Frequently Asked Questions
 
How do I to setup email within TimeScope?
 
TimeScope uses SMTP for email generation. If all of your TimeScope users are using the same SMTP server, then you simply need to add the following line to the Ts.Cfg file located in the TimeScope directory on the server:

                smtp_server  <the name of your smtp server>

For example: smtp_server smtp.anycompany.com. If your users have varying SMTP servers you will need to omit the above line, and instead enter each employee's SMTP server name into the Approval Domain tab on their employee form (via the Employees menu option).

 
How do I change the timesheet layout?
 
You define and maintain timesheet styles via the Properties command. A default style provided with TimeScope is designed to suit most implementations without adjustment. However, you can modify the default style if necessary, and you can create additional timesheet styles to suit the needs of different types of timekeepers or different organizations. A project column always appears as the first column on the timesheet. However, additional columns can be inserted to track other entities along with your projects. For example, you can track activities, clients, departments, or even custom database items that you have created, such as Work Order, Location, or Requester. When you insert additional columns timekeepers can then enter multiple charges against a specific project item. For example, time can be recorded for multiple activities against a particular project or task. To change your timesheet layout, click Properties from the sidebar menu, then expand the timesheet styles, and Open your timesheet style. Click the Columns tab, then check the desired checkboxes on the list of Optional Columns, then click OK.
 
My costs are not calculating, how do I get cost figures?
 
Normally costs and billing charges are calculated when time is approved, however, they can alternatively be calculated when timesheets are saved or submitted. The financial properties of the timesheet style form defines when costs and billing are automatically calculated. If you create or change rates that apply to previously entered time you will need to re-approve timesheets for the appropriate date range to force recalculation of costs and billing using the updated rates. For convenient mass re-approval, use the Approval command of the sidebar menu, and set the Approval Properties date range to span the entire period for which you wish to recalculate.
 
My billing charges are not calculating, how do I get billing figures?
 
Normally costs and billing charges are calculated when time is approved, however, they can alternatively be calculated when timesheets are saved or submitted. The financial properties of the timesheet style form defines when costs and billing are automatically calculated. If you create or change rates that apply to previously entered time you will need to re-approve timesheets for the appropriate date range to force recalculation of costs and billing using the updated rates. For convenient mass re-approval, use the Approval command of the sidebar menu, and set the Approval Properties date range to span the entire period for which you wish to recalculate.
 
How do I generate fixed costs or billing?
 
You can establish fixed fees for billing by project or milestone (subproject). You create fixed fees using the Rates option in the usual manner, but you define the rate basis as Fixed Fee. The billing is calculated when the status of the project or milestone has been changed to Complete. You can manually change the status by editing the project form, or it can be automatically changed when all assigned employees have reported completion of all tasks within the project or milestone via the Percent Complete column on the timesheet. The administrator can install the percent complete column onto the timesheet via the Columns tab of the timesheet style form.
 
How do I define who can approve who?
 
TimeScope provides a straightforward method for designating an employee's approval authority. You simply open the employee form, click the Approval Domain tab, and then select the entire organizations, employees, and/or projects that the employee can approve. The employee can then use either the timesheet or the explorer style Approval command to approve or reject time and expenses for the employees (or projects) within their approval domain.
 
How do I approve timesheets or individual projects?
 
You can approve timesheets (and expense sheets) directly from the timesheet view or via the Approval Explorer. From the timesheet view, select the approval menu by clicking the Approval tool, or right-clicking and selecting Approval. The approval menu provides commands for employee selection, approval, rejection, and locking. To approve timesheets, you simply select an employee and then click Approve. Approved time entries are displayed in blue text, and rejected time entries are displayed in red. The locking effect, indicated by a grayed background, prevents timekeepers from modifying time entries after they have been approved.

Alternatively, the explorer style Approval command lets you approve or reject employee time and expenses for any specified time period. The drill-down interface lets you approve at any level of granularity: organizations, employees, projects, tasks, employee assignments, or individual time entries. You can color-differentiate approved/unapproved time, billable/non-billable time, or compensated/uncompensated overtime. Note that you must be granted approval authority via the Approval Domain tab of the Employee form in order to approve employees or projects.

 
How do I control what menu options, fields, or reports are available to different users?
 
"User Roles" provide precise control over every aspect of TimeScope user involvement. User Roles control access to menu options, data items, and reports. Employees are assigned user roles on the security tab of the employee form. The set of available user roles is maintained by the administrator via the Properties menu command. Defaults are provided with TimeScope to suit most implementations. The administrator can modify existing user roles or create new roles to accommodate specific requirements for user involvement. Menu commands, at any level of the menu hierarchy from the sidebar menu down to individual menubar commands, can be enabled or disabled. Access to specific data items in the database can be controlled. Thus, users can be prevented from changing or even viewing particular items, both on-screen and when reporting. The administrator can control which folders of reports are available with each user role. Access to predefined and user-created report folders can be controlled, as well as import and export folders. To add a new User Role, choose Properties from the Administrator section of the sidebar menu. Expand the User Roles list, and then choose New from the menu. The user role form is presented. Set the properties contained on the form as required. Click OK to save. The new user role appears on the list. You can edit a user role at any time by clicking it and then choosing the Open command.
 
How do I notify users of missing or incomplete timesheets?
 
You can automatically notify timekeepers of missing or incomplete timesheets by running the following command line from the TimeScope directory on the server. The command can be scheduled on a recurring basis using your operating system (Windows) task scheduling tools. Note that you must first specify employee email addresses within the Employees menu option within TimeScope. TimeScope uses the Shift table hours (under Properties of the sidebar menu) to determine the expected number of timesheet hours for the scanned date range. This feature requires TimeScope release 5.2.04 or greater.

    wrun32.exe -# d -c  c:\timescope\emailexceptions.cfg cbl.out

This command uses a configuration file entitled emailexceptions.cfg containing the following parameters. Click to download a sample  emailexceptions.cfg file that you can modify as needed.

   
  user-login       Specifies the user login that the process will run under. Significant because only timekeepers within the user's organizational domain will be emailed.
  period-begin Enter the period begin date for which timesheets are scanned for adequate time entries. You can alternatively specify the word TODAY to have only current day timesheet entries scanned. If you wish to alert people prior to the end of the workday, perhaps before they have fully entered and saved their timesheets, in the period-end date parameter (below) you can enter the number of hours (as an integer) you would expect then to have entered by the time the scanning process is run. You can alternatively specify WTD, MTD, or YTD to scan the week to date, month-to-date, or year-to-date. The period-end date parameter is ignored with any of these options.
  period-end      Enter the period end date for which timesheets are scanned for adequate time entries. Leave this blank if using the WTD, MTD, or YTD options in the begin-date parameter. Leave blank when using the TODAY option also, unless you wish to alert people prior to the end of the workday, perhaps before they have fully entered and saved their timesheets. In this case you would enter the number of hours (as an integer) you would expect then to have entered by the time the scanning process is run.
  smtp_server   The name of your smtp mail server. For example, smtp.mycompany.com
  email-reply-to   Optional reply address, if not specified the email address of the user-login is given as the sender's address. You can use this to enter an anonymous reply-to address.
 
How do I email managers a list of employees with missing or incomplete timesheets?
 
You can automatically email managers a list of timekeepers with missing or incomplete timesheets by running the following command line from the TimeScope directory on the server. The command can be scheduled on a recurring basis using your operating system (Windows) task scheduling tools. TimeScope uses the Shift table hours (under Properties of the sidebar menu) to determine the expected number of timesheet hours for the scanned date range. This feature requires TimeScope release 5.2.04 or greater.

    wrun32.exe -# c -c  c:\timescope\emailexceptionlist.cfg cbl.out

This command uses a configuration file entitled emailexceptionlist.cfg containing the following parameters. Click to download a sample  emailexceptionlist.cfg file that you can modify as needed.

   
  user-login       Specifies the user login that the process will run under. Significant because only timekeepers within the user's organizational domain will be emailed.
  subject-line  Specifies the subject line of the emails to be sent.
  period-begin Enter the period begin date for which timesheets are scanned for adequate time entries. You can alternatively specify the word TODAY to have only current day timesheet entries scanned. If you wish to alert people prior to the end of the workday, perhaps before they have fully entered and saved their timesheets, in the period-end date parameter (below) you can enter the number of hours (as an integer) you would expect then to have entered by the time the scanning process is run. You can alternatively specify WTD, MTD, or YTD to scan the week to date, month-to-date, or year-to-date. The period-end date parameter is ignored with any of these options.
  period-end      Enter the period end date for which timesheets are scanned for adequate time entries. Leave this blank if using the WTD, MTD, or YTD options in the begin-date parameter. Leave blank when using the TODAY option also, unless you wish to alert people prior to the end of the workday, perhaps before they have fully entered and saved their timesheets. In this case you would enter the number of hours (as an integer) you would expect then to have entered by the time the scanning process is run.
  smtp_server   The name of your smtp mail server. For example, smtp.mycompany.com
  email-reply-to   Optional reply address, if not specified the email address of the user-login is given as the sender's address. You can use this to enter an anonymous reply-to address.
  email-recipient-1 You can specify up to 12 email recipients with the email-recipient-1 thru email-recipient-12 parameters. Delete the unused lines.
 
How do I email managers a list of employees (in their cost center only) with missing or incomplete timesheets?
 
You can automatically email managers a list of timekeepers with missing or incomplete timesheets by running the following command line from the TimeScope directory on the server. The command can be scheduled on a recurring basis using your operating system (Windows) task scheduling tools. TimeScope uses the Shift table hours (under Properties of the sidebar menu) to determine the expected number of timesheet hours for the scanned date range. This feature requires TimeScope release 5.2.04 or greater.

    wrun32.exe -# e -c  c:\timescope\ccreport.cfg cbl.out

This command uses a configuration file entitled ccreport containing the following parameters. Click to download a sample ccreport.cfg file that you can modify as needed.

   
  user-login       Specifies the user login that the process will run under. Significant because only timekeepers within the user's organizational domain will be emailed.
  subject-line  Specifies the subject line of the emails to be sent.
  period-begin Enter the period begin date for which timesheets are scanned for adequate time entries. You can alternatively specify the word TODAY to have only current day timesheet entries scanned. If you wish to alert people prior to the end of the workday, perhaps before they have fully entered and saved their timesheets, in the period-end date parameter (below) you can enter the number of hours (as an integer) you would expect then to have entered by the time the scanning process is run. You can alternatively specify WTD, MTD, or YTD to scan the week to date, month-to-date, or year-to-date. The period-end date parameter is ignored with any of these options.
  period-end      Enter the period end date for which timesheets are scanned for adequate time entries. Leave this blank if using the WTD, MTD, or YTD options in the begin-date parameter. Leave blank when using the TODAY option also, unless you wish to alert people prior to the end of the workday, perhaps before they have fully entered and saved their timesheets. In this case you would enter the number of hours (as an integer) you would expect then to have entered by the time the scanning process is run.
  smtp_server   The name of your smtp mail server. For example, smtp.mycompany.com
  email-reply-to   Optional reply address, if not specified the email address of the user-login is given as the sender's address. You can use this to enter an anonymous reply-to address.
  user-role-1   You may specify up to three User Roles (case sensitive) which are to receive emails containing a list of employees in their cost center with deficit timesheets via user-role-1, user-role-2, and user-role-3 entries.  Delete the unused lines.
  text-line-1   You may specify up to three lines of text (max 48 characters per line) which precede the list of employees with deficit timesheets via text-line-1, text-line-2, and text-line-3 entries.  Delete the unused lines.
 
 
How do I capture completion percentage or other assignments information from the timesheet?
 
A project column always appears as the first column on the timesheet. However, additional columns can be inserted to track other entities such as completion percentage. You define and maintain timesheet styles via the Properties command. A default timesheet style provided with TimeScope is designed to suit most implementations without adjustment. However, you can modify the default style if necessary, and you can create additional timesheet styles to suit the needs of different types of timekeepers or different organizations. To add columns, such as completion percentage, click Properties from the sidebar menu, then expand the timesheet styles, and Open the timesheet style that the relevant users have specified on their employee forms. Click the Columns tab, the check the completion percentage or other desired checkboxes on the list of Optional Columns, and then click OK.
 
 
     
 

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