Preparing Time Reports and Time Adjustments

This chapter provides overviews of time report processing and time report parameters and defaults, and discusses how to:

Click to jump to parent topicUnderstanding Time Report Processing

PeopleSoft Expenses provides a time reporting system to track project and personal time for employees. Time reports replace written time sheets, punch cards, and spreadsheets that require manual monitoring or organizational budgets.

From the Travel and Expense Center, you can select to create, modify, view, delete, and print time reports. As you go through the preparation process, you can change general information and charge hours to projects or activities. If you have installed PeopleSoft Program Management and enabled the Estimated Time to Complete functionality, employees can view and modify their remaining work estimates. You can save time reports for further work or submit them for approval.

You can submit time reports weekly, biweekly, or semimonthly. You define the submission frequency at the general ledger business unit level and approvals at the setID level. If your organization requires monthly billing, employees can submit their time reports at the end of the month and submit a time report adjustment with their hours for the remainder of their workweek.

When project or activity status is set to Inactive, hours or adjustments may not be booked to them. Inactive projects or activities are not available for selection on a time report or for a time report adjustment. If a project or activity status is set to Closed, you may enter hours on a time report or a time report adjustment if the project control action is set to Warning in PeopleSoft Project Costing. However, you may not enter hours on a time report or time report adjustment for a closed project when the project control action is set to Reject.

PeopleSoft Expenses does not allow you to enter negative hours or more than 24 hours per day on a time report or time report adjustment. Also, you cannot enter hours on time reports or time report adjustments for days prior to the employee's hire date.

See Also

Copying or Adding Expense Lines

Controlling Incoming Transactions

Click to jump to parent topicUnderstanding Time Report Parameters and Defaults

You set up time reporting frequencies and thresholds on the Expenses Definition – Business Unit 2 page. The Time Report Period parameter determines the number of days to display for time entry. For example, if you select Weekly, PeopleSoft Expenses displays a seven-day grid on the time report pages.

You can establish thresholds at the general ledger business unit level for PeopleSoft Expenses to issue warnings or errors if employees submit time reports over or under the required number of hours for a time reporting period. For example, if you establish a maximum per period threshold of 50 hours per week and select an alert action to issue an error, PeopleSoft Expenses prevents employees from submitting time reports that exceed 50 hours per week. If you select the Warning option, employees receive a warning message from the system, but they can still submit the report for approval. You can override these thresholds at the employee level on the Employee Profile - Organizational Data page by deselecting the Use Business Unit Default check box and entering new minimum and maximum hours per period.

Also on the Expenses Definition – Business Unit 2 page, you can establish the window of time to submit transactions for inactivated employees. If you use the Inactive Employee Submissions option, PeopleSoft Expenses checks the employee status and action date when a time report is submitted. If the employee is inactive, PeopleSoft Expenses verifies if the grace period has been exceeded and, if so, issues an error to prevent further processing of the expense transaction.

The Time Grid Display group box on the Expenses Definition – Business Unit 2 page enables you to display project, policy, or both grids on time reports. If you select to display the project or policy grid, PeopleSoft Expenses hides the other grid for employees in that general ledger business unit. You can also select whether you want project codes or descriptions to prepopulate on time reports on the Expenses Definition – Business Unit 2 page. Employees can override this setting by accessing the Employee Profile - User Defaults page where they can select their own defaults.

See Configuring Business Units for PeopleSoft Expenses, Maintaining User Defaults.

Click to jump to parent topicCommon Elements Used in This Chapter

Billing Action

The system populates this field with information, if it exists, from the employee profile defaults. You may override or update this value.

Select Billable, Nonbillable, or Internal. Billing action defaults to Billable if no user defaults are defined. If you use PeopleSoft Project Costing, billing codes are required to identify project time that is both billable and charged to project costing ChartFields.

Period End Date

Displays the date that the time reporting period ends for the employee (based on the setID of the employee ID). If you create the time report without specifying a date, the system uses the current date to calculate the actual period end date:

  • For weekly or biweekly reporting, the system defaults to the closest calendar date that corresponds with the day of the week that the employee's time reporting period ends.

  • For semimonthly reporting, the system defaults to the 15th if the current date is on or before the 15th, or defaults to the end of the month if the current date is on or after the 16th.

Post Status

Displays the time report status from POST_STATUS_EX. Statuses are:

  • Closed

  • Marked for Unpost or Marked

  • Not Applied or Not Appl

  • Unpost in Process or Unpost

  • Posted

  • Close in Process or Close

  • Unposted

Time Report Status

Displays the time report status from TIME_SHEET_STATUS. Statuses are:

  • Approved

  • Denied

  • Denied by Approver

  • Denied by Project Manager

  • Hold by Approver

  • Hold by Project Manager

  • Hold

  • Partial Approval

  • Pending

  • Pending Billing Approval

  • In Process

  • Submitted or Resubmitted

User Defaults

Click to access the Employee Profile - User Defaults page to view or modify the defaults, which include creation method and project defaults. PeopleSoft Expenses displays this link only in Create or Modify mode; approvers and project managers do not have access to this link.

Note. This link is not available if the User Defaults option on the employee privilege template for the travel authorization transaction is set to Hide.

Version

Displays the version type and version number of the time report. Values are:

  • Partial: Indicates that the version is a partial time report for a time period. When employees select to adjust a partial time report, PeopleSoft Expenses labels the next version the Original.

  • Original: Indicates that the version is the original time report.

  • Revision [number]: If you adjust an original time report, PeopleSoft Expenses displays Revision 1, Revision 2, and so on to indicate the specific revision number for the time report.

Click to jump to parent topicCreating Time Reports

This section provides an overview of time report creation options and discusses how to create time reports.

Click to jump to top of pageClick to jump to parent topicUnderstanding Time Report Creation

When you create a time report, you have options on which to base the new document, and the selection that you make triggers other choices that prompt you for details about the time report. You can start with a blank time report that can be populated with defaults defined in the employee profile or populate it with data from another time report.

Click to jump to top of pageClick to jump to parent topicPages Used to Create Time Reports

Page Name

Definition Name

Navigation

Usage

General Time Report Information

TE_TIME_MAIN

Employee Self-Service, Travel and Expense Center, Time Report, Create

Create a new time report.

Create Time Report - Copy from an Existing Time Report

TE_COPY_TIME_RPT

  • Employee Self-Service, Travel and Expense Center, Time Report, Create

  • Click the Copy from an Existing Time Report link on the General Time Report Information page.

Select a previous time report as a basis for a new report.

Click to jump to top of pageClick to jump to parent topicCreating Time Reports

When you use the Employee Self-Service menu to create a time report, PeopleSoft Expenses checks for a default creation method. Depending on what your default creation method is set to on the Employee Profile - User Defaults page, PeopleSoft Expenses displays the next page based on the user defaults and prepopulates fields according to user defaults. If you do not have a default creation method, PeopleSoft Expenses defaults to open a blank report.

The creation methods for time reports are:

Click to jump to parent topicEntering General Information on a Time Report

This section discusses how to enter general information on a time report.

Click to jump to top of pageClick to jump to parent topicPage Used to Enter General Information on a Time Report

Page Name

Definition Name

Navigation

Usage

Time Report - General Time Report Information

TE_TIME_MAIN

  • Employee Self-Service, Travel and Expense Center, Time Reports, Create (if your default creation method is Open a Blank Report).

  • Click the General Report Information link on the Time Report - Time Report Summary page.

Enter descriptive information about a time report.

Click to jump to top of pageClick to jump to parent topicEntering General Time Report Information

Access the General Time Report Information page (Employee Self-Service, Travel and Expense Center, Time Reports, Create (if your default creation method is Open a Blank Report).

Note. Some fields on the General Time Report Information page do not appear in Create mode. PeopleSoft Expenses displays these fields after you create the time report, save or submit the report, exit the component and return to the page.

Time Report Defaults

Country, State, and Locality

The system populates these fields with information, if it exists, from the user default table. You may override or update these values.

Continue

Click to access the Time Report Summary page and enter project and personal hours.

Copy from an Existing Time Report

Click to access the Copy from an Existing Time Report page and select a time report to copy. This link appears only in create or modify modes.

Click to jump to parent topicEntering Time and Details on Time Reports

This section discusses how to:

Click to jump to top of pageClick to jump to parent topicPages Used to Enter Time and Details on Time Reports

Page Name

Definition Name

Navigation

Usage

Time Report Summary

TE_TIME_LINES

Employee Self-Service, Travel and Expense Center, Time Reports, Create (if your default creation method is Open a Blank Report).

Click the Continue button on the General Time Report Information page.

Add, modify, or view project hours and personal hours for a time report.

Project Time Details

TE_TIME_DTL

Employee Self-Service, Travel and Expense Center, Time Reports, Create (if your default creation method is Open a Blank Report).

Click the Continue button on the General Time Report Information page.

Click the Details button under the Project Time tab on the Time Report Summary page.

Add, modify, or review project ChartField defaults for a time report.

Click to jump to top of pageClick to jump to parent topicEntering Project and Personal Hours

Access the Time Report Summary page (Employee Self-Service, Travel and Expense Center, Time Reports, Create (if your default creation method is Open a Blank Report).

Note. For a weekly time reporting frequency, the system displays all days on a single page. For other frequencies, you must scroll through the pages by using the left or right arrows.

Time Report ID and Status

The system automatically assigns these values when you save a time report for the first time. If you do not save the time report, the system does not display these fields.

Project Time Tab

You define PeopleSoft Project Costing business units, project IDs and activity IDs in PeopleSoft Project Costing. You also define whether entry of PeopleSoft Project Costing business unit, Project ID, and Activity ID on time reports is required or optional.

Note. Before you close or inactivate a project ID or activity ID, it is recommended that you verify that there are no pending transactions associated with those project IDs or activity IDs.

Click the Details button to access the Time Report - Project Time Details page to view or modify general ledger ChartFields, and location defaults for a time report.

Note. This button is not available if the Distributions option on the employee privilege template for the time report transaction is set to Hide.

See Entering Project Time Details.

PC BU (project costing business unit)

Select a business unit to report time for a project.

Project

Select a project for which you want to record time. You create projects in PeopleSoft Project Costing.

Activity

Select a project activity for which you want to record time. You create activities in PeopleSoft Project Costing.

Project Related Hours

Enter hours for each project on the applicable dates.

Total

Displays the total number of hours entered on the time report.

Remaining Work

Displays the calculated difference between the remaining work totals from PeopleSoft Project Costing and the hours entered into the daily totals on the time report.

Note. PeopleSoft Expenses displays this field only if you installed PeopleSoft Program Management and selected the Allow Entry of Estimate to Complete check box on the Expenses Definition – Business Unit 2 page.

New Estimate

Enter a new estimated time to complete the project or activity.

Note. PeopleSoft Expenses displays this field only if you installed PeopleSoft Program Management and selected the Allow Entry of Estimate to Complete check box on the Expenses Definition – Business Unit 2 page.

Status and Issues Tab

This tab is available if PeopleSoft Program Management is installed. The status and issues links are available to transfer you into PeopleSoft Program Management to report project status and manage project issues.

Status and Issues

Click to access the Status Report Entry component (PC_SR_ENTRY) and Issue Management Issue Detail component (PC_IM_ISSUE) in PeopleSoft Program Management where you can report project or activity status and manage project issues.

Reset to User Defaults

Click for the system to clear project hours and replace the PC BU, Project, and Activity ID fields with the information from the user default table. This button is not available to approvers or project managers.

Update Totals

Select to update and verify the totals for project and policy time. The system hides this button when the page is in a display-only mode. This button is available to project managers but not available to approvers.

Description

Enter hours to charge to nonproject time according to the mapped time report codes, such as floating holidays, contract holidays, illness, vacation, and so forth.

Save for Later and Submit for Approval

You can save the time report or submit it for approval based on the following rules:

  • If you do not enter hours in either grid and no prior period adjustments are associated with the time report, you can save the time report but you cannot submit it for approval.

  • If you do not enter any hours but prior period adjustments are associated with the time report, then the system allows you to submit the report.

  • If you enter hours in the project hours grid and there are project rows with no hours, the system displays a warning message that those project rows are deleted if you submit the time report for approval.

Submit for Partial Month

Select to submit the time report for end of month processing, even if there are days remaining in the time reporting period.

For non-semimonthly time reporting, the end of a month may not fall at the end of an employee's workweek. If your organization requires billing at the end of the month, employees can submit their time up to the end of the month and then submit another time report with the remaining hours for the time period.

Note. Employees cannot submit another time report with the remaining hours for the time period until the partial time report is approved and posted.

General Report Information

Click to access the Time Report - General Time Report Information page to view the general information about the time report.

See Entering General Information on a Time Report.

Pending Actions

PeopleSoft Expenses displays this section after you submit the time report.

Profile and Name

Displays the names of the approvers and their roles.

Action

Displays the pending actions in the time report approval process.

Date/Time

Displays the date and time on which the approval status was assigned.

Action History

PeopleSoft Expenses displays this section after you submit the time report.

Profile and Name

Displays the name of the originator, approver, and their role.

Action

Displays the completed steps in the time report approval process.

Date/Time

Displays the date and time on which the approval status was assigned.

Click to jump to top of pageClick to jump to parent topicEntering Project Time Details

Access the Time Report - Project Time Details page (Employee Self-Service, Travel and Expense Center, Time Reports, Create (if your default creation method is Open a Blank Report).

If you are using employee privilege templates, access to this page is dependant on the value in the Distributions field, and access to these fields is dependant on the value in the GL ChartFields and PC ChartFields fields for the time report transaction.

For more information about employee privilege templates:

See Maintaining Employee Privilege Templates.

Projects ChartFields

If you install PeopleSoft Project Costing, the system displays the PC Bus Unit (project costing business unit), Project, Activity, Source Type, Category, and SubCat (subcategory) fields where you can add or modify information.

Note. You define if the PC business unit, project, and activity are required or optional for PeopleSoft Project Costing on the Projects Options page.

If PeopleSoft Project Costing is not installed, the system displays the PC Bus Unit, Project, and Activity fields where you can add or modify information.

General Ledger ChartFields

Add or modify general ledger ChartField information.

Location

Locality

This is a geographic area that your organization defines for reporting purposes. You can use this field to describe tax requirements that are local to the area.

Click to jump to parent topicAdjusting Time Reports

This section provides an overview of time report adjustments and discusses how to adjust time reports.

Click to jump to top of pageClick to jump to parent topicUnderstanding Time Report Adjustments

Employees can adjust time reports by creating a revision of the time report that they wish to adjust. Time reports become available for adjustments after they have been submitted, approved, and staged to PeopleSoft Project Costing. You may not enter an adjustment for a time report if another adjustment is in progress for the same report.

For non-semimonthly time reports when the end of the month does not fall at the end of a workweek, employees can enter information up to the end of the month and submit a partial time report. After their partial time report has been approved and staged to PeopleSoft Project Costing, they can add the remaining time as a new version of that report.

Navigate to the time report using the Employee Self-Service, Time Report, View menu to create a revision of the time report that you want to adjust. If there is another adjustment pending for the time report, the time report ID link is not available for selection on the Time Report - Search Results page. The time report search page includes a Version column to indicate whether the time report is a Partial, the Original, or a Revision. Click the link in the Period End Date column on the Time Report - Search Results page to access any version of the time report. When PeopleSoft Expenses displays the View Time Report - Time Report Summary page, you have the option to create a revision for the most current time report version. When you select Create Revision from the Version Action drop-down list box and click Go, PeopleSoft Expenses creates a new time report with a new version identifier. If you navigate to an older version of the time report, either the original or a previous version, PeopleSoft Expenses displays the report in view-only mode.

Internally, PeopleSoft Expenses numbers an original time report as Version 1. When you adjust the time report, the system numbers it Version 2 but refers to it as Revision 1 in the search views. PeopleSoft Expenses uses Version 0 for partial time reports. When you modify a partial time report to add remaining hours for the period, the system numbers it as Version 1. Subsequently, if you adjust that time report, PeopleSoft Expenses numbers it Version 2 and refers to it as Revision 1 in the search views.

Note. You cannot perform a partial submit on a revision.

Click to jump to top of pageClick to jump to parent topicPages Used to Adjust Time Reports

Page Name

Definition Name

Navigation

Usage

Time Report - Search Results

TE_TIME_ENTRY_INQ

Employee Self-Service, Travel and Expense Center, Time Report, View

Select a time report to view.

View Time Report - Time Report Summary

TE_TIME_LINES

Employee Self-Service, Travel and Expense Center, Time Report, View

View time reports that have been submitted, approved, and staged. In view mode, you can create a prior period adjustment.

Time Report - Time Report Summary

TE_TIME_LINES

Employee Self-Service, Travel and Expense Center, Time Report, View

Select Create Revision in the Version Action drop-down list box on the View Time Report - Time Report Summary page.

Create an adjustment for a time report.

Click to jump to top of pageClick to jump to parent topicAdjusting Time Reports

Access the View Time Report - Time Report Summary page (Employee Self-Service, Travel and Expense Center, Time Report, View).

Note. Fields on the View Time Report - Time Report Summary page are the same as the files you see when you create a time report and are defined in that section of this chapter.

Version Action

Select to create or view different versions of a time report. The Version Action page element appears only for time reports that have been submitted, approved, and staged to PeopleSoft Project Costing. Options are:

  • Create Revision: Select to create a revision of the most current time report, regardless of which version of the time report you are currently viewing. PeopleSoft Expenses only allows you to revise the most current version or revision of a time report. For example, you have an original version and one revision and you want to create Revision 2. Whether you are viewing the original time report or Revision 1, when you select Create Revision on the View Time Report - Time Report Summary page, PeopleSoft Expenses creates Revision 2.

  • View Partial Submit: Select to view a partially-submitted time report.

  • View Original: Select to view the original time report.

  • View Revision [number]: Select to view Revision 1, Revision 2, Revision 3, and so forth.

View Other Version

Select to view different versions of a time report.

The View Other Version drop-down list box appears instead of the Version Action drop-down list box if time reports are not available for prior period adjustments.

Click to jump to parent topicViewing and Modifying Time Reports

This section discusses how to view or modify time reports.

Click to jump to top of pageClick to jump to parent topicPages Used to View or Modify Time Reports

Page Name

Definition Name

Navigation

Usage

Time Report - Search Results

TE_TIME_ENTRY_INQ

Employee Self-Service, Travel and Expense Center, Time Report, View

Select a time report to view.

View Time Report - Time Report Summary

TE_TIME_LINES

Employee Self-Service, Travel and Expense Center, Time Report, View

View time reports that have been submitted, approved, and staged. In view mode, you can create a prior period adjustment.

View Approver Comments

EX_COMMENTS_RJCT

  • Employee Self-Service, Travel and Expense Center, Time Report, [View or Modify]

    Click the View Approver Comments link on the Time Report - Time Report Summary page.

  • Travel and Expenses, Travel and Expense Center, Time Report, [View or Modify]

    Click the View Approver Comments link on the Time Report - Time Report Summary page.

When an approver sends back a time report, you can review their comments in full by clicking on the comment link at the top of the page. This takes you to the View Approver Comments page where you can see the full comment.

Click to jump to top of pageClick to jump to parent topicViewing or Modifying Time Reports

Access the Time Report - Time Report Summary page (Employee Self-Service, Travel and Expense Center, Time Report, View).

If you access the Time Report - Time Report Summary page using the View navigation, then PeopleSoft Expenses displays the page in read-only mode. You can only view time reports that you submitted for approval.

If you access the Time Report - Time Report Summary page using the Modify navigation, then PeopleSoft Expenses enables you to edit all of the fields. You can modify a time report if you have not submitted it for approval, or if an approver sent it back for revision or correction.

Note. Fields on the Time Report - Time Report Summary page are the same as the fields you see when you create a time report and are defined in the Creating Time Reports section of this chapter.

Sent Back for Revision and View Approver Comments

Click the View Approver Comments link to access the View Approver Comments page and view the comments an approver made regarding the reason they sent the time report back for revisions.

Click to jump to parent topicDeleting Time Reports

If you create a time report and decide not to process it, you can delete the time report if it is in Pending status. You can also delete a time report if the status is Denied.

Click to jump to top of pageClick to jump to parent topicPage Used to Delete Time Reports

Page Name

Definition Name

Navigation

Usage

Travel and Expenses - Delete Time Report

TE_DEL_TIME

Employee Self-Service, Travel and Expense Center, Time Reports, Delete

Travel and Expenses, Time Reports, Delete

Select and delete time reports from the expense system.

Click to jump to top of pageClick to jump to parent topicDeleting a Time Report

Access the Travel and Expense - Delete Time Report page (Employee Self-Service, Travel and Expense Center, Time Reports, Delete).

PeopleSoft Expenses displays a list of pending and denied time reports. Select those that you wish to delete and click the Delete Selected Report(s) button.