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AltairTime Quick Start Guide version 1.0

ALTAIR ENGINEERING, INC AltairTime – Timecard Application

Quick Start Guide

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A L T A I R E N G I N E E R I N G

AltairTime – Timecard Application

© ALTAIR ENGINEERING, INC 1820 E. Big Beaver Rd

Troy, MI 48083 Phone 248.614.2400 • Fax 248.614.2411

Table of ContentsOverview ................................................................................... 1 Timecard Entry Screen Overview.............................................. 1 Getting Started .......................................................................... 3 Time Entry Action/Icons ............................................................ 3

About ICON KEY ............................................................................ 3 Add Project/Task/Pay...................................................................... 4 Edit Record ..................................................................................... 4 Delete Record ................................................................................. 4 Previous/Next and First/Last Timecard ........................................... 5 Previous/Next Week........................................................................ 5 Week / Month Hours ....................................................................... 6 System Messages........................................................................... 6 Favorites – Delete/Load .................................................................. 6 Cleanup........................................................................................... 6

Navigation using the calendar tool ............................................ 7 Entering Hours .......................................................................... 7 Withdraw Timecard ................................................................... 9 Managers and Approvers .......................................................... 9

Approving Employee Timecard ....................................................... 9 View Other Employee Timecard ................................................... 10 Perform Actions on behalf of Employee ........................................ 11

Favorites.................................................................................. 15 System Favorites .......................................................................... 15 “Mine” Favorites ............................................................................ 16

Preferences............................................................................. 16 Timecard TAB key behavior.......................................................... 16

Frequently Asked Questions and Issues................................. 17

A L T A I R T I M E – T I M E C A R D A P P L I C A T I O N

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Overview s an employee of Altair Engineering, Inc. you are required to enter your work hours by the end of each pay period. It is important to keep track of your projects’ and paid time-off hours in order to get paid for your time and also enable the company to properly manage the resources and ensure employees

get paid in a timely manner.

AltairTime is a robust and intelligent application that has all your projects’ information and employment rules such as vacation, bank, holiday, daily hours, required hours etc. in its database. Your latest timecard will be automatically loaded. If nothing is found, one will automatically be created for you and ready for entry. When the system creates your new timecard, it will always copy over your previous pay period timecard projects.

This guide covers how you can access AltairTime through AltairNET/AltairHR (section “Getting Started”), add projects, tasks and pay types such as overtime, premium (section “Add Project/Task/Pay”), and enter your hours and submit it for approval (section “Entering Hours”). You can also see your available vacation and bank hours. Paid holidays are automatically added to your timecard.

To make changes upon submittal, you can withdraw your timecard if it has not been validated yet (section “Withdraw Timecard”).

You have access to all your timecards going back to the start of your employment date. Refer to section “Previous/Next and Last/First Timecard” and “Navigating using the calendar tool”.

The diagram below illustrates the typical timecard entry process for an employee.

A

Payroll PROCESS Employee gets paid

Access AltairTime Add Projects,Tasks,

Pay Type

Enter HOURS

Manager VALIDATE

Timecard APPROVED

SUBMIT

SAVE/RECALC

CleanupRemove records with 0 hours

CalendarClick on dates to access timecard

System and User FavoritesClick to access or create favorites

SAVE/RECALCClick to save or re-calculate your hours

Manager/ApproverView other employee timecard

If NO violationsclick to SUBMIT

Previous/Next and First/Last TimecardUse arrow keys to navigate

Number ofViolations

Go to Previous /Next Week

HoursEntry Grid

HoursSummary

TimecardViolations

TimecardHistory

Delete/Edit/Add Project Change DetailClick to view

Help

YTD Trip Summary

Your Policy

YTD Hours Summary

System Message

Add Pay Type


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Timecard Entry Screen Overview


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Getting Started o start using the timecard application to enter your hours, please login to AltairHR first. If you are inside the Altair network, use this link: https:/ebs1.engr.altair.com/HR OR if outside the network, use https://www.extranet.altair.com/HR.

Once you are at the AltairHR homepage, click on the Timecard link shown in the figure below.

It is recommended you use the corporate approved web browsers to access the Timecard application. Currently, the approved web browsers are Microsoft Internet Explorer version 7 and Firefox 3.

Time Entry Action/Icons About ICON KEY Throughout the timecard entry screen, you will notice these icons being used. These icons serve to ease the hour’s entry process. Please take some time to understand what each icon means and how to use them.

T

I C O N K E Y

Add Project/Task/Pay Type

Edit Record

Delete Record

Previous Timecard/Week

Next Timecard/Week

Go to first Timecard

Go to last Timecard

System information

System warning

Delete Favorite

Load Favorite

Cleanup


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Add Project/Task/Pay Clicking on the icon will add the selected project into your timecard on an empty timecard. If the project already exists, clicking on this icon will automatically add the next available project. Once the project is added, it is put in EDIT mode for ease of change. You can then make changes to the Project/Task/Pay Type.

The same icon is also used to add “Time Off” hours (ex.: Vacation, Personal, Sick etc. if available).

If a project has multiple tasks or you are allowed overtime or premium hours, this icon will also appear to the left of the Task/Pay Type items as shown in the figure below. Clicking on the icon will automatically add the next available task, or pay type to your timecard for that particular project.

By default, your last period’s timecard is automatically copied over (hours excluded).

Edit Record Clicking on the icon will put the selected record in EDIT PROJECT mode. You can then make changes to the Project/Task/Pay Type where necessary. To finish your edits, you can click on the icon again, or alternately, you can click on the SAVE/RECALC button.

You can also click on the icon of another record. If any changes were made to the previous project, the system will automatically save the changes before putting the next selected project in EDIT PROJECT mode.

You can add/delete projects independently from the corresponding hours entry screen on the right. However, it is best practice and most efficient if you build your project/task/pay type template first before entering hours. For more detail, refer to section “Time Entry Screen”.

Delete Record Clicking on the icon will delete the selected record. If the project has multiple entries for tasks/pay type, you will have to delete them as well.


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Deleting a particular project row, will only delete that particular row. Any “child” records such as sub tasks or other pay type (overtime, premium) will not be deleted.

Previous/Next and First/Last Timecard Clicking on the icon beside the timecard period will load the previous timecard period relative to the current period. For example, if the current period is July 2008, the prior timecard (June 2008) period will be loaded.

Clicking on the icon beside the timecard period will load the next timecard period relative to the current period. For example, if the current period is July 2008, the next timecard (August 2008) period will be loaded.

Clicking on the or icon beside the timecard period will load the first/latest timecard period you have in the system.

If the system determines there are no valid periods before/after the current shown period, the icons will be grayed out. These icons are shown below:

Another way to navigate through your timecards is described in the section “Navigation using the calendar tool”.

Previous/Next Week Clicking on the or icon beside the current week will show the previous/next week if available. If no weeks prior or beyond the current week are available, these icons will be grayed out.

Another way to navigate through your timecards is described in the section “Navigation using the calendar tool”.


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Week / Month Hours You can also view the entered hours in a weekly or montly total. Click on the “MONTH” or “WEEK” option (see previous figure) to toggle between the display of the total hours.

System Messages If an action performed requires interaction with the server, it will appear in the highlighted area shown in the figure below. It is important to keep an eye out for any messages that may appear here.

Warning messages shown are designated by icon and informational messages are designated by icon. These messages will automatically disappear in 5 seconds.

Another type of error/warning messages are displayed using popup. An example of this is shown below. Clicking on the OK button will dismiss the dialog box.

Favorites – Delete/Load Refer to the section “Favorites” for more information.

Cleanup To quickly remove records with zero hours in your timecard, click on the cleanup icon.

If zero hour projects exist in the timecard and the timecard is submitted, they will not be visible. However, if you withdraw the timecard, they will re-appear again. Refer to the section “Withdraw Timecard” to learn more about the withdraw functionality.


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Navigation using the calendar tool In addition to the Previous/Next and First/Last Timecard described in the previous section, you can also use the calendar tool to quickly access and view your timecards or go to a particular week in the current timecard.

To view your previous timecard, click on the previous or next arrows within the calendar to the month/year desired, then click on any date. If it is available, the timecard for that particular month/year combination will be displayed. Depending on the date you clicked on, the timecard will display the week of which the date falls under.

For example, if you click on “22” for the month of July 2008, the timecard for July 2008 will be load and the default week view will be week number 4.

If a selected date does not have any valid timecard, a warning message will be displayed as described in the section “System Messages”.

Entering Hours Every employee has specific employment rules for various things such as holidays, vacation, bank, overtime, premium, projects, required hours etc. To better understand your employment rules, please consult with your manager. Some of these rules are shown in the left info bar directly below the calendar. Refer to the figure on the right.

To enter hours, just start by clicking in the timecard “cells”. Hours can be entered using decimal spaces or “hour:minute” format.

For example, to enter 6 hours and 30 minutes, you can either enter “6.5” or “6:30” (quotes are not needed and are shown for descriptive purposes only).

To move around between the cells, you can either click on the next desired cell using your mouse. Alternately, you can use the TAB or ENTER key. To learn how to use the TAB or ENTER key, refer to section “Timecard TAB key behavior” under “Preferences”.


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Depending on your employment rules, you may or may not be able to enter fractional hours. If it is not allowed by rule, once you click the SAVE/RECALC button, it will generate violations.

An example of a filled timecard is shown in the figure below.

If hours are entered or changed, the timecard summary information for Vacation, Bank, Regular, Overtime, Premium, Encash and Unpaid are reset. You have to click on the SAVE/RECALC button to refresh the summary.

Once the SAVE/RECALC button is clicked, the server re-calculates your hours based on your employment rules and checks for any violations. The next figure shows what the screen may look like.

You will notice there’s a violation now and a description of the violation is shown below the timecard entry screen. A system warning message is also informing you that there’s a timecard violation. Refer to section “System Messages” for further detail. The SUBMIT button is also grayed out.

The violation must be fixed before the timecard can be submitted. In this particular timecard, the employment rule for this employee prohibits him from entering more than 8 hours a day. In order to fix this violation, the employee just needs to enter “2”


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instead of “3” hours for “10/02” under “Vacation” OR change the regular project hours from “6” to “5” hours. Once the hours are corrected, click on the SAVE/RECALC button again. If the violation is fixed, the SUBMIT button will be re-enabled.

The system automatically calculates your Bank and Unpaid hours. Any Vacation or Bank changes to this timecard will be shown in the “Change” column and you can click on the detail icon to learn more.

Withdraw Timecard Once a timecard is submitted, you can withdraw the timecard using the “Withdraw” button. You can access this button from the same timecard screen where you entered hours. When a timecard is submitted, it is in VIEW mode and you cannot make changes. In order to make changes, you have to withdraw the timecard first.

However, if any managers/approvers have validated the timecard, you can no longer withdraw the timecard unless a manager/approver rejects it.

Once withdrawn, you can edit and make changes to your hours and re-submit. It will go through the approval process once again.

Managers and Approvers Approving Employee Timecard If you are designated as a manager or project manager in the system, or have employees reporting to you, you can click on the “Approvals” link from the main timecard screen as shown in the figure below.

You will also be notified via e-mail of any submitted timecards by employees that requires your approval. These include your direct reporting employees as well as projects where you are designated as the project manager.

If there are timecards awaiting approvals, they will appear similar to the next figure. Timecards that you have already validated but are not fully approved by all approvers are also shown. You can, if you choose, REJECT them instead.


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To validate or reject a timecard, click on the icon first to load the timecard. Once the timecard is loaded, you can review the hours entered by the employee. There will be 2 buttons shown above the timecard screen – Validate and Reject.

• Validate – to validate a timecard, click on the “Validate” button. If you are the only approver designated by the system, the status of the timecard will be changed to APPROVE and no further action can be taken. The employee can no longer withdraw the timecard and you cannot reject it anymore. It is now awaiting processing.

• Reject – to reject a timecard, click on the “Reject” button and enter a reason for rejection in the text input field. A reason is required to continue. Once a reason is given, click on the “Reject This” button. The employee and any managers/approvers who have yet to validate the timecard will be notified via e-mail.

View Other Employee Timecard If you have employees reporting directly to you, you can view their timecards even before they are submitted. You can do this using the 2 additional icons available to you from your own timecard screen shown on the right.

Click on this icon and a smaller browser window will appear showing a listing of all your direct employees. You also have the option to select all employees in your reporting tree structure. Pick an employee and their latest timecard will be loaded in place of your existing timecard screen.


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This employee’s past timecards are also accessible to you and you can view them as described in section “Previous/Next and Last/First Timecard” and “Navigating using the calendar tool”.

To view another employee’s timecard, click on the same icon again and pick another

employee. Once you are done, click on this icon to return to your own timecard.

Perform Actions on behalf of Employee Managers can perform certain actions on behalf of employees who report to them directly or indirectly through the reporting tree structure. In other words, you can also perform actions on behalf of employees who report to someone directly below your tree.

It is important that timecards are entered and submitted in a timely manner. Once submitted, it must be approved in a timely manner for payroll to run.

Entering Hours on behalf of employee

To access your employee’s timecard, follow the instructions described in section “View Other Employee Timecard”. Once the timecard is loaded (see below), if allowed, you can click on the “Perform action on behalf of (employee)” button to “act” as the employee. Another method of accessing your employees’ timecard is described in the next section.

The screen below shows what the timecard will look like once the “Perform action on behalf of Kelly Smith” is clicked.


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In the example above, you as the manager of Kelly Smith is acting on her behalf. The timecard is in the “Not Submitted” stage which allows “you” to enter hours on her behalf and either do a “SAVE/RECALC” or submit her timecard by clicking on the “SUBMIT” button. Use the “CANCEL” button to stop “acting” on behalf of the user.

The acting on behalf of user retains the same functionality and checks as though it was the intended user logged in. In other words, if the user can submit the timecard, you can also submit on her behalf. Once submitted, if she can withdraw, you can also withdraw the timecard to make changes and re-submitted.

Timecard Status Report

This report can be accessed through the “Approvals” link and selecting the “Status Report” option under “Reports”. The following are the roles of each employee for this example:

1. The logged-in user is “Deanna Smith”

2. “Kelly Smith” reports to Deanna and her timecard is awaiting validation under the “Pending Validation” section.

When you first arrive at the Approvals page, the report will run initially with the pre-selected parameters. Subsequent visits to this page on the same login session will retain the last selected values for these options/parameters.

Managers are encouraged to use this page often to ensure employees reporting to them are submitting their timecards in a timely manner. The report also helps managers to identify which timecard requires their validation.

To start using this report, select the “Year” and “Period”. “Company” can be “All” (worldwide) , “US/Canada” or “Others” (other than US/Canada). “Placement” can be “All”, “Inhouse” or “Onsite”. “Include” consists of “Direct Reports” and “Entire Group”. Direct Reports refer to the employees who report directly to you. Entire Group refers to all employees below your reporting chain.

“John Doe” does not report to Deanna directly, but is included in this report because John Doe has booked hours on a project where Kelly Smith is the project manager.


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This is not limited to just project managers. Anyone reporting to Kelly will be included as well. Anyone higher-up in the reporting-to tree/structure can act on behalf of his or her subordinates.

To access the timecard, click on the link in the “Timecard Status” column. The next figure shows John Doe’s timecard.

If the timecard is submitted and awaiting approval, the “Act on behalf of Approver” button will be available if allowed by permission. Refer to the “Validating timecard on behalf of managers” section to learn more about this functionality.

Exceptions Report

These reports can be accessed by selecting the report type from the “Reports” list.

Some reports may not be accessible and are disabled depending on the selected “Placement” criteria The reports are self-explanatory and managers are encouraged to run them before the end of each timecard period to ensure timecards are filled in correctly and can be processed by payroll without any issues or delay.


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1. Report 1 – will show any timecard where employees put hours on Jury Duty, Maternity or Bereavement

2. Report 2 (Inhouse) – This is an Inhouse placement report that will find any employee timecard where the hours worked is less than 40, but overtime/premium time was entered; more than 40 hours worked, but did not enter overtime/premium when allowed; has bank balance but is not allowed to bank

3. Report 2 (Onsite) – This report is similar to item (2) above, except any bank balance regardless of bank allowed or not

4. Report 3 – will show any timecards with overtime or premium hours entered

5. Report 4 – will show any timecards with two or more CSS (client-side services) projects entered

6. Report 5 – will show any timecards with internal office (OFF/xxx) projects entered

7. Report 6 – will show any timecards with projects that are missing the overtime or premium rate when employee is allowed by rule to enter overtime and premium hours

Validating timecard on behalf of managers

Once you have the employee’s timecard open, if allowed, you will see the “Act on behalf of Approver” button. The next two figures show the initial page when first opened and when the button is clicked.

To re-iterate, this is Deanna Smith who is the manager of Kelly Smith, and is viewing John Doe’s timecard who does not report to Deanna. This is possible and allowed


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because Kelly is the project manager for a project John Doe put hours on and Kelly reports to Deanna.

To validate or reject, simply check the box beside each approver and click on the appropriate action – Validate or Reject (if rejecting, a reason is required).

Favorites To access favorites, click on the button. The favorite’s panel will expand and will look like the figure shown below.

To load a favorite, click on the pull-down dialog box as shown in the next figure, make a selection and click on the load icon . To delete a favorite other than “System”, select the favorite to be deleted and click on the delete icon .

There are 2 types of favorites – “System” and “Mine”.

System Favorites 1. All Regular Projects / Tasks – This will populate the current timecard

with all your projects and tasks.

2. Duplicate Last Period Projects – This will populate the current timecard with your projects from the last period. Any existing projects in the current period with hours not in the previous timecard period will be retained. Only regular projects will be duplicated. Time-off projects such as Vacation, Personal, Sick will not be copied over.

When you are accessing your timecard for the first time for a particular period, the default behavior is always “Duplicate Last Period Projects”.


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“Mine” Favorites To create your own favorite, click on the “NEW” button. Enter a description and click “Save Fav”. Refer to the figure below. The favorite will be saved and available in the select list.

Preferences To customize and tailor the application to your needs, various user preferences can be set using the “Preferences” link.

Timecard TAB key behavior When entering hours in the timecard “cells”, you can quickly move to the next cell using the “TAB” key. You can control how the TAB key behaves using this preference.

There are 2 settings for the TAB key – “WEEK THEN PROJECT” or “PROJECT THEN WEEK”.

If the TAB key is set to “WEEK THEN PROJECT”, hitting the TAB key will move across the weeks for the current row until it reaches the last week. It will then return to the first column of the next row in the first week.

Alternately, if it is set to “PROJECT THEN WEEK”, it will move through the projects within the current week. Once it reaches the last row and column in the current week, it will move to the next week if available.

By default, the TAB key is set to “PROJECT THEN WEEK”.

You can also use the “ENTER” key. The ENTER key moves down the cells of the particular column until the last row, then it moves to the next column of the first row if available.


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Frequently Asked Questions and Issues If you have issues or problems using the timecard, refer to this section first. If it doesn’t answer your question or if you still have difficulties using the timecard, send an e-mail to [email protected]

1. How do I add a Project/Task/Pay Type – Use the icon located to the left of the desired project, task or pay type. If no other projects, tasks or pay types are available, the icon will not appear next to the item.

2. How do I submit my timecard – Click on the SUBMIT button. If the submit button is grayed out, click on SAVE/RECALC first. If there are no violations, the SUBMIT button will be accessible.

3. How do I enter my vacation hours – If your employment rule allows vacation, pick “Vacation” from the “Select Time Off” list and enter hours for the days you want to take vacation. Remember to click SAVE/RECALC to ensure you do not exceed your available vacation hours.

4. How to I view my past timecards – You can either use the arrow icons as described in section “Previous/Next and First/Last Timecard” or use the calendar tool as described in section “Navigation using the calendar tool”

5. I submitted my timecard and realized I made a mistake – Click on the “Timecard” link as described in section “Getting Started”. If allowed, the “Withdraw” button will be available. If you do not see the withdraw button, refer to section “Withdraw Timecard” for further information.

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