Accepting or denying suggestions in ZeroTime™

Once you’ve used ZeroTimeTM for a while, it will start making suggestions based on its machine learning of your work patterns.

Suggestions are based on past selections you’ve made, or past associations between labels and other data.

For example, if whenever you meet with Jill Doe via Zoom, you bill that time to Client X, over time the app will learn to link Zoom meetings with Jill Doe as Client X tasks, and will suggest that association.

Where will I see suggestions?

Suggestions may appear when you create a note, or in automatically-generated entries. They always displayed with a blue hashed line.

These are suggestions shown in an entry in an inbox:

These are suggestions as shown when you add a note, or edit any type of entry:

Handling suggestions

If you see suggestions in an entry, you can do one of the following:

To accept all suggestions, click the Confirm all Smart suggestions button

This tells the learning system that the suggestion was accurate.

Clicking this icon always accepts all current suggestions; if you’ve edited suggestions, it will accept your edits, not the original suggestions.

Click   > Deny All Suggestions to reject and remove all suggestions

This tells the learning system that the suggestions were inaccurate

Hover over a suggestion and click the  or  icon to accept or deny an individual suggestion

This tells the learning system that the particular suggestion was accurate or inaccurate

Edit one or more suggestions by clicking each suggestion and selecting a new option

This tells the learning system you prefer the edited association

If you retain a suggestion without explicitly accepting or denying it, no feedback about the accuracy of the suggestion will be sent to the learning system.

If you accept an entry, making it available on the Smart Timesheet tab, any suggestions it includes will be accepted automatically.

Helping ZeroTime learn your work patterns

If you want to speed up the machine learning process, there are a couple of things can do:

Include hash tags in notes

You can, optionally, include a hash tag (#) symbol before a term in the title or body of a note or chatbot entry. The ZeroTime algorithm will give more weighting to terms preceded by a # as it detects patterns of association.

This should result in quicker association of that term with labels for that item, so you should see suggestions involving that association more quickly.

You can include multiple hash tags in an entry; each should be followed by a term that doesn’t include spaces (for example, #ZeroTime not #Zero Time).

Use consistent terminology

ZeroTime’s machine learning system adapts to your writing style, so you can use whatever terminology you wish.

However, if you’re inconsistent with the terminology you use – for example, if you use both MorningMeeting and MorningMtg to refer to the same thing – the system will create associations for each term independently, meaning it will learn more slowly. So, we advise using consistent terms as much as possible.

FAQs

How do suggestions work in Auto Populate mode?

You should only enable Auto Populate mode after a period of machine learning.

When using Auto Populate mode, ZeroTime will automatically accept any suggestions it has confidence in. If it doesn't have sufficient data to be confident about an association, it will leave that as an exception for you to accept manually, then it will automatically move it to your timesheet.

Machine learning based on exceptions will continue while using this mode.

For more information, refer to Using ZeroTime in Auto Populate mode.

Can I save default or favorite associations?

No, machine learning mediated suggestions replace defaults or favorites. The advantage of using a learning system is that it will automatically adapt to changes in your work and patterns over time, whereas favorites will not.

Can I turn off suggestions?

No, suggestions are based on a system level setting, so individual end users can’t turn them off.

If I edit a suggestion and click the confirm icon, are my updates accepted?

Yes. Clicking the Confirm all Smart suggestions button confirms whatever timesheet labels are currently selected, and your updated associations will be used in machine learning.

Why do some timesheet labels automatically update when I am editing other labels?

When you select a label, ZeroTime may make suggestions for some of its dependant labels, if a machine learning threshold has been reached.

For example, if you select the project Admin, ZeroTime may suggest its task Reports, if Reports is your most probable choice, based on the system’s learning.

If only one option is possible, that option will display as the selected option. For example, if the only task under Admin is Reports, it would show as selected automatically when you select Admin.

Related links

Understanding and managing machine learning in ZeroTime
Introducing ZeroTime
Using ZeroTime to fill in your timesheet
Accepting, editing, and managing your ZeroTime entries
Recording notes in ZeroTime