What are attendance options to track employee start and finish times?

Question

What are attendance options to track employee start and finish times?

Answer

Background

Pacific Timesheet has several ways to track employee attendance. In this article, we will provide step-by-step instructions on how to setup the system to support the most common use cases.

Simple Attendance

Requirement
The simple attendance tracks only employee start and finish times, not project or task time. In other words:   

1. You want to track the simplest employee attendance data, that is a start time, finish time and the calculated hours between them. For example:
   
   Start Time = 9:00 AM
   Finish Time = 12:00 PM
   Hours = 4.00 hours
   
   
2. You also might want to enable absence points rules in the employee policy so that "lateness" or "leaving early" is tracked using an absence points system. Pacific Timesheet Absence Points Rules track and fire their rules against employee start and finish times setup in this example. 
3. You also might want to have employees tracking their start and finish times on a daily basis using a simple "Punch In" "Punch Out" button.

Timesheet Setup

When configuring a simple attendance timesheet follow these steps:

1. Navigate to System>Templates
2. Click Add to create your new simple attendance timesheet template
3. Click Edit to modify the timesheet template
4. Click the Plus (+) button three times.
5. Make sure the that you set these fields to these values in this order top to bottom
   
   Start
   Finish
   Hours
6. Click Okay to save
7. Click Preview to view a preview (but not live) version of how the employee timesheet will display.
8. Note that when you add the Start and Finish fields to a timesheet template, it turns the timesheet into an attendance-oriented timesheet with only a Day View
9. Assign the new timesheet template to the employee(s) profile and their timesheets will render in this timesheet format.

Project/Task Start and Finish

Requirement
A little more complex, the project/task start and finish timesheet adds project and task information to the start/finish and hours data. In this case:   

1. You want to track the start and finish times of project/task hours. For example:
   
   Project = Project 1
   Task = Task A
   Start Time = 9:00 AM
   Finish Time = 12:00 PM
   Hours = 4.00 hours
   
   
2. Every aspect is like the simple attendance setup but with now with the added project and task data.

Timesheet Setup

When configuring a simple attendance timesheet follow these steps:

1. Navigate to System>Templates
2. Click Add to create your new simple attendance timesheet template
3. Click Edit to modify the timesheet template
4. Click the Plus (+) button three times.
5. Make sure the that you set these fields to these values in this order top to bottom
   
   Project
   Phase
   Other WBS item...
   Start
   Finish
   Hours
6. Click Okay to save
7. Click Preview to view a preview (but not live) version of how the employee timesheet will display.
8. As with the simple attendance timesheet the timesheet will only have a Day View
9. Assign this new timesheet template to the employee(s) profile and their timesheets will render in this timesheet format.

Project/Attendance Combination Timesheet

Requirement
Some project-oriented organizations or departments want to track attendance separately from project hours. For this requirement:   

1. You want an In and Out times section and a project/task hours section. For example:
   
   Start Time = 9:00 AM
   Finish Time = 12:00 PM
   Hours = 4.00 hours
   _______________________
   
   Project 1 | Task A 4.00 hours
2. Attendance and project time are tracked separately because you do not want employees to codify the start and finish times of every task. Yet, you want them to record their more general in/out times, including meal breaks.
3. You want to have total attendance hours and total project hours
4. You also might to enforce that total attendance hours equal total project hours

Project/Attendance Combination Timesheet Setup

When configuring a project/attendance combination timesheet follow these steps:

1. Navigate to System>Templates
2. Click Add to create your new simple attendance timesheet template
3. Click Edit to modify the timesheet template
4. Click the Plus (+) button three times.
5. Make sure the that you set these fields to these values in this order top to bottom
   
   Project
   Phase
   Other WBS item...
   Hours
   
   For the project/attendance combination timesheet do not add start and finish as timesheet fields to the timesheet template
   
   
6. Click Okay to save
7. Navigate to Advanced on the template page.
8. Click Edit.
9. Enable the Show Attendance Widget checkbox.
10. Enable the Reject timesheet if different than timesheet hours checkbox.
11. This feature will generate an error upon submit if the attendance totals do not equal the project hours totals.
12. Click Preview to view a preview (but not live) version of how the employee timesheet will display.
13. As with the simple attendance timesheet the timesheet will only have a Day View
14. Assign this new timesheet template to the employee(s) profile and their timesheets will render in this timesheet format.

Updates now allow for the Project/Attendance widget to show up in both the Week View and Day View (previously they were only supported in the Week View)