User time off functionality

[SkyeHa]

@Josh Hardman -- just got done playing with the Preview sandbox functionality for the upcoming calendar and list reporting of user PTO time, as well as switching on my project preferences over to ignore user time off in Production. It's a thing of beauty and a joy forever, and really I'm just having the best Friday I've ever had. -skye

[joshh79242137]

Awesome Skye! Thanks for the feedback ;). Josh Hardman Product Manager, Workfront

[AdinaPi1]

I love this new feature too. Hopefully this will pave the way for future updates on the reporting calendar (ie using custom date fields) Adina Pierce

[TerryHy]

I created an example of the time-off calendar in the preview environment and sent a screenshot around to the managers in our dept, and words of praise for the new functionality came in quickly -- 'LOVE IT', 'Will be great to use', 'Very helpful'. So, I have some very happy people this afternoon...always a good way to end a week. Terry Hynd EBSCO Information Services

[SkyeHa]

I agree with Adina, more improvements to the reporting calendar (which has stayed pretty unchanged for years now) would be great. Better printing capability, better functionality, better everything. Hopefully heavier use of it through making PTO calendars will shine a light on other improvements to make. -skye

[DavidCo3]

Yes - the Reporting Calendar has a lot of good things but one fatal flaw....it is hard-coded to show Actual Dates once they exist. We would use it so much if this wasn't the case...we want to be able to choose which dates it displays.....and for us this is generally Planned Dates.....we don't want them changing to Actual Dates once they exist. Loving the PTO reporting....simple but effective. David Cornwell

[LoriGa]

I have not had the opportunity to play in depth, but the one thing I am curious about is can this be tied to our system of record for PTO so that users only need to keep one system up to date. I've noticed that asking users to maintain more than one system can lead to inconsistent data and the general lack of desire to maintain 2 systems. Lori Gates Thermo Fisher IDD

[joshh79242137]

Hi @Lori Gates , yes it absolutely can integrate! In fact, we recently updated the Workfront API to make it much easier. You can see the details of "https://t.ly/mKGg" how our API works with Time Off here . You may have to join the Integrations Discussion board on this community to see that link. Thanks! Josh Hardman Product Manager, Workfront

[Heather_Kulbacki]

We're loving these new features also. I think I made our traffic person cry tears of joy on Friday when I told her I had switched our settings to ignore user time off on tasks. She's been asking for this for so long! @Lori Gates if you decide to play around with the API to bring time off into Workfront let me know if we can help in our instance. We have our core team entering time into two systems, but I'd love to bring time off for everyone in, especially with the calendar functionality

[Doug_Den_Hoed__AtAppStore]

Hi Heather, I'm curious to learn more about the Tears Of Joy - would it be possible to elaborate on what's now different (in your case), and why it's so much better? Also, would you please expand on the "calendar functionality" for which you'd love to bring people in? Regards, Doug Doug Den Hoed - AtAppStore

[Heather_Kulbacki]

@Doug Den Hoed We have our production team enter their time-off into Workfront, which has traditionally pushed out the duration of any task they are assigned to until they are back in the office, but with no notification to either the project manager or traffic. And our projects just don't typically have the luxury of enough time for task durations to be extended. We've been asking forever to be able to turn off tasks pushing out due to time-off. Early last week I was trying to pull a report on any tasks assigned to a user who was on PTO for the week so I could re-assign them to someone else, but her task due dates were pushing out to this week. Being able to "ignore user time off on task durations" is a dream come true. For the calendar functionality that's available in Preview, it's now way easier to create calendars based on user's time off. In the past, we pulled a report of "future time off" for users, then manually created tasks in a project in order to show each user's time off on a calendar. With that new calendar functionality coming, I can see creating a variety of calendars for different teams. But we'll need to be able to bring time off into Workfront from our HR system, rather than asking users to manually add their time off into Workfront

[MICHAELCR]

My challenge is visibility to PTO. We do not import PTO from another system but had been inputting directly into the "time-off" calendar per user. But this created a problem because only the resource manager has visibility to this calendar and the PEOPLE/SCHEDULING page. The department in which I work likes visibility to see all department team members' work assignments including their PTO. So we have resorted to creating a new project called PTO so we can clearly see PTO … but the penalty is that the native WF functionality for assigned tasks skipping over PTO doesn't work. Any ideas for how to see PTO ? Has anybody else run into this issue? thanks - Michael Crocken / Whole Foods Market Michael Crocken Senior Team Leader, Project Management Whole Foods Market Austin, TX

[Doug_Den_Hoed__AtAppStore]

Fantastic Heather, What an excellent success story -- I'm sure the Dev team will be thrilled to hear it all. Thanks for sharing! Regards, Doug Doug Den Hoed - AtAppStore

[denise_moore_ameritas]

Some of our areas wanted a singular calendar that showed all of that area's planned out of office. We went with a calendar view and they have the calendar favorited. To do that, I created a request queue (i.e. the marketing one is titled "OOO-Marketing"). It is not to "request" but rather to record already requested and approved PTO as well as when associates are out for meetings, training or travel and such. The queue has a topic for each department/team within the marketing area (operations, creative, digital, communications, CX/analytics, etc.) The associate fills out the subject with something like, "Denise PTO" as well as the planned start and planned completion dates. I then built a calendar report that is color coded by topic (department/team) so they can display/view all or just their team or whatever they choose. The calendar reports on the duration (start to end) of the planned dates of the request and shows the subject as well. The actual start and completion dates are entered that match the outage when the request is closed so they still appear on the calendar, but they are then greyed out. Hope this helps. Denise Moore | Ameritas ^® | Senior Analyst, Project Management 5900 'O' Street, Lincoln, NE 68510 | p: 402-325-4285 | f: 402-325-4069 | denise.moore@ameritas.com

[MICHAELCR]

this helps a little, thanks. We've done something similar by having one person collect all emails listing "approved PTO" - and then put it into a special "fake" project called PTO. That way it shows alongside other real project work in lots of views that the whole team can access (like assigned work per week per person per project). Has anybody found a different way to SHOW PTO clearly - even better when the PTO is entered the way workfront intends (not in a fake project)? Michael Crocken Senior Team Leader, Project Management Whole Foods Market Austin, TX

[Heather_Kulbacki]

Michael and Denise, check out "Create time off calendars and reports" at this link. It's available in Preview now, looks like it's set to roll to Producion 8/30 https://experience.workfront.com/s/article/2019-3-Project-enhancements-1332102832?language=en_US&r=5...

[Heather_Kulbacki]

Michael, check out "Consider or ignore user time off in task dates" here. You can now turn off the way tasks skip over PTO. https://experience.workfront.com/s/article/2019-3-Project-enhancements-1332102832?language=en_US&r=2...

[Doug_Den_Hoed__AtAppStore]

Thanks again Heather! @Josh Hardman , fantastic job on the video and the functionality -- please pass along my kudos to Dev. I am VERY glad I held off on our Roadmap Item to develop a similar solution, and hereby rescind any previous offers to do so: as of 19.3, Workfront will have the long standing requirement of viewing PTO in a calendar format covered, very well. Regards, Doug Doug Den Hoed - AtAppStore