Oracle Time & Labor Implementing or Upgrading to OTL in an Oracle Projects Environment

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Copyright Information

Oracle Time and Labor, Releases 11i and 12 Copyright 2005 Oracle Corporation All rights reserved. Primary Author: Kris Van der Ploeg Contributors: Alison Crabbe, Derek Morgan, Debbie Hendrix-Woolery, John Finnegan, Faz Assadi, Arul

Senapathi Creation Date: 06-Dec-05 Last Updated: 14-Apr-06 This software was not developed for use in any nuclear, aviation, mass transit, medical, or other inherently dangerous applications. It is the customer's responsibility to take all appropriate measures to ensure the safe use of such applications if the programs are used for such purposes. This software/documentation contains proprietary information of Oracle Corporation; it is provided under a license agreement containing restrictions on use and disclosure and is also protected by copyright law. Reverse engineering of the software is prohibited. If this software/documentation is delivered to a U.S. Government Agency of the Department of Defense, then it is delivered with Restricted Rights and the following legend is applicable: Restricted Rights Legend Use, duplication, or disclosure by the Government is subject to restrictions as set forth in subparagraph (c)(1)(ii) of DFARS 252.227-7013, Rights in Technical Data and Computer Software (October 1988). Oracle Corporation, 500 Oracle Parkway, Redwood City, CA 94065. If this software/documentation is delivered to a U.S. Government Agency is not for use within the Department of Defense, then it is delivered with “Restricted Rights", as defined in FAR 52.227-14, Rights in Data - General, including Alternate III (June 1987). The information in this document is subject to change without notice. If you find any problems in the documentation, please report them to us in writing. Oracle Corporation does not warrant that this document is error free. No part of this document may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical, for any purpose without the express written permission of Oracle Corporation. Oracle is a registered trademark and ConText, Enabling the Information Age, Oracle7, Oracle8, Oracle8i, Oracle Access, Oracle Application Object Library, Oracle Financials, Oracle Discoverer, Oracle Web Customers, Oracle Web Employees, Oracle Workflow, Oracle Work in Process, PL/SQL, Pro*C, SmartClient, SQL*, SQL*Forms, SQL*Loader, SQL*Menu, SQL*Net, SQL*Plus, and SQL*Report are trademarks or registered trademarks of Oracle Corporation. All other products or company names are used for identification purposes only, and may be trademarks of their respective owners.

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Table of Contents

1. Introduction ________________________________________________________________________________ 4 1.1 Purpose of this Document _________________________________________________________________ 4 1.2 Intended Audience ________________________________________________________________________ 4 1.3 Document Orientation _____________________________________________________________________ 4 1.4 Key Differences Between OTL and OIT______________________________________________________ 5 1.5 Definition of Terms ________________________________________________________________________ 5

2. Licensing Requirements for OTL _____________________________________________________________ 8 3. Steps for Implementing OTL _________________________________________________________________ 9 4. HR Foundation (Shared HR) to Full HR_______________________________________________________ 11 5. HR and Assignment Records _______________________________________________________________ 15 6. Preferences _______________________________________________________________________________ 17 7. Single vs. Multiple Timecards per Time Period________________________________________________ 18 8. Expenditure Items Descriptive Flexfield in OTL _______________________________________________ 20 9. Time Entry_________________________________________________________________________________ 23

9.1 Self Service timecards____________________________________________________________________ 23 9.2 Timekeeper ______________________________________________________________________________ 24 9.3 Line Manager Self Service ________________________________________________________________ 25 9.4 Authorized Delegate______________________________________________________________________ 26

10. Templates _________________________________________________________________________________ 27 11. Disconnected Time Entry ___________________________________________________________________ 30 12. Change and Late Audit (CLA) _______________________________________________________________ 31 13. Timecard Approval Styles __________________________________________________________________ 34 14. Timecard Approvers________________________________________________________________________ 36 15. Timecard Retrieval and Transfer to Oracle Projects and Other Applications_____________________ 39 Appendix A – Frequently Asked Questions about OTL with Projects _________________________________ 40 Appendix B – Document References & Further Reading_____________________________________________ 42

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1. Introduction

1.1 Purpose of this Document

As of November 2004, the Oracle eBusiness Suite has replaced time entry in Oracle Internet Time (Oracle iTime, or OIT) with OTL. OTL is now a single point of time entry for multiple applications in the eBusiness Suite. A number of OIT customers are currently upgrading from their OIT modules to OTL, or are planning their upgrade. To assist those customers, as well as any customer considering implementing OTL in a Projects environment, this document describes OTL's features that replace OIT's and deliver a powerful, flexible solution that complements Oracle Projects.

We have also received feedback and questions from customers who have implemented OTL in a Projects environment. We would like to share that information from this common pool of knowledge in this document, and address the most common questions that customers have raised as well. This document also provides a number of additional resources available to assist customers with their OTL implementation. For customers considering upgrading from OIT to OTL, OTL provides the functionality available in OIT as well as a number of new features that are not available in OIT. This document will also examine some of the important differences between the two products, and some key new features in OTL that customers may find very beneficial.

If you are currently an OIT customer, this document assumes that your setup in OTL will resemble your setup in OIT. OTL provides many additional options for configuration if you find that your business requirements have expanded to more than just capturing time for integration with Oracle Projects, though. For example, you may find that OTL’s integrations with Oracle HR, Oracle Payroll, Oracle Purchasing, and Oracle Enterprise Asset Management would enable your business to benefit more fully from your licenses of those products. Please refer to OTL’s implementation and user guide, and to its online help manual, for more specific information about how to implement these other aspects of OTL’s functionality.

NOTE: This document does not replace or duplicate existing documentation. Rather, it provides a brief description of items for the reader to consider when implementing OTL in a Projects environment, and refers the reader to appropriate additional sources for further information about each of the items.

1.2 Intended Audience

This document assumes the reader has some familiarity with Oracle’s eBusiness Suite of applications but may not necessarily be familiar with OTL. Its intended audience is functional or technical administrators or consultants who may be deciding if OTL is a suitable product for the company’s business requirements, or who may be currently implementing OTL in a Projects environment. We will indicate which sections are intended for a more technical audience in the orientation below and inside each section.

1.3 Document Orientation

If you are looking for specific information or have specific questions, this list provides an orientation for where you can find that information in this document.

• Key differences between OTL and OIT: Section 1.4

• Definition of terms: Section 1.5

• Licensing requirements for OTL: Section 2

• Overview of the setups required for implementing OTL: Section 3

• HR installation for OTL: Section 4

• HR and assignment records – required and useful data: Section 5

• OTL’s preferences: Section 6

• Entering a single timecard per time period: Section 7

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• Using the Expenditure Items Descriptive Flexfield with OTL: Section 8

• Methods for entering time in OTL: Section 9

• Using templates to streamline time entry: Section 10

• Entering time offline: Section 11

• Audit data – entering reasons for late or changed time entries: Section 12

• Methods for approving time: Section 13

• How to approve time: Section 14

• Transferring timecard data to other applications in Oracle eBusiness Suite: Section 15

• FAQs about OTL with Projects: Appendix A

• Further information and documentation: Appendix B

1.4 Key Differences Between OTL and OIT

The following list provides a quick reference to some of the key differences between OTL and OIT:

• OTL integrates with more than just the Projects applications.

o Enterprise Asset Management – employees or contingent workers can charge time to work orders

o Human Resources

o Payroll – Oracle and 3rd party

o Purchasing – contingent workers can charge time to work orders

o Any combination of these applications

• OTL can be the single point of entry for all data transferred to these other applications.

• OTL can be integrated with 3rd party time collection devices.

• OTL’s time entry is very streamlined and flexible. Some examples are:

o Timekeeper and Line Manager time entry

o Preferences that allow time to be entered and approved differently for subpopulations of workers

o Configurable timecard layouts

o Dynamic and public templates

o User definable lengths of time periods

1.5 Definition of Terms

Authorized Delegate An OTL user who enters time for another worker or a group of workers either on an ongoing basis, or on an ad hoc basis

Change and Late Audit Allows you to track reasons for late timecards and to track all changes to new timecards, as well as previously saved and submitted timecards.

Contingent Worker A worker who does not have a direct employment relationship with an enterprise and is typically a self-employed individual or an agency-supplied worker; contingent workers are not paid via Oracle Payroll.

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Disconnected Time Entry Allows you to record your time when away from the office using a spreadsheet and then upload the spreadsheet into OTL for review and submission.

Entry Level Processing Allows you to capture data for multiple applications in one timecard by defining rules to specify which data is optional and which data is required by each recipient application.

Expenditure Items Descriptive Flexfield Used to define additional Flexfield information to display for all expenditure types, or for particular expenditure types or expenditure type classes You can display this same Flexfield’s segments that are available in Oracle Projects on the timecard’s detail page using the Generate Flexfield and Mapping Information process.

HR Foundation (formerly known as Shared HR) A new responsibility available for bundling with specified Oracle Applications. In order to further Applications integration, Oracle HR has delivered a new responsibility that groups together a set of forms that can be used by other Oracle Applications. This functionality delivers more processes than the current HR Foundation facility, and so makes more shared processes available for use. Oracle HR Foundation provides a restricted set of responsibilities and database objects to carry out selected HR tasks.

Oracle Internet Time (OIT) A web application for entering timecards that was integrated only with Oracle Projects

Oracle Time and Labor (OTL) Oracle Time & Labor is a single point of time entry for use by multiple applications that meets your time entry needs for employees and contingent workers for the entire eBusiness Suite. OTL provides several methods of time entry, including the ability for your workers to enter their own time. You can subject the time entries to various approval processes, according to your business rules. All entered time is available for retrieval by any of the applications that require your workers' data.

OTL Preferences Rules that permit you, for example, to define how individual workers or groups of workers can use the application, into which applications you will retrieve data about a worker's time, and whether or not your timecard data requires approval

Recipient Application An application other than OTL that uses timecard data

Responsibility and Menu A level of authority in an application Each responsibility lets you access a specific set of Oracle Applications forms, menus, reports, and data to fulfill your business role. Several users can share a responsibility, and a single user can have multiple responsibilities. You set up your own navigation menus for your responsibilities, to suit the needs of different users.

Restricted Use HR License The set of HR features and functions available to users who are not licensed for full HR, but who have licensed certain Oracle Applications eBusiness Suite products such as Oracle Time and Labor that require features not provided by HR Foundation.

Retro Adjustment A change made to a timecard after it has been transferred to a recipient application.

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Security Profile Controls access to organizations, positions and employee and applicant records within the Business Group. System administrators use them in defining users' responsibilities.

Shared HR See HR Foundation above.

Timecard Details Page If workers have Projects in their applications set, you may assign a layout for the details page. On this page that your workers access from their timecards, they may enter provide additional information related to your expenditure items. You can set up the segments on this page so that they are context sensitive.

Timecard Header The section of the timecard layout where the fields with information such as the worker’s name, employee number, and the time period in question are displayed

Timecard Matrix The section of the timecard layout where the fields for the individual time entries and their attributes are displayed

Timekeeper The set of features in Oracle Time & Labor that allows you to enter and maintain timecard information for multiple workers in a single session Using Timekeeper, your timecard data may be entered in a "heads-down" data entry mode, or in a mass edit mode that allows your Timekeepers to enter or update timecards for a number of workers simultaneously.

Timekeeper Group A group of workers whose timecards the timekeeper enters, updates, and submits.

Time Store OTL's central repository where all time data is stored The time store serves as a gatekeeper of data to all other Oracle applications.

Time Store Deposit API OTL's API for storing timecard data in the time store The system validates and stores this time data in the time store just as it would if you entered it through the Self Service timecard. You also can use the API to update or remove existing timecard data.

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2. Licensing Requirements for OTL

Your application and support licensing needs depend on a number of factors. For example, if you are upgrading from OIT to OTL, you will need to discuss the following with an Oracle sales representative:

• Transferring your OIT license to OTL

• HR licensing

o Although you must upgrade your system from HR Foundation to a full HR installation to implement OTL, you can run OTL with the Restricted Use HR license that is included with your OTL license, or you may choose to purchase a full HR license.

o You will require a license for a full HR implementation if you wish to use more of Oracle HR than absolutely necessary for your OTL implementation. For example, if you wish to use Oracle HR’s appraisal functionality, you would need to buy the full license.

o Your Oracle account representative will help you determine which license is appropriate for your installation, as well as what parts of HR you may use if you choose the Restricted Use HR license.

• Transferring your OIT support contract

o Your Oracle Support sales representative can assist with transferring your support contract.

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3. Steps for Implementing OTL

Setups in Oracle Projects

• Complete all necessary setups in Oracle Projects, including defining expenditure items Descriptive Flexfields (DFFs). Please refer to the implementation guide for Oracle Projects for more specific setup information.

NOTE: Former OIT customers will likely already have all of the necessary setups for Oracle Projects in place.

• Optional Oracle Projects setups when using both Oracle Projects and OTL:

o Multi-organization Access Control

o Client extensions

o Project Resource Management

General setups (all required)

• Change HR Foundation (Shared HR) to fully installed HR; this step only applies to current Projects and/or OIT customers who have not already implemented Oracle HR.

• Run hrglobal.drv for the initial installation of full HR on your system.

• Download and read all about documents and readmes for OTL's latest mini-packs and rollups.

• Confirm that your OTL installation has the highest patching level available, including the most recent rollup at that patching level; apply any more recent rollups as necessary.

• Set up all HR objects required, including setting up your workers with person and assignment records in Oracle HRMS.

• Set up HR security, responsibilities, menus, and users; assign the appropriate responsibilities and security to each user.

Setups in OTL

This list of setup steps provides a high level overview of the steps to implement OTL. Not all setups may be necessary for your business’s needs; these steps are noted as optional. Please refer to the Oracle Time & Labor Implementation and User Guide (Metalink Note: 207333.1) for a complete listing of setup steps specific to OTL as well as more complete information about the steps.

• OTL profiles applicable to your implementation – required

• Recurring periods – required

• Approval styles – required if using configured approval styles rather than delivered ones

• Schedule Workflow Background Process – required unless using Approve on Submit for all timecards, or if the profile has been set to not defer workflows

• Entry level processing rules and rule groups – optional

• Time categories – optional

• Time entry rules and time entry rule groups – optional

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• Change and late audit rules and rule groups – optional

• OTLR objects – optional

• Define mapping components and mappings – optional

• Generate Flexfields and Mappings process – optional

• Alternate names – optional

• Retrieval rules and rule groups – required if using configured rules rather than delivered rules

• Configurations of timecard layouts – optional

• Public templates and template groups – optional

• Preferences – required

• Timekeeper configurations – required only if timekeepers are entering time for other workers

• Timekeeper groups – required only if timekeepers are entering time for other workers

• Authorized delegates – required only if authorized delegates are entering time for other workers

• Line Manager Self Service – required only if line managers are entering time for their workers

• Testing of setups – required

• Migrate timecards from OIT to OTL – optional and only applies to former OIT customers

NOTE: If the OTL setups are incomplete or invalid, your timecards will not migrate correctly. If your OIT timecards were entered for periods during which the worker did not have an active assignment record, those timecards will also not transfer to OTL.

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4. HR Foundation (Shared HR) to Full HR

OTL requires a full installation of Oracle HR because it is the most suitable environment for OTL’s customers to take maximum advantage of OTL’s current and future functionality. For example, customers currently can create or configure rules to validate or audit time entries, or to determine which time entries require approval with OTL’s Time Entry Rules feature. Since each company has its own requirements for validation and approval, many of OTL’s customers use this functionality to meet their own, unique needs. Time entry rules are based on the 'Fast Formula' language, an end-user, macro-style language that allows customers to configure their rules according to their own requirements. Fast Formula functionality is only available to the OTL customer with full HR, including with the Restricted Use HR license. Moreover, as OTL’s functionality continues to grow, we want to ensure that all of our customers can take full advantage of future product enhancements. For this reason, full HR – with either a full license or a Restricted Use license – is best ‘future platform’ for OTL’s customers.

Several enhancements exist that will make your upgrade as painless and transparent to your users as possible. Firstly, no further data entry is required for this upgrade if you already are using HR Foundation, unless you have elected to purchase the full HR license. Also, you may not wish to train your users on the functionality of Oracle HR, though, or you may wish to make your system appear to still be using HR Foundation. A patch applied on top of your upgraded HR installation allows you to use forms that emulate the HR Foundation forms for your person records. Lastly, a Position form that also emulates the Position form in HR Foundation is available in an additional patch as well.

To upgrade to full HR, take the following steps:

1. As with any application, read all of the documentation about the latest patching levels before proceeding.

2. Ensure that HR is patched at least to Family Pack D, as OTL is certified on that level or higher.

3. Run the license manager.

4. Run datainstaller.

a. If you have a Restricted Use HR license, select only the global option. Do not run it for any legislative options.

b. If you have a full HR license, select the legislative options you require.

5. Run hrglobal.drv.

NOTE: The process, hrglobal.drv, must be run this one time only for the initial upgrade to full HR. For patching levels lower than Mini-pack I (HXT.I), OTL requires running hrglobal.drv after applying an OTL patch for delivery of its seeded data. For patching levels at HXT.I or higher, OTL no longer requires that hrglobal.drv be run upon application of its patches.

Once your system has been upgraded to full HR, you may use the standard HRMS person and assignment forms, but include only those data that you need for OTL and that are allowable with a Restricted Use HR license. If you have a Restricted Use HR license and wish to allow your users to use HR in the same way they have been accustomed to with your shared install, though, you may apply patches that deliver forms that emulate the HR Foundation forms, but work in a full HR environment. To use these forms, take the following steps:

1. A new form, HR Foundation Enter Employee Template, assists you to manage the data you require for your person and assignment records. Patch 3882817 delivers this form. Once you have applied the patch, you can add this template to your responsibilities’ menus.

a. Check that the form function parameter RESTRICTED_USE is set to Yes to switch off HR’s Date Track functionality.

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NOTE: By setting this parameter, all entries will be made as date track corrections, i.e., any updates will overwrite existing data, rather than retaining the original data with an effective end date and introducing the updated data with an effective start date that is later than the original data’s effective end date.

b. Set the profile, DateTrack:Reminder, at the appropriate level to disable the Date Track reminders upon entering the form.

c. Check that the profile HR:National Identifier is set to appropriately validate the national identifier on this form (error/warning/no validation). The validation is based on the Fast Formula NL_VALIDATION, and is legislative specific.

Enter Employee template to emulate HR Foundation

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Other forms to emulate HR Foundation

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2. If you are currently using the Position form in HR Foundation and wish to continue to use the same form in after full HR has been installed, you will need to apply patch 3968264.

3. Confirm that you will be able to assign OTL’s preferences to the correct workers, based on your HR records. You should ensure that your data will allow you to uniquely identify the workers to whom you wish to assign preferences while not inadvertently causing any omissions from your eligibility criteria rules. See the section on OTL’s preferences below for more information about setting up and assigning preferences.

Please refer to Migrating from Shared to Full HR (Metalink Note: 304002.1) for more specific information about your HR installation and upgrade. Please also see Supplement for Using the Enter and Maintain Employee Information Template (HR Foundation) (Metalink Note: 284027.1) for more information on how to add this template to your menu and its functionality.

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5. HR and Assignment Records

Before your workers can enter time in OTL, they must have a certain amount of HR data and an active assignment as part of their personnel record in the HR application. If you have upgraded your system from HR Foundation to full HR, your assignment records should already have these data on your workers’ assignment records. If you are implementing OTL without upgrading from OIT, you will want to ensure that the assignment records include the following items if they are appropriate to your business’s needs:

• All assignment records must have an HR organization on them. By default, your business group is the organization on the record. If your business requires a more robust definition of organizations, though, you will need to set them up in the HR application.

• Many localizations have fields on the assignment record for capturing required data for managing workers’ records in that country. For example, if your workers are in the United States, you must have an organization set up as a Government Reporting Entity, as GRE is a required field on US assignment records. Please refer to the appropriate HR implementation guide for the specific requirements for your localization.

NOTE: Localizations and legislative requirements are only available if you have purchased a full HR license.

• To enter Projects information on their timecards, they must have a job on their assignment record. To add a job to the assignment record, you must have set up jobs in the HR application.

• You may optionally set up positions and use them and the position hierarchy. Positions are not required to enter time on Projects timecards, though.

• If you wish to have your workers’ direct supervisors approve their timecards, you must also add the supervisors’ names to the assignment records. These records allow your Oracle applications to build the supervisor hierarchy. If you select HR Supervisor as the approval method for your timecard data, OTL will first notify the worker’s direct supervisor of timecards needing approval. If that supervisor does not respond to the notification, OTL will forward the notification to the next supervisor in the hierarchy and will continue to climb the hierarchy until the timecard has been approved.

• OTL’s preferences may be linked to your workers based on a number of criteria based on fields on their assignment records such as by organization, by job, or by location. If none of these fields suit your needs, you may wish to set up the People Group Key Flexfield and use one or more of its segments to allow you the flexibility you need in defining eligibility for OTL’s preferences.

For more specific information on these setups, please refer to the HR implementation guide for your specific localization. You can find all of these implementation guides on Metalink.

The table below indicates which HR data is required, and which application that integrates with OTL requires the data. Many of the required fields have default values, which are indicated in the table as well.

If a field exists on the person or assignment record that is not listed here, that field is optional from OTL’s perspective and the perspective of its integrating applications. If those data assist you with your business requirements, for example, to help you assign OTL preferences, you may wish to consider providing those optional data. Please be advised that you must consult your account representative about the licensing implications if you choose to use any of the optional data, though.

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HR Data Enterprise Asset

Management

Human Resources

Payroll Projects Purchasing

Last name X X X X X

Gender X X X X X

Person Type X Value defaulted from action used

to create person record

X Value defaulted from action used

to create person record

X Value defaulted from action used

to create person record

X Value defaulted from action used

to create person record

X Value defaulted from action used

to create person record

National Identifier

X

Date of birth X

Address information

X

Organization X Value defaulted from business

group

X Value defaulted from business

group

X Value defaulted from business

group

X Value defaulted from business

group

X Value defaulted from business

group

Job X

Payroll X

Assignment Status

X Value defaulted from action used

to create person record

X Value defaulted from action used

to create person record

X Value defaulted from action used

to create person record

X Value defaulted from action used

to create person record

X Value defaulted from action used

to create person record

Purchase Order Information

X

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6. Preferences

You may have a variety of types of users in your business. For example, you may have exempt employees who only report exceptions to their normal work schedule such as absences (sick or vacation time), you may have contingent workers who report time against purchase orders, and you may have engineers, consultants, or construction workers who report all time against projects and tasks. You can set up OTL such that each set of workers may enter time on different timecard layouts, may have their timecards approved in different ways, and their timecard data may be transferred to different Oracle applications.

OTL's preferences enable you to define rules about how individual workers or groups of workers can use the application. There are rules for the time store, such as which set of applications can retrieve data about a worker's time, and rules about Self Service timecard entry, such as whether the worker can enter a negative number of hours. You can also choose which preferences workers can see, and which ones they can edit.

NOTE: The preference, Time Store Application Set, is a required preference. OTL’s default value is Human Resources. Be sure to override that preference in your setups to specify the correct application set for your needs. In an Oracle Projects environment, the application set must at minimum include Projects, plus any other applications that you may be integrating with your OTL installation.

OTL allows you to assign preferences to different groups of users with eligibility criteria rules. Following the example above, you can define one set of preferences and assign them to all workers in your consulting organization, define another set of preferences and assign them to all of your contingent workers, and define yet another set of preferences and assign them to all workers at your company's headquarters.

Please refer to the Oracle Time & Labor Implementation and User Guide (Metalink Note: 207333.1) for more specific information about preferences.

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7. Single vs. Multiple Timecards per Time Period

OIT allowed users to create and submit more than one timecard per time period; OTL on the other hand allows only one timecard per time period. At first glance, a single timecard per time period may seem too restrictive to OIT customers. The definition of time periods provides the clue to why OTL’s solution of a single timecard per period actually works better for our customers, though. In OIT, a time period had a fixed length of one week (seven days). In OTL, you may define your time periods to be of any length, from a single day to a month or longer, to suit your business’s needs. Because you assign time periods to your workers via OTL’s preferences, you can also define time periods of different lengths and assign them to the appropriate workers.

NOTE: If you use a weekly timecard period for timecards with Projects in the application set, you should start your time period on the same day of the week that your projects start.

Many users in a Projects environment must create timecards on a daily basis, particularly for government contracts. OTL allows you to define the time entry period for these users to be for a single day. When your users open their timecards, they will see fields for entering their time on only the current day, thereby reducing the chance of user error. You can also define an approval period for any length of time, so that your approvers can approve the timecards daily if necessary, or they can approve the timecards for several weeks with a single action, depending on your requirements.

NOTE: If your approval period is longer than your timecard period, the approval notification will be sent after all timecards for that period have been properly submitted.

Even after your timecards have been submitted, approved, and transferred to Projects, your users can update their timecards retroactively if necessary. You can enable this functionality with OTL’s Self Service Timecard Status That Allows User Edits preference. Depending on how you set this preference, your users may update existing entries, or they may even add time entries as needed. Once you have transferred your projects timecard data to Oracle Projects, if you change the time entry in Oracle Projects though, the system will prevent your users from updating or deleting existing time entries in OTL regardless of how their status allowing edits preference is set. This feature ensures appropriate accounting of your users’ time and prevents any duplication of data.

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Please refer to the Oracle Time & Labor Implementation and User Guide (Metalink Note: 207333.1) for more specific information about defining and assigning time periods.

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8. Expenditure Items Descriptive Flexfield in OTL

Your workers can provide information in their OTL timecards that you wish to capture in the Projects Expenditure Items Descriptive Flexfield (DFF). Those data will transfer to Oracle Projects along with the rest of the timecard data and will be available for use there, just as if they had been entered in the Projects applications.

To enable the details page on your Self Service timecards:

1. In the Descriptive Flexfield Segments window, query the Expenditure Items flexfield. Set up this flexfield, making sure you enter either SYSTEM_LINKAGE_FUNCTION (used for Expenditure Type Class) or EXPENDITURE_TYPE in the Reference Field.

o In the Context Field Values area, enter a line for each expenditure type class or expenditure type for which you want to display a context-sensitive field on the timecard’s details page.

o In the Segments Summary window, define the segments for the global data element context (these fields appear for every expenditure type), and for each context field value.

2. Run OTL’s Generate Flexfield and Mapping Information process, making sure you select Yes in the Include Expenditure Items Flexfield field.

3. Review the contexts and segments that the process generated in the OTL Information Types flexfield (the names you provided plus a system-generated prefix). Make sure that the contexts you want to use in Oracle Time & Labor are enabled, and that there is at least one enabled segment for each context.

Suggestion: Consider making all the segments that will appear on the Details page optional, even if they are required in the Expenditure Items flexfield. If the segments are required in the OTL Information Types flexfield, you must enter values for all the instances of the required field on the Details page (each day of the week). You cannot close the page until all the values are entered. If you make these segments optional, the validation will happen when the users complete their entry and submit their timecards. At this point, the system validates the entries on the Details page against the Expenditure Items flexfield.

4. Recompile the OTL Information Types flexfield.

5. Select a Details page layout in the Details Page segment of the Timecard Layout preference for your Projects workers. They will be able to click on the Details icon displayed in each row of the timecard.

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To enable the details page in the Timekeeper Time Entry form:

1. Be sure you have completed steps 1-4 above for the basic setups for the expenditure item DFF.

2. Set up the Timekeeper Layout Attributes preference with the TK Expenditures List in one of the Timekeeper Layout Item fields.

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3. Add the Timekeeper Misc Setup Items preference. Enter the same Timekeeper Layout Item in the Attribute Item Name for Detail Information Segment as you used for your TK Expenditures List attribute and the value in the Descriptive Flexfield to Display segment.

4. Assign the branch with these preferences to the appropriate timekeepers.

5. To enter details with timecard data in the Timekeeper Time Entry form, select the appropriate row among the time entries, click on the Details button, and then select the appropriate context to enter values in the associated DFF segments.

Please refer to the online help or the Oracle Time & Labor Implementation and User Guide (Metalink Note: 207333.1) for more information about displaying expenditure item DFF segments in the OTL timecard. Please also refer to Oracle Time & Labor Timecard Configuration 11.5.10+ (Metalink Note: 304340.1) for information about how to configure the timecard layout to add expenditure item segments with a global context to the timecard’s matrix

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9. Time Entry

Oracle Time and Labor (OTL) provides a number of methods for entering time:

• Time Store Deposit API

o You can upload data from a third party system or a time collection device such as a time clock to create or modify time entries using this API.

o For more specific information on how to use this API, please refer to Oracle OTL HXC TimeStore Deposit API (Metalink Note: 223987.1).

• Self Service timecards

o Workers can enter their own time directly into a timecard by either manually creating the time entries or by applying templates with predefined time entries.

o Users can use disconnected entry to create and modify spreadsheets when not connected to the Oracle applications, and then upload the spreadsheets upon next logging in to them.

• Line Manager Self Service timecards

o Line managers enter time for the workers in their organization on a timecard-by-timecard basis.

o They also have template and disconnected entry functionality in this user interface.

• Timekeeper

o Timekeepers, usually clerical personnel, enter time in a "heads down data entry" mode for a large group of workers. The Timekeeper user interface is available in the professional forms.

• Authorized delegate time entry

o A delegated user enters time for other workers in a Web-based user interface. This method is useful for those customers who require decentralized time entry by a user other than the worker, but the timecard preparer has no access to the professional forms.

o This user interface permits time entry on a timecard-by-timecard basis, and provides template and disconnected entry functionality as well.

9.1 Self Service timecards

OTL provides a number of features to make entering time as efficient as possible for your workers:

• Configurable layouts

• Templates – public, private, and dynamic

• Disconnected entry for downloading a template into a spreadsheet, modifying, and uploading into a timecard.

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9.2 Timekeeper

Oracle Time & Labor provides a heads-down approach to enter time for multiple workers in a single session using the Timekeeper feature. A person in the role of a timekeeper can:

• Enter time for other employees from a paper-based system filled out by the employee

• Review and make changes to timecards imported from other time collection devices, including OTL Self Service.

Timekeepers enter time for a large group of workers, called a timekeeper group. Timekeepers define their groups using various criteria, such as assignment sets defined in Oracle HRMS, and organizations. You can choose to add or delete specific workers from the chosen criteria and place them in another timekeeper group. A super timekeeper can define a timekeeper group across the entire business group, and give a group to another timekeeper to process and maintain. Timekeepers can also enter information for workers who do not have an active assignment, such as making adjustments after a worker has been terminated.

Timekeepers select a specific timekeeper group which they have responsibility to maintain, and perform time entry for individuals or the entire group in a window called the Timekeeper Entry window. The timekeeper enters time, then validates, reviews, and corrects time entry errors, and submits the timecards for approval. A Timekeeper is not necessarily an approver, although an approval responsibility may be assigned to a user who has a timekeeper responsibility.

A timekeeper can perform mass edits on the entire group of workers or a selected subset. For instance, a timekeeper might change an entered project code for a designated subset of the workers in that timekeeper group.

In most respects, the timekeepers are acting on behalf of the workers in their groups. In general, they are subject to the workers' assigned preferences, just as the line managers and authorized delegates are. Because the timekeeper will see many timecards for a large number of employees on one screen, and not all of them may have identical preferences assigned to them though, you may assign three preferences to your timekeeper responsibilities:

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• Timekeeper Layout Attributes – determines which columns will appear on the Timekeeper Time Entry form. For example, if you want your timekeepers to enter project, task, and expenditure types as the attributes of your workers' time entries, add them as the values for the segments on this preference.

• Timekeeper Misc Setup Items – determines if the timekeeper will see start / stop time columns and the workers' names or employee numbers. This preference also determines which fields will require the timekeeper to enter reasons if the timecard data changes.

• Timekeeper Change and Late Audit Items – allows you to specify if your timekeepers must enter CLA information, and if any is entered, whom to notify about the entered data.

Please refer to the Oracle Time & Labor Implementation and User Guide (Metalink Note: 207333.1) for more specific information about Timekeeper's features and setups.

9.3 Line Manager Self Service

Line managers can create, edit, and submit timecards for workers in their organization within their assigned security profile, based upon the workers' preferences: the managers are acting on behalf of their workers. The timecard that they see for each worker is the same timecard that the workers themselves would see if they were entering their own time through the Self Service timecard.

Line managers can access workers using the supervisor hierarchy, or using the SSHR My List function to access workers within their security profile. This function allows managers to record timecards for absent workers, or for workers who may not be available to enter their time before the timecard data must be transferred to a recipient application.

The Self Service Line Manager functionality allows your managers to see a list of the workers in their organizations, displayed in a hierarchy, where the manager can expand the list to see workers reporting to the manager's direct reports. The managers can also use the 'My List' submenu option to select workers that are not shown in the hierarchy. Clicking on the Action icon in the hierarchy sets the context for the selected worker and displays the Recent Timecards page for that worker.

NOTE: The Self Service Line Manager user interface allows you to enter time only on a timecard-by-timecard basis. If your business requires a large number of timecards to be entered in heads-down data entry mode, Timekeeper is a better option.

By default, line managers can enter their own timecard information using their assigned Line Manager responsibility. If you do not wish to allow them to enter their own timecards through this interface, you can restrict them from doing so in two ways:

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• Set the security profile 'Exclude User' if the 'My List' sub menu is enabled for the Line Manager responsibility.

NOTE: If your Line Manager responsibility's menu does not include the 'My List' sub menu, then the security profile 'Exclude User ' is not evaluated.

• Set an additional parameter, pManagerEnabled, on the Timecard Mgr menu function (HXC_TIMECARDS_MGR).

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: Use delivered menus and responsibilities as an example only for configuration. Do not modify delivered menus or responsibilities, to ensure delivered they update properly in future patches.

Please refer to the Oracle Time & Labor Implementation and User Guide (Metalink Note: 207333.1) and to Configuring, Reporting and System Administration in Oracle HRMS (Metalink Note: 214791.1) for more specific information about Self Service Line Manager's features and setups.

9.4 Authorized Delegate

If you need to delegate time entry for your workers to designated time entry personnel other than line managers, but those personnel do not have access to the professional forms of the Oracle applications, you may wish to use this method of time entry. For example, you may wish to authorize executive assistants to enter time for their managers, or to have a clerical worker submit timecards for all workers at a given construction site or only for workers while they are on vacation.

You assign the list of workers whose timecards they will enter to your authorized delegates by means of an HR security profile. The authorized delegate selects a worker from within that security profile, then enters or updates timecards on behalf of that worker. Like in Self Service Line Manager, the authorized delegates act on behalf of the workers for whom they enter time, so the workers' preferences determine how the authorized delegate may use the system. The timecard that they see for each worker is the same timecard that the workers themselves would see if they were entering their own time through the Self Service timecard.

NOTE: The authorized delegate can only enter time on a timecard-by-timecard basis. If your business requires a large number of timecards to be entered in heads-down data entry mode, Timekeeper is a better option.

By default, authorized delegates can enter their own timecard information using their assigned responsibility. If you do not wish to allow them to enter their own timecards through this interface, you can restrict from doing so by setting an additional parameter on the time entry function on the responsibility's menu, just like for Self Service Line Manager (see above).

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: Use delivered menus and responsibilities as an example only for configuration. Do not modify delivered menus or responsibilities, to ensure they update properly in future patches.

Please refer to Authorizing Delegates for Time Entry (Metalink Note: 344280.1), to the Oracle Time & Labor Implementation And User Guide (Metalink Note: 207333.1), and to Configuring, Reporting and System Administration in Oracle HRMS (Metalink Note: 214791.1) for more specific information regarding Authorized Delegate functionality and its setups.

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10. Templates

While accounting for your workers’ time is necessary for many businesses, most managers would like time entry to happen as rapidly and as accurately as possible. To that end, OTL provides templates that store timecard data for reuse. Templates help users to avoid repetitive and error-prone data entry. Your workers can focus on entry of any time that is different from their expected working pattern by simply correcting any entries that need to change, and by adding new entries.

For example, you might define a project-specific template for a weekly timecard that records four hours per day charged to one project and task, and another four hours per day charged to the same project but a different task. After applying the template to the timecard, you can update the entries created from the template just as you would any other entry. You can add more entries, and can even append any other appropriate template to the existing entries, depending on your assigned preferences.

OTL has three types of templates:

• Dynamic templates

o Last Timecard – This template uses the time entry data from the most recently submitted timecard. You typically use this template when an employee is working on the same project week after week, eliminating the need for repetitive entry of project and task numbers.

o PJRM (Projects assignments) – If you have implemented Oracle Project Resource Management for your workers' assignments, this template generates time and labor entries from the project, type, and hours information held in that module.

o Work Schedule – OTL provides a number of objects such as Work Schedule, Rotation Plan, etc, that when set up, provide the information needed to auto-populate your user’s timecard with the basic structure of their work schedule, including start and stop times as appropriate.

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• Private templates

o You can grant some or all of your users the ability to create their own templates, using preferences. Your users can then create and save templates that contain time entries whose attributes consist of your users’ most frequently entered or current projects and tasks.

o There are two ways to create a private template: by saving a timecard as a template, or by creating a new template from scratch, much as you would create a timecard.

• Public templates

o Since your administrative users often have more information about your projects and tasks, they can create templates and assign them to your users to simplify and speed up your users’ time entry.

o Your administrative users can create groups of public templates and assign them to a specific worker, a group of workers, or to all workers through OTL's preferences.

NOTE: OTL delivered public template functionality in Mini-pack J.

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Please refer to the Oracle Time & Labor Implementation and User Guide (Metalink Note: 207333.1) for more specific information about using templates and enabling templates for your users.

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11. Disconnected Time Entry

You can record your time when away from the office using a spreadsheet, and then upload the spreadsheet into OTL for review and submission. If you want to define a list of projects and tasks that you currently work on to export to a spreadsheet, then set the Enable Export of Defined Project List segment of the Self Service Disconnected Entry Option for Worker preference to Yes.

You can assign the appropriate layout of an exported timecard for your workers to use by the value of the Export segment of the Timecard Layout preference. OTL delivers seeded export layouts for each predefined timecard layout.

Once the time has been recorded offline, Self Service users, line managers, and authorized delegates can upload the data directly into OTL. Once the data appears in the timecard, your users can edit the uploaded values, enter the new values, and submit the timecard, just as they would if they were entering the time in a blank timecard.

Oracle Development recognizes that customers use a wide variety of spreadsheet applications, so by default the exported file (.csv file) is not formatted for any particular spreadsheet application. Many former OIT customers find the MS Excel formatting of the template for disconnected entry useful, though. Please refer to Formatting an Exported OTL Template (Metalink Note: 283593.1) to assist you in formatting your downloaded .csv file for MS Excel, if that is your spreadsheet application of choice. Please refer to the Oracle Time & Labor Implementation and User Guide (Metalink Note: 207333.1) for more specific information about disconnected entry in OTL.

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12. Change and Late Audit (CLA)

This optional feature assists our customers whose time entry data are subject to audits, particularly those customers who work closely with the US Government’s Defense Contractors’ Audit Agency (DCAA). Many customers, even those with no government contracts, have found this functionality useful for their own auditing purposes.

Features of CLA:

• You may define when a timecard is considered late. If the user attempts to enter any time entered after the due date has passed, the system will require the user to enter a reason.

• You can track all changes to new timecards, as well as to previously saved and submitted timecards.

• You may define your own reason codes to fit your business's requirements. When prompted to enter a reason for a changed or a late time entry, your users may only select from the reason codes that you include in this list.

• OTL delivers rules defining when reasons for late or changed entries must be entered. You may use the delivered rules, or you may configure your own rules to meet your business's needs.

• You cannot delete timecards or time entries from your timecards when using CLA, because deleting timecards and time entry data eliminates accurate audit trails. However, instead of deleting a line item from the timecard, you can enter zero (0) in the Hours field. This update creates a change record, so the system will require your user to enter a change reason.

• For Self Service users using the Change and Late Audit feature, the Audit Information page automatically appears after a worker selects Review from the time entry page. The Audit Information page requires the worker to enter a reason code for each day of the modified timecard. You may also enter a comment to correspond with the changes made to each line item.

• Timekeepers can also use the CLA feature to enter change and late-entry reasons when entering time for other workers. The Timekeeper Group and Timekeeper Entry windows display the workers for whom timekeepers can enter reasons and comments.

NOTE: Even if you have enabled CLA for some of your workers, you may choose not to have your timekeepers enter reasons for late or changed entries if you consider that doing so would slow down their time entry too much. You may decide that your paper timecards contain sufficient audit information, and entering it into OTL may be unnecessary for your business.

• Your authorized delegates and line managers can use the CLA feature as well. The user interfaces for line managers and authorized delegates behave just as the Self Service timecard would, so the system will require authorized delegates or line managers to enter reasons under exactly the same circumstances as it would for any Self Service users.

• You can even make your configured timecard layouts, including columns that you add, subject to CLA rules.

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Original timecard

Changed timecard

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Audit page – enter reasons for changes to saved or submitted timecard

Please refer to the Oracle Time & Labor Implementation and User Guide (Metalink Note: 207333.1) for more specific information about CLA's features and its implementation.

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13. Timecard Approval Styles

If your business requires that your workers' timecards be approved, OTL offers a variety of very flexible approval mechanisms for routing timecards or portions of timecards to the appropriate approvers. OTL also delivers two approval styles, AutoApproval and Approve on Submit, if your business requires no human intervention in the approval process. If you require that a person or persons approve entered time, you may select from the following options:

• Person – a designated individual to whom the timecards are always routed

• HR Supervisor – the supervisor entered on the worker's assignment record

• Entry Level Approval – a means to route portions of your timecards to various approvers. The approvers will only see the portion of the timecard that requires their approval. With this approval style, you can set up categories for different types of time entries and specify the appropriate approval style for each time category.

• Project Manager – Because the Projects data changes frequently in many organizations using Oracle Projects and maintaining time categories for each project would be quite time-consuming and prone to human error, OTL categorizes the time entries on your timecards according to the associated Projects data for you. OTL then determines the appropriate project manager for each category it has identified and sends the time entries to that project manager. If the same manager is identified for more than one category, OTL combines the data for each category into a single notification, so the manager does not receive multiple notifications. Since this style is a special case of Entry Level Approval, each of the project managers will see only the timecard data related to their own projects, though, and no other timecard data.

• Formula (Selects mechanism) – you may write a FastFormula that determines what approval style is necessary, based on the data entered on the timecard

• Workflow – you may develop your own workflow for handling notifications, rather than using the functionality in OTL’s workflow for notifying approvers.

You can also use a combination of these mechanisms on your approval styles. For example, if you are integrating OTL with Oracle Payroll as well as with Oracle Projects, you may wish to have the HR Supervisor approve the payroll data on the timecard, but still have the Project Manager approve the Projects-related data. Based on the configuration of your approval style, the appropriate approvers will receive notifications and will only see the relevant data in their notifications.

For further flexibility, approval rules, known as data interdependency rules, provide a means to specify under which conditions the timecard data requires approval. For example, if you only require approval of overtime, you can configure a rule such that it will detect when overtime has been entered on the timecard and thus route the notification to the approver that you specify.

OTL also supports Projects client extensions that allow you to control how your timecards are approved. You can write code to determine if your timecards require approval, or you can define an approval hierarchy. OTL will execute any client extension that determines if timecards are required, and will execute a client extension that specifies an approval hierarchy if you set your approval method to HR Supervisor. In this case, OTL will override the HR supervisor hierarchy with yours. If you implemented a client extension in OIT, you do not need to re-code it or migrate your code during the upgrade. OTL will automatically detect your existing code that determines if approval is required, and it will detect your existing code that defines an approval hierarchy if you set your approval method to HR Supervisor.

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Please refer to the Oracle Time & Labor Implementation and User Guide (Metalink Note: 207333.1) for more specific information about timecard approvals and client extensions in OTL.

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14. Timecard Approvers

When your users submit their timecards, OTL's approval workflow determines if the timecard data requires approval, then identifies the appropriate person(s) to notify about timecards requiring approval.

Your approvers may perform this task from:

• The Worklist Timecard Approval interface – The timecard approvers may review and approve or reject individual timecards in this interface.

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• The Mass Timecard Approval – The timecard approvers may review individual timecards, and may select a number of timecards to approve or reject with one action in this interface.

• The email notification – If you configure your system to send email notifications, the timecard approvers may review individual timecards and approve or reject them directly from the notification.

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You can also allow your timecard preparers to enter override approvers, based on assigned preferences. The predefined Oracle Projects timecard layout has an Override Approver field. The worker, line manager, or authorized delegate can select anyone in the business group as the override approver. The timecard is sent to this approver only, and the usual approval style is not activated. You can restrict the list of values for the Override Approver field by modifying the Overriding Approver view.

Please refer to the Oracle Time & Labor Implementation and User Guide (Metalink Note: 207333.1) for more specific information about approving OTL timecards.

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15. Timecard Retrieval and Transfer to Oracle Projects and Other Applications

Once your timecards have been submitted and/or approved in OTL, they are ready to be retrieved by the recipient applications that use the data. For example, using an Oracle Projects responsibility, you run PRC: Transaction Import to transfer your approved timecard data from OTL to Oracle Projects. Your setups in Oracle Projects also indicate whether the incoming time entries should be designated as billable during this process. Once you have run this process, all transferred timecard data is available for normal processing – billing, project accounting, etc. – within Oracle Projects.

If you transfer your timecard data to other recipient applications, such as Oracle Purchasing, each application can have its own rules for what timecards may be retrieved. For example, Oracle Projects allows you to only transfer approved timecards from OTL to Oracle Projects, but you may need to transfer timecards to Oracle Payroll as soon as they have been submitted, even prior to the timecard's approval. OTL's retrieval rules permit you to define in what status your timecards may be retrieved and transferred into other applications.

NOTE: Using other applications with OTL requires the appropriate licenses. Please contact your account representative if you need to enter time and transfer it to any applications other than Oracle Projects.

Your timecard data may be modified, updated, or deleted in OTL, depending on your business’s needs, even after you have transferred it to Oracle Projects or other applications. Such changes are called "retro adjustments". If you permit your users to update their timecards retroactively, you can re-run the PRC: Transaction Import to transfer only changed data to Oracle Projects, once the timecard data has again been approved. You can also prevent your users from making retro adjustments, or any updates at all, by defining and assigning OTL's Timecard Status Allowing Edits preference.

NOTE: If you make any changes to the timecard data within Oracle Projects, you cannot edit the timecard within Oracle Time & Labor, regardless of how you have defined the Timecard Status Allowing Edits preference. You will receive an error when you try to submit a retro adjusted timecard.

OTL also provides the Retrieval Error Handling Report, so you can check the results of the retrieval and transfer processes such as PRC: Transaction Import.

Please refer to the Oracle Time & Labor Implementation and User Guide (Metalink Note: 207333.1) for more specific information about retrieving and transferring OTL timecards to recipient applications.

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Appendix A – Frequently Asked Questions about OTL with Projects

1. Why does OTL require full HR to be installed?

OTL requires a full installation of HR to operate the Fast Formulas that are the basis of its time entry rules. These rules provide a means to validate entered time, to trigger the entry of audit reasons, and to specify under what circumstances your timecards require approval. Basing OTL’s functionality on full HR allows you to configure time entry rules that use OTL’s delivered formulas, or to configure your own formulas to use in your rules. See Section 4 for more information about full HR with OTL.

2. When I upgrade from HR Foundation to full HR for OTL, what additional HR data fields do I need to set up to keep my applications running, and why must I add them?

OTL requires no additional HR data fields beyond those that you’ve already been using in your HR Foundation environment.

NOTE: If you add applications other than OTL, for example, if you integrate OTL with Projects or other applications, then these applications may have additional requirements for HR data. See section 5 for more information about HR data requirements.

3. Do I need to pay additional license fees for a full HR license?

Although you must upgrade your system from HR Foundation to full HR to implement or upgrade to OTL, you can run OTL with the Restricted Use HR license that is included with your OTL license, or you may choose to purchase a full HR license.

You will require a license for a full HR implementation if you wish to use more of Oracle HR than absolutely necessary for your OTL implementation. For example, if you wish to use Oracle HR’s appraisal functionality, you would need to buy the full license.

Your Oracle account representative will help you determine which license is appropriate for your installation, as well as what parts of HR you may use if you choose the Restricted Use HR license. See Section 2 for more information about licensing requirements.

4. What’s included with a Restricted Use HR License?

The Restricted Use HR License includes the set of HR features and functions available to users who are not licensed for full HR, but who have licensed certain Oracle Applications eBusiness Suite products such as Oracle Time and Labor that require features not provided by HR Foundation. If you require more specific information, please contact your Oracle account representative to discuss your specific needs for HR data. See Section 2 for more information about licensing requirements.

5. What applications does OTL integrate with?

OTL currently integrates with Oracle Projects, Oracle Purchasing, Oracle Enterprise Asset Management, Oracle Payroll, and Oracle Human Resources. More integrations are planned for future releases. See Sections 1 and 15 for more information about OTL’s integrations.

6. How can I have my project managers approve only the time entries related to their projects?

OTL provides the Project Manager approval method that categorizes the time entries on your timecards by project, the notifies the appropriate project manager for approval. If any project manager is responsible for more than one project, all of the time entries directed to that project manager will be combined into a single notification. See Sections 13 and 14 for more information about timecard approvals.

7. Can my users update timecards after they have been submitted, approved, and transferred to Projects?

Yes, depending on your configuration, you can update timecards and resubmit approved and transferred timecards. If you make any updates to your timecard data in Projects, though, Projects locks the timecard data regardless of your OTL configuration to prevent duplicated or conflicting data from appearing in

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Projects. See Sections 6 and 15 for more information about preferences and transferring timecard data to other applications.

8. Can I migrate my old OIT timecards to OTL so my users can see them in OTL?

All of your old timecards can be migrated to OTL. If you migrate them, your users will be able to see them in OTL just like the ones they will create in OTL. See OIT to OTL Migration (Metalink Note: 289674.1) for more information about migrating your OIT timecards to OTL.

9. The OTL timecard shows the project and task numbers; can I add the project and task names to the timecard?

Yes, you can configure OTL’s timecard and notification layouts to display the project and task names, as well as other information or fields that you might find useful for your time entry. See Oracle Time & Labor Timecard Configuration 11.5.10+ (Metalink Note: 304340.1; customers whose systems are not yet at the 11.5.10 level should refer to Oracle Time & Labor Timecard Configuration, Metalink Note: 227603.1.) for more information about configuring your OTL layouts.

10. Can I have any time periods of any length for my timecards if I am a Projects user?

Yes, you can have any time period of any length for your timecards. If you choose to have a weekly time period for your timecards that have Projects in their application set, then you should start your time period on the same day of the week that your Projects start. See Section 7 for more information about time periods in OTL.

11. Are the same client extensions supported in OIT and OTL?

Yes, OTL supports and calls OIT’s client extensions. If you have implemented a client extension to determine whether or not approvals are required, OTL automatically calls your existing code. If your client extension implements a hierarchy of approvers, you must use the HR Supervisor approval method. If you have set that approval method on your approval style, OTL will call your code and override the HR supervisor hierarchy with your own. See Section 13 for more information about approval styles, and the Oracle Time & Labor Implementation and User Guide (Metalink Note: 207333.1) for more information about using client extensions in OTL.

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Appendix B – Document References & Further Reading

Authorizing Delegates for Time Entry (Metalink Note: 344280.1)

Configuring, Reporting and System Administration in Oracle HRMS (Metalink Note: 214791.1)

Formatting an Exported OTL Template (Metalink Note: 283593.1)

How to Display the Project Name on the Self Service Timecard Entry Page, Review Page, and Confirmation Page (Metalink Note: 294886.1)

Implementing Oracle Self Service Human Resources (Metalink Note: 226088.1)

Migrating from Shared to Full HR (Metalink Note: 304002.1) You can also find further documentation on Metalink about implementing the HR application for your specific localization.

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OIT to OTL Migration (Metalink, Note: 289674.1)

Oracle OTL HXC Time Store Deposit API (Metalink Note: 223987.1)

Oracle Time & Labor Implementation and User Guide (Metalink Note: 207333.1)

Oracle Time & Labor Mini-Pack About Documents

• HXT.G (Metalink Note: 258309.1)

• HXT.H (Metalink Note: 282087.1)

• HXT.I (Metalink Note: 303755.1)

• HXT.J (Metalink Note: 344022.1)

Oracle Time & Labor Timecard Configuration 11.5.10+ (Metalink Note: 304340.1; customers whose systems are not yet at the 11.5.10 level should refer to Oracle Time & Labor Timecard Configuration, Metalink Note: 227603.1.)

Supplement for Using the Enter and Maintain Employee Information Template (HR Foundation) (Metalink Note: 284027.1)

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