Table of Contents

Timesheet to Task Actuals Sync

Description

This feature allows Approved Timesheet hours against Projects to be calculated and applied as Actuals in the Altus Project Task schedule.

The Timesheet to Task Actuals sync feature is only available if Timesheets are in 'Project Tasks' Mode. If the Timesheets for an environment are set to 'Projects' Mode then this feature will not display.

This feature is only relevant to Projects whose schedules are native to Altus - it is not enabled for externally synchronised Projects.

Configuration settings

Image shows the Timesheet configuration screen

  • Display Name: Timesheets
  • Name: timesheetConfiguration

Relevant Fields:

  • Timesheet Mode: must be set to 'Project Tasks' for the feature to be turned available (and for the Allow Timesheet Actuals to Task Sync toggle to display)
  • Allow Timesheet Actuals to Task Sync: Must be set to 'Yes' for the feature to be available

Rules and Behaviour

The feature is present when;

  • Timesheets are in 'Project Tasks' Mode
  • The Allow Timesheet Actuals To Task Sync setting is turned On
  • The Project has a native Altus schedule (e.g. is not an External Project)
  • The user viewing the Tasks control has Read/Write access to the Project

When it is turned on, the feature is driven by the presence of Approved Timesheet hours relating directly to Tasks for the currently selected Project.

A server side calculation is made whenever the Task control is loaded from the Tasks tab on the Project Information form.

Approved Timesheet data for all tasks relating to the current Project are aggregated and compared to the Effort Completed values against the Tasks. If the calculated Effort Completed differs, then a changeset is passed back to the Task control and the user is alerted that there are pending changes from Timesheets that can be applied to the Schedule.

If the calculation has returned a changeset, then a banner will appear in the Task control alerting the user that there are pending changes. Image shows the Task control displaying a banner indicating that there are pending changes.

To review the pending changes, the user can select the Data > Review Timesheet Effort button from the Tasks control. Image shows the Data > Review Timesheet Effort button

Once the Review Timesheet Effort button has been pressed, the user will be presented with a table that summarises the pending changes. Tasks will only be shown in this preview table if the Timesheet data differs from the Task Effort Completed data. Image shows the Timesheet to Task sync Preview table

The Preview Table provides information on the new Effort values calculated for Project Tasks where the values differ from the current Task values. The data shown in the Preview Table includes;

  • The Tasks that have pending data to be updated
  • Total Effort (hours)
  • Completed Effort (hours)
  • Remaining Effort (hours)

Image shows the Timesheet to Task sync Preview table highlighting changes

The Completed column highlights the variation between the new calculated value and the previous task Effort Completed value. Note that the variation could be positive or negative in value (depending on previous manually entered values or presence of approved or retracted Timesheets).

The Total column will highlight a variation if the total completed effort in approved timesheets exceeds the previous Total Effort value for the task. In this instance the entire row of values will highlight in red to indicate that the Total Effort value has been calculated as requiring and update.

User can select to Close the Preview window and in that instance, no changes will be applied to the schedule.

The checkboxes to the left of the Task names in the preview window can be used to include only a selection of Tasks in the update that you apply to the Schedule. If any or all Tasks are selected to be updated, and the Apply button is pressed then the changes will be applied to the Schedule and the user is presented with a preview of those changes applied to their Schedule. At this point, the changes have been applied to the Schedule shown on screen, but the Schedule has not yet been saved. (User has opportunity to leave without making changes if they wish).

Pressing Save will apply the changes to the Schedule.

Note

Because the feature is driven from Approved Timesheet data, if a Task has previously been updated with actuals from a single approved Timesheet and the status of that Timesheet then changes (e.g. back to Draft), then the feature will not see any Approved Timesheet data for that task and consequently the sync activity will not reset the Effort values for that task (until that timesheet is again approved, or another timesheet is approved with data for that task).
Users can select to manually reset Effort Completed values if they wish.

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