How Time and Labor Works with Project Costing

The integration between Time and Labor and Project Costing allows project managers and accountants to manage time cards for employees and contingent workers.

Employees and contingent workers can view and update the time cards that they create. Based on the setup, a time card either displays all projects in the time reporter's business unit or only those projects on which the time reporter is a team member.

Project managers review and approve time card entries created for their projects. Project accountants import the time cards into Project Costing for costing, accounting, analysis (including reviewing actual effort against planned effort), and potentially billing.

The following figure provides an overview of how time cards are created and approved in Time and Labor. It also illustrates how approved time cards are validated and imported into Project Costing. Once these costs are imported, project accountants can adjust them if required.

Flow chart of time card processing in Oracle Fusion Time and Labor and Oracle Fusion Project Costing.

Using Time and Labor

Employees and contingent workers report project-related time in the Time work area. They account for their worked hours by selecting one or more projects, tasks, and expenditure types. Project managers approve the time cards submitted for their projects.

Here are a few considerations that you must keep in mind while entering time card details:

The application validates time cards before allowing the user to submit them. It then sends submitted time cards to project managers for approval.
Your organization may have opted to validate time cards once you save them instead of only upon submission.
When the Project time card field filters projects based on team membership, then only those projects on which the time reporter has been assigned as a team member will appear.

Using Project Costing

Project accountants use the Import Costs process to validate and import approved time cards into Project Costing.

To import time cards into Project Costing:

Navigate to Projects > Costs and click Import Costs in the Process section of the tasks drawer.

The Import Costs page appears.
Click Process Options to manage options associated with project cost related details, such as language, territory, number, time, and date format, and currency.
Select Notify me when this process ends to be notified once the import process completes, regardless of whether the process succeeded.
Provide additional information associated with the import process in the Submission Notes field.
Select the Business Unit associated with the costs that you want to import.
Leave the Process Mode as Importing and Processing Transactions and the Transaction Status as Not previously imported.
Select Oracle Fusion Time and Labor as the Transaction Source.
Optionally, select Time Card in the Document field.
Optionally, search and select the Expenditure Batch that you want to use to import time cards.
Enter the From Project Number and To Project Number values if you want to transfer these time cards from one project to another.
Use the Process Through Expenditure Item Date field to specify the expenditure item date up to which time cards must be imported, if required.
The process generates a summary report by default. Click the Generate Report drop-down list to specify whether you want to see a detailed report, or whether you don't want to see any report at all.
Click the Advanced button at the top of the field-set to specify scheduling and notification details. Review the sections below for guidance on working with these.
Once you're ready to submit your import job, click Submit.

Scheduling Project Cost Import

To schedule a process cost import job:

Click the Advanced button at the top of the field-set.

The Schedule and Notification tabs appear.
Click the Schedule tab.
The default setting is to run the import process as soon as possible. To change this setting, select the Run > Using a schedule radio button.

The field-set expands to display additional scheduling options.
Click the Frequency drop-down list to select the frequency with which the import operation must be run. Update the values in the additional frequency-related fields that appear based on your selection.

Specifying Notification Details

Use the Notification tab to enter details associated with the notifications that you want sent when the import succeeds, or when there are warnings or errors generated.

Importing Costs: Considerations

Validations ensure that the project is valid, active, and supports transaction charges. The process also validates the following attributes.
- Business unit
- Transaction source information
- Expenditure type and organization
- Expenditure item date
- Person
- Worked hours
- Project role
- Contract number
- Funding source
All time entries on a time card must be approved before the time card can be imported.

Certain expenditure item attributes are derived during import. The following table describes the derivation rules for the expenditure item attributes derived during import.

Attribute	Derivation
Expenditure end date	Calculated from expenditure item date and business unit.
Expenditure batch end date	Set to the latest expenditure end date in the batch.
Work type	Derived from task details if the work type isn't entered on the time card.

Adjusting Time Cards

Employees and contingent workers can't modify their time cards in Project Costing. However, they can modify their time cards in the Time work area. For example, they can delete time cards for their projects or adjust time card details such as project, task, hours, or expenditure type.

Project accountants and project managers can adjust time cards in Project Costing using the following adjustments after importing them. You can make most of these adjustments using the Project Costing application interface; a few of these adjustments, however, can only be made using the Adjust Project Costs REST API.

Here's a table that lists out some of the key attributes that are frequently adjusted and explains how you can make these adjustments.

Time Card Attribute	Using the Projects > Costs > Manage Project Costs Page	Using the Projects > Project Management > Manage Project Costs Page	Using the Adjust Project Costs REST API
Project, Task, or Both	Use the Transfer or Split and Transfer adjustment action.	N/A	Use the Transfer adjustment type.
Expenditure Type	N/A	N/A	Use the Transfer adjustment type.
Quantity	You can’t update the quantity attribute directly, but you can perform a Split adjustment.	N/A	Use the Split adjustment type.
Billable Indicator	Use the Set to Billable or Set to Nonbillable adjustment action.	Use the Set to Billable or Set to Nonbillable buttons.	Use the Set to billable or Set to nonbillable adjustment type.
Capitalizable	Use the Set to Capitalizable or Set to Noncapitalizable adjustment action.	N/A	Use the Set to capitalizable or Set to noncapitalizable adjustment type.
Utilization	Use the Change Work Type adjustment action.	N/A	N/A
Project Role	N/A	N/A	Use the Transfer adjustment type.
Contract Number	N/A	N/A	Use the Transfer adjustment type.
Funding Source	N/A	N/A	Use the Transfer adjustment type.

Note:

Adjustments made in Project Costing are reversed if the time card is modified in Time and Labor and reimported.
Adjust time cards in Time and Labor and then import them to Project Costing instead of performing adjustments in Project Costing. This ensures that the latest time card information is present in Time and Labor.

Importing Person-Related Project Cost Transaction Reversals

Time managers can delete time cards in Oracle Fusion Cloud Time and Labor for persons who no longer have active HCM assignments. This results in reversals for the original transactions already imported into Project Costing. For example, if employees or contractors leave the organization and no longer have an active status in Oracle Fusion Cloud Human Resources, time managers can delete their time cards in Oracle Time and Labor and import these deletions as reversals in Project Costing.

Project Accountants can also perform transfers, splits, and other adjustments on transactions originating from Oracle Time and Labor even though the corresponding Oracle Human Resources assignment is no longer active.