# Record tool runtime

Enter how long a tool ran when it comes back from a machine.

Source: https://support.toolingmetrics.com/en/production/guides/record-runtime/
Updated: 2026-10-29

**Prerequisites:** A tool has been running in a machine and is being returned from it.

**Required permission:** Inventory → Return Lists — User or above, to validate the Return List the usage step opens from. Admins can validate any return list; Managers and Users only the return lists they created.

Tooling Metrics doesn't log runtime as a separate entry you create on the tool record — it's captured in one step, right when the tool physically leaves the machine.

## Record runtime on return

1. Process the [Return List](https://support.toolingmetrics.com/en/production/guides/process-return-list/) for the machine the tool is coming from, and click **Validate**.
1. A **Record cutting edge usage** step opens automatically, grouping the mounted cutting edges under every tool that just came back from that machine.
1. For each cutting edge, set the toggle to **Add to** to add the latest run to its current usage, or **Set total** to replace the total, then enter the value.
1. Toggle **Broken** if that cutting edge failed during the run.
1. Click **Save usage**. (Click **Skip** to close the step without recording usage.)

![The Record cutting edge usage overlay with the mounted edges of four returned tools grouped under each tool, showing usage life, remaining life and condition, an Add to / Set total switch with its value, and Broken, with Skip and Save usage](https://support.toolingmetrics.com/guides/cutting-edge-usage-eng.webp)

*Fig. 1: Record cutting edge usage — appears automatically after validating a return list or tool transfer from a machine.*

## What happens next

- **Usage Life** on each cutting edge increases by the amount entered (or is replaced by it, with **Set total**), and **Remaining Life** (Life Limit minus Usage Life) recalculates.
- **Condition** recalculates for each cutting edge from its new Usage Life / Life Limit ratio — moving to Pre-warning at 80% consumed, Warning at 95%, and Expired at 100% — unless you marked the edge Broken, in which case its Condition is set to Broken directly.
- Saving cutting edge usage does not change any Serialized Item's condition. Service thresholds (usage time, cycles, or cost) on serialized pieces are a separate mechanism — see [Track tool condition](https://support.toolingmetrics.com/en/production/guides/track-tool-condition/).

## Notes

- Usage *cost* is never posted when runtime is recorded. For cost-per-pick items it is posted at the moment a Tool Transfer or Pick List lands the tool (or an item picked directly onto it) on a machine; every item currently assembled in the tool posts its own cost line at that moment. For time-based items it is posted once a day (around 23:30 in the organization's time zone) for every item still on a machine, covering the hours since it arrived or since its last posting. See [Review a tool's lifecycle history](https://support.toolingmetrics.com/en/production/guides/review-tool-lifecycle-history/) to see posted costs.
- When a cutting edge is later replaced, its accumulated Usage Life is captured as a Life History entry on the tool, and Usage Life resets to zero for the new edge.