Turn Off Auto Approval

[Brian]

I am setting up Project Server 2007 and testing. All timesheets seem to be
approving automatically. How can I turn this off?

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

Brian --

In the future, please post your Project Server questions in the
microsoft.public.project.server newsgroup, as this newsgroup is closing
down. To answer your question, you must specify a Timesheet Manager value
for each resource. Edit each resource from the Resource Center page and you
will see the field. This will route Timesheet approval to the correct
resource manager. Hope this helps.

 

[Brian]

This helps, thanks but what if I want to have project managers approve the
timesheets on a project by project basis (i.e. some projects approved by John
others by Kelly)? That is how it was setup when we were using project server
2003.

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

Brian --

I think you are mixing terms and concepts in your questions. Here's what I
mean:

1. The Timesheet functionality of Project Server 2007 is intended for
approving all types of time, including project work, non-project work, and
even non-working time such as vacation or sick leave. Only some of the work
is project-related. The person who approves time is called the Timesheet
Manager and you must specify this value for each resource in the Enterprise
Resource Pool.

2. The task updates functionality is specific to each project. The person
who initially publishes a project is now known as the Status Manager. There
can be only one Status Manager for each project, or their can be multiple
Status Managers, but the limit is one Status Manager per task. The
functionality you seek is pretty much the same as in Project Server 2003,
but the process is a bit different to change the Status Manager for a
project.

Does that help? Let us know.

 

[Brian]

Yes Dale thanks this helps but I'm still struggling a bit. With Project
Server 2003, we were using the task updates to update the actual work for
each task in the project plan. This allowed us to track the hours spent for
each task of the project. We want to perform the same function with the new
version. However it appears that the timesheet and the task updates are 2
different things. (Timesheets seem to track hours and task updates track
percent complete and dates) Also it seems that the hours from the timesheet
don't actually make it into the project plan in Microsoft Project
Professional - is that true? If so, then how do I get my team to enter their
actual work hours in and have that reflected in the project plan?

-Brian

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

Brian --

First of all, I would strongly recommend that you to train your TM's how to
use the new Project Server 2007 system because it is VERY different from
Project Server 2003. If you need to capture both time AND task progress,
the process would be something like this:

1. Enter time in the My Timesheet page every day and save the changes.
2. On the last day of the reporting period, submit the timesheet for
approval.
3. Import the time from the timesheet to the My Tasks page.
4. Submit the task update.

Also, if your TM's need to enter time against a task not shown on the My
Timesheet page (it should be there, however), then they can click on the
name of the task to see the Assignment Details page, where they can enter
the time on a daily basis. If they are seeing only % Work Complete and not
a daily timesheet grid on the Assignment Details page, then your Project
Server administrator has not set up the Task Tracking method properly, and
should change it. Hope this helps.

 

[Brian]

Thanks Dale, I really appreciate your help on this. Wow that is really clunky
compared to Project Server 2003! We do not use the task progress at all -
only hours. So in the old version we just used the task updates for hours.
You are saying in the new version that it is a 2 step process after the
timesheet is submitted and approved. Each user must import the timesheet and
then submit the task update. I was doing some playing around with this and
found it to be very clunky for what we are doing.
I noticed that in the Task Settings and Display if I uncheck the "Time entry
by Timesheet only. Users will sync to update tasks." check box that users can
enter time directly like the old version. However, I find the My Tasks view
very user unfriendly in that it cannot be sorted by ID and it does not show
rollup tasks. I have spent much time trying to make this view more user
friendly to no avail. I mentioned it to Microsoft when I was on a support
call with them and they said they have received quite a few complaints about
it.
So the bottom line is I like the new My Timesheets view but the process may
not work for us as it is too clunky. Unless you have another suggestion. At
this point I am considering abandoning Project Server and trying to find a
Timesheet web part for Sharepoint. Our company is a heavy user of Sharepoint
and would be very comfortable using it. I believe the Project Server may be
overkill for just timesheet management. I do find it beneficial in comparing
our proposed hours (in the project plan) to our actuals so I like the
timesheet integration for that aspect. Do you have any suggestions?

Thanks,
Brian

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

Brian --

"Clunky" is an understatement! The bad news is that if you want to use the
Timesheet functionality along with tracking task progress, then you should
teach your resources the multi-step process I detailed in my last message.
That is the process we use at our company. Otherwise, you may need to
abandon Project Server 2007's built-in time and task tracking system and use
a third-party application for this purpose. Hope this helps.