Getting The Most Out Of Your OpenAir Timesheets

Timesheets are both a boon for a business and a source of stress. Employees see them as a hassle, while leaders need the data they contain for billing, process optimization, and much more.

Your goal should be to streamline input as much as possible while enforcing that hours are entered accurately and in a timely manner. Without some help, that can be an overwhelming task.

OpenAir contains features that help you get a view of the hours being spent as well as enforce your timesheet compliance while providing the right audit paper trail. There are a number of tips and tricks you should know to get the most out of your timesheetsin OpenAir, and best practices that you can follow to simplify input and still get the important data that you need to run your business.

Tips for Maintaining Accuracy

There are several features in OpenAir that can help you keep timesheets up to date and maintain accuracy.

Timesheet Rules

Timesheet rules in OpenAir let you set things like minimum and maximum hours for entries. We highly recommend using percentages for rules. For instance, if you’ve set an 8-hour workday, you can use rules to enforce that 8 hours is entered by requiring a minimum 100% time be recorded for each day. While you can set minimums and maximums, our recommendation is not to set a maximum. It makes it difficult to know how many hours were actually worked on a project or by a consultant if you restrict how many hours they can enter.

Timesheet Periods

OpenAir allows you to set the time periods for timesheets that work with your company’s internal requirements. You can require timesheets to be submitted daily, weekly, bi-weekly, and so forth.

Timesheet Alerts

Alerts are a handy way to keep busy consultants, project managers, and approvers aware of their timesheet tasks. Alerts can let end users know that their timesheets are overdue or alert an approver of overdue approvals.

Advanced Reporting

There are two timesheet reports that OpenAir provides that are worth mentioning. One because it is very useful, the other because it is not. These reports are Timesheet Status and Missing Timesheets.

Of course, the one that sounds the most useful is, in fact, the one to avoid. The Missing Timesheets report only gives you a list of timesheets that have not been fully submitted, including approvals. It offers no insight as to where the timesheet is in process.

Timesheet Status, on the other hand, is a far more useful advanced report. With it you can see the names of team members, the status of their timesheet – including not started, indicated by an X, started, indicated by an O, and submitted, marked with an S. Submitted timesheets also have a name next to the S, indicating the approver the sheet is waiting on. Unlike the Missing Timesheets report, Timesheet Status provides actionable information.

Scripting for Timesheet Functionality

Like much of OpenAir, scripts can help customize the out of the box functionality for timesheets to better fit your processes and needs. Top Step has helped a number of clients with scripting timesheet functionality.

For instance, one client requested the ability to monitor and manage timesheets against budgets. When a timesheet was submitted, it was checked against the tasks billed against. Functionality for a script like this could include preventing the submission of the timesheet or auto-rejecting it if it exceeds budgeted, booked, or planned hours. You could also use a script to email a project manager if a task goes over hours.

Another example involves policy compliance. A client required PTO to be entered as either a half-day or a full day – 4 or 8 hours. The script would check to make sure any PTO time adhered to the company’s time off requirements without imposing the same restrictions on other time entries.

Best Practices for Timesheets in OpenAir

When defining best practices for a company’s timesheets, it’s best to work at balancing simplicity for the employee with the right amount of detail for the company. The easier and faster it is for a user to enter time, the better; however, you can’t over-simplify the process such that your projects aren’t collecting an appropriate amount of information.

Compliance with timesheet policy is important, and OpenAir can help enforce those policies and create visibility, as well as keeping your time data clean and organized.

Establish a naming convention for projects within OpenAir that makes it easier for an employee to find the project and task they are working on. Also, take care not to overload the project with small tasks or checklist items. The additional detail doesn’t add much for the business and will frustrate the end-user.

Keep data within OpenAir’s timesheets clean by removing closed and completed tasks, and only allowing employees access to the tasks they are actively assigned to. Also, encourage the use of the OpenAir mobile app. Team members can enter their time while on the bus or train, on their lunch, or from anywhere.

This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to tips, tricks, and best practices for OpenAir timesheets. To learn more, check out our webinar Timesheets in OpenAir: Best Practices and Tips. Have a question or need help with an OpenAir script? Let us know!