Privilege Needed: Timesheet User
The primary time entry screen (shown below) is both simple in presentation and powerful in its ability to provide a solid vehicle through which accurate collection of time data is achieved. This help page will address:
The Timesheet (entering and submitting data -- and understanding the timesheet screen)
Previewing Timesheets (for a standard printable view of timesheets)
PrintView of Timesheet (for a customizable printable view of timesheets)
Audit Trail (optional feature to track all changes to timesheets)
Timesheet Auto-Fill (includes last period's project/task entries on current period -- w/o hours and comments)
You may also be interested in the Administrator functionality used for:
When you click on the User -> Timesheet menu option, two things will happen. First, the menu will expand and you will see the Add, Active and History options. Second, the timesheet for your current time period will be displayed in the main frame. If you do not yet have a timesheet for the current time period, then the timesheet add screen is displayed with the current date entered as the default.
At the add screen you can create a timesheet for yourself for any time period. Just enter any date that is contained in the time period for which you want to create a timesheet, or accept the current date.
You may optionally enter a comment that will appear after the time display on the preview version of the timesheet.
Click on reset to return these fields to their default values after you have made changes.
Click on save to save the values you've entered and start editing that timesheet. If a timesheet for that Time Period already exists, a new timesheet will not be created and the existing timesheet will be displayed.
Selecting the Active timesheet menu option displays your list of currently active timesheets along with the total hours, status and current controller.
From here you can choose to edit the timesheet by clicking on the 
icon, or view a
printable version of the timesheet by clicking on the 
icon. Depending on your system's settings, you may also be able to delete
the timesheet by clicking on the 
icon*. The list of active
timesheets will usually be fairly short, and includes all timesheets that are INUSE 
,
SUBMITTED 
, APPROVED 
, and DISAPPROVED 
.
* In order for the delete timesheet icon to be visible, your Unanet system must be have the unatime.allow_timesheet_delete property set to true and the unatime.audit property set to false (this functionality is not available if your site must be compliant with the DCAA guidelines). See the properties definition help for details.
Selecting the History menu option displays your list of historical timesheets along with the status
of each. As with the list of active timesheets, from here you can choose to edit the
timesheet by clicking on the
icon (if available), or view a preview version of the timesheet by clicking
on the
icon.
The list of historical timesheets will continue to grow with time. This list
includes all timesheets that are COMPLETED 
, LOCKED 
, or
EXTRACTED 
. Note: When a Timesheet has a status
of SUBMITTED,
APPROVING, or COMPLETED and the user wishes to edit that Timesheet by clicking on the , an alert message will
appear prompting them that if that Timesheet is saved, it will go through the approval
process again.
If you need to make a change to time that has already been EXTRACTED, you'll need to have an administrator make a Timesheet Adjustment.
Click here for more information about the different statuses.
Time is entered based upon the defined time periods set up by the Unanet Administrator. The pre-defined time periods cause the timesheets to display either as weekly, every two weeks, twice a month, or monthly. Displayed below is an example timesheet for a weekly pay period from 10/3/99 - 10/9/99.
The upper left portion of the timesheet displays the owner of the timesheet we are viewing or editing. The upper right portion displays the date range of the time period. At the bottom we have the ability to Save or Submit the timesheet. We can also access a Preview version of the timesheet that is more suitable for printing. You may also optionally have a PrintView button -- which allows for the viewing of a customizable printed version of the timesheet.
On the bottom of our timesheet screen we have an area to place Comments. The red underscore indicates the time entry cell associated with a specific comment. In this example, a comment entered would be the comment for Wednesday, (10/6). Use the Save button to save your daily time entries and changes during the period. Be sure to hit save or submit. If you make time entries -- and select another menu option or close your browser without hitting save or submit, your entries will be lost.
You see to the lower left a statement: Controller: Gregory W. Barrett. This indicates that as this user is entering time he has control of the timesheet. Control is relinquished, or passed on to another, when the user has finished entering time and clicks the Submit button. Next to the Controller, you see the current status of the time sheet: Status: INUSE or NEW
The Project column is a list-box within which we would select the appropriate project to enter time against.
Note: When the prevent future time entry is set for a project, an alert message box will prompt the user indicating that they cannot enter time in advance for that particular project.
The Task column would be used to identify which project Task (if defined in the Project Plan) we would charge time against. Note: Closed tasks will not be displayed.
The time period days are displayed showing light border/background for weekdays and light green border/background for weekends. This allows for easy eye review of a time period and thus aids in our entering time quickly and accurately.
In the Totals column, both horizontally and vertically, time is totaled by the day (column), by the project/task (row), and the grand total is in the lower right corner.
Projects are created by a Project Manager. You will
only see projects that you are assigned to -- or are open for all users.
The list of projects and tasks that you have available in your timesheet drop
down lists can be maintained via your My
Assignments screen. See
project documentation for more information on
Project maintenance. Timesheet
Users can view Project details by clicking on (
) icon.
Tasks for each project are created by a Project Manger. See project documentation for more information.
Project Types are setup by an Administrator. See project type documentation for more information.
Pay Codes are setup by an Administrator. See pay code documentation for more information.
Time Periods are setup by an Administrator. See time period documentation for more information.
Once a user submits their timesheet, control is passed to the first person in the user's assigned Approval Group. The Approval Group each person belongs to is defined in the Person Profile setup by the Unanet Administrator. In this example, control of the timesheet is passed to George James (Greg's manager defined in the system) and the Status of the timesheet is set to SUBMITTED. George James would now see Greg's timesheet in the Manager Menu under Approve Time.
The Timesheet may have also have a 
button if the administrator edited one of the following properties:
timesheet.printview.footer.exempt, timesheet.printview.footer.nonexempt or timesheet.printview.footer.nonemployee
in the text.properties
file. Click here for an example.
By default -- this button does not appear on the editable or preview version of the timesheet.
Auditing allows for additional historical tracking of changes. This feature must be configured by the system administrator (see Unanet properties -- unatime.audit -- for more info on configuring this feature). As you make changes to your timesheet you will be prompted to enter a comment as to the reason for the change. The comments will be tracked and appear in the timesheet cell history section. This feature is frequently used in conjunction with DCAA Compliance.
This screen may look like:
If auditing is enabled for your site, you will also see a w/o Audit button to present a preview version of the timesheet without the audit trail.
If auditing is enabled for your site, when you click on Preview, it will detail the changes that you just made. See the Timesheet Cell History table in the illustration below.
When the user selects the 'Auto-fill Timesheet' option in their User - Profile, a timesheet will automatically include any Project / Task entries that had time reported for the preceding time period. The hours can comments will be blank, of course, 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 week after week.
Note: If auto-fill is enabled, you can not remove a project that is on your current timesheet as a result of the auto-fill feature (e.g. carried forward from last period). You may attempt to remove it, however, the next time you access your timesheet, the entry will reappear. 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.
Note: If a Project status is CLOSED, then it will not appear on the current Timesheet.
An example is shown below. Notice that 6 Projects from the prior timesheet were displayed.
Return to Unanet Table of Contents page
Copyright © 1998-2002 Computer
Strategies, Inc., All Rights Reserved.
Last revised: September 13, 2002.