Web TimeSheet 5.5 Release Notes

Administration

  • Disable Departments
    A new option on the Edit Department screen allows you to disable departments when they are no longer being used, regardless of whether there are users assigned to them (it is recommended, however, that users be removed from a department before disabling it).

  • New and Enhanced E-mail Notifications
    Two new e-mail notifications have been added to help you better manage communication with employees:
    • The Task Assignments Modified notification is sent daily to users who have received new task assignments or had task assignments removed. The notification allows scheduling for the time of day when e-mails are sent.
    • The Daily Reminder - Fill in Timesheet notification is sent daily to remind users to fill in their timesheets. The notification allows scheduling for the time of day when e-mails are sent.
    • The Timesheet Modified notification now provides complete information about any changes made to a user's timesheet, including the action performed, the initial (previous) value, the changed value, and row/field/date affected by the change.

  • New Actions in Permissions
    Two new actions have been added to the Add/Edit Permission screen:
    • "Allow blank resubmission comments" allows you to specify whether users are required to enter comments when resubmitting their timesheets after a un-submit, rejection, or re-open. The new action is located in the Timesheet section on the System tab.
    • "Allow blank rejection comments" allows you to specify whether approvers are required to enter comments when rejecting a user's timesheet. The new action, which was previously an option when setting up approval paths, is located in the Approvals section on the System tab.

  • "Allow blank rejection comments" Removed from Approval Paths
    The option to allow blank rejection comments has been removed from the Add/Edit Approval Path screen and moved to permissions to allow greater flexibility (per user instead of per approval path).

Projects

  • Edit Multiple Projects
    A new "mass update" feature allows project leaders to modify the attributes of multiple projects at once, including general project information, task information, project/task assignments, and rates.

  • Assigning Rates to Project Team - Redesigned
    The process of adding rates to project team members, and editing user/department rates, has been redesigned to make the process faster and easier.

  • Roll-up of estimates from sub-tasks
    A system-wide option has been added to allow project leaders to see automatically calculated estimates (hours and cost) based on the lowest level tasks in a project hierarchy. If your organization chooses to use this option, only the lowest level tasks in the hierarchy will allow manual entry of hour and cost estimates (parent projects/tasks will display the totals, but will not allow any modifications at the parent level).

  • Disable Clients
    A new option on the Edit Client screen allows you to disable clients when they are no longer being used, regardless of whether they are assigned to projects.

Timesheet

  • Timesheet Tasks/Dates Remain Visible When Scrolling
    A line has been added to the bottom frame of the timesheet that shows the date, task name, and billing option of the selected timesheet cell. This information is visible any time the user clicks in a time cell or user defined field cell (entry fields only).

  • More Characters Allowed for Timesheet Comments
    Timesheet comments now allow up to 2048 characters (in SQL and Oracle versions, limited to 255 characters in Access version due to MS Access limitation).

Reports

  • New Report - Substitute Users
    The Substitute Users report generates a list of the substitutes that have been set up for specific user. The report includes the substitute start and end dates, permissions, and forwarded notifications. The report data can be filtered by user, department, supervisor, and login status, and may include either active substitute users, or all substitutes whose start/end dates fall within a specified date range.

  • Enhanced Timesheet Audit Trail Report
    The Timesheet Audit Trail report has been enhanced to include a complete history of the changes made to a user's timesheet after it's initial submission. This means that once a timesheet has been submitted one time, all actions and changes made thereafter are included in the report.

    The Timesheet Audit Trail report includes the following new fields:

    • Modified On (replaces the previous "Saved On" field)
    • Row Affected
    • Field Affected
    • Date Affected
    • Initial Value
    • Changed Value
    • Change Comments (available only if DCAA compliance is enabled).

  • Expense Raw Data Report - Approvers Fields
    The Approver (expense sheet approver), Project Leader Approver, and Client Approver fields in the Expense Raw Data report have been enhanced to provide the names of the approvers who have already approved a particular expense entry. A name will appear in the field only if that individual has already approved the entry. In the case of multiple sheet level approvers (e.g., supervisors), the Approver field displays the name of the last user to approve the sheet.

  • Project Status Reports - Start and End Dates Include Tasks
    The Detail (Task) and Detail (Task-User) reports have been enhanced to show both the project start/end dates and the task start/end dates, depending on the report row. Previously, these fields showed only the project level information, regardless of whether the report row applied to the project or a task within the project hierarchy.

  • Fields Added
    Field Report
    Accrue Hours User Time Off
    E-mail Notifications User Detail
    Hours Remaining User Time Off
    Permissions User Detail
    Project Code Timesheet Comments
    Reset Hours User Time Off
    Seat Assignments User Detail
    Substitute Users User Detail
    Supervisor Timesheet Raw Data
    Task Code Timesheet Comments
    Task Assignments
    Task Assignment Details
    Total Hours Allowed User Time Off

    Refer to the Reports Field Matrix for a complete list of fields and grouping options available in Web TimeSheet reports.

System

  • DCAA Compliance
    A system-wide setting for DCAA compliance ensures that Web TimeSheet meets the requirements of the Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA) for automated timekeeping systems. It also provides additional controls that will allow your organization to enforce business policies associated with DCAA, such as daily timesheet entry and notifying employees when they have new jobs.

  • Roll-up of estimates from sub-tasks
    A system-wide option has been added to allow your organization to automatically calculate estimates (hours and cost) based on the lowest level tasks in a project hierarchy. If your organization chooses to use this option, only the lowest level tasks in the hierarchy will allow manual entry of hour and cost estimates (parent projects/tasks will display the totals, but will not allow any modifications at the parent level).

  • Basic and Advanced Filters
    A new mechanism provides filtering on list screens that can be potentially quite large. The filtering mechanism includes basic filters (the more common search fields) and advanced filters (more obscure search fields, with additional option of searching for "contains" text on fields that would normally be drop-down lists). The new filtering mechanism is available on the following list screens:

    • User Information
    • Historical Timesheets
    • Historical Expenses
    • Expense Codes*
    • Departments*
    • Clients*
    • Timesheet Approval History
    • Expense Approval History

    * These list screens do not have advanced filters; however, they do provide "contains" text fields in the basic filters.

  • Usage Statistics
    Replicon Inc. invites you to help us improve the quality, reliability, and performance of the Web TimeSheet application. If you decide to participate, Replicon will collect anonymous information about your hardware configuration and how you use our software to identify trends and usage patterns. The anonymous information obtained from you and other participants is used to improve Web TimeSheet and related services.

    Replicon will not collect your name, address, or any other identifying information about your organization - the process is safe, secure, transparent, and completely anonymous.

    If you choose to not participate, you can opt out by deselecting this option on the System Preferences screen.

Integration

  • MS Project
    The Web TimeSheet Integration Manager for MS Project has been enhanced to include compatibility with the MS Project 2003 Standard edition.