Helpful Tips
March 2002
Coordinating Access to Appropriate Tasks/Activities
Did you know that by using Journyx Timesheet Groups and Project Dependencies you can customize the list of Tasks (you may refer to them as work types, activities, cost centers, etc.) for each of your employees and projects? The default selection list that any employee sees in a column on his or her time entry screen is dependent upon the status of the item (i.e., loggable or hidden) and the employee's group membership. Groups are generally created for employees with characteristics in common (i.e., the Marketing Dept. or all non-exempt employees). While you may have a master list of 50 Tasks that are common across all projects in the company, employees in the Marketing Dept. group may only see the 10 from this list that are appropriate for what they do.
In addition to customizing the Task list (2nd column in a default time entry screen) by groups, you can further filter the list by specific Projects. When creating a project in Timesheet, you can select the individual Tasks that are valid for the project by creating project dependencies. When an employee selects the project with dependencies, his or her default list of Tasks will be filtered to include only those that are both in the employee's group and associated with the project.
Configuration Note: If none of the Tasks that are selected for a Project in dependencies are included in an employee's Group, the employee will not be able to log time against that Project. The employee must have Group access to at least 1 of the Tasks selected in dependencies in order to track time for the Project in question.
Automated Restriction of Time Tracking to Project Plan Schedule
While Timesheet is an excellent tool for detailed tracking of project actuals and real-time coordination, integrations with complementary project management systems are used to incorporate project planning and scheduling abilities. Journyx Projectlink, a standardized bi-directional integration between Timesheet and Microsoft Project, promotes best practices in project management by restricting project team members to work based on the project schedule.
If the MS Project plan is synchronized with Timesheet on a daily basis, each team member is only able to log time against projects to which they are assigned and that are scheduled for the particular day. Employees can view the off-schedule projects under Details, but they cannot log time to them on their time entry screens. In the event that the schedule requires modification, the plan in MS Project can be adjusted and compared to a baseline for performance tracking. When the adjusted plan is synchronized, the projects in Timesheet will be updated accordingly.
