How do you stop users putting time against a completed task?

[LauraRa1]

We have just noticed that users are allowed to put time against a completed task. Is this something that you can stop? We believe it's related to our timesheets being populated a week in advance which has also led to confusion with users seeing tasks that were completed 'last week' on 'this week's' timesheet.

[EricLu2]

Hi: If someone has contribute permission (with the ability to log time), then they can charge time to ANY task in that project. Any task. It doesn’t matter what the status of the task is (new, in progress, complete). It doesn’t matter if they are assigned to the task or not. It doesn’t matter if it is a parent task or not. Any task. There is no constraint in the system. There is no way to stop them proactively from charging time to any task. What we did was create a report that shows people who have charged time to tasks incorrectly. We look at the Actual Completion date and the date on the hour record. If the hour record was after the actual completion date, they charged time to a Complete task. We go to them, open their timesheet, and ask them to do it right. That’s the best we could come up with. Thanks, Eric

[LauraRa1]

Ok, well not the answer I wanted but the report sounds essential. Would you mind sharing the report text with me? I’m fairly new to advanced reporting and after just spending a few minutes I’ve quickly realised I’m not even close to being able to create the calculations for this one! Thanks Eric ☺ Laura Ray Project Support Analyst Bakkavor Information Systems Bakkavor Group West Marsh Road, Spalding, Lincolnshire, PE11 2BB, UK Direct: +44 (0)1775 763 010 www.Bakkavor.com // Laura.Ray@Bakkavor.com< [cid:image001.png@01D1E674.EF9E2A50]

[EricLu2]

Hi: Create an Hour report. Add in whatever fields you want, like Project Name, task Actual Completion Date, and so on. Put in this text mode filter: project:status=CUR project:status_Mod=in entryDate=FIELD:task:actualCompletionDate entryDate_Mod=gt Run it. Let me know if you have more questions. Thanks! Eric Eric L. Lucas, MPM Manager, PMO | Sourcing and Delivery Services Office: 904-727-4218 | Mobile: 904-377-4426 Crowley Maritime Corporation | http://www.crowley.comhttp://www.crowley.com 9487 Regency Sq. Blvd. | Jacksonville, FL 32225

[EricLu2]

I forgot to say - once you enter the text mode, you can convert that back to Standard Mode. It works. You can then add more filter criteria in if you like… Eric

[LauraRa1]

Hi Eric, Thanks so much! It works! :0 Laura Ray Project Support Analyst Bakkavor Information Systems Bakkavor Group West Marsh Road, Spalding, Lincolnshire, PE11 2BB, UK Direct: +44 (0)1775 763 010 www.Bakkavor.com // Laura.Ray@Bakkavor.com< [cid:image003.png@01D1E67C.E86D37A0]

[MichaelLa1]

That report sound great. Something else that may help reduce this occurence for you......there's a preference in the timesheets area in Setup that allows you to toggle on/off pre-populating timesheets with completed tasks (see attached). I haven't played around with all of these preferences myself but perhaps they can help you to some degree. Thought I'd share.

Cheers,

Mike

[EricLu2]

Hi: I’m not sure I’d want to prepopulate timesheets with tasks that are completed. This setting determines what is automatically added to people’s timesheets. I would want that setting OFF, so that people don’t get completed tasks added to their timesheet. Doing so would make it very easy for them to add hours to completed tasks. Toggling it OFF makes it harder for them to see completed tasks, and less likely they’ll charge time to them. That is a good setting to check and validate that it is OFF. Thanks, Michael! Eric

[MichaelLa1]

Yep, exactly what I was getting at. Thanks, Eric! Our process is such that we need to pre-populate with completed tasks (i.e. timesheets are due on Mondays). We're trying to increase adoption of logging hours when marking a task as complete but until then this is our approach. We reduce the number of tasks by limiting it to those with planned dates within 1 week of the timesheet's timeframe. We've found that reduces the amount of tasks displaying.

[LauraRa1]

Great information. We did indeed have that setting turned on, I’ve now unchecked it! I’m waiting for the fall out now of people not being able to find their completed tasks on their timesheet next week! Laura Ray Project Support Analyst Bakkavor Information Systems Bakkavor Group West Marsh Road, Spalding, Lincolnshire, PE11 2BB, UK Direct: +44 (0)1775 763 010 www.Bakkavor.com // Laura.Ray@Bakkavor.com< [cid:image001.png@01D1E7E1.1A244EE0]

[BarryBu2]

We have a small PMO that monitors timesheet submissions and makes sure everyone submits one. Then they e-mail the PMO's with a link to an hours based 'Recent hours booked to my project' report (see attached image) that for each PM lists only the projects they own and that have had hours booked against it in the timesheet period. It lists who, and against what task. PM's have about three hours to correct anything that looks suspicious, after that the info's in the finance system (it can still be corrected, but is a more complex process).

The report has whatever hour columns you want (project name, owner (do-er) name, task name, hours, date etc).

Grouping is just by project name, then owner name

Filter is just project owner = $$

USER.ID

(i.e. only projects owner by the person running the report).

The real work is in a custom prompt, to choose this week or last week.

This week: entryDate=$$TODAYbw&entryDate_Mod=between&entryDate_Range=$$TODAYew

Last week: entryDate=$$TODAYbw-1w&entryDate_Mod=between&entryDate_Range=$$TODAYew-1w

[Doug_Den_Hoed__AtAppStore]

Excellent tips, everyone! As another strategy to encourage time capture as the work actually occurs (maturation / adoption / better data), I invite you to try out our Stopwatch solution, which works on any browser or smartphone. Regards, Doug