Managing activity events

Hourly employees enter activity events in the timecard by entering start and stop times or durations. Salaried employees enter durations to match schedules in the timecard. Employees and managers may use forms to enter activity information at a PC, data collection device or mobile device. Managers can also manage activity events across multiple employees simultaneously using group edits Changes made to more than one employee record at a time, for example, add or delete a pay code or punch to a group of timecards. through the employee summary page or dataviews A configurable tool for analysing data and taking actions on a group of employees or an organisation.. How employees and managers enter activity information is based on their function access profile and activity profile. In some situations, it may be necessary to use Supervisor forms to correct information that employees have entered.

Before you begin managing activities, ensure that you understand the following information about data validation, activity duration entry, and editing restrictions: Activity information is integrated directly into each employee's timecard where you perform most of the management tasks such as adding, editing and approving events. You generally access timecards through dataviews. Instructions for specific tasks are in the Timecard portion of this online Help. Use the Help Search feature.

Activity data receives the same validation regardless of whether an activity was entered through a form or the employee timecard.

Note: Data can only be edited in the timecard if the user's assigned function access profile has those privileges enabled.

For quantity data, update the following values directly in the activity event using the timecard:

  • Quantity Complete
  • Quantity Reworked
  • Quantity Scrapped
  • Completed Quantity Code
  • Reworked Quantity Code
  • Scrapped Quantity Code
  • Start Comments
  • Stop Comments
  • User Field 1-4
  • Any user-defined field definitions

For other non-quantity results, submit forms to correct the data.

Standards and Efficiency enable organisations to measure productivity, efficiency and utilisation. Associating a standard to an activity sets a benchmark used to calculate efficiency by comparing the standard against entered results.

Efficiency results can be found in the timecard by viewing the Activities Summary tab or the Quick Glance (also known as a contextual call-out) Provides information and actions in a dialogue box for an item on the screen when the user right-clicks or taps the item. for a specific activity.

For more information on associating Standards with Activities, see Administration > Application Set-up > Activities Set-up > Activities > Standard tab in the online help, or use the online help search feature.

Anomalies indicate areas of concern in the timecard to managers so that they can be addressed if necessary. Anomalies help managers to account for their employees' workday time and can be tracked in dataviews and reports. Anomalies are indicated in the timecard with two vertical blue squares (). Hovering above an anomaly indicators will show what type of anomaly is being indicated.

There are seven anomaly types:

  • Idle: A shift has not been assigned an activity.
  • Orphan: An activity has been entered but has not been assigned to a shift.
  • Concurrency: Shifts or activities have been entered with overlapping times
  • Mismatched Results: Entered results do not match the results template associated with the activity.
  • Missing Results: Results were not submitted for the activity.
  • Over allocation: The time entered for an activity is longer than the associated shift.
  • Auto Resolve: An exception configured to auto-resolve itself with a pay code.

Anomaly types must be configured to appear. To configure anomaly indicators, navigate to Set up > Display Preferences > Timecard Settings > Edit Timecard Settings > Show Activity Anomaly Indicators. Anomalies can be configured to appear in the Hourly Employee timecard, the Project employee timecard, or both.

Additional information:

If you enter duration or start stops activities without corresponding hours in the timecard, an orphan will be generated. The orphan then creates its own shift in the timecard.

Warning: Any activity entered that cannot be attached to an existing Timekeeping shift will generate a Timekeeping shift that will default to the user's home account. The user will be paid for the orphan shift. To prevent users from automatically being paid for orphan shifts, create a Work Rule (from Pay Policies) specific to orphans and configure the Work Rule not to pay an employee for any orphan shift. Attach the Work Rule to the Activity Profile in the General tab at Orphan Work Rule.

  • For more information on Work Rules, navigate to Administration > Application Set-up > Pay Policies > Work Rules in the online help or use the Help Search feature.

  • For more information on Orphans, navigate to Administration > Application Set-up> Activities Set-up > Activity Profiles in the online help or use the Help Search feature.

Concurrency applies only to start stop, start only, or stop only employees. Concurrency is not applicable to duration employees.

  • If you copy a set of concurrent activities from a previous day to another day with concurrent activities, the system adjusts the sequence number in the “Concurrent” column to group the activities correctly.
  • Starting different activities at the same time will make them concurrent.

You can select a default Auto Resolve pay code to prevent future Auto Resolve anomaly indicators from appearing in the timecard.

  1. Go to Application Set-up > Activities Set-up > Activity Profiles.

  2. Select the Activity Profiles page.

  3. Scroll down the page to the Defaults section and choose a default in the Auto Resolve drop-down menu.

  4. Click Save ()

You may manage employees who enter activity duration in their timecards instead of activity start and stop times. Be aware of the following behaviour and features of durations when you manage create or edit durations.

  • Duration entry supports pay-from-schedule and pay code edit features.
  • Employees who enter durations should not use the auto-deduct meal break rule.
  • Minimum/maximum durations that employees can enter for activities are specified in their activity profiles or the definition of the activity itself. The settings in the activity definition always take precedence.
  • If the total percentage for the shift or day exceeds 100, the system rounds the amount and converts it to a number of hours. If the total percentage amount less than 100 percent, the "Total Activities Charged" box is outlined in red. The system creates an IDLE record to fill the time. Adjust the percentages so that they equal 100.

Some events are automatically generated with an associated indirect activity by the system. Indirect activities do not directly contribute to productivity. The system creates these events based on:

  • Start and stop activity transactions
  • Pay code actions

System-generated events cannot be edited. There are 4 possible system generated events:

  • Idle time
  • Paid meal breaks
  • Unpaid meal breaks
  • Pay code actions (events created by pay codes that are linked to activities)

Note: System-generated events appear in purple. You can change the activity associated with idle time to another activity by adding a new row with an activity that covers the idle time. Once a new row has been added with an activity that covers the idle time, the idle time will disappear.