Timesheet Notification Enhancement

Description

Notifications for Available Timesheets

Automatic timesheet notifications can be configured and sent to timesheet workflow participants. For example, an automatic notification can be sent via email and/or SMS to the individual who is identified as the timesheet initiator to remind them to submit a timesheet. Timesheet notifications are sent by a Notification Service, which runs at regular intervals and sends notifications when the conditions for sending a notification are met.

In this release, an enhancement has been made to the way the Notification Service identifies which timesheets require an automated notification to be sent. This applies to timesheets that are in the Available state (i.e. are yet to be keyed and/or submitted for approval).

Previously, the Notification Service sent automatic notifications for Available timesheets if the week ending date of the timesheets was no later than the current date, assuming that all other conditions for sending a notification were met. Now, the Notification Service will only send notifications for an Available timesheet if the timesheet end date falls within a date range where:

• it is not earlier than a default earliest timesheet end date, as determined by a new setting under Time and Attendance > Maintenance > General > Agency User (for more information, see Configuration below)

• it is not later than the current date, as per the previous functionality.

Notifications for Grouped Timesheets

Currently in Time & Attendance, Grouped Notifications for Submitted Timesheet Reminders sends notifications as per the Group Interval defined.

Grouping is defined in Time & Attendance > Maintenance > Notifications, and in the related Job Order the user selects the type of notification required for that job. Currently the logic finds the timesheets that have been submitted since the previous notification has been sent, and includes a list of those timesheets in the grouped notification.

To reduce the risk of an already approved/rejected timesheet being included in this list, just before sending a final check will now be triggered to see if the status has changed for any of timesheets. Where the status has changed the item will be removed from the list.

Benefits

For Available Timesheets, this enhancement reduces system performance overheads by reducing the number of Available timesheet that the system must search for each time the Notification Service runs. In turn, system resources are freed up to perform other functions, thereby improving overall system performance.

For Grouped Notifications, this enhancement ensures that when the notification is dispatched, the list only includes timesheets that have not been actioned at that time. This change will improve the experience for the Approver.

Configuration

The earliest timesheet end date that system considers when determining for which Available timesheets to send an automatic notification is defined by the new Default Week Ending From, Week in Arrears field on the Time and Attendance > Maintenance > General > Agency User screen. For more information about this new field, see Defaulting of Week Ending Date for Available Timesheets List.