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Timesheets & month end

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Level 2
Hi, We are soon going to automate a feed of Workfront hours into our payroll system, and I have a problem around how to control data where a Workfront timesheet week crosses from the end of one month into another. In this scenario, we don't want the user to submit their timesheet after the last day of the month because that will mean they can't enter hours for the rest of the week that are for the 1st of the month onwards. The trouble we have is that we will perform the hour extract after the end of the month which is before the timesheet will be submitted and approved, meaning the user can in theory change the hours that we have already extracted. I've looked into Timesheet options, and can't see anything that will be able to help me lock down data that has already been entered. You can't add custom forms to timesheets, and there aren't custom statuses or buttons that can be added. Just wondering whether other people have a similar issue? As a final note, I'm thinking of asking for a product feature where if a week falls across a month end, a system preference can be enabled to allow that to be two separate timehseets rather than one. Would anyone else find that a useful feature to have? Regards Richard
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Level 10
Hi: The only way you can lock down specific hours in a timesheet without locking down ALL the hours in a timesheet is to go to the project the hours were charged to and approve those hours. That locks the hours in the timesheet without locking the timesheet. You could have people enter their time for the month, and on the first day of the new month, have the PMs (or sysadmin) go to the projects and approve all hours for the previous month. That locks those hours. The team can continue to enter hours in their timesheet, but the will be unable to change hours for the previous month. Does that help? Thanks, Eric

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Level 10
Oh, let me respond to your last sentence. I’ve struggled with timesheet systems everywhere, because companies insist on having calendar-based fiscal periods (except one place). Timesheet systems MUST be able to support calendar based fiscal periods, instead of arbitrary fiscal periods. I haven’t found one yet that does. Yes, a number of product feature requests would be appropriate. Here is what I mean: Nearly every timesheet system, including WorkFront, use fiscal weeks as their basis. That means each reporting period starts on a specific day of the week and ends on a specific day. WorkFront assumes your fiscal week starts on a Sunday and ends on the next Saturday. Their timesheet screens assume that, too. Ugh, btw. Our fiscal week is Monday through Sunday. WorkFront, and nearly every other timesheet system, assumes you complete full fiscal weeks before submitting for approval. We need a timesheet system that has a fiscal week that starts on the first day of the month, goes until Sunday, has fiscal weeks from Monday through Sunday until the end of the month. The last fiscal week of the month ends on the last calendar day of the month. July Week 1 - Friday, Saturday, Sunday (1,2,3) July Week 2 - Monday through Sunday (4 - 10) July Week 3 - Monday through Sunday (11-17) July Week 4 - Monday through Sunday (18-24) July Week 5 - Monday through Sunday (25-31) The last week of August time reporting would be Monday 29AUG2016 through Wednesday 31AUG2016. Timesheet system designs fix a seven day week as the fundamental basis of the reporting period. They need to change that. Yes, I am in agreement something needs to be different. Eric

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Level 10
This is very fascinating to me. All the companies I've worked for have Fiscal months that go Sunday to Saturday. So Fiscal August, for example, would be July 31 to Sept 3, not Aug 1 to Aug 31. Sorry I can't help with the issue. Wanted to subscribe to the thread though to see if anyone else has a resolution for this.

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Level 2
Eric, Many thanks for your input, and I hadn't really thought about approving the individual hours as we don't really use that function, we currently just approve the timesheets. I will sit down with the team designing the process for the payroll integration and discuss the proposal, but I do wonder whether approving hours in each project will be too onerous. Your thoughts are much appreciated. Regards Richard In Reply to Lucas Eric:
Hi: The only way you can lock down specific hours in a timesheet without locking down ALL the hours in a timesheet is to go to the project the hours were charged to and approve those hours. That locks the hours in the timesheet without locking the timesheet. You could have people enter their time for the month, and on the first day of the new month, have the PMs (or sysadmin) go to the projects and approve all hours for the previous month. That locks those hours. The team can continue to enter hours in their timesheet, but the will be unable to change hours for the previous month. Does that help? Thanks, Eric

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Level 2
Hi Eric, Some great thoughts, and good to see that other people would like to have more flexible approaches to timesheets - mainly being able to have different timesheet start dates and the ability to have partial weeks. I will log a feature request with Workfront, but not sure it will be high up the list of things to look into. Many thanks Richard In Reply to Lucas Eric:
Oh, let me respond to your last sentence. I’ve struggled with timesheet systems everywhere, because companies insist on having calendar-based fiscal periods (except one place). Timesheet systems MUST be able to support calendar based fiscal periods, instead of arbitrary fiscal periods. I haven’t found one yet that does. Yes, a number of product feature requests would be appropriate. Here is what I mean: Nearly every timesheet system, including WorkFront, use fiscal weeks as their basis. That means each reporting period starts on a specific day of the week and ends on a specific day. WorkFront assumes your fiscal week starts on a Sunday and ends on the next Saturday. Their timesheet screens assume that, too. Ugh, btw. Our fiscal week is Monday through Sunday. WorkFront, and nearly every other timesheet system, assumes you complete full fiscal weeks before submitting for approval. We need a timesheet system that has a fiscal week that starts on the first day of the month, goes until Sunday, has fiscal weeks from Monday through Sunday until the end of the month. The last fiscal week of the month ends on the last calendar day of the month. July Week 1 - Friday, Saturday, Sunday (1,2,3) July Week 2 - Monday through Sunday (4 - 10) July Week 3 - Monday through Sunday (11-17) July Week 4 - Monday through Sunday (18-24) July Week 5 - Monday through Sunday (25-31) The last week of August time reporting would be Monday 29AUG2016 through Wednesday 31AUG2016. Timesheet system designs fix a seven day week as the fundamental basis of the reporting period. They need to change that. Yes, I am in agreement something needs to be different. Eric

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Level 10
< > Back in the ‘80s when we rode horses to work, I worked for a company that had fiscal periods that were not defined by the Roman-esque solar calendar. That made a lot of sense, sure made coding financial systems easy, and wasn’t a problem for people to understand. Since then, sadly, I’ve worked for companies that embrace calendar-based financial periods. In the end, there are lots of different approaches used out there - which, I would think, would mean WorkFront should consider embracing more than one timekeeping period paradigm. Eric