OpenAir Enhancements

January 23, 2010

Overview

Timesheets
Self-rejection of timesheets
Allow users to recall their own timesheet if no approvals have taken place.

Proxy email notifications
Send email notification to timesheet owner or defined approver if proxy submission or approvals occur.

Automatically receive PDF attachments of approved timesheets and expenses upon approval
Allow users to receive a PDF of their approved timesheet or expense report once approved.

New "Unsaved time entry" alert
Create a new timesheet alert to ensure users are entering time on a daily basis.

Details ...

Resources
Bulk resource substitution via run an action in bookings list view
Select multiple bookings at once and substitute booked resources with another resource.

Details ...

Invoices
Additional sorting options for invoice layouts
Configure invoice layouts for invoices to sort by various values.

Details ...

Reports
Report on more than 16 weeks when reporting on weekly time periods
Extend the limit of number of weeks when reporting on a weekly period in summary reports.

Details ...

Projects
OpenAir Projects Connector enhancements
Additional enhancements to the Projects Connector.

Details ...

Account-wide
Form permissions for Proxy form and Personal settings page
Addition of form permissions for the Proxy form and Personal settings page.

Details ...



Details

Timesheets
Self-rejection of timesheets
When an employee submits a timesheet prematurely and wishes to make changes, the process has required the entire timesheet to be rejected by an approver - whereupon changes can be made. Users can now reject their own timesheet, thus eliminating the need for approvers to reject unnecessary incorrect timesheets. With this release, users will now have the ability to reject their own timesheets if no approvals have occurred. Once rejected, the timesheet will be moved to the "Rejected" status where the user can modify specific time entries and resubmit for approval. The approval history for that rejected timesheet will indicate that the owner has rejected the timesheet, and include any explanation.

To enable this feature, please contact OpenAir Support.

How to self-reject a timesheet:

  1. Users navigate to Timesheets > Timesheets > Submitted > [select a timesheet to reject].
  2. From the "Timesheet report" link, click on the "Reject" button. This will send the timesheet back into "Rejected" status for the user to make corrections and resubmit for approval.
Note: If line item rejections are enabled and specific line items on a timesheet have not been approved, each line item can be rejected by the timesheet owner.

Proxy email notifications
OpenAir's proxy user feature allows an authorized user to perform tasks such as submission or approval of time on behalf of another user. For example, if a manager, who is the approver of a user's timesheet, goes on vacation, a second manager may be granted access to proxy in as that manager and approve the timesheet. Allowing the second manager to proxy in and approve the timesheet may help to expedite the billing process.

When a proxy submission or approval occurs, it is beneficial for the timesheet owner and previously defined approver to receive notice that another user has logged in and submitted or approved a timesheet on their behalf. With this release, the ability to send email notifications if a proxy condition has taken place has been added. A new notification section for timesheets enables users to configure them to state that if a proxy occurs, an email notification should be sent to a selected group of individuals. The notification can be restricted to just timesheets that have specific client:projects selected. In addition, the text of the notification can be customized. Multiple notifications can be configured.

To configure proxy users, navigate to Administration > Global Settings > Users > [select user who will be proxying for another user] > Proxy. Then, select the users for whom the proxy user will act and the level of access.

How to configure a proxy notification:
  1. Users with the appropriate role privileges navigate to Administration > Application Settings > Timesheets Settings > Notification.
  2. Under the "New" dropdown, select either "Approved notification" or "Submitted notification".
  3. In the "Conditions" section, select "Yes" under the "Proxy" dropdown. If necessary, select a specific client:project that the notification should be applied to.
  4. In the "Notify" section, specify who should receive this notification. Individual email addresses can be entered or existing users within the OpenAir instance can be selected.
  5. Under the "Message" section, customize the email notification. Type the "Email subject." It displays on the subject line. For the "Email body", use the "Field" drop-down list to identify OpenAir variables and custom fields. Click on the [paste] link to copy the OpenAir variables into the body. OpenAir fills in the account information in the body of the email.
  6. Click Save.

Automatically receive PDF attachments of approved timesheets and expense upon approval
Employees within a company may need to download a hard copy of their approved timesheets or expense reports. For example, on occasion, hard copies of expense reports will need to be attached to invoices that are being sent to a client. Currently, users can download a PDF version of the report from within the actual timesheet or expense report. With this release, users can now automatically receive a PDF attachment of the approved timesheet report or expense report. A PDF view of the report will be attached to the email notifications for approved timesheet and expense reports.

To enable this feature, please contact OpenAir Support.

New "Unsaved time entry" alert
The timesheet alerts functionality in OpenAir allows administrators to configure alerts to be sent to individuals if timesheets are late or approvals are overdue. Timesheet alerts are an automated way for managers to remind their employees that timesheets have not been submitted. To further ensure that employees are in compliance with company policies, OpenAir has added the ability to create an unsaved time entry alert that will automatically remind a user if time has not been entered for the previous day. This is beneficial for companies that require their employees to enter time on a daily basis.

How to configure an "unsaved time entry" alert:
  1. Users with the appropriate role privileges navigate to Administration > Application Settings > Timesheets Settings > Alerts.
  2. Under the "New" dropdown, select either "Unsaved time entry".
  3. Enter the alert name and under the "Alert runs on" section, choose when the alert should run.
  4. Under the "Rule" section, select the criteria for the alert. Select which users this alert should apply to.
  5. In the "Email notification" section, customize the alert message.
  6. Click Save.
Up
Resources
Bulk resource substitution via run an action in bookings list view
For companies that leverage bookings for resource management, it is important for managers to be able to substitute booked resources with another resource at any point in time. For example, resource managers often create multiple bookings for a period of time in the future and assign a generic resource for forecasting purposes. When the bookings have been confirmed, the generic resource will be replaced with actual resources. Or, if an employee leaves the company, all bookings associated with this user will need to be replaced with another user. With this release, OpenAir has added the ability to substitute resources in bulk via the run an action functionality in the bookings list view.

To enable the bulk resource substitution feature, navigate to Administration > Application Settings > Resources Settings > Other settings. Select the option "Enable multiple booking resource substitutions in one action" and click Save.

How to substitute resources in bulk via run an action in bookings list view:
  1. Navigate to Resources > Bookings > List.
  2. Apply any necessary filters and select the check boxes of the bookings to change the resources for.
  3. Click the "Run an action" icon. A pop-up "Actions" window displays. The available options for updating bookings in bulk are displayed.
  4. Select the option "Change the resource to" and choose a resource from the dropdown list.
  5. Click OK. The selected bookings have been updated with the new user.
Note: If booking notifications are enabled for the account, the booked resource will receive a booking removal notification and the substitute resource will receive a new booking notification.
Up
Invoices
Additional sorting options for invoice layouts
For companies that send invoices to their clients directly from OpenAir, different invoice layouts can be configured to modify the appearance of an invoice based on client needs. OpenAir has further enhanced the invoice layouts settings to add flexibility to the sorting options. In addition to sorting by date (oldest or newest), alphabetically, or user last name, a wide range of sorting values have been added. These values include project, task ID, task name and phase. Invoice layouts can be assigned at the client, project or invoice level.

How to configure an invoice layout:
  1. Navigate to Administration > Application Settings > Invoices Settings > Invoice layouts.
  2. Create a new layout or edit an existing one.
  3. Configure the layout settings as appropriate and click Save.
Up
Reports
Report on more than 16 weeks when reporting on weekly time periods
For companies that run summary reports on weekly time periods, the actual number of periods to report on can now be extended. Previously, the limit was 16 weeks. In this release, users can choose to report up to either 52, 78, or 104 weeks. This enhancement allows users to display report values in a weekly view for up to two years at a time. To enable this feature, please contact OpenAir Support.
Up
Projects
OpenAir Projects Connector enhancements
OpenAir continues to enhance its bi-directional integration with Microsoft Project via the OpenAir Projects Connector. The following enhancements have been added:
  • The "Standard" default Microsoft Projects calendar is now properly populated from the default OpenAir account work schedule.
  • The ability to map additional task/phase fields and custom fields associated with tasks/phases on the project pull from OpenAir has been added.
  • The ability to map the cost center field and the "non-billable" checkbox located on the task edit form has been added to the list of standard fields available for the connector.
For more information on the OpenAir Projects Connector, please contact OpenAir Support.
Up
Account-wide
Form permissions for Proxy form and Personal settings page
OpenAir's form permissions functionality has been extended to the Proxy form and Personal Settings page. The addition of form permissions to these forms allows administrators to require or hide specific fields on these forms. For example, if proxy expirations are enabled for an account, it may be beneficial for administrators to require that the Expiration date field be populated for proxies. Or, administrators may want to hide the ability for users to change certain options on the Personal settings page.

How to configure form permissions for the Proxy form:
  1. Navigate to Administration > Global Settings > Users > [select a user] > Proxy. The "Edit proxies" form displays.
  2. Click on the "Modify the form permissions" link in "Hints" section, make the desired changes, and click Save.
How to configure form permissions for the Personal settings page:
  1. Navigate to Message Board/Dashboard > Personal settings. The "Change your preferences" page displays.
  2. Click on the "Modify the form permissions" link in "Hints" section, make the desired changes, and click Save.
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Suggestions, problems, or questions?
Contact us at support@openair.com or 888.367.1288 (outside the U.S. and Canada, call 617-351-0226). We take pride in the outstanding care we give our customers. Please let us know how can we improve your experience with OpenAir.