Sending a timesheet with a message

[Daniel]

Hi,
When a Team Member is submitting his timesheet, he can send a message as
well. Can anyone tell me how the Project Manager can read the message during
the task update process?
Never can read it anywhere!
Daniel

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

Daniel --

The PM can read the Comment by clicking the name of the task on the Task
Updates page in PWA. Notice that the name of each task is actually a
hyperlink. When the PM clicks the name of the task, he/she sees a dialog
that gives a summary of all information submitted in the task update,
including the Comment added by the team member at submission. Hope this
helps.

 

[Daniel]

Thanks Dale for your answer,
Actually, I don’t found any comments in the Approvals>Task Update area after
clicking on the task name link. So, I performed some extra tests:
- When the ProjectManager is not a ResourceManager no comments appear after
clicking on the name of the task in the Approvals>Task Update section. No
comment in the Approvals>Timesheet after clicking on the name of the task and
checking the “Transaction Comments and Task History†as well and even no
comments in the email notification received (even though there is a comment
area)
- When the timesheet has to be approved by a RM he do find the comment in
the Approvals>Task Update section. But nothing for the PM
- On the other side when the PM and the RM send a message after the
approval, the TeamMember can read it in My Task (“Transaction Comments and
Task Historyâ€)

So it seems for me that the PM never receives the comment from the TM when
the timesheet is auto-approved, or when it’s approved by a RM. I guess it
works only if the PM is also a RM.

When performing the tests, I found another potential problem. When the
timesheet has to be approved by a RM who is not the PM, it seems that the PM
received an email notification and has the ability to update his project
before the RM had approved the timesheet. Am I wrong?

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

Daniel --

When you click the name of a task in the Task Updates page, didn't you see
the Task Details - Web Page dialog? In this dialog, you see any Comment
added by the team member at the time he/she submitted the task update. The
PM should see this if he/she is only a member of the Project Managers group.
Let us know what you find.

 

[Daniel]

Actually, I test it again and here is what I found in the task detail page:

Update pending: 11/03/2010 09:36
Actual Overtime Work On 01/03/2010 -> 0h
Details
Actual Work On 01/03/2010 -> 8h
Submitted: 11/03/2010 09:36 <ResourceName>

But nothing about the message of the resource

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

Daniel --

Well, I'm baffled. Perhaps someone else has an idea for you.

 

[Barbara - Austria]

Dale,
so am I ...

Daniel,
only to make sure. Have you scrolled down until the bottom of this box?
Comments are placed directly under 'Submitted: 11/03/2010 09:36
<ResourceName>' without any label and not in bold. Could it be missed by
mistake?

Am 11.03.2010 15:23, schrieb Dale Howard [MVP]:

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

Daniel --

Are you using the My Timesheet functionality by chance? If so, is it
possible the user added a Comment when submitting the Timesheet for approval
instead of adding the Comment when he/she submitted the task update for
approval from the My Tasks page? Just a thought.

 

[Daniel]

Yes, you’re right Dale!
When performing tests, the resource sent a comment with the timesheet, but
no comment when performing the update process. But after further tests it
appears that when he sent a comment during the update process, the comment do
appears in the task detail box.
I mixed the whole thing but now I got it!
So finally when the timesheets are auto approved the comments sent with the
timesheets are lost? They are only seen by the timesheet manager if so. Am I
right?
Anyway, thanks Dale for your help!

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

Daniel --

If a Comment is added by a user when submitting a Timesheet for approval,
only people who are Timesheet Managers can see the Comment. As you now
know, the Comments do not automatically transfer to the My Tasks page when
the same user submits a task update. On the My Tasks page, I think a better
process would be to ask team members to add Notes to tasks to provide extra
information for the PM. Then the PM can see and read the Notes when he/she
approves task updates. Hope this helps.

 

[Daniel]

Thanks for the tip, I’ll test it.

Daniel --

If a Comment is added by a user when submitting a Timesheet for approval,
only people who are Timesheet Managers can see the Comment. As you now
know, the Comments do not automatically transfer to the My Tasks page when
the same user submits a task update. On the My Tasks page, I think a better
process would be to ask team members to add Notes to tasks to provide extra
information for the PM. Then the PM can see and read the Notes when he/she
approves task updates. Hope this helps.

 

[Kate Fahey]

Hi Daniel

Can you plese carify...if the timesheets are set to auto approve the comments are not accessible by anyone?

Thank you

Hi,
When a Team Member is submitting his timesheet, he can send a message as
well. Can anyone tell me how the Project Manager can read the message during
the task update process?
Never can read it anywhere!
Daniel

On Tuesday, March 09, 2010 10:10 AM Dale Howard [MVP] wrote:
Daniel --

The PM can read the Comment by clicking the name of the task on the Task
Updates page in PWA. Notice that the name of each task is actually a
hyperlink. When the PM clicks the name of the task, he/she sees a dialog
that gives a summary of all information submitted in the task update,
including the Comment added by the team member at submission. Hope this
helps.