Helpful Tips
July 2002
Setting Default Values for Time Entry Column Drop-downs
Customers have been asking for this feature for years - the ability to specify which value will appear in the time entry column fields by default. In all previous versions of Journyx Timesheet, the five entry fields simply defaulted to whatever value happened to be first alphabetically. In Journyx Timesheet 5.0, we have added the ability to determine what value would appear as the default selection depending upon the employee's Time/Expense/Mileage Entry screen assignment.
The ability to define a default value for those fields is based upon the Default Value field on the Time* Entry Screen Modification page for each Time Entry environment that has been created under Application Interface Management. While the Default Value field was included in previous versions, in the past that field simply specified the value that would appear in the database if the user did not have access to the field (i.e., It was hidden on their time entry screens.). It still does that for hidden fields (on that page you set the field's priority to zero). But now for all of the fields that the user can see, that default value will be the choice that is selected first on the entry screen for the users.
For most upgrading customers, no one ever bothered to set those default values to anything simply because they were useless if the field was visible to the employees. So, all of those fields are assigned the first value alphabetically, and the employee sees what he is used to seeing--the first value alphabetically. But if your administrator had tried to set a default value for you, or if the field was hidden at one time and now is visible again, then you could have any value appearing there.
There are several overriding concerns that you need to keep in mind when assigning a default value for the fields on the entry screen:
- The user has to have access to the value in his/her group, or he/she will still not see it. And in that case the screen will default to the first value alphabetically that s/he can see.
- If the default value project has dependencies, then the default values for the other fields will have to be valid dependent values of that project. Or, again, the first value alphabetically will appear for the employees.
*This example refers specifically to Time Entry screens. The same functionality exists for Expense & Mileage Entry screens as well.
How can I restrict users from billing time against certain projects?
The Group Management screen allows users to be grouped by desired access. Different company structures will require different implementations of this feature. The most common method of creating groups is to create two types of groups: those for the projects and team members working on each project, and those for the tasks/pay types/other codes/etc. for each type of employee (i.e. accountant, developer).
With this arrangement, each individual is in at least two groups-- one that designates the projects s/he sees, and another that designates the appropriate work types for his/her job description.
