Understanding Timesheets

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Hallo, coming from a classic Projectmanagement i tryed to understand ERPNext - especially Timesheets.

I learned, that a time sheet is not a log. I understand, that a timesheet is like a daily or weekly or however list of logs.
I can open a new timeheet and I can add activity types. Inside the AT i can set the project and the task - fine.
And in this way i can work on projext 1 and project 2 and so on at my daily workhours and “log” all i do for the projects - in a mixture.
Poor is, that i cannot make any comment in a AT. Really!
So i can see a list of Activity Types, but i cannot know, what was done in this log.

In the list of timesheets i cannot see any information - employee, ok ( i can assign a timsheet to the employee) - but fine would be, a date, or a info, i can manually fill in som info in a filed, which i am missing.

If i open the Project, i can see all worked hours in the bottom of the grey area. - separated to the Activity types. Also fine.

If i switch to the timesheets insinde this project, i can see, there are logs with the log-numbers, and in which row they are. Also fine.

And now i want to make an invoice of the project with agreed timesheet-logs.
In the grey area of the project site there is the button “timesheets” (left column" and a “+” button. Fine, if i klick it, i can make the invoice.
But - pooooor - i have manually to fill in my cusomer. but hey, the customer is already set inside the project. what is this?

Then i have the list of possible items - empty - and below the correct list of timesheet logs. But i have to calculate manually the sum of hours. Poor.
BUT: My timesheet logs are different activity-types with different amount per hour. So it is not just set one Activity Type with all hours adds of all timesheet-logs. The calculation is wrong. this only works, if only one type of activity-type is logged in all timesheet-logs.

Hm, very difficult.

So please let me know, ho do i make a right invoice?
Manually fill in the item list - as a copy ot the timesheet logs - row per row? Poor

The i learned, that there is a drag and drop functionality - but i feels a little like coincidence, how the lines will fill.
And - because there are no comment-texts are inside the timesheet logs, there is no info in the item-list. This is often less information for the customer, what we have done for him.

And this is only a invoice based on a small project with only a few tasks.

So, please set up a clear documentation about your timesheets. Please!
There are some videos, they did not help to understand the philosophy and thinking, what is the idea?

I saw, that there are some discussions about an older version (v6) with a time-log system. And some users wrote, here inside discuss.erpnext, that that log-system was much more usable to track and bill.

OK, today i can set the project and the task inside the timesheet-log - but no comment.

So, i try to work with erpenext since a longer period, but i cannot switch to it, because i will not be able to make the basic thing - to make a projekt and bill my or the work of my eployees to a customer.
Or it is too difficult. Not only for me and my customers - also for the other users which are thinkig, that the old time-log was better - in the case as erpnext as a project-management.

Thanks a lot.

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Sounds like you know what your ideal project management tool should look like. In that case, you can easily customize it to your requirements.

Instead of trying to understand how ERPNext handles timesheets, you should try to understand how you can use ERPNext to adapt to your workflow.

Once you understand the basic elements of one doctype, you can apply it to the others. If you do this, you now have a very powerful tool.

Good luck.

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…or you can put a proposal and give guidance so we can make timesheets better

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Hallo,
not long ago, this year, there was another discussion about exactly this.

There were also some users, they need the same functionality - but the thread ended without a solution or a result inside erpnext in newer Versions.
So i think there is not really a need to change anything. All others are happy with Timesheets as they are.

But for me it is not practicable - and i know other people in real, which also cannot work with timesheets - and stopped working with erpnext.

My Problem is, that i dont know enough of timesheets - the philosophy and so on - a clear documentation - also in relation with sales-order…
I tested and thougt, if i do this, the result is should be that. But again it is a surprise that it is not working like i hoped ant thought. really difficult, if i want to use it lika a project management like many other systms.

If all others say, that this is a really good solution, fine.

But at the end i need to track the time and make a invoice - and that is not working, if i have a team and many tracks inside a task.
Or it is such difficult for me and my team, that we need to find another solution.

The suggestion was, to have something like the old time-log-system next to timesheets … or a modification, that timesheets can also used in this way, it would wonderful.

I like erpnext very much, i also want to spread it to our customers … but if i could not use it for my team, i cannot convince my customers that this is the solution they need to use.
Any ideas?

Best regards

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"
My Problem is, that i dont know enough of timesheets - the philosophy and so on - a clear documentation - also in relation with sales-order…
I tested and thougt, if i do this, the result is should be that. But again it is a surprise that it is not working like i hoped ant thought. really difficult, if i want to use it lika a project management like many other systms.
"

One idea to ‘bootstrap’ your learning situation problem: Document your assumptions, what steps you have tried and the result - follow the ‘experimental process’ - for example as wojosc did in his thread and Frankfurt talk and video you refer to.

Your notes would form the basis to revise and improve these existing 4 option examples for timesheets https://erpnext.org/docs/user/manual/en/projects/timesheet
Timesheet

The more specific your feedback the better!

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If writeups are not for you, another way too, to quote rmehta

"
If you have specific suggestions, using mockups, screenshots are the best way to explain
"

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To make Timesheet better, have some things tested and give my opinions here:

Understanding: A Timesheet is not a single log (i thought so) - it is a set of logs (in different Projects/Tasks/Issues) over a period. Example a Day, a Week, a Month. And to have a overviev about the work of the employee, the owener of one task one employee.

Following, it is nessesary to have more colums in list-view: date/period and the owner.
If the timesheet is not owned only by one person, this should also work - then the solution must be, that there is only one timesheet for the period (example given day, wekk, month) and all employees will log inside this one timesheet per period.

But i think, like realwork, it woild be the best, every employess has ist own timesheet!

Inside a database-system, it is no matter, which way - but i the list view, mor colums and filter-options are necessary.
I think, that it is not eneough, to have one global comment-field inside the timesheet. (this is the description of the task, also coming vom info-text from sales-order). I think, it is very important, that the employee will also document, what he has done in this activity-type-log. (the list)Sometimes, we have to report, what we have done in which time to a customer. For example, if we planned 4h but worked 8h, because of the conditions or problems in the job … and only to say, we worked 8h, but nobody knows what exactly was done, is a really problem.
Put in a comment field in every time-sheet-log, that the employee can write, what he has done

If i make a sales order - with the activity-types inside, i can make it as a project. All activity-types now are tasks. And every task bases on the quotation - example hours of work.

So it is necessary, to see this quotation (how many hours are planned in this task).

If now a time-sheet is open, and activity types are filled in this project/task, i need to see these hours against the planned hours.It is needed, to see, if I am inside the plan - or over.

This view is not clear
If a task is set up manually (without a sales-order before) it is clear, that there not must set up the planned hours - but it could manually filled in.

Any suggestions to my thoughts?
Best regards

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