Time and Activity: Productivity rules
Objective. Understand that this configuration screen defines what counts as productive, idle or an exception, and that those choices drive every downstream number - enough to validate scope with a customer and escalate deep setup.
This screen answers 'what rules decide whether time is productive, idle, or flagged?' It is the configuration layer behind the dashboards, where classifications and exception thresholds are set.
See it in the demo
What this screen answers
A CSM opens this to answer 'why is this app calling that time idle or non-productive, and does the rule match how this customer actually works?' A Sales person needs awareness only: that classifications are configurable, not hard-coded truth. The rules here set the meaning of the labels every other screen displays, so they are the quiet foundation under attendance, utilisation and exceptions.
The task (validate, do not re-engineer)
Your job as a CSM is to confirm the rules reflect the customer's policy, not to tune every setting live. Walk the customer through the categories at a high level - what is treated as productive, what triggers an idle or exception flag, what the thresholds are - and check they agree before anyone reads a number. Where the customer wants substantive changes to classification logic, capture the requirement and escalate to the product or implementation specialist rather than improvising.
How to read it
The critical misread lives downstream: a 'non-productive' label is a classification under these rules, not proof that an employee did no useful work. The same minute can be productive for one role and not another, which is exactly why the rules are configurable. Read every productivity or idle number as 'under the current rule set', and treat default thresholds as a starting point to agree with the customer, never as objective fact.
Honest limits
This is an admin screen; deep rule design, category libraries and precedence are specialist work and the exact options must be confirmed with product for the deployment. The rules govern classification, not whether work had value or quality - that is a Work Output and Quality question. Never present a classification outcome to a customer as a judgement of the person; present it as the output of agreed rules that they own.
Interpretation check
A 'non-productive' or 'idle' label is a classification under the current configured rules, not proof that no useful work was done. Every downstream number is only as sound as the rules agreed with the customer.
Practical task
In the demo, list the rule categories you would walk a customer through, and write the one sentence you would say to frame any idle or non-productive number as 'under agreed rules' rather than as a verdict on a person.
Self-check
A customer sees 20% non-productive time and is alarmed. What is the first thing you check?
The rules behind the label - what is classified as productive for these roles and what thresholds apply. The number is only meaningful under agreed rules, and non-productive is not proof of no useful work.
Why are productivity rules configurable rather than fixed?
The same application or minute can be productive for one role and not another. Classification depends on context, so rules must be set to the customer's policy.
A customer wants to redesign classification logic. What do you do?
Capture the requirement and escalate to the product or implementation specialist. Validating fit is a CSM job; deep rule engineering is not.
Does this screen prove whether work had value?
No. It governs classification of activity, not output or quality. Value belongs to Work Output and Quality.
Verified vs demo. Screen is live in the demo at /#/rules; exact controls and figures are SME-validation-pending.