Working with Timesheets

The timesheet is the primary vehicle available for the collection of time entries.

Adding a New Timesheet

To initiate the creation of a new timesheet, simply click on the (

) timesheet add icon. This icon is available on a number of dashboards as well as on the Time >> List screen. This screen may also appear by clicking on the Time >> Current option (when no current timesheet exists)

On this screen, you simply enter a date (any date that falls within the timesheet time period you would like to create) and a new timesheet will be created.

If a timesheet for that date already exists, it will simply be displayed on the screen.

Administrators have the ability to prevent additional timesheets from being created on a time period by time period basis (via the Time Period screen).

The Timesheet

The number of days included in a timesheet may vary depending on the time period setting in each user's profile. Displayed below is an example timesheet for a weekly time period.

Field Descriptions (click on a link below for additional information)

If the unatime.timesheet.org.display property is being used, the Project Organization code may be suppressed in your editable and preview timesheets.

Likewise, if the unatime.timesheet.project.title.display property is being used, you may see the Project Title concatenated onto the Project Code in your editable and preview timesheets.

Further, if the unatime.timesheet.project.title.hover property is being used, you can display the Project Title associated with a project by hovering your mouse over the Project Code field.

Finally, if the unatime.leave_request.enabled property is being used, you will see a Summary of Approved Leave Requests that overlap the current timesheet above the editable timesheet.

Button Descriptions (click on a link below for additional information)

It is possible to add custom text along the bottom of the editable version of the timesheet using one of the timesheet.edit.footer properties. These properties can be customized by user classification (i.e. exempt, non-exempt, non-employee).

Signature View

If you are interested in adding customized text to your timesheet preview, you may be interested in enabling one of the timesheet.printview.footer properties. With these property settings, you can add custom text such as signature lines or policy statements (on the preview version of the timesheet). These can be customized by user classification (i.e. exempt, non-exempt, non-employee).

When enabled, a new Signature button will appear at the bottom of the editable and preview versions of the timesheet, which will take you to a modified preview version of the timesheet that contains the supplemental verbiage. These property entries can include basic html formatting. An example of what you could include follows. The additional text will appear under the "cell details" section.

Note that on the properties that allow for the inclusion of HTML tags to provide formatting, here are a few basic tags that you might find useful.

For example, the following text included in a property...

This is red

This is bold

This is italic

This is red, bold and italic

...would yield this output:

Notes:

If you want line breaks, you can use tags (no closing tag required).
Remember to close each tag in the order you open them.
Most other html is valid (, <div>, <table>, etc.), but you might want to keep it as simple as necessary to avoid the need for debugging
Remember that this will not work in the messages that appear in pop up windows (the three submit confirmation pop ups) as these are not html.

Timesheet Validations

When you save a timesheet, you may encounter two general types of errors. First, those errors that prevent the saving of your timesheet (e.g. you've entered an invalid character in a numeric field), and secondly, entries that are syntactically correct, but may violate an assignment or some other rule. In the latter case, the timesheet will save successfully, however, you will see the error messages displayed across the top of the screen. Timesheet submittal will not be allowed if theses types of errors exist. Below is an example of this type of error message.

In addition to the business rules defined by setting project profile options, assignment date ranges, budget constraints, etc. you can also create additional customized validations using the Timesheet Stored Procedure feature.

Previewing Timesheets

In addition to the editable version of the timesheet, users can also view a non-editable preview version. This version may be more suitable for purposes of creating a printed copy (also see the Print Friendly icon in the upper right hand corner of the Timesheet Preview).

Whether the user's classification is displayed on the preview version of the timesheet (next to name in the title) can be controlled by the unatime.timesheet.classification.display property.

Which sections are collapsed upon initial display of the timesheet preview can also be configured by your administrator via the various unatime.preview.expand properties. If you desire to review the details in these sections, you can expand or collapse these sections using the or (

) controls.

Administrators can configure the preview version of the timesheet to include a custom logo that will replace the standard Unanet hour glass icon. To enable this feature, the Administrator will need to load up the custom images via the Admin >> Setup >> Images screen (defining images of type "timesheet view").

Audit Trail

Auditing allows for additional historical tracking of changes. This feature must be enabled by the system administrator (via the unatime.audit property). When this feature is enabled, you will be prompted to enter a Change Reason for any alterations to your timesheet on a cell by cell basis. These Change Reason comments will be viewable in the timesheet Audit History section. This feature is frequently used in conjunction with DCAA Compliance.

If you attempt to submit your timesheet without having supplied a change reason comment for all changed cells, you will be prompted again and the submit will not be allowed until you have supplied the required entries.

Your system can be configured to allow for the entry of free form text as the change reason, or the Unanet Administrator can provide a pre-defined set of Change Reasons for users to select from via the Admin >> Setup >> Change Reason screen. If no Change Reasons have been defined by the Administrator, free form text entries will be allowed (and the Change Reason drop down list will not appear). When pre-defined Change Reasons exist, the text entry field will be disabled and the user will need to select a reason from the list of available options.

Your system can also be configured to support both approaches by enabling the unatime.audit.allow_other_change_reason property. When set to true, the Change Reason drop down list will include an additional option of "Other", which when selected will allow the user to enter their own free form text. Thus, they will have the option of selecting a pre-defined reason code or providing their own custom reason.

The value displayed in the drop down corresponds to the Change Reason Code and the value displayed in the text entry field is the Change Reason as defined on the Admin >> Setup >> Change Reason screen.

Note that the specific text in the text entry field is what is saved in the system database. Should the administrator subsequently change the Change Reason text associated with a Change Reason Code, the original text will remain with any timesheets having previously used those reasons.

Using the radio button option at the top of the screen, the user can choose to make individual entries per changed timesheet cell, or a single entry that will apply to all modified timesheet cells.

ETC Collection

If the unatime.etc_collection.enabled property is set to true, then timesheet users will have the ability to update estimate to completion information for assignments associated with each row on their timesheet. This can be accomplished while entering time on the timesheet by clicking on the eye glasses (

) icon.

When this property is enabled, the standard project information popup will include a listing of any assignments for that user that overlap the project / task / dates reflected on that particular timesheet row. The data presented is in a format similar to the user's Schedule Detail report (which users, managers and project managers can now run to view the latest ETC information.

In order to update the Hours (ETC) or Date (EDC) Estimated Date of Completion values, you must first enable the field for update by clicking the check box at the far left of a particular row. Whenever updating the values in these fields, the Last Updated On date is also stamped with the current date. When checking the check box on a particular row, the Last Updated On date will be updated on that row even if you make no changes to the other editable fields. This allows you to indicate that as of a certain point in time what ever the values are in those other Estimates to Completion fields are valid (ie even though another week has elapsed, your previous ETC estimate has not changed and you still have that much work remaining). This is of importance when you plan to use the Calculated Hours estimate values (as it revises the entered ETC values considering additional actuals that have been entered since the Last Updated On date).

If there are no assignments governing the current project / task (e.g. this is an open self assignable project or org level assignment), then the popup will include a message similar to the following:

This mechanism is available to update ETC information on a project by project basis while editing the timesheet. If the timesheet user is interested in updating ETC information in bulk, they can use the Time >> ETC screen. User's can also view recorded ETC information via the User Schedule Detail report.

Project Managers can view user entered ETC information via the Project Schedule Detail report, and the Assignment and Task listings on specific projects. Resource Assigners can directly edit the user ETC values on the various Assignment screens (or via the Assignment Import).

Autofill

When the user selects the Auto-fill option in their user Preferences, the timesheet will automatically include any Project / Task entries that had time reported for the preceding time period. The hours and comments will be blank, but the entries will be displayed on the current periods timesheet (saving you some typing). This may be useful if you charge time to the same projects period after period.

Not all projects used on the previous timesheet will be carried forward. Reasons for this may include; a project or task has since been closed, the project or task's end date has passed, the user's assignment end date has passed or the assignment was removed, etc.

Note: If auto-fill is enabled, you cannot remove a project that is on your current timesheet (e.g. carried forward from last period). You may attempt to remove it, however, the next time you access your timesheet, the entry will auto-fill in again. For this reason, it is not uncommon for a user to enable auto-fill at the beginning of a time period -- and after recording time for the desired projects during your first access to a time sheet, subsequently disabling the auto-fill feature for the remainder of that time period.