2 stage time sheet approval

[Dominic Moss]

I have been working with a company that wants to rigorously protect their
project data. They want to have the following process in force.

Team members update progress on tasks - method set to update actuals per
time period - updates submitted to Project Managers.

Project Managers approve updates submitted by team members and then pass
updates to the Project Office.

Project Office approves updates and updates project plans with timesheet
information.

As far as I am aware the only way an out of the box Project Server instance
could handle this requirement would be through Delegation with the Project
Managers being the "Lead" in the delegation process - I explained this but
it was deemed too bureaucratic.

Does anyone know of a third party timesheet product that will integrate with
Project Server and allow the required process as described to be employed?

--
Dominic Moss

www.projectability.co.uk

Helping people achieve more with Microsoft Project

Tel +44 8707 303 400
Fax +44 8707 303 500

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

Dominic --

If your client is using managed time periods with Project Server 2003, they
could then use the Timesheet Approval feature to provide 2-level approval of
actuals. To use this feature, you would to do the following:

1. Enable this feature in Project Server (it is set to "Deny" by default)
2. Set up the RBS field to show your client's reporting structure
3. Populate the RBS field for every resource to indicate "who reports to
whom" in the organization
4. Add the project managers to the Resource Managers group in PWA
5. Your PMO would need to become the manager of each project by
republishing the assignments in each project (Collaborate - Publish -
Republish Assignments and select the "Become the manager for these
assignments" option)
6. On the Updates page in PWA, your PMO would need to select the "Show
timesheet status" option on the View Options tab

If you use the timesheet approval feature, teach members would submit their
timesheet for each reporting period and the project managers would be able
to approve the time. The PMO would then update approved time into the
project plan. Unapproved timesheet hours would be indicates by an asterisk
character to the right of the hours for each time period. Do note, however,
that the PMO can choose to ignore whether the timesheet has been approved by
the project manager and update the actuals anyway. Just some thoughts.
Hope this helps.

 

[Dominic Moss]

Dominic --

If your client is using managed time periods with Project Server 2003,
they could then use the Timesheet Approval feature to provide 2-level
approval of actuals. To use this feature, you would to do the following:

1. Enable this feature in Project Server (it is set to "Deny" by default)
2. Set up the RBS field to show your client's reporting structure
3. Populate the RBS field for every resource to indicate "who reports to
whom" in the organization
4. Add the project managers to the Resource Managers group in PWA
5. Your PMO would need to become the manager of each project by
republishing the assignments in each project (Collaborate - Publish -
Republish Assignments and select the "Become the manager for these
assignments" option)
6. On the Updates page in PWA, your PMO would need to select the "Show
timesheet status" option on the View Options tab

If you use the timesheet approval feature, teach members would submit
their timesheet for each reporting period and the project managers would
be able to approve the time. The PMO would then update approved time into
the project plan. Unapproved timesheet hours would be indicates by an
asterisk character to the right of the hours for each time period. Do
note, however, that the PMO can choose to ignore whether the timesheet has
been approved by the project manager and update the actuals anyway. Just
some thoughts. Hope this helps.

Dale,

Many thanks for the explanation - I had not investigated this feature as I
had not previously been confronted by the request for 2 stage approval. I
have passed your wisdom on to the client and await their feedback.

 

[××“×ž×™× ×™×¡×˜×¨×˜×•×¨]

Hi, Dominic.
I have the same situation at one of my customers.
I tried to use your advice but i coudn't find the sign of non-approved hours
by the resource manager. can you explain how, as a project owner (that
updates the project plan), i can see if the resource manager have updated the
actual hours report? where is the "show timesheet status" option???
thanks,
Yaara.

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

Yaara --

Log into PWA and navigate to the Updates page. Click the View Options tab
and select the "Show timesheet status" option. In the timesheet grid, tasks
that have not been approved by the resource manager will contain an asterisk
(*) character to the right of the Actual Work value. Hope this helps.