Online Documentation

User Guide

Management of Work Schedule and System Settings

Overview

Management of work schedule and system settings includes the following activities:

• • Configure non-default working and nonworking days
  • Adjust General System Settings

There are two (2) access rights defined for management of work schedule and system settings:

• Manage Work Schedule
• Manage General Settings

Users who have the 'Manage Work Schedule' access right can configure non-default working and nonworking days. To access the interfaces for configuring non-default working and nonworking days use the top-level menu 'Work Schedule'.

Users who have the 'Manage General Settings' access right can configure general system settings. To configure general system settings use the sub-menu 'General Settings' of the top-level menu 'Settings'.

Configure Working and Nonworking Days

To configure the working and nonworking days follow the instructions below:

1. Select the top-level menu option 'Work Schedule' to open the interface for configuring working and nonworking days. The system will show you the interface with three months:

   • the current month (selected)
   • the previous month
   • the next month
   
   Working and Nonworking Days interface

   Working days will be shown on the white background. Nonworking days will be shown on the light blue background in dark red font.

   You can change the number of months shown in the interface. To do that click on the 'Select the Number of Months to View' link and select the interface layout you prefer:

   

   Pop-up panel for selecting the interface layout

   actiTIME will memorize the selected interface layout and will automatically use it when you open the interface the next time.

2. Select the month the days of which you want to modify. If this month is already shown in the interface, just skip this step.

   To select a month click on the name of the currently selected month and choose the month you need in the pop-up panel:

   
   Pop-up panel for selecting month

   The pop-up panel for month selection shows months of the following four years:

   • the year of the currently selected month (the selected year)
   • two years before the selected year
   • one year after the selected year

   If you need to view or modify a month in the past which is not currently available in the panel, you will have to do this in two steps:

   1. Select the earliest month which is currently available
   2. Select the month you need after the page is reloaded and the list of available months is updated

   The earliest available month is January, 2003

3. Click a date you want to modify.

   The system will switch the date status from 'working day' to 'nonworking day' and vice-versa.

Adjust General System Settings

To configure general system settings follow the instructions below:

1. Select the 'General Settings' option in the top-level menu 'Settings' to open the interface.

   
   General Settings interface

2. Configure general system settings:

   • Names of the Time-Track Hierarchy Levels

     You can rename the top, middle, and lowest (time-entry) levels of the time-track hierarchy using pre-configured or custom names. The selected names are used in all system interfaces to reference the corresponding hierarchy levels.

     
     The default names of the time-track hierarchy levels

     The pre-configured hierarchy names are listed below:

     • Top level:
       • Client
       • Customer (the default name)
       • Product
       • Product Line
       • Project
     • Middle level:
       • Job
       • Project (the default name)
       • Product
       • Release
       • Task
     • Lowest level:
       • Task (the default name)
       • Subtask

     To use a custom name for a hierarchy level, select the '-- custom name --' option for the corresponding level and enter the name in the singular and plural forms.

     
     Using custom name for the top hierarchy level

     Note that different hierarchy levels cannot have the same name.

     Time-track is always reported for the lowest hierarchy level.

     Time estimates are available with Management Extension only.

   • Time estimates support

     Disable this feature if you do not need support of time estimates on the time entry level. This will hide all interface elements for entering and displaying time estimates, including the Estimated vs. Actual Time report.

   • Maximum number of hours that can be reported by a user for a day

     You can either limit sum of hours that can be reported by a user for one day (up to 24 hours) or specify that this number is unlimited.

     The latter is useful when several people (e.g. representing a subcontractor) report their time expenses as a single actiTIME user.

   • Working time entry for future dates is available with Management or Accounting Extension only

     Working time entry for future dates

     Enable this feature if you want to allow users to enter working time in advance.

     When 'leave time tracking' feature is enabled, users will be able to report leave time for planned leaves even if 'Working time entry for future dates' is disabled.

   • Time-track of other users

     This option defines whether users, that have neither "Manage Customers & Projects", nor "Generate Time Reports", nor "Modify Time-Track of Other Users" access rights, can see time track and comments entered by other actiTIME users:

     • When the option is selected, users without the access rights listed above can see only their own time track and comments.

     • When the option is not selected, any user who has the "Enter Time-Track" access right can see time track and comments entered by other users.

   • Leave time tracking

     If you disable this feature, all interfaces related to entering and viewing leave time information will be hidden. In particular, reports will not show leave time information even if it was collected before disabling leave time tracking

   • Control of Overtime/Undertime

     The system supports two modes of overtime/undertime calculation:

     • Collect both overtime and undertime

       Select the 'Enable undertime registration' option to choose this calculation mode.

       When this mode is selected, the system collects both overtime and undertime (as negative values); and the Overtime & Leaves report shows balance of overtime and undertime.

     • Collect overtime only

       Unselect the 'Enable undertime registration' option to choose this calculation mode.

       When this calculation mode is selected, the system does not allow collecting undertime, and all system interfaces related to overtime/undertime (including reports) reference overtime only.

   • Default workday duration

     The configured value is used as the default value for user's workday duration when you add create actiTIME users.

   • Default overtime rate

     Hourly user rates are supported in Accounting Extension only.

     The configured coefficient is used to pre-set overtime rate when editing hourly user rates in the user management interfaces (see section User Management).

   • Settings for reports generated in CSV format

     You can configure a character set and a field separator to be used in CSV reports. There are two character sets available for selection:

     • International character set (UTF-16)

       If you select this character set, all international characters will be shown in CSV reports properly, but you will be able to use only the predefined field separator (<TAB>).

     • Character set configured on the computer where actiTIME is installed (selected by default).

       If you select this option, you will have to use only one character set, but will be able to select a field separator for CSV reports.

       Most likely, the character set configured on the computer where actiTIME is installed is your national character set. So if your reports will not contain data in other languages, you may select this option to be able to use a specific field separator in CSV format.

       If Microsoft Excel shows the data of your CSV reports improperly, choose the same field separator as configured in the Regional Options of your computer.

   • Default time format in HTML reports

     You can pre-configure how to format time shown in the HTML reports. The available options are:

     • Time format - HH:MM (using this format "24 hours and 45 minutes" will be formatted as 24:45)
     • Decimal format - ##.## (using this format "24 hours and 45 minutes" will be formatted as 24.75)

     Note that this option does not affect reports generated in the CSV format. Reports in CSV format always use decimal format (##.##) for time entries.

   • Calendar layout

     You can set any day of the week to be the first working day displayed by the system:

     • Week starts on Sunday
     • Week starts on Monday
     • ...
     • Week starts on Saturday

   • Date format

     This setting affects all pages where a date is displayed, for example, task lists and reports.

     Note that there is an example of a date in the selected format shown next to the 'Date Format' drop-down.

   • Time Zone

     The configured value is used as the default value for user's time zone when you add create actiTIME users.

   • Numbers format

     You can configure decimal separator and digit grouping symbol to be used in actiTIME.

   • Currency sign

     You can configure currency sign to be used in actiTIME for money amounts and rates.

   • Email Notifications Settings

     
     Email Notifications Settings

     Email notifications settings include the following parameters:

     • Outgoing mail server (SMTP) - SMTP server actiTIME will send email notifications through.
     • Port - port number of outgoing mail server.
       
       
     • "From" address for email messages - notifications sent by actiTIME will "come" to users from this email address.
     • Prefix to add to the notification subject field - you can add an optional text to the beginning of messages subject to simplify creation of message filtering rules.
     • Address of your actiTIME installation - this address will be used in links to actiTIME interfaces included into email messages.
     • Optional message footer - standard text that you want to appear at the end of all notification messages sent from actiTIME.
       
       
     • Time of day to send notifications at.

       The time to send notifications at is the same for all users but depends on the time zone set for the user.

     • Email address of system administrator who should be informed when actiTIME cannot send a notification to its recepients.

3. When you are ready, submit the page by clicking the 'Save Changes' button on the bottom of the interface.