project and category/task fields and waits for you to scan the next job — the same collection flow used by ADDTIMER. The difference is what happens once that job is scanned: instead of starting a second independent timer, the project/subproject/category/task combination is appended as an entry to the running timer's split list, and the display confirms "Job added to split timer: <job>." The original timer is completely unaffected — it keeps running, and its own elapsed time keeps accumulating exactly as before.

ADDTIMERSPLIT scan sequence: timer already running, scan ADDTIMERSPLIT, scan project and category to collect an entry, repeat, then scan STOP to divide the total evenly
Each ADDTIMERSPLIT + project scan appends one more job to the running timer's split list — nothing is started or stopped until STOP.

Repeat ADDTIMERSPLIT as many times as needed to add every job the work actually touched. There is no fixed limit on how many entries one timer can collect.

Note: If you scan ADDTIMERSPLIT before any timer is running, Standard Time® responds "Timer must be running before scanning: ADDTIMERSPLIT" and nothing is collected. And because a project is required for every entry, scanning ADDTIMERSPLIT followed only by a category or task — with no project — reports "A project is required to add a split job" instead of silently adding an incomplete entry. If a different employee's badge gets scanned in the middle of collecting an entry, the whole in-progress entry is discarded with "Split job collection canceled — a different employee was scanned mid-sequence," so a shared station can't accidentally attach one person's job to someone else's timer.

A Worked Example

Here is a complete run from start to finish: a timer running on job 10200's Weld category, with Metal and Deburr added as split entries along the way.

1. Scan username, then 10200, then Weld
→ Timer starts for 10200 · Weld — 10:12:17 AM

2. Scan ADDTIMERSPLIT
3. Scan 10200, then Metal
→ "Job added to split timer: 10200, Metal" — original timer still running

4. Scan ADDTIMERSPLIT
5. Scan 10200, then Deburr
→ "Job added to split timer: 10200, Deburr" — original timer still running

6. Scan STOP
→ "Timer stopped for Ray. Split evenly into 3 time logs: 10200, 10200 - Metal, 10200 - Deburr"

Before STOP, Time Logs shows exactly what it would for any ordinary running timer — one yellow, still-open row for 10200 · Weld, with no hint yet that two more jobs are attached to it:

Time Logs page showing a single running timer for 10200, Weld, with no stop time recorded yet

Scanning ADDTIMERSPLIT and the project confirms each entry as it's added:

Toast confirmations for scanning the employee badge, ADDTIMERSPLIT, the project, and the category — confirming a new entry was added to the running timer's split list

Scanning STOP closes the timer and confirms the split right in the toast message:

Toast messages showing the STOP scan and the resulting confirmation: Timer stopped for Ray. Split evenly into 3 time logs: 10200, 10200 - Metal, 10200 - Deburr

After STOP, that one timer has become three separate, completed time logs — the original entry plus one new row per job added via ADDTIMERSPLIT, each with an equal share of the original 3.54 hours and sequential (not overlapping) start and stop times:

Time Logs page showing the original 3.54-hour timer for 10200, Weld split evenly into three 1.18-hour rows for Weld, Metal, and Deburr, each marked (split across jobs) and with back-to-back start and stop times
Notice the labels. The two new rows created by the split carry (split across jobs) in their notes, so anyone reviewing Time Logs later can immediately tell these are ADDTIMERSPLIT-generated entries rather than jobs the employee scanned and timed individually.

Previewing the Split With VIEWSPLITTIMER

Once you've added one or more entries, you don't have to guess what STOP will produce. Scan VIEWSPLITTIMER at any time to see a read-only preview: the timer's current elapsed duration, and exactly how that duration would be divided across the original job plus every entry collected so far — calculated live, as if STOP were scanned right now.

Continuing the worked example above — after adding both Metal and Deburr, scanning VIEWSPLITTIMER produces:

Split Timer Preview toast showing the current timer (10200, Weld: 3.55 hours) and the proposed results after STOP — 10200-Weld, 10200-Metal, and 10200-Deburr each at 1.18 hours

The top line, "Current timer," shows the running timer's own live elapsed time — the number that keeps climbing every minute the job stays open. The "Results after STOP" section below it is the proposed division: the same total, split evenly by the number of entries plus one.

VIEWSPLITTIMER never changes anything. It doesn't stop the timer, doesn't write to the split list, and doesn't create or duplicate any time log. Scan it as many times as you like while deciding whether to add more jobs.

Starting Over With CLEARSPLITTIMER

Changed your mind, or scanned the wrong project by mistake? Scan CLEARSPLITTIMER to wipe out every entry collected so far for the running timer. The timer itself is untouched — it keeps running under its original job exactly as if ADDTIMERSPLIT had never been scanned. The next STOP will simply close it out as one ordinary time log with no split at all, unless you add new entries again before then.

Note: CLEARSPLITTIMER is a shared command that also clears the older, legacy autosplit-by-project scan. Whichever format was collected, CLEARSPLITTIMER removes it — there's no need to know which one is in effect before scanning it.

Stopping the Timer and Creating the Split

Nothing collected via ADDTIMERSPLIT actually changes any records until STOP is scanned. At that point:

  • The running timer stops normally, exactly as it would with no split entries at all.
  • Its total elapsed duration is divided evenly across the original job plus every collected entry.
  • The original time log is shortened to its equal share, keeping its original start time but a new, earlier stop time.
  • One brand-new, fully completed time log is created for each added entry, laid out back to back in time immediately after the original — never overlapping.
  • The status message confirms how many time logs resulted and lists every job by name.
Toast messages showing the STOP scan and the resulting confirmation: Timer stopped for Ray. Split evenly into 3 time logs: 10200, 10200 - Metal, 10200 - Deburr
Even division math: 3.54 total hours divided by 3 entries equals 1.18 hours each, then those equal shares are laid out back to back from the original start time to produce three sequential time logs
The total elapsed time is divided by the entry count, then the equal shares are assigned sequential start/stop times starting from the timer's original start.
The status message lists everything for you. You don't need to open Time Logs just to confirm a split happened — the toast that appears right after STOP already names every resulting job, as shown in the worked example above.

Viewing the Results in Time Logs

Open the Time Logs page after a split to see all the resulting rows side by side — the original job and every job added via ADDTIMERSPLIT, each with its own start time, stop time, and equal share of actual work.

Time Logs page with three completed rows resulting from an ADDTIMERSPLIT: 10200-Weld, 10200-Metal (split across jobs), and 10200-Deburr (split across jobs), each showing 1.18 hours of actual work

Because each split entry becomes a genuine, independent time log row — not a note or an annotation on a single record — every downstream feature that reads Time Logs treats them the same as any other completed entry: job costing, time reports, OData/Power BI dashboards, and QuickBooks export all see three real records instead of one undivided block.


Quick Reference

Scan What Happens
ADDTIMERSPLIT Clears project and category/task fields; the next project (and task/category) scanned is appended as an entry to the running timer's split list. Requires a timer to already be running.
VIEWSPLITTIMER Read-only preview of the current elapsed time and how it would divide across the original job plus every collected entry, as if STOP were scanned right now. Changes nothing.
CLEARSPLITTIMER Removes every entry collected so far for the running timer. The timer itself keeps running unaffected.
STOP Stops the running timer and, if any entries were collected, divides its total duration evenly across the original job plus every added entry — creating one completed time log per job with sequential start/stop times.

ADDTIMER vs. ADDTIMERSPLIT — Telling Them Apart

The names look almost identical on a barcode sheet, but they solve opposite problems. Mixing them up produces very different data, so it's worth being clear on which one fits the situation in front of you.

See the full ADDTIMER and ENDTIMER guide for running genuinely concurrent timers.

ADDTIMER creates two timers that run independently at the same time. ADDTIMERSPLIT keeps one timer running and divides its total time evenly among jobs only after STOP is scanned.
ADDTIMERSPLIT is not a second timer — it is a note attached to the one timer that's already running, read only when that timer stops.
ADDTIMER ADDTIMERSPLIT
What starts A brand-new, independent timer — running alongside the timer(s) already active. Nothing new starts. The one already-running timer keeps running; the scan only adds a name to its split list.
How many timers are running As many as you've added — each one live and ticking at the same time. Always exactly one, from before the first ADDTIMERSPLIT scan through STOP.
What each job's hours reflect Its own real, independently measured elapsed time — start to stop, exactly as scanned. An equal share of the one timer's total — not a measurement of how long that job specifically took.
When the time is calculated Continuously, live, from the moment each timer starts. All at once, retroactively, the moment STOP is scanned.
Best fit Genuinely parallel work — a supervisor or operator truly juggling several jobs at once and wanting honest, separately-timed records for each. One continuous block of work that drifted across several jobs with no clean point to stop and rescan — and where an even split is a fair-enough approximation.
Ending it ENDTIMER stops one job at a time; STOP stops all of them at once. STOP stops the one timer and performs the split in a single step. CLEARSPLITTIMER cancels the pending split first, if needed.
Quick test: if you can honestly say two jobs were happening at the same time, use ADDTIMER. If one continuous stretch of work simply moved between jobs and you just want the hours divided fairly among them afterward, use ADDTIMERSPLIT.

When to Use ADDTIMER versus ADDTIMERSPLIT

The comparison table above explains the mechanics. This section is the practical version — concrete situations where one scan is clearly the right call.

Use ADDTIMER when…

  • The jobs are actually happening at the same time. A supervisor watching three workstations, or a machine operator tending several machines that are each mid-cycle on a different job — real, simultaneous work deserves real, simultaneous timers.
  • Accurate per-job hours matter for billing or costing. If a client is billed by actual hours worked on their job, or job costing decisions depend on knowing exactly how long each task took, ADDTIMER's independently measured timers are the only honest source of that number.
  • The jobs take meaningfully different amounts of time. If one job realistically takes twenty minutes and another takes three hours, an even split would misrepresent both of them. ADDTIMER records what actually happened, whatever the split turns out to be.
  • You need to end jobs independently, as each one actually finishes. ENDTIMER lets you close out one job the moment it's done while the rest keep running — there's no equivalent partial-stop in ADDTIMERSPLIT.

Use ADDTIMERSPLIT when…

  • Work genuinely blends across jobs with no clean break. A production run that drifts from welding to metal finishing to deburring without a natural stopping point to rescan a new timer.
  • Stopping to rescan at every transition would be disruptive or impractical. Fast-moving shop floor work where pausing to scan a new project barcode mid-task costs more in interruption than it's worth.
  • An even split is a fair-enough approximation. The jobs involved are roughly comparable in effort, and nobody downstream — accounting, the client, the job cost report — needs minute-by-minute precision on how the hours divided.
  • You want one simple end-of-shift step. Add each job as it comes up during the day, then scan STOP once — no need to remember which timer belongs to which job or to close several out individually.
Avoid ADDTIMERSPLIT when the split needs to be defensible to someone else. Because the division is always equal by count — never proportional to real effort — it's a poor fit for jobs billed to different clients, jobs under a fixed-price contract with per-task cost caps, or any situation where an auditor, client, or accountant might reasonably ask "how do you know it was really an even split?" Use ADDTIMER in those cases instead, even if it means a few extra scans.
Related pages:

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