Pre-fill or auto-populate crew timesheet data field values

Question

How can I have crew timesheets pre-fill or auto-populate certain employee data field values?

Answer

Pre-filling Employee Data Values
In crew time tracking, there is often a need to pre-fill or "auto-populate" certain employee data values onto the timesheet, so a foreman or crew lead does not have to. The crew timekeeper might not know these values if the crew is large (e.g. 30 - 45 employees), or if crew membership turns over frequently. Also, entering different pay classes, billing codes or pay rates, can be an onerous task.

Getting Started
Your system has the ability to automatically look up data fields and their values that you define from an employee's profile, and then pull them into a crew timesheet. To set this up:

1. First identify the value you want to pull into the timesheet.
2. Navigate to the Employees tab and review an employee profile. See if the data field already exists as a standard or custom field. For example, "Title" would be an already existing standard field.
3. If the desired field does not exist, create an employee custom field. See: Setting Up Custom Fields.
4. Typical use cases for pre-filling crew timesheet employee data field values are "Pay Class" "Billing Code" or "W/C Code."  
5. In this example, we will create an employee custom field named Pay Class to denote the pay class of a worker on a crew. e.g. foreman, craftsman, etc.
6. After you create this employee custom field, when you look at new custom field page, note that an API variable has been set: {User.xPayClass}. We will use this variable to pull in data from the employee profile.
7. Next, you need to create a time entry custom field which will be the target for pre-filling the employee data field value.
8. Create a time entry custom field, also named Pay Class, where the data type is "text." See: Setting Up Custom Fields.
9. Then on this custom field profile page, set the default value to {User.xPayClass}. This variable will set the data source from which the pre-filled data value will be pulled.
10. Next add the time entry Pay Class custom field to the timesheet template that renders your crew timesheet. 

The Result
When you add an employee to a crew timesheet, the correct employee Pay Class value pre-fill into the crew timesheet Pay Class field on each employee row. This will also happen when the timekeeper navigates to the crew timesheet's next day.

Note: The time entry custom field data type should be the same or be able to work with the employee data field value data type. In this example, the employee custom field, the "source," should be a text data type, and the time entry custom field. For example, setting up a numeric employee custom field as your source data field will not work with for a target time entry custom field setup with a text data type.   

Using the Time Entry Pick List Data Type
You can the use the "pick list" data type for the Pay Class time entry custom field. One important case is where a crew employee is working as a Craftsman in the morning, but then takes over as crew Foreman in the afternoon (e.g. because the original gets sick). In this example, we can make it easier for the timekeeper to change the Pay Class value by setting the data type to be a pick list. Pick list field data types are text-based based fields and are therefore compatible with text field values. So it is possible to have an source employee custom field value with a text data type pre-fill into a time entry custom field with a pick list data type. The advantages of this setup are significant for the timekeeper and system administration:

1. The timekeeper does not have to type in an "override" Pay Class value where he might enter an invalid value.
2. The timekeeper can instead select a valid value from the pick list and improve data integrity.
3. Even if the timekeeper insists on entering his own text than selecting a pick list value, the time entry pick list data type setup will validate his text entry.
4. The system will now only send valid Pay Class data values to third party systems avoiding the need for  corrections.