Getting Started with Time Management Configuration

Time Management administrators can control many aspects of time sheet creation and processing, depending on business needs. The major configuration items are as follows:

  • Period types and time periods. A period type specifies the frequency at which resources must submit time sheets, such as weekly, semimonthly, or monthly. A time period is a specific date range of a given period type.

    For configuration information, see Period types and time periods.

  • Time sheet policies. Every resource (user) who completes a time sheet is assigned a time sheet policy. A time sheet policy sets rules in regard to completing time sheets, such as the following:

    • Period type (defined above).

    • By which of the following methods users enter time for each work item:

      • In units of hours, day by day over the time period

      • In units of hours for the entire time period

      • As a percentage of the entire time period

      • In units of days, day by day over the time period

      • In units of days for the entire time period

    • Whether time sheets display expected time for tasks.

    • Whether users are allowed to create multiple time sheets for the same time period.

    • Whether users are required to complete a time sheet for each time period.

    • Whether certain time sheet lines are automatically approved.

    • Whether users are allowed to submit time sheets that have empty lines (lines in which all values are 0).

    • Whether reminder email notifications to submit time sheets are sent to users. Reminders can be sent before unsubmitted time sheets are due, on their due date, or when they become overdue (delinquent).

    • Whether emails are sent to users whose approvers rejected reported time.

    • Maximum time per day and minimum and maximum time that can be reported on a time sheet, and if a user violates the policy, whether to prevent the user from submitting the time sheet or just warn the user (and the approver) of the violation.

    • Default charge codes for the time sheet policy.

    • Which work item types (projects, tasks, requests, packages, and miscellaneous items) are enabled and which are disabled for user screens and menus. If the parameter in the server.conf configuration file corresponding to the work item type is disabled, it is not available to enable in the time sheet policy.

    • Whether users are allowed to specify activities for any work item types and if so, whether they must specify activities for particular work item types.

    You can create and specify different time sheet policies for different resources as needed.

    For configuration information, see Time sheet policies.

  • Resources. A resource who uses Time Management must have a time sheet policy, a time approver, and a billing approver configured using Resource Management. (Other aspects of resource configuration include, for example, the resource's organization, role, and calendar.)

    For configuration information, see Resources.

  • Activities. You can configure a list of activities the organization uses to categorize work, such as design work or coding. Then, in addition to tracking the total time spent on a given work item, Time Management also tracks how much of the time was spent performing different activities. Activities can also be used to classify work as depreciable for financial accounting. (You can require that users specify activities on time sheets for particular work item types, such as requests or packages.)

    For configuration information, see Activities.

  • Charge codes. Charge codes are entities used as links between work items and charge accounts to allow time information to be extracted for a billing system used by an internal customer, external customer, or requestor.

    For configuration information, see Charge Codes.

  • Rules. Three types of rules for Time Management are introduced in this guide.

    • Override rules. Override rules allow you to implement specific business rules that govern the approvers or charge codes for specific work items (time sheet lines), overriding an existing time sheet policy or time approvers. For example, you can configure an override rule such that time submitted by any resource toward a particular task is sent for approval to a specific manager, regardless of any default time approver settings.

    • Rules for the Suggested Items list.Time Management automatically provides a Suggested Items list of work items that users are likely to add to their time sheets. This reduces the need for users to search for work items. You can customize the rules that govern which work items are automatically included in the Suggested Items list.

    • Custom Rules for Time Sheets. These rules are provided by Time Management to supplement the standard configurable time sheet policies described in Time sheet policies. For example, you can configure a custom rule that specifies the maximum of hours permitted for a work item in a time sheet.

    For configuration information, see Rules

  • Filters. Filters for Time Management limit the search results for work items users can add to time sheets and work allocations.

    For configuration information, see Work Item Filters.

  • Validations. Validations determine the acceptable input values for fields. You can add custom items to certain fields. For example, you can supplement the default set of miscellaneous work items that can be included on a time sheet—Meetings, Other, and Vacation—with additional validations appropriate for your business, such as Business Travel.

    For configuration information, see Time Management Validations.

  • User data. User data comprises a set of custom fields that can be defined as needed by your business. Time Management uses the user data type named Time Sheet Line User Data, where you can define additional fields for users to complete on the User Data tab of the Work Items Details window for their time sheet lines. Optionally, you can configure user data fields such that users must specify values for them on each time sheet line before they can save the time sheet. For example, you might require that users select either Internal or External from a drop-down list for a field you call Initiative Type, and that users specify a text field you call # Staff Affected.

    For configuration information, see Time Management User Data.

In addition, administrators can run a script provided by Micro Focus to import large volumes of time sheet data from external applications into the database of PPM. For more information, see Importing Time Sheet Data from External Applications .