Question

Time Off in Workfront

Forum|Forum|6 years ago
May 31, 2019
15 replies
3668 views

Hey Folks, I want to draw attention to a couple of Ideas on our Idea Exchange, to see if there is big enough interest from the community. We are in the process of releasing a new feature that will give you an icon and tool-tip warning when you are assigning work to someone who has time off scheduled during the planned dates of the task/issue. With that announcement, I have received several emails from people saying that you really wish the system would NOT automatically move the dates of a task out when the assigned to user has time off scheduled. So, I'm looking into it. But, in order to gauge interest, I want to ask that if you would like this (most likely as a setting), please go vote for this idea: >https://experience.workfront.com/s/idea/0870z000000PSNiAAO/detail Another big request has been to send notifications to the project owner and/or resource owners when a task assignee adds time off after they have been assigned. Please see that idea here: >https://experience.workfront.com/s/idea/0870z000000PSRWAA4/detail Thanks! Josh Hardman Product Manager, Workfront

Workfront

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DavidCo3

Hi @Josh Hardman - awesome to see some focus on PTO-related topics! I've submitted a vote for the second idea (notification when PTO is added and affects an existing task schedule). However, I'm not a fan of the first idea....I think it's better to let the task dates move to ensure enough time is allowed for the work to be done. If the system was changed to allow assignments to be made against users with PTO booked and the dates didn't change, then we could end up in a lot of trouble. Having the dates change tends to prompt the PM/RM to sort it out. If this feature is to be added, please make it a setting as you suggested. Perhaps a project-level setting (configurable via template) so that we can have different rules for different projects if need be. David Cornwell

Heather_Kulbacki

Community Advisor

I've upvoted both. Ideally we'd prefer the first option, the ability to turn off the shifting dates. Obviously not everyone would want that, so the option to turn it off would be fantastic, but it would also be helpful to send notifications to either a project owner or a specified person (maybe a traffic manager) when a task is assigned to someone who has time off during that task's planned work. I've tested out the new feature in Preview and it's great if you're assigning one task at a time. But we generally select multiple tasks and bulk edit to make our assignments - I noticed once that is done, I still had to click into the assignment column for every task to see who had time off during the planned dates. At least a notification upon the bulk edit save, that one of those tasks conflicted with someone's time off would help.

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JeanCh1

This is much needed. Currently we are using a project and task to recognize peoples time off in the schedule so that we can have it reflected but not automatically adjust dates. Would be great to just have users maintain it in a calendar. Jean Chapdelaine NovuHealth

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AnthonyPernice

I like both ideas. Regarding the first idea, we have very few situations where we don't have an alternate assignee, there's no need to readjust (potentially) dozens of inter-related tasks because one person is going to be out of pocket for awhile. Regarding the second idea, it would be great for the project owner to be made aware that adjustments need to be made to accommodate PTO while still delivering work on time. Anthony Pernice Healthcare Consultancy Group

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BrittanyJo

Hi @Josh Hardman , We would also love to get a notification when PTO is added and affects an existing task schedule AND have the ability to shut off the automatically shifting dates. We will not allow our users to enter PTO into Workfront currently because our timelines are very rigid and often are traveling together to meet specific production deadlines that are not flexible, so if time gets pushed back the entire schedule has to be adjusted to still meet that same deadline. We very rarely have someone enter PTO who isn't already assigned to a large number of projects also, so the proactive warning not to add the person to a task is only going to help us with a small number of projects due to how far out many of our schedules are. So long story short, until the shifting dates can be turned off, we cannot utilize any of the PTO functionality. Thanks so much, we're exciting some work is being done in this area! Brittany Jones Project Manager, Marketing Operations DICK's Sporting Goods

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PatriciaMo1

same situation here. The option to turn-off the shifting dates is key in our use case. Patricia Moreno McCann Health

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JenniferSo1

Ideally for Prudential, we would like an automation to our Outlook calendar. Our users use Outlook to manage their schedules, inclusive of when they are in the office. Having to manage time in multiple systems leaves room for error and is not the best user experience. WF has been able to synch meetings etc between WF Calendar and Outlook, taking it once step further to have it synch out of office would be ideal. Jennifer Sofo Prudential Financial - Prudential

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AnthonyPernice

@Jennifer Sofo - agree 100%! We're actually looking at a Fusion connector to do just that, managing PTO via a request queue. Anthony Pernice Healthcare Consultancy Group

Christina_Jarosz

Jennifer - we've looked at WF Fusion to see if there was a way to integrate it with Workday or Legato . On another note - has anyone managed to integrate time tracking at all into WF? It's a major obstacle to expanding our user adoption at the moment. Christina Jarosz Ascensus

Doug_Den_Hoed__AtAppStore

Community Advisor

Hi Christina, If you're looking to load Time from those other systems into Workfront, I suggest you consider kickstarts, Fusion, or our "https://store.atappstore.com/product/excel-updater/">Excel Updater solution. Regards, Doug Doug Den Hoed - AtAppStore Got Skills? Lend a hand! https://community.workfront.com/participate/unanswered-threads

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