How do I setup rounding rules and continue to record Actual Start and Actual Finish times? – Help Center

Question

How do I setup rounding rules and continue to record Actual Start and Actual Finish times?

Answer

Rounding rules allow you to control whether and how time entries are rounded:

Rule	Description
Round time entries to	The number of minutes to round time entries to, for example 15. If the timesheet template has the Start and Finish fields, then the start and finish times will be rounded. If the timesheet template has only the Hours field then the hours will be rounded. Note that if you want to keep track of the original or unrounded start and finish times you need to add the "Actual Start" and "Actual Finish" custom fields, as described in the note below. You can also add a "Disable Rounding" checkbox custom field to turn off rounding for an individual time entry.
Rounding Mode	How rounding is done, either Nearest, Round Up or Round Down. Nearest: The Nearest rounding mode will round the start and finish time of a punch to the nearest rounding increment. For example, if rounding is to 15 minutes then 8:07 will round to 8:00 and 8:08 will round to 8:15. For timesheets that are only recording hours (no start/finish times) then the hours entered will be rounded to the nearest rounding value, instead of the start and finish times. Round Up The Round Up rounding mode will round the start and finish time of a punch to the next rounding increment. For example, if rounding is to 15 minutes then 8:01 will round to 8:15 and 8:16 will round to 8:30. For timesheets that are only recording hours (no start/finish times) then the hours entered will be rounded to the next rounding increment, instead of the start and finish times. Round Down The Round Down rounding mode will round the start and finish time of a punch to the prior rounding increment. For example, if rounding is to 15 minutes then 8:14 will round to 8:00 and 8:16 will round to 8:15. For timesheets that are only recording hours (no start/finish times) then the hours entered will be rounded to the prior rounding increment, instead of the start and finish times.
Round punch-in to scheduled start time	Checking this option will round punch-ins to the employee's scheduled start time if the punch is within the specified minutes of the scheduled start time. For example, if you specify that punches 15 minutes or less before the scheduled start time be rounded to the start time, and the employee is scheduled to start at 9:00AM, then a punch of 8:50AM will be rounded to 9:00AM. However, a punch of 8:40AM will not be rounded. This rule is useful if you want to prevent employees from recording more than their scheduled number of hours, even if they come in a few minutes early. If the regular rounding rule is also enabled (for example, round punches to the nearest 15 minutes), then the regular rounding rule will only run if the punch does NOT fall within the specified minutes of the scheduled start time. The employee's scheduled start and finish times are specified in their profile. See the Managing Employees topic for more information.
Round punch-out to scheduled finish time	Checking this option will round punch-outs to the employee's scheduled finish time if the punch is within the specified minutes of the scheduled finish time. For example, if you specify that punches 15 minutes or less after the scheduled finish time be rounded to the finish time, and the employee is scheduled to finish at 5:00PM, then a punch of 5:10PM will be rounded to 5:00PM. However, a punch of 5:20PM will not be rounded. This rule is useful if you want to prevent employees from recording more than their scheduled number of hours, even if they leave a few minutes late. If the regular rounding rule is also enabled (for example, round punches to the nearest 15 minutes), then the regular rounding rule will only run if the punch does NOT fall within the specified minutes of the scheduled finish time. The employee's scheduled start and finish times are specified in their profile.

Note: If you want to preserve the original or unrounded start and finish times you need to add the following timesheet custom fields to Pacific Timesheet:

Custom Field	Type	Description
Actual Start	Time	This field holds the unrounded or original start time of day. Note that you must create this field exactly as named, "Actual Start", in order to create the expected underlying database field (t_timeentry.xactualstart). After creating the field you can then rename it as this will not affect the name of the underlying database field.
Actual Finish	Time	This field holds the unrounded or original finish time of day. Note that you must create this field exactly as named, "Actual Finish", in order to create the expected underlying database field (t_timeentry.xactualfinish). After creating the field you can then rename it as this will not affect the name of the underlying database field.
Disable Rounding	Checkbox	This is optional and is only needed if you want to be able to turn off rounding on a per-entry basis on a timesheet. After creating this custom field you can add the checkbox to the time entry details, giving you the option to turn off or disable rounding for an individual time entry. The "disable rounding" checkbox will only work if you also have the "Actual Start" and "Actual Finish" time fields, describe above. Note that you must create this field exactly as named, "Disable Rounding", in order to create the expected underlying database field (t_timeentry.xdisablerounding). After creating the field you can then rename it as this will not affect the name of the underlying database field.

Timesheet custom fields are configured from the System > Templates > Manage Custom Fields page. It is not required that you put these fields on the timesheet templates themselves - their value will still be filled in and you can report on them like any other timesheet field.