Version 7 Update - 28th June

Community,

We did a few last-minute design changes in the Timesheet and Payment modules. This is now merged, but we have not yet fully tested and documented these changes.

Since we promised 30th June as the release date, we might push it back by another week to allow for better testing.

We would love volunteers form the community test issues and report them on GitHub. Please add [v7] tag in the subject line!

Thanks~

15 Likes

@rmehta looks like it’s headed in the right direction but I’m pretty lost as to how this is supposed to work. Are Time Logs gone? Is an employee supposed to fill out a Time Sheet instead, this seems like more work than a Time Log, not less! How are the manufacturing Time Logs created now? Cant we get a quick explanation of the steps involved here?

Seems like it should be:

  1. Manufacturing/Project Clock In/Out creates a Time Log for the employee, tracks by Production Order/Project
  2. Time Sheet picks up all Time Logs for an employee for a Specific Time
  3. Employee and/or Supervisor Submits/Approves Time Sheet
  4. HR processes payroll, creating Pay Slips, etc from Approved Time Sheets.

One issue I found right off the bat is that there is no option in Salary Structure for “Salary Slip Based on Timesheet” as stated in Time Sheet: List of employee which has “Salary Slip Based on Timesheet” is enabled in salary structure. There is a checkbox in Salary Slip however, I just don’t get how that has to do with anything.

This is definitely headed in the right direction but needs some smoothing out.

Adam

1 Like

@agerken, I think that the Time Sheet is a direct replacement for the Time Logs, and I disagree that it is more work. With the current system, you could fill out an entire week on the same sheet, pulling in multiple logs into the same sheet using the table. I find this much better than the existing system, where if I worked on a 4 projects in a day I had to create and submit 4 different Time Logs - now I can do it in a single sheet.

@rmehta, here are a couple things I have noticed:

  1. The Salary Slip Based on Timesheet checkbox shows up in the Salary Structure only after it has been saved the first time.
  2. I get an error when creating a salary slip for a timesheets user. I’ve reported the error, but I’m also not clear on how it should work. If I try to create a Salary Slip for an employee with timesheets, after I select the start and end dates, I would expect it to load all the applicable time sheets from that user between those dates. It doesn’t seem to do that (maybe because of the error).
  3. I think there should be a way to filter the timesheets in a slip based on project / activity type, or at the very least show a table for that. Being able to provide employees with a detailed list of their hours over a pay period (including what they did / what was billable) is crucial. If this could happen either through a report or directly in the Salary Slip (preferable), that would be great.
  4. The calendar view / time log creator seems to have been removed. Being able to create Time Logs in the Calendar view was a very fast and convenient way of creating the time logs, but that seems to have been removed. I wish you would reconsider this or find a way to incorporate it into the new system. Every employee at my company uses that calendar view for adding logs.
  5. I get an error saying no Active or Default Salary Structure for the fiscal year and month, despite having one that is active and saved. The reason for this is that if you have the Salary based on Time Sheets button checked off on the Salary Slip but not the Structure (or vice versa), it won’t show up. This can be very confusing. The system should check to see if there is an active salary structure for that year/month, and check off the Salary Slip based on Time Sheets button automatically if the structure that is active for that month uses Time Sheets.
  6. Trying to save a non-time sheet salary slip (maybe only after pressing the check box for Time Sheets a few times) doesn’t work. I get the error “Mandatory fields required in Salary Slip Timesheet (Table) Time Sheet”.

Looking forward to this new system!

2 Likes

@Ben_Cornwell_Mott The Time Sheet is definitely nice for desk users, but I’ve never seen floor operator people filling out their own Time Sheets. I still really want a simple Clock In/Clock Out interface for the shop floor.

1 Like

Agreed! Definitely not a good system for floor operators.

However, I don’t really thing any computerized system is optimal for a shop floor. Using an RFID card, fingerprint scanner, or other equipment is probably best, and those can be interfaced with ERPNext pretty easily:

This was a great tool to be able to see what had been entered, ensuring everybody had entered their log, or didn’t make any errors on days.

Also, Project Billing [I posted this in another thread, but it has been buried]

When creating a sales invoice, and attatching a timesheet, does it allow the choice of certain lines on the timesheet? Or a timesheet as a whole? I can see this being a problem in this case:

Employee works Project 1 on a monday, Project 2 for three days, the Project 1 again on the last. To keep time worked attributed to the proper job (when it comes time to pushing to a sales invoice), that employee will have to keep two seperate timesheets open. Since they work as a naming series, it only becomes more difficult to keep track of which is which, and where to find any buried ones

Also, the ability to filter down to time logs via Project in one click, and batch them for billing in another, would be lost.

The timesheet idea looks great, but not if executed as a replacement wrapper (batch) for Time Logs. It puts too much on the employee to keep sorted in the right places, and will create havoc and hunting for times if not done correctly. Having a multiple line entry system would be fantastic, if it were done as a tool for the existing Time Logs.

1 Like

It seems like new features to replace existing features that were not an issue before. Or is it always never going to satisfy everyone?
I suggest that if the underlying function and codes are the same, why not make them just different ‘views’ selectable by user? E.g. List view, Table view , Monthly Calendar view, Singe day view etc etc. :slight_smile:

1 Like

+1. It is otherwise removing functionality that I (selfishly) think is very useful. I haven’t tested it out yet, besides whats on the beta website. TS naming especially seems like a step backwards. Would the filter functionality be useless as it would only relate to the doctype but not the child table?

I think it’s possible to reference a document in a child table (eg items in sales invoice, or how time logs in time log batch), but I don’t know if it’s possible to edit a document from a child table (if time log data were to be modifyable and creatable using “table view”) without extra code beyond the current framework. Rushabh may have to chime in on this.

2 Likes

@agerken @Ben_Cornwell_Mott @superlack @wdg Thanks for sharing the use-cases

Will try and play out the scenarios you are mentioning to figure this out.

Broadly, “Time Log” was a very non-standard approach to this. I agree it was flexible but it was not too. If you want to continue using Time Sheets as Time Logs, just add one row to the table.

You can use Timesheets in a flexible way for billing (Sales Invoice) and payroll (Salary Slip). Also we eliminated Time Log Batch (another non-standard choice of name) by adding the table in Sales Invoice itself. So there should be no loss in functionality!

Hallelujah - Long live timesheets…!

This is certainly the most flexible path to go.

The ongoing debate between the conflicting HR/Payroll requirement and Project billing comes together nicely under a timesheet solution (as apposed to time logs).

Couple of functionality considerations for discussion:

  1. Will the timesheet changes allow the user to capture project codes and maybe assigned Tasks on that project?
  2. Will the timesheet changes cater for start-stop times and total duration for that task / day / week?
  3. Can we configure the start and end Days of a timesheet? i.e. some clients start Monday others Saturday?
  4. Will the timesheet populate already booked Leave?
  5. What logic (if any) will be used for example if validating against HR Leave bookings? i.e cant book normal hours if on Leave?
  6. What logic (if any) could be applied to retrospective changes to timesheets?
  7. is there a .CSV import functionality for employee time?
  8. Can timesheet be populated by exception only? i.e Standard Salary hours catered by Payroll module Timesheet captures Overtime etc…

I don’t expect answers to the above but just putting them out there for consideration and debate.

@rmehta our guys would happily test this new functionality so please forward on the relevant info to me and we will get started on this very useful feature.

Good work, looking forward to Rel7.

Paul

1 Like

that is good ,but you have to think also about the payroll system which is related with the time sheet,at least the system must start to calculate income tax and overtime based on percentage of their gross salary or basic salary as the countries rule.if you do this this will be gr8 addition!

Hi @agerken @Ben_Cornwell_Mott @Sachine_P1 @superlack @wdg @PaulTheTrouble

Time Sheet Based Salary Slip works as per following:

  1. Make salary structure for the respective employee with checked Salary Slip Based on Timesheet, enter hour rate.

  2. Make time sheet, enter activity type, from time, hours etc.

  3. Submit time sheet → click on Make Salary Slip.

  4. Check billable on time sheet logs, if you want to make sales invoice for same.

For more details please check below video
https://youtu.be/sDGpoD1TKAM

2 Likes

Version 7 Problems:

I’m on production, yet bench update asked me to use --upgrade. And I did. After one heart stopping moment it went through.

As the upgrade is done, all Warehouses are being reset to Is Group = Yes. Luckily I managed to figure it out and did a quick data export/import.

You surely want to fix this.

@rmehta Yes, Time Logs, as they were used were not standard, and I think the Time Sheet functionality is great, however, I do think that Time Logs still have their place. IE: as an easy way to capture time quickly, and simply. Time Sheets should capture time entered, as well as time created via Logs.

Ideally I’d still like floor operators to just create logs, and have supervisors use the Time Sheet function to check operator’s time, approve, and submit to payroll. Salary employees, such as Engineers and etc. could directly use Time Sheets. The Time Log process could be made MUCH simpler, now that the more advanced functionality has been shifted to Time Sheets.

It just seems like there’s some sorting out that needs to happen, and I still think a mix of Time Logs and Time Sheets are right.

Edit: I think my ideal case would be: Production Order, Project or Task, would have the “Make” button, with “Time Log” or “Time Sheet Entry” then the user would enter their start time, hours and/or stop time, click Submit and the time would be captured, and show up on the Time Sheet. What do you think? Seems like it may be an easy way of combining the functionality of Time Logs and Time Sheets.

In beta.erpnext.com there still is no " Salary Slip Based on Timesheet" checkbox in the Salary Slip, it is in The Salary Slip form.

Hi,

Fixed it, please check now

Thanks, Rohit

Things are looking good but not sure if I am missing something. Now that you have all this information going into the project for costs and bill out amounts how does one turn this into a billable invoice?

When you create a project should the project not have a project type. For Example: “Quoted/Contract Price” or “Cost Plus” project. Once the project is completed there should be alink on the project to convert the project into a Sales Order/Invoice and and option to select what data to populate the invoice with. For example, Detailed invoicing showing all employees, hours worked, tasks, dates and notes. Or simple invoicing Groupled by tasks or employees.

@rohit_w

Looks like it should work now!

Yes! I’ve been hoping for this for a while. We operate a mix of fixed cost and cost plus, and it’s really hard to do now.

Right now we advice both of these to be maintained separately because there are so many various ways one can bill and keeping in flexible in the Sales Order is the best way.

this is now possible by adding Timesheets in the Timesheets section of the Invoice.