Helpful Tips
November 2002
In Journyx Timecard, why is it that I have no data in my report after it has been generated?
It is possible that your regional date format setting is not set to the correct short date format.
In order to generate the report correctly, it needs to be set to: mm/dd/yyyy. This is done by going to Start, Settings, Control Panel, Regional Settings, Date, Short Date, and selecting the correct short date style.
If this does not fix the issue, it is also possible that your ODBC connection is not pointing to the database properly. You will need to contact your system administrator to have this verified.
Choosing Period/User Versus Project/Task Workflow Processes for Approving Timesheets
Timesheet includes two standard types of workflow approval processes - Period Approvals and Project Approvals. The two types of approvals can be used separately or in conjunction with one another. Period Approvals are frequently used for payroll and attendance verification because an employee's complete timesheet for a period is presented to the designated supervisor for approval. Project Approvals, on the other hand, route an employee's time to different approvers based on the selected project/task/code.
You must be logged in as an Administrator in order to set up new approval processes. Period Approvals can be configured by clicking on the "new" icon on the main Admin page under Approval Templates: Time. On the Time Approval Template Creation screen, you can choose primary and backup approvers for up to 5 levels of approval. You can also select email notification settings that mark milestones during the approval process. Once a template has been created, you can assign it on a per user basis. You also have the option of editing each employee's template for further customization after it has been assigned. If an employee has been assigned a Period Approval template, s/he will see a Submit for Approval button on the time entry screen. At the end of the period, the employee will submit his/her entire timesheet for approval (provided s/he hasn't broken any "auto-reject" rules set up by the customer that require correction prior to submission).
Project Approvals can be configured by clicking on the Projects (may be renamed in the customer install) icon on the main Admin screen. On the Project Management screen, choose the project for approval and click on the "new" icon under Approvals next to its name. On the Project Approval Settings screen, you can choose primary and backup approvers for multiple levels of approval. You can also choose to carry the project's approval settings over to existing child projects or new ones created in the future. Like Period Approvals, you can click on the Email Settings link to configure the email notifications for the selected Project Approval process. Employees who have not been assigned to a Period Approval template will not see the Submit for Approval button displayed by default on their time entry screens. However, the button will appear when they save time against a project that has an associated approval process. At the end of the time period, employees will submit their timesheets and time will be routed by project to each designated approver. Once the time has been submitted, each project approver can approve/reject the project time records in his/her approval queue independently of the other project approvers.
There are some issues and settings to consider when using Period and Project Approvals together. First of all, it is not possible to stagger the types level by level (i.e., Period Approval for Level 1 which passes on to Project Approvals on Level 2). No type can skip levels (i.e., Period Approval for Level 1 and Level 3); however, templates may have different numbers of total levels. Additionally, it is possible to tie levels together for enforced reconciliation. In other words, nothing is considered approved for passing on to Level 2 until all approvers (Period or Project) are in agreement and have approved the time on Level 1. This setting ("Project approvals synchronize levels.") can be activated from the main Admin screen under Global Preferences: Project Management. Finally, all approval settings are also available for Expense and Mileage. If you would like assistance in determining the right approval configuration for your organization, please contact us at support@journyx.com.
