Configure Manual Time Entry

When employees enter punches, they can be required to attest to the accuracy of the punch, whether or not they took a required meal break, or even if they are feeling well. Governmental compliance regulations often dictate the type of activities that need to be attested.

With the Manual Time Entry feature, when employees fix missing punches in their timecards, they can also be asked the same Attestation questions as when they made the original punch regardless of the date of the missed punch. The same holds true if their edits require manager approval or if they are fixing a missed punch in a signed-off time period (depending on the employees' function access settings).

Note:

Manual Time Entry is subject to these usage restrictions:

  • Only punches and punch edits are supported. Manual Time Entry does not support paycode edits.
  • Attestation questions are triggered when the employee clicks Save. This means that a “Timecard Save” button must be assigned.
  • Only employees can attest with Manual Time Entry. There is no support for triggering an Attestation flow from a manager edit.​
  • Conditions within an Attestation flow cannot be re-evaluated; the Fix Missing Punches workflow is out of scope for this feature.
  • Manual Time Entry is not supported by the Missed Punch and Time Review Form workflows.

The overall configuration process for Manual Time Entry to fix missing punches is essentially the same as all Attestation configurations although some functions include additional options. Complete these steps:

  • Step 1: Create or edit a Manual Time Entry Model — Create or edit a workflow in the Workflow Designer. Several preconfigured Manual Time Entry models are available for you to customize.
  • Step 2: Define the workflow — Define the workflow's display name, template category, effective dates, status, and actions list. This function has not changed for Manual Time Entry functionality.
  • Step 3: Define conditions — Define the timing and value to trigger a workflow.
  • Step 4: Create buttons — Configure the buttons that will appear on the Punch tile and the Punch Attestation slider. Because the Manual Time Entry process is triggered when the employee clicks the Save button, you must set up a Timecard Save button.
  • Step 5: Create assignments — Define a button, condition, and workflow combination. Two types of workflows are available on the Attestation Assignments page: Punch Button Time Entry Workflow and Manual Time Entry Workflow.
  • Step 6: Create an Attestation Profile — Group employee-specific assignments as an Attestation Profile, which is assigned to employees in the People Editor. This function has not changed for Manual Time Entry functionality.

How it works

Note:
  • When a timecard requires manager approval, the employee must answer all questions before the timecard edits are sent to the manager for approval.
  • When the employee click tap Save, the Manual Time Entry workflow starts.

Consider the following example:

  1. An employee punches in on his Punch tile.
  2. The Confirm panel opens with a message that there are missed punches or unexcused absences in his timecard and asks if he wants to edit his time.
  3. The employee answers Yes and clicks Submit. His timecard opens.
  4. The employee notices a missed punch and corrects it and changes his out punch time for another day, then clicks Save.
  5. Note that if employees need to change the punch type (In/Out/Shift/etc.), they must delete the punch and then enter a new punch with the correct punch type override. For example, if an employee needs to change an OUT punch to a new IN punch and then enter a new OUT punch, he or she must delete the existing OUT punch and create two new punches, IN and OUT.
  6. The Select Punch Type panel opens with the following message:
  7. Select a punch type for each timecard edit.
  8. Because the employee modified punches on two days in his timecard, the two dates and times are listed.
  9. The employee selects the first day and then selects the type of punch from a drop-down list. He repeats this for the second day, then clicks Submit.
  10. Although, the employee is set up for his manager to approve all pending changes, he must answer all Attestation questions before his changes are sent to his manager. Because the employee is required to take breaks every 4 hours, an additional panel opens, asking him to attest that he took his break.
  11. The employee must go through all workflows triggered by a selected punch button and answer to all questions asked by every workflow triggered. If an employee does not answer one of the questions or cancels one of the workflows, none of the changes are saved or submitted to the manager.
  12. After he clicks Submit, the following message appears on his timecard:
  13. Information Your changes have been submitted but will not display until they are approved.
  14. When the manager logs in, the manager has a notification. When she clicks on the notification icon, a panel opens, describing the changes that the employee made in his timecard.
  15. The manager can select Approve or Reject in the panel or she can click tap GoTo to access the employee's timecard. If the manager opens the employee's timecard, the Pending Changes panel opens. From here, the manager can approve or refuse the edits.
  16. Note that the manager may not change the time of the employee’s punches as part of the Manual Time Entry process. If an employee selected a response that he or she did not take a break, the time is adjusted based on the employee's answer (and punch(es) with correct totals appear in the timecard after manager approval).
  17.  
  18. After selecting an answer, modifications necessary are made in the timecard. For example, if Zander did not take his break, the time is adjusted in the timecard.

Usage notes

You should be aware of the following.

Attestation Dataview

The Attestation Dataview was designed for Timestamp punches, so all data is retrieved based on the transaction date. This means that when users execute the Dataview for the manual time entry punches updated (added/edited) for the past dates, the Dataview retrieves data based on the date of the transaction, not the punch date.

For example, an employee edits a punch for the previous pay period today. If the Dataview is executed for the previous pay period, no data is returned. If the Dataview is executed for current pay period, the edit is returned because the transaction happened today (in the current pay period).

Cancel meal deductions in My Timecard

If an employee has "Cancel meal deductions in My Timecard" set to disallowed in his Function Access Profile, and fixes a punch on his timecard that generates a cancel meal deduction from the Attestation question, the following error displays:

"Error Access right violation: cancel deductions are not allowed."

If the employee then clicks the Save button or adds a new punch to start the Attestation process, the same error message, which blocks work on the timecard and the created punch contains information about the completed cancel meal deduction.

Workaround: Delete the created punch that has saved information about the cancel meal deduction and continue working with the timecard.

Comments in My Timecard

If an employee has "Add Comments in My Timecard" set to disallowed in his Function Access Profile, and fixes a punch on his timecard, and the Attestation process that opens requires a comment, the following error displays:

"Error Access right violation: editing comments is not allowed."

If the employee then clicks the Save button or adds a new punch, to start the Attestation process, the same error message is displayed and the new punch contains information about the added commment.

Workaround: Delete the created punch that has saved information about the added comment and continue working with the timecard.