Timesheets

Introduction

Easy-to-use Timesheet User Interface

Geniusproject provides a user-friendly way of collecting actual and re-estimated hours for project tasks.. Users complete timesheets on a weekly basis, which in addition to time may also include information on the nature of time spent. Once completed an approval request is sent a designated approver (usually the resource manager) using the workflow feature included with Geniusproject. Resource managers can then approve or reject an individual timesheet and project plans and tasks can be automatically updated with timesheet data entries. 

A Complete Picture of Resource Usage and Costs

All timesheet entries are calculated and charged to a specific project. Each resource is assigned to an internal cost structure with billing rates that are specific to the role they perform. Costs are calculated according to planned time, actual time and time billed. In turn a complete picture of resource usage can be obtained, and the financial implications (including budgets, costs and margins) all identified.

Timesheets and Timesheet Details

The "Timesheet" is the interface used to report time. It consists of a simple page that includes a header and a dynamic number of lines for users to fill in their time spent on tasks for a given week.

Before pushing the time spent back to the projects, Geniusproject converts every "Timesheet" entry into a "Timesheet detail" record. It is a simple data structure that contains the time spent by one resource on one task in one day. It is computed from the "Timesheet" page and is not editable. Timesheet details are useful to show the time spent during a period by project and/or by resource. The Follow-up and Activity reports tabs include views that display the "Timesheet detail" records.

It is also possible to request an adjustment for the amount of time assigned to complete a task directly from the timesheet, by requesting either more or less time than originally planned,. These requests are converted into "Remaining work request" records. They are computed from the "Timesheet" page and are not editable. The Follow-up and Activity reports tabs include views that display the Remaining work request records.

Pre-requisites to Update Actuals with Timesheets

Time can be only reported on existing tasks. However, tasks can be created directly from the "Timesheet", provided that the user is authorized to create tasks not connected to a plan.

Both Projects and Tasks must be in the correct status in order for time to be reported against them:

• A project must have a status of In progress (from the default statuses; if project statuses were customized, see the Keywords & Labels setup document for the Projects module to know what they are).

For tasks, one of these two conditions is required:

• The task is assigned to the resource that needs to report time and the status is Requested, In progress or To control.
• The task is not assigned and the status is In progress or To control. In this case, all resources listed in the Participants section of the "Project description" are allowed to report time spent on this task.

Creating a Timesheet

Timesheets can be automatically created by the server at the beginning of each week. In this case, the timesheet will be automatically populated with a resource’s assignments for the upcoming week. Automatic generation of timesheets can only be enabled by the application Administrator.

To create a new timesheets:

• Navigate to the My workspace tab.
• Select My timesheets from the contextual navigation menu.
• Click New timesheet.

• A new blank timesheet will be created.

There is a second way to create a new timesheet:

• Navigate to the Timesheets tab, "Timesheets" view.
• Click Create on the action menu bar and select Blank timesheet or Calculated timesheet.

• Choosing Blank timesheet will create a new blank timesheet.
• Choosing, Calculated timesheet will open a dialog box.

• Date: Specify which week this new timesheet is for.
• Name: Which resource this timesheet is for.

Note:  Time can be entered on behalf of another resource whose name would be entered here.

Type: Three possible options:

• Calculated: Geniusproject looks for late tasks or tasks to be started during the current week.
• From previous ones: Geniusproject analyzes timesheets from recent past weeks and retrieves tasks not completed and that have been marked to carry over to following weeks, and adds them to the new timesheet. If a user does not want to create a timesheet from the recent past weeks, but rather from an older week, see the option to copy a timesheet below.
• A combination of the 2 options above.

Select By default for the system to remember this option.

Timesheet Header

Posting Time in the Timesheet

Time entry in the timesheet is done in a grid like fashion with one line per task, in theory. If different types of charges are required for the same task, within the same week, it is possible to have multiple lines for it. For example -  billable hours and  non-billable hours.

Editing a Timesheet

As long as a timesheet has not yet been approved or is not waiting to be approved, it can still be modified.

To modify a timesheet:

• Navigate to the My workspace tab
• Select My timesheets from the contextual navigation menu
• Click In Progress and all active timesheets will; appear in the content window
• Select the timesheet to modify and open it to edit.

Deleting a Timesheet

As long as a timesheet has not yet been approved or has not been submitted for approval, it is still possible to modify it. An administrator however can delete a timesheet at any time.

To delete a timesheets:

• From the My workspace tab navigate to the My timesheets section.
• Click In Progress in the contextual navigation menu.
• Select the timesheet you want to delete, and mark it for deletion.

Timesheet Approvals 

An approval cycle can be enabled that requires users to submit their timesheets for approval once they have been completed in the Timesheets module. If the approval workflow is not enabled, users will mark their timesheets complete directly.

The update of assignments in the Projects module (workload and/or status) can be dependent on the approval or completion of timesheets and timesheet lines. By default, this information is updated automatically, regardless of the timesheet status. However, the system can also be setup to prevent tasks from being updated with timesheet information, as long as the corresponding timesheet is being edited, or to prevent tasks from being completed automatically when the resources mark their assignments completed in their timesheets.

There are three possible types of Timesheet approvals:

• By the author of the timesheet: this is the simplest mode, where the user marks the timesheet as "Completed".
• By a responsible: once completed, the timesheet is submitted for approval by the user. Then an authorized user can approve or deny the timesheet. An authorized user is either allowed to approve the timesheets of all users or the timesheets of a group of users, for instance a department. The first case is achieved through the "Approver" role, whereas in the second case the authorized approver is the "Responsible" of the "Resource".
• By the project leaders: as resources often work on several projects at once, this approval process usually involves more than one project leader. Thus the approval will not occur on the 'Timesheet' document, as for the first two approval modes, but on the "Timesheet detail" documents. The timesheet is approved if all its timesheet details are approved.

The denial of a timesheet requires the user to modify and submit it again for approval. As soon as a timesheet has the status "To be approved", "Approved" or "Completed", it is no longer editable by its author (and cannot be deleted).

The approval cycle depends on the parameters set in the General setup document of the Timesheets module. According to these parameters, the resource responsible or the project leader will have to manage submitted Timesheets or Timesheets detail documents, either to approve or deny them.

Submitting Timesheets for Approval

To submit a timesheet for approval all that is required is to change its status to "To be approved"

• From the timesheet, click Workflow on the menu Action bar and select-"To be approved".

Based on the application configuration, the timesheet will be submitted to the designated user(s) responsible for its approval.

Timesheets as a whole can be approved by a single person, usually the resource manager; however the system can be configured so the approver is someone else.

Once a user has submitted a timesheet for approval, the input fields in the grid are no longer editable, and the user cannot delete it. The designated approver then has to take action on it. To access Timesheets to be approved:

•Navigate to the My workspace tab

•Select "My timesheets" from the contextual navigation menu and click "To be approved"

•All timesheets awaiting approval will be displayed in the content window. Open, the one you want to review in Edit mode

•The actions the responsible can take are limited and simple. Click "Workflow" on the menu action bar and select either "Approve" or "Deny".

If the responsible selects "Approve", the status of the Timesheet is changed to "Approved". The timesheet is no longer editable. And if the system has been setup so that workload and assignments are only updated once timesheets have been approved, they will be updated now.

If the responsible selects "Deny", the status of the Timesheet is changed to "Denied" and an optional denial reason can be added to. The user is notified by e-mail and the Timesheet becomes editable again to allow the user to make the required changes. After correcting the timesheet, the user must submit it again for approval.

Multiple timesheets can be approved at the same time by using the view action "Approve" on the view menu Action bar.

Approving Timesheet Details

For "Approval on the details" mode, approval is necessary for individual timesheet details instead of the entire timesheet document as a whole. A timesheet detail corresponds to a single day's work on a given task. The responsible for the approval is the project leader.

Once a user has submitted a timesheet for approval, the project leader can access all corresponding timesheet details to be approved from the [Timesheets] tab in the "Approval\Timesheet details" view. Actions of approval or denial can then be taken on each individual 'Timesheet detail' document. The main difference between this mode of approval and the "Approval on Timesheets" mode is that all of the timesheet details must be processed before the timesheet itself is can be processed/ approved.

If the responsible selects "Approve", the status of the "timesheet detail record" changes to "Approved". All of the details for a timesheet need to be approved before the timesheet itself can be considered "Approved" too.

If the responsible selects "Deny", the status of the "timesheet detail record" changes to "Denied" and an optional denial reason can be added to it. The timesheet itself is considered "Denied" if all lines have been processed but at least one timesheet detail has been denied. The user is then notified by e-mail and the timesheet becomes editable again to allow the user to make the changes.

The denied detail lines are marked with a warning sign. The denied details are prefixed with an asterisk ("*"). The whole list of denied details (line and day) can be seen by selecting "Denied" from the contextual navigation menu.

After correcting the timesheet, the user must submit it again for approval.

Posting Time to an Assignment without Using a Timesheet

It is possible to post time to different assignments without using a timesheet. There are three possibilities:

• By modifying the actual value and balance remaining directly in the task document. By doing so however you lose the details of who did what and when.
• By modifying the actual directly in the assignment document. By doing so however you lose the details of the when the work was done.
• Using the time entry feature on the assignment page or in Genius Live! Project Wall. By doing so, no details are lost.

To post time to an assignment without using a timesheet:

• Navigate to the My workspace tab.
• Select My assignments or My Project Wall in the contextual navigation menu.
• In the content window, select the assignment you would like to update.
• Click the stopwatch icon on the Action bar menu.

• A dialog box opens to report time on the selected assignment

Once the input is validated by clicking OK, the time added will be applied to the actual amount of work done on the task so far and the balance remaining will be recalculated.

Note: If a timesheet already exists for the period the time has been input for, the entry will automatically be added to it on the specified date. If a timesheet does not exist, the system will automatically create one for the corresponding period and add the entry to it. Therefore using either the method above or timesheets have the exact same results. In addition, the two methods can also be combined.