Automate Administrative Checks on Timesheets with an OpenAir Script

In a professional services organization, there can be a lot of details to manage and keep track of. That’s especially true when it comes to crucial documentation and tracking processes, like timesheets.

It’s pretty clear that timesheets are essential – for as much trouble as they can be, we continue to push to get them done, done on time, and completed accurately. So much of a professional services organization relies on these – from project management to resourcing to revenue to customer satisfaction, and more.

That’s why an important step for all professional services organizations is reviewing and approving timesheets. Of course, this can be an incredibly time-consuming process, especially in large organizations. But automation can help remove much of the approval overhead that is part of the approval process. We’ve helped more than a dozen companies accelerate and automate their timesheet approval process with an OpenAir script.

The Challenge

For many professional services organizations, timesheet approval is a multistep process. Yet, some of these steps are straightforward validations to ensure that all of the i’s are dotted and t’s are crossed before a client is billed or reports are created.

Typically, the first step in a process like this is completed by someone not deeply involved in a project, such as a finance team member or a professional services administrator. They can’t validate that the hours are being charged to the tasks worked on, but they can check that the project or task has hours available or that holiday time was applied correctly.

This kind of first-line approval can take time, slow down the process, and tie up a resource that could be performing the more value-added tasks, but they are still necessary checks to perform. They are checklist-type validations and are repetitive tasks. Combined, that makes these approvals an ideal candidate for automation.

The Solution

Top Step has created scripts specifically to automate these kinds of approvals for many companies with various requirements and needs. The script can be created and customized to your specific needs to eliminate manual or check-list types of approvals.

These are just a few examples of the kinds of validations that the script has helped automate.

• Holiday and PTO checks: Validates that holiday time was not put against projects on a day that was not a holiday or included more hours than allowed (e.g., charged 12 hours to a single day holiday). It can also be used to ensure that PTO time was not accidentally put against a non-PTO project code, such as a client project code, or that a team member still has PTO time available to charge against.

• Minimum hours entered: OpenAir offers a global setting for minimum hours entered by resources. For instance, for full-time employees, you may have a minimum of 40 hours that must be recorded in a timesheet every week. However, the global setting may not apply to everyone – some resources may be part-time or hourly. The script can add validation for these users based on employee type so that their timesheets aren’t automatically rejected for not meeting a minimum hours rule that doesn’t apply to them.

• Checks for budgeted or booked hours: Automatic validation can be done to ensure that resources aren’t exceeding planned, budgeted, or booked hours at a variety of levels. For instance, the script can check that a timesheet doesn’t send a project over its budgeted or booked hours or that hours against a task does not surpass the hours planned or booked for that activity. It can even go to the individual level, ensuring that a resource doesn’t exceed the assigned or booked hours for a task or project.

Once validation is complete, the automated step is completed. If everything checks out, approvals are given for this step of the process. If not, the timesheet is rejected, and the submitter is emailed with an explanation of what needs to be corrected.

The Results

This script offers the standard benefits that nearly any automation offers – time savings, accelerated processes, and fewer errors.

However, it goes beyond that. Because the script can validate hours at the project, task, and resource level, the potential for overbilling a client is all but eliminated – assuming that all of the data for the project is up to date in OpenAir.

Top Step has also configured this script to alert project managers when a project is approaching its budgeted or booked hours. For example, the script can send an email alert when a timesheet puts a project at 80% of the planned hours. This not only prevents surprises with project overruns but offers the opportunity for project managers to create change orders before a project has run out of hours.

This script has the potential to save you hundreds of hours and accelerate your timesheet approval process. Plus, once the script project starts, it’s only a matter of a week or two before you’re able to automate these administrative timesheet checks. Contact Top Step today to learn more about how automating administrative checks can help your organization simplify the timesheet approvals process.