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Recording Time, Expenses and Absence

My Time & Expenses is the screen consultants and other staff use to book their own hours, claim expenses with a receipt and request time off. They never type a rate: the bill and cost rate are resolved from the rate cards and stored on each entry when it is booked.

Where to find it

Architect Panel → ERP - Projects & Time:

  • My Time & Expenses — your own weekly timesheet, timer, expense claims and time off
  • Time Entries — the hours booked
  • Timesheets — each week submitted
  • Expenses — expense claims
  • Absence — time off

Admin Panel → Projects & Time:

  • My Time & Expenses — the same screen for staff who are not architects; its badge counts weeks and claims sent back to you that you have not corrected yet

Before someone can use it

  1. Give their security group the ERP: Time & Expenses role (a project manager with ERP: Projects can use it too) and write access to the company, on ERP Setup.
  2. Add them to the resource register and link their user account under Projects & Time → Resourcing → People (see Resource Planning).
  3. Make sure the projects they work on are Active and have a work breakdown.

Without the register link the screen says You are not set up to book time yet; without a company grant it says No company to book time in.

Booking a week

  1. Open My Time & Expenses. The top shows the Company and who you are Booking as, with your grade.
  2. On the Timesheet tab, use Previous week, This week and Next week to choose the week.
  3. Under Add a line, choose the Project (projects you are allocated to are listed first, under Allocated to you; Internal / non-project (not billable) is at the bottom), optionally a Work package, an Activity, tick or untick Billable, and click Add line.
  4. Type hours into each day's cell as decimals (7.5) or hours and minutes (7:30). Each cell saves as soon as you leave it.
  5. To repeat last week, use Copy last week's lines or Copy last week with hours.
  6. Click Submit week for approval. Submitted and approved days are locked.

Time can be submitted only for days already worked: a week with hours on a future day is refused until that day has passed, or until you clear it. The Timer panel offers Start timer against a project and Stop and book to turn the running time into an entry.

Claiming an expense

  1. Go to the Expenses tab.
  2. Enter the Date, Category, Amount paid (incl. tax) and Of which tax.
  3. Choose the Project, and tick Recharge to client if the client pays for it.
  4. Attach the Receipt (a PDF or a photo, up to 10 MB) and write a Description.
  5. Click Submit claim.

My claims lists every claim, filtered by Awaiting approval, Rejected, Approved or Recharged. A claim sent back can be corrected and resubmitted.

Requesting time off

On the Time off tab, choose the Type, First day and Last day, the Length (full days, or a morning or afternoon on a single date), add a Note for your approver and click Request time off. Approved time off comes off your capacity in the resource plan. Leave already taken, or more than 90 days back, is recorded by the manager on the Resourcing tab instead.

Following what you submitted

My submissions lists every week you have submitted, filtered by Awaiting approval, Sent back or Approved. A week sent back comes with the approver's reason; correct it on the Timesheet tab and submit it again.

What goes wrong

  • "Nothing to submit yet - enter your hours first." or "Nothing new to submit": every hour is already submitted or approved.
  • "A timer is still running": stop the timer before submitting.
  • "Time can be submitted only for days already worked.": the week has hours on a day still to come.
  • "A receipt must be a PDF or a photo (jpg, png, gif, webp or heic).": convert the file and try again.
  • A project is missing from the list: it is Completed, Closed or Cancelled, or it belongs to another company.
  • Hours show a rate of zero: no rate card covers the person; see rate cards.

Worked example

On Friday afternoon a consultant opens My Time & Expenses, clicks Copy last week's lines, and fills in 7.5 hours a day across two client projects and a half day of internal training on the non-project line. They add a rail fare of 86.40 with 0.00 tax against the client project, ticks Recharge to client and attaches a photo of the ticket. They click Submit week for approval. On Monday the badge shows 1: their manager sent the week back asking for the training to move to Thursday. They move it and resubmit.

Recommendations

  • Book non-billable time as well, or utilisation is meaningless.
  • Attach receipts when you claim; the approver sees which are missing.
  • Submit weekly so billing and WIP are never waiting on time.
  • Use the timer for short, interrupted work rather than estimating at the end of the day.