Synopsis
Sparkrock's Time Entry application is used to capture time entry information for employees and provides for multi-level approvals.
Typically, Time Entry and Approvals are done on a weekly basis to allow for a common unit of time across all types of employees. Approved time entry data is brought into the Payroll Journal via Date Filter specified by the Payroll Operator.
The central concept for time entry is the Time Entry Unit. A Time Entry Unit represents a group of employees that share an approval route (such as a school building or department within an office location). Time Entry Units can be as broad or as specific as necessary. An employee can belong to an unlimited number of Time Entry Units. An approver can belong to an unlimited number of Time Entry Unit Approval Routes.
Within each Time Entry Unit are one or more Time Entry Positions. These are the positions that are associated with the Time Entry Unit for time entry purposes. Only employees having an assignment with those positions can do time entry for the time entry unit. Assigned to Time Entry Positions are one or more Time Entry Activities. Each Time Entry Unit Position must have at least one Activity Code assigned.
The Time Entry menu can be found in Human Resources Management.
Time Entry Modes
Timesheet data entry is controlled by the Data Model of the Time Entry Unit. It also requires each employee to have an assignment that matches the Time Entry Unit Position (and its filters). The Time Entry Data Model Options are:
Employee
In this mode, individual employees are responsible for doing their own time entry. Each employee will automatically get a time sheet if they have an assignment record that matches the Time Entry Unit Position criteria.
User
In this mode, a one-time entry user is responsible for data entry of timesheet data. For an employee to have a time sheet for the weekly period, they must have an assignment that meets the Time Entry Unit Position criteria.
Group
In this mode, users that are assigned to a Time Entry User Group are responsible for doing time entry for other employees. Any member of the group can do the timesheet data entry.
For example, if a school building has two secretaries that are responsible for data entry of time sheets, they can belong to the same Time Entry User Group that is assigned to a Time Entry Unit where the Data Entry Model is Group. That will tell the system that the users in that group will be entering time for employees of the unit.
If multiple employees are assigned to the same Time Entry Approval User Group, the first approver in the group to approve or deny a time sheet will act for the entire Approval User Group.
Note: If desired, you can choose to use generic names for the Time Entry User Group with a single user assigned. This simplifies maintenance in the case of personnel responsibility changes. See the Time Entry User Group Setup Example section for more information.