How do I track Actual Start Times and Actual Finish Times?

Question

How do I track Actual Start Times and Actual Finish Times?

Answer

Background

When a Pacific Timesheet system is setup with rounding rules (e.g., rounding to the nearest 15 minutes), customers might want to take the extra step of viewing or reporting on differences between rounded start/finish times, actual start/finish times, and scheduled start/finish times. To enable the tracking and use of actual start/finish times, you will need to enable Actual Start and Actual Finish fields that permanently capture actual start and finish times as opposed to rounded start and finish times.

Setting Actual Start and Actual Finish Time Entry Custom Fields

Summary:
When you setup two time entry custom fields, Actual Start and Actual Finish, you will automatically enable the tracking of actual start and actual finish times. 

1. ​Navigate to the Timesheets tab
2. Click on the Tools button (the downward pointing blue arrow)
3. Click on Manage Custom Fields
4. Create two custom fields, Actual Start and Actual Finish using the parameters below 

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. Name: 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. ​Type: Set type to Date and Time
Actual Finish	Time	This field holds the unrounded or original finish time of day. Name: 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. Type: Set type to Date and Time
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.

Note: 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.

Details of this setup are contained in the Help Center article on setting up rounding rules:

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

Here are detailed instructions on how to setup all custom fields:

Setting up custom fields – Help Center

 

Instructions on reporting

Note that historical actual start and actual finish times have not been captured, and will not be retroactively captured with this setup. However, all actual start and actual finish times will be captured in the database once these fields are enabled.

1. Navigate to the Reports as an administrator
2. Create any report using the Timesheet Details template to report on time entry hours, start and finish times. 
3. Add Start and Finish fields (which are the rounded start/finish time entries) and Actual Start and Actual Finish fields as report columns 
4. You can move position these report columns accordingly in the Report Columns box, where top to bottom displays left to right in the report.