Helpful Tips
March 2005
How can I handle a user whose name has changed?
The short answer to this question is that Timesheet is not setup to really handle this type of request. Typically you would figure this would be an easy adjustment by simply changing the User ID itself but in Timesheet the User ID is the database's primary key; it cannot be changed. The workaround is to create a new User ID that reflects the user's new name. However, merging one User ID's records with a new User ID is a complex and inexact process. That said, the process is outlined below for our customers who need to make this happen.
In Timesheet, physically moving records requires that they be open and not submitted/approved. Most companies heavily use the approval feature of Timesheet, so this example assumes that you will have to reopen these records. You may not have to do this if you do not use approvals (skip the next paragraph if you do not use approvals).
If the record you wish to modify is in any state during the approval process (submitted for approval or completely approved), you can make corrections or, in our case, move the record by opening the sheets using the sheet open feature. You can access the sheet opener through the approval queue by clicking on the type of record you would like to reopen - NOT THE NUMBER. In our case we would click the 'Time' link and we would be taken to list of all the users in our system. Choose the user whose records you want to reopen. A list of ALL of that user's records will show up. The open sheets will appear with an X - which makes sense when you consider we have entered the sheet opener. Here you can select however many sheets you want to reopen (or select them all with the 'Check All' option) and open them. Now we can move them.
To physically move the opened records, you need to access the Time Records Management Section of Timesheet from the main admin page. Here you can select Time Modification. This will bring up an interface where you can select the appropriate range of records you want to move for the given user. Once the range is defined, all of the records will pop up. If you are merging one user with another you would want to select all of these records and click the 'Go to Modify Screen'. Here you can change the user associated with each record. You will have to select the new user manually through the the 'User' drop-down menu. Depending on the number of records this can be a tedious process. After you have reassociated the records to the new user click the 'Modify the records altered above' button. You have now 'merged' two user's time records as best as Timesheet can at this point.
Please Note: Reassociating these records does not change the history that is related to that record. If that record went through an approval template and associated with Project X, it will retain that history. Normally this is not a terribly big deal but if you plan on doing historical reporting over these older records, your reports will give you some strange output.
How do I place my company's logo on a Windows Timesheet Server?
To place a logo locally on a Windows Timesheet server, you must place the logo in the "image directory." From a command prompt:
cd %WTHOME%\jwt\htdocs\image
copy <file\path\name> .
Once the file is here, the URL that you will use to access the logo is: http://<the server>:the port/icons/the name of the logo file (if the port is 80 you don't have to list it)
