May 2019 Release
This guide includes descriptions of new features in Clock 2.1 (Journyx 11.5.0) and is intended for existing Clock customers who are upgrading from Clock 2.0.
Signature Compatibility
Signature 2015 R2 SP3
Signature 2016 R3 SP1
Signature 2018 R2
Signature 2018 R3
New Interim Approvals for Submitting Work in Progress
Overview
Clock 2.1 includes a new type of approval workflow that allows users to submit work in progress on a timesheet before the full timesheet is complete and submitted at the end of a period. We refer to the feature as “interim approvals”, and users assigned to timesheets with the interim submission feature can submit work in progress as often as needed during the period.
This feature was designed explicitly to satisfy the use case where users need to submit their time on jobs on a daily basis so that the time can be approved and sent to 3rd party systems for daily billing*. It allows users to submit all time entered through the current day (unless you have it configured to allow submission of future time entries). After submission they can continue to add time to the timesheet – even on days that already have interim submissions.
*The interim approvals feature can also be used to submit a partial timesheet for the use case where a payroll period ends before the end of the timesheet period. However, we understand that some features may need to be added in a future release to support this use case fully (e.g., option to lock down days that are interim submitted, reminder and late notices that are independent of the timesheet period).
A user with a timesheet that allows interim submission, which includes the Submit Work In Progress button next to the Save button, looks like this:
The user has saved time for what she did on Monday. At the end of the day she needs to submit it to her supervisor so that it can be approved and billed to the customer.
After she submits the work in progress for Monday, her timesheet looks like this, which now includes the Interim Submitted section above the Previous Entries section:
Note that the time logged on Monday is displayed in a new section labeled Interim Submitted. While the interim submitted and approved records cannot be edited directly on the row in which they appear on the timesheet, a copy of the entry is automatically added to the Previous Entries section so that the user can continue to log time for the same job for the rest of the period.
This is an example of what her supervisor sees in the approval queue after the user (Cathy Taylor) has submitted her work in progress for Monday compared to full sheet submissions already in the queue:
After an interim submission/approval, the user can continue to enter time for the period. It is also possible to add adjustment entries to a day that has already been interim submitted or approved. The user can add time if additional work was required after she submitted on Monday. She can also make corrections to the approved time.
This is an example where the user has entered her time for Tuesday, but she needs to adjust the Monday entry to reallocate 1 hour to a different job:
After entering her time for Tuesday and the corrections for Monday, she can submit her work in progress again:
The approver sees the records that are included in each interim submission when viewing an interim submission for approval:
If the approver needs to view what has previously been interim submitted in order to approve the current submission, he can click on the View Report link in the upper right corner to see all records and their status for the sheet:
The user can continue to submit work in progress until she has completed her timesheet for the period and submits it for full sheet approval. Any outstanding (“unapproved”) interim submissions will be canceled when the full sheet is submitted for approval because the full sheet contains all records and overrides any interim submissions.
Setting up Interim Submissions
Setting up Interim Approvals at the System Level
In Clock , go to Configuration > System Settings > Approvals and Auditing.
Mark Use interim approvals to turn this option on.
Mark For interim approvals, only submit to current date to submit everything through the current date (date of submission) or everything on the sheet regardless of date. The default (unmarked) is set to submit everything on the sheet through the current date (e.g., holidays already loaded for later in the period would not be interim submitted).
Choose Save.
Adding the Submit Work in Progress button to the Time Entry window
Go to Configuration > Entry Screens > Time Entry Screens.
Under Entry Screens, select Standard Time Entry Grid.
Mark Allow users to submit work in progress.
Users who have been assigned to the Standard Time Entry Grid will now see the Submit Work in Progress button on their time entry screen.
Users are assigned to the Time Entry Screen in the Manage Users window (Management > Users > Manage Users).
Setting up the daily batch
See the Signature Clock Setup and Administration guide (Set up the batch naming convention) for information on setting up a daily batch that includes the Employee ID and Today's Date.
Other notes about configuration options and interim approval behavior
Interim approval email notifications are currently tied to the sheet-based email notifications. Notices to the approver of submit and resubmit, as well as notices to the user of rejection and approval, will all apply to interim approval actions if they are enabled for sheet approvals. There is a system setting to turn off all interim approval email notifications if you do not want to use them.
Interim approvals are not supported in the current version of Clock Mobile. Support for interim approvals will be added in a future mobile release in Q2 2019. Interim approvals can be accessed in mobile browsers.
Other New Features & Improvements
New import tools for currency conversions and mileage conversions are available under Configuration→Imports. Sample files and required fields for the imports are included in the Help menu for the respective screens.
New custom role ability to provide more granular access to Accruals management for those who do and do not need it is available under Configuration→Roles. The default Manager role that comes with Clock will no longer include Accruals access.
Improved formatting for printing timesheets from the browser.
Clock AccountLink also includes a 64-bit version and has been updated to let you save the synchronization password.