Timesheets is accessed under the Management, Time and Attendance menu.
Note – Timesheets can be organised in many different ways such as cost codes, paypoints, organisations etc. depending on your organisations preferences. Throughout the guide the reference will be to organisation but this may not be the way your timesheets are organised, however the guide is the same irrespective of the way timesheets are organised.
When you select the Timesheets option you will be presented with the main navigation screen. What you see will depend on what access you have in the system You may only see one organisation for you to complete or there may be several depending on the organisations you are responsible for. You may also have the ability to authorise organisations.
The first thing to check is that you are viewing the correct period. The period you are looking at is shown with the pay month, and the month end date and is usually the current month :-
In this case the period is data for Pay Month 1 (April) but relates to unsocial and overtime hours worked during March. In all cases although the basic pay relates to the current month, all unsocial and overtime is paid in arrears, so unsocial hours earned during August are paid in September with Septembers basic pay.
If the wrong period is showing then select the correct period from the drop down . This will display any open periods although normally there should only be one period open.
To view a previous period of timesheet entries you can select the looking glass which will enable you to select previous periods timesheets to view. Any period with the cannot be changed.
When you are on the main timesheet navigation screen you will see all the organisations and assignments you are responsible for. To find an assignment (employee) quickly, you can select the button and enter the employees name and this will display the employees timesheet. You can do the same to locate an organisation using the option.
On the timesheet navigation screen you will see all the organisations you are responsible for and you can either see all the timesheets in an organisation by clicking on the blue header for that organisation, which will open up the paypoint and list the assignments, or you can view the which will list all the staff in that organisation, the status of the timesheet and any data so far entered and saved, or you can click on which will open the data entry screen with the list of assignments on the left.
Data Entry
You will need to make a decision about how you see your timesheets. The decision will apply to the whole organisation and therefore once the decision is made everyone viewing the organisation through the main data entry screen will see the screen in the format requested. Note – The default setting is summary (monthly totals). You can request that the display is altered to the other option by contacting your systems administrator.
If you are using self service timesheets then it is possible you may see your timesheets in different options if the employee has requested different views and this has been applied.
The two options available are :-
Option 1 – Daily Entries
This provides the option to make entries on a daily basis. The month is broken into the appropriate number of weeks ending on a Sunday with the date being shown against each days entry. This also shows the totals for the month (Period Totals) in the bottom line and these are automatically added up as you make the entries in the days. When you have regular entries to be made for many days then this is the best option to try. Also if you use the daily entries you are able to report on dates in the past and who received unsocial or overtime.
Option 2 – Monthly Summary
This option allows the same entries as option 1, except you only enter the monthly totals. There is no place for daily entries. This is useful where there are fewer entries to be made.
The main data entry screen will show three or four sections.
Employee Information – This is the data held on the Employee Staff Record System including name and National Insurance number, Assignment Number, Payscale & ESR Position, Contracted weekly Hours, and the Service dates.
Enhancements & Overtime – This is the main entry area for any Enhancements or overtime payments to be made. Enhancements are paid on any hours up to full time and Overtime is hours in excess of full time grade hours.
Emergency Cover –This is the area for entry of emergency cover or may be used for other uses as indicated by your organisation.
Actions – This section only appears once an entry has been made to either the Enhancements & Overtime or Emergency Cover sections or the timesheet has been submitted or authorised without entry. What this does is list actions taken on the timesheet, when these were taken and who took the action. If several people make entries each period only the last one to save an entry is listed.
Entering timesheet data is as simple as making an entry to the appropriate field. Please note there are a number of validation checks performed on the data to try to prevent possible errors. Some are just warnings that will allow you to save the entry and other are errors and the entries will not be saved.
Tip : You should save a record after making entries before clicking onto another person so that you see any items with validation errors or concerns.
Note that you should enter all hours in decimal, however if you need to enter in minutes make sure you make an entry with the ‘h’ so that the system is aware of what you are entering. For example you should enter 6 hours and 45 minutes as either ‘6.75’ or ‘6h45’. This will create the same result as the later entry will be converted to decimal. Note if the entry is for less than an hour enter with the ‘h’ first so for example the entry for 45 minutes only would be ‘h45’ or in decimal ‘0.75’.
If you are using the summary version then you need to enter the monthly total and any entry you make will override the previous entry. If you are using the daily version then any entry you make will be added to those on other days.
To change an entry just over-type or click in the box and press backspace to delete the entry.
To move between fields press the Tab button rather than enter as enter will save your entry and therefore take more time. The tab button allows you to make multiple entries to the same record before saving the record.
You can close (minimise) sections by clicking anywhere on the blue header bars. Once minimised the triangle turns to the right and you can make the section re-appear (maximise) by clicking on the blue header bar.
Once you have made entries select the button to save your entries. These will be saved but can be altered at a later stage by over-typing or click in the box and press backspace to delete the entry. Remember to re-save any changes.
Organisation Summary Information View
You can view entries made in the Summary format by returning to the main navigation screen and selecting the option. When you do this the screen that shows will be split into several sections such as Enhancements & Overtime, Medical Claim, Emergency Cover and Additional Information.
The Additional Information section will hold any comments and will list any continuing Absences for the assignments on this paypoint.
Youy can view the information in several ways including showing which will display all timesheets in the organisation, The which shows any of the assignments in the organisation that has any kind of entry on the timesheet under any section, or which will list any timesheets that have hours entries under any of the headings.
Once all entries have been made and in line with required deadlines the timesheets need to be submitted for authorisation. If you have Authorise access then you do not need to use submit but can Authorise an individual timesheet or group of timesheets.