Clarity

  • 1.  Timeperiods when the time entry turned OFF

    Posted Sep 15, 2010 10:42 AM
    Clarity V12.04

    We turned OFF the time entry for some of the consultants due to the following situations.

    1) When a consultant is rolled off from the project and waiting for another assignment within the same organization
    2) Due to family emergency, a consultant visits his/her home country and return to onsite after couple of months
    3) We set up the consultant well ahead of time (a month before) and turned it back ON when he/she actually starts working in the project

    Questions:

    1) I believe the timesheets are created based on the hire date of the resource. If the hire date is NULL or Blank, clarity creates back time periods. How do we prevent this?
    2) Turned the time entry OFF for some time and turned it back ON creates all back time periods. We had to re-open the time period, submit zero timesheet and close the time periods for timesheet compliance and reporting. How do we handle this situation?
    3) If a resource is active then timesheet must be submitted either zero hours or actual hours until the resource is set to inactive. Is this TRUE?

    Any thoughts or ideas will be highly appreciated.

    Thanks
    -Venkitta


  • 2.  RE: Timeperiods when the time entry turned OFF

    Posted Sep 15, 2010 12:37 PM
    "Open for time entry" at resource level is not a time-scaled value, its just ON or OFF, so switching it ON/OFF is not going to do what you describe in your 3 scenarios.

    Rather rhe consultants "expected hours" varies in the situations you describe; so I think that should be controlled by the resources "availability" (between (eg) 8hrs a day and 0 hours a day - controlled in teh resource calendar for example) and not just their "open/closed" for time entry attribute. Clarity can report on overbooking against availabilty and such things so you can see where resources have overbooked (eg submitted timesheets for periods where you dont expect time) - but your business processes must be set up to be interested in that.

    So, answers (maybe? ;-) )

    [color=#26E11B]1) I believe the timesheets are created based on the hire date of the resource. If the hire date is NULL or Blank, clarity creates back time periods. How do we prevent this?[color]

    (Be careful with your terminology, you are mixing "timesheets for a time period" and "time periods" a little bit here)

    But, timesheets are never automatically CREATED based on any of these settings; what the settings control is the potential to create a timesheet for the resource - the timesheets screen might well show on "Open" timesheet for a resource/period but until someone has actually clicked into that timesheet entry, then the timesheet DOES NOT EXIST.

    "How can you prevent this"... I do understand what you are trying to prevent (preventing entry of a timesheet for a period when the resource is not actually working for you), I'm not sure that there is a way to do that as such (beyong controlling resource availability like I mention above).

    [color=#26E11B]2) Turned the time entry OFF for some time and turned it back ON creates all back time periods. We had to re-open the time period, submit zero timesheet and close the time periods for timesheet compliance and reporting. How do we handle this situation?[color]

    Again, NOTHING is being CREATED when you turn the resource back on, just the potential to create a timesheet... submitting a zero timsheet for the period you don't want the resource to book to is a good idea; but nothing stops the resource ADJUSTING that zero timesheet to something else, so I dont think you are actually achieving anything with that?

    [color=#26E11B]3) If a resource is active then timesheet must be submitted either zero hours or actual hours until the resource is set to inactive. Is this TRUE?[color]

    "MUST BE" - you tell me? The Clarity system doesn't enforce this so if you think you "must" submit a timesheet then that is YOUR business process decision!

    i.e. Nothing stops me submitting timesheets for later periods, leaving earlier periods unentered.... your "business rules" might differ, but Clarity isn't making you do anything for those periods; i.e. you only have to fill in the timesheet for the peroids you need to capture the actuals for!

    --

    In summary; this shouldn't be a problem for you; just get people to fill in timesheets for the time they are working (no kidding!) and tell Clarity what time you are expectiving for the resource (availability) and thats it!

    (phew, thats a but of a ramble)


  • 3.  RE: Timeperiods when the time entry turned OFF

    Posted Sep 15, 2010 02:01 PM
    I completely agree with you.

    So what you are saying is that if I mark as Non-working days for the entire week in my resource calendar then I should NOT have any open timesheets. Right?

    Most of the reports used in my organization is based on the time entry flag. If the flag is ON, then a blank timesheet must be submitted to off the metrics and reports otherwise we turn OFF the time entry flag.

    How do I know whether a consultant did not work for the entire week or forgot to submit the timesheet? In my organization, we submit 45 (9 hours per day) as Out of office and submit for approval if some one is on vacation for a week. We do not leave any timesheet Open or unsubmitted.

    I'm still trying to understand how a timesheet is getting created...For example: if a consultant starts this week, clarity creates back time periods based on some logic. Leaving the timesheets open causing non-compliance issue.

    Again, appreciate all your inputs.

    -Venkitta


  • 4.  RE: Timeperiods when the time entry turned OFF
    Best Answer

    Posted Sep 15, 2010 02:26 PM
    [color=#09AB1D]I completely agree with you.[color]

    I'm not sure that you follow what I'm saying though;

    [color=#09AB1D]So what you are saying is that if I mark as Non-working days for the entire week in my resource calendar then I should NOT have any open timesheets. Right?[color]

    [color=#FF0606]NO![color]

    If you mark as non-working days, then the resource's availability for that day is zero, but that DOES NOT prevent the resource booking time on that day. What that does give you is the information that the resource has overbooked actuals (compared with their availability for that day). There are many screens in Clarity that highlight such overbooking (eg the "Resource Planning" screens)

    ....and all this is nothing to do with whther the resource has or has not got an "Open" timesheet.

    [color=#09AB1D]Most of the reports used in my organization is based on the time entry flag. If the flag is ON, then a blank timesheet must be submitted to off the metrics and reports otherwise we turn OFF the time entry flag.[color]

    As I said earlier; the "Open for Time Entry" flag against a resource has NO CONCEPT of "date effectiveness" - therefore it is entirely inappropriate to drive reports off that flag if they are trying to tell "was a timesheet expected for a certain date" - all the "Open for time entry" flag tells you if that resource can enter timesheets RIGHT NOW.

    In order to tell whther a resource was expected to fill in a timesheet for a specific date, you can compare the resources ACTUALS against their AVAILABILITY (as discussed above). When they fill in a timesheet for a period when you are NOT expecting it this will tell you that they have OVERBOOKED, when they do not fill in a timesheet when you are expecting one then this will report UNDERBOOKING.

    [color=#09AB1D]How do I know whether a consultant did not work for the entire week or forgot to submit the timesheet? In my organization, we submit 45 (9 hours per day) as Out of office and submit for approval if some one is on vacation for a week. We do not leave any timesheet Open or unsubmitted.[color]

    If you are controlling that resource's AVAILABILTY in the system, then you can tell this just from OVERBOOKING/UNDERBOOKING. In my opinion you should not worry about leaving OPEN or UNSUBMITTED timesheets too much; the OVER/UNDERBOOKING will tell you the information you are after.

    [color=#09AB1D]I'm still trying to understand how a timesheet is getting created...For example: if a consultant starts this week, clarity creates back time periods based on some logic. Leaving the timesheets open causing non-compliance issue.[color]

    A timesheet is ONLY EVER CREATED when you click on the clock icon in the timesheets screen (or go to "my current timesheet"). The system NEVER automatically creates timesheets. You are still talking about the system creating time periods; again IT NEVER DOES THIS. What the system is doing is giving YOU the opportunity to create a timesheet for a resource for a period (but the system IS NOT creating anything itself).

    I think your "if a consultant starts this week" problem is becauise yoy have already said you are not populating the resource's start date? If you populate that correctly then teh system will not give YOU the opportunity to create timesheets "in the past". Otherwise it is allowing YOU to create timesheets for every OPEN TIME PERIOD for the resource (because YOU have not set the start date for the resoiurce) and because YOU have not closed the prior time period (?).

    --

    I think you really need to get you head around AVAILABILITY vs ACTUALS for reporting when you expect/dont expect a timesheet and forget about the "open for time entry" setting (since that is NOT telling you anything useful, only whether the resource can enter a timesheet RIGHT NOW)

    Good luck with that then!

    :happy


  • 5.  RE: Timeperiods when the time entry turned OFF

    Posted Sep 15, 2010 03:01 PM
    I completely understand that. The way it is designed in my organization, I got confused with the clarity functionality.

    Thanks a lot for your help


  • 6.  RE: Timeperiods when the time entry turned OFF

    Posted Sep 15, 2010 03:20 PM
    Thank you Dave for your effort and sound reasoning and sharing your knowledge as education to us others.

    Martti K.