Time & Materials#

Overview#

Job usage can be recorded in several ways. Whereas the hours worked on a project can be entered in time journals and on CTC cards, the consumption of items can be specified through adjustments to inventory and job purchases.

By using budget-to-actual comparisons, you can then compare the amount of time and materials spent toward a job to the number of hours and items budgeted for it.

Staff costs#

Following customer approval, you can start posting usage and sales for a job. Usage primarily refers to resource consumption. Resources might be employees, machines, or contractors. This article will focus on time tracking for employees.

A resource’s work hours are entered in time sheets and on other time tracking pages in the base unit chosen in Resources Setup. All resources representing actual people should have the same unit stored on their resource cards.

The most common base unit for these resources is Hour. For types of work typically billed in a different unit, such as Day, the system will hold off on converting a posted time entry into the billing unit until the entry is released through a job journal.

This way, employees can continue to think and post in hours, and the system will do the rest.

Time journals#

A job time journal records the time that a resource spends on a project. You need to create a time journal for each resource working on a job (see Resource capacity).

For the correct journal to be chosen when a user opens the Job Time Journals page, the user must bed assigned to a resource and a journal in User Setup. The number of the resource is then entered on all journal lines automatically.

Users for whom the Other Res. in Time Tracking checkbox has been selected on the User Setup page can also edit other resources’ journals. A message appears if a user cannot be assigned to a journal.

The following table describes the most important fields found in time journals.

Additional information about the job and the activity stored on a specific journal line is available in the lower-left section of each journal. The progress and extent of time tracking on the line can be found to the right of that section.

Actions#

Functions#

Includes the Get Work Package function, which can be used on a journal line to fill in an activity and a reference to a WBS line.

If a job number has been entered on the journal line and the time spent on the job is tracked on budget lines, only activities assigned to the resource or to no resource at all (=general tasks) can be chosen here.

However, if the Job No. field has been left blank, the window for selecting an activity includes all activities from all jobs so that staff members can find their tasks without needing to know the number of a specific job.

Selecting an activity then fills in a large part of the fields found on the journal line.

Post#

Used to post the journal.

Related#

Job#

Choosing the Job Card action opens the card of the job that has been entered on the journal line. Choosing Ledger Entries shows the associated ledger entries.

Resources#

Choosing Resource Card opens the card of the resource assigned to the journal.

Choosing Time Entries provides a user with a list of all time entries posted for a certain job.

The Budget Line Activities (Open) action, on the other hand, shows all current line activities.

Line#

Used to open line-related dimensions and comments.

CTC time tracking#

The time that resources spent on projects can also be recorded on CTC cards. The use of CTC (complete time capture) differs from entering hours on a time journal in the following ways:

• Internal checks prevent time postings from exceeding workday limits.
• The system calculates a resource’s number of work hours from clock-in and clock-out times before allocating these hours to jobs.
• Time recording includes default breaks and absence.
• Only one CTC card is available per day and employee. Hours can be allocated on this card more than once, whereas you need to create multiple lines in a job time journal to get the same result.
• Inputs can be tracked at any time based on posted cards.
• Time entries must be released before they can be posted.

CTC Time Tracking—the main page for entering and viewing resource hours—combines unposted and posted cards in a single view. The Status field on the header indicates whether a card has or hasn’t been posted yet. The page also includes calendars with status colors to help pick the days you want to record time on.

Indicate absence#

As one visual aid, you can change the color of CTC calendar days to indicate when a certain resource isn’t available.

To initialize background colors indicating absence:

1. Choose the Search icon, enter Calendar Colors, and then choose the related link.
2. On the ribbon, choose New > Initialize to have the system specify RGB color values.

Assign colors to causes of absence#

After setting up the colors, you can use them to visualize causes of absence.

1. Choose the Search icon, enter Causes of Absence, and then choose the related link.
2. Select a line. In the Calendar Background Color field, choose a color.

Indicate status of time tracking#

You can also visualize the status of time recording on a CTC calendar:

1. Choose the Search icon, enter Jobs Setup, and then choose the related link.
2. Go to the CTC Calendar Colors FastTab and fill in the fields as described in the following table.

Specify breaks#

You can use one of two methods to specify CTC breaks:

1. Enter a default break on the Work-Hour Templates page. You can then fill in the Work-Hour Template field on a resource card to copy the break to the card and the resource’s time tracking pages. However, as the name implies, the break is no more than a default value. You can still change it on both the resource card and in time tracking.
2. Specify a break on the Break per Shift page. Breaks entered on this page have a higher priority than those stored with work-hour templates. You can define both maximum work hours and minimum break times on the page.

Example

The work hours and breaks shown in the table have the following meaning:

• At up to 4 hours, a break isn’t required so no time is suggested automatically. You can specify a break manually, however.
• Working for over 4 hours but for less than 8 hours requires a break of at least 1 hour. This value is also entered automatically on every CTC card. Changing the Break field, trying to make a break smaller, results in an error message, but you can increase the length if necessary.
• Over 8 and under 10 hours, resources need to take a break of least 1.25 hours.
• Recording more than 10 hours in a workday isn’t possible.

Elements of CTC time tracking#

To record time on a CTC card:

1. Choose CTC Time Tracking on the Time Recording (or Project Lead) role center. See also (CTC Card) Actions.
2. Fill in the fields as necessary.

CTC header#

CTC lines#

(Nearly all fields found on job time journal lines are also available on CTC cards.)

FactBoxes#

FactBoxes on the right side of the screen provide you with additional information about time tracking.

For example, Time Statistics indicate for a given day the amount of work required based on the resource capacity set and the hours posted for the day and month. If you installed the TempVision app, they also include flextime entered for the day.

Below this section are the current, previous, and following months in calendar form. These calendars are intended to help you navigate time recording and show where resources have recorded hours and entered absence. You can select a calendar day to view or enter time-related data.

The CTC Line Info FactBox lists job and activity data regarding the line you chose on the Lines FastTab.

The Color Legend shows you what colors are being used to indicate absence and the status of time recording.

Actions#

Create CTC Cards#

Creates multiple CTC cards with the same information, an especially useful function for specifying absence.

Release CTC Cards#

Releases all completed CTC cards that match the specified filters.

Release#

Releases the current CTC card.

Reopen#

Changes the current card’s status from Released to Open.

Copy to Today's Card#

Copies the current CTC card to the card of today. This copies both the header and the lines and can only be used if the CTC lines of the target card are still blank.

Copy from Existing CTC Card#

Works in the opposite way to the Copy to Today’s Card action, as it copies data from the card you choose to the card you’re on.

Post / Post Batch#

Posts recorded and released CTC cards.

Resource#

Opens the card of the resource for which time is being recorded.

Unposeted cards#

Opens the CTC Cards page, on which you can manage cards that haven't been posted yet.

Posted Cards#

Opens the Posted CTC Cards page.

Cancel Posted CTC Card#

Cancels a posted card and deletes job time entries assigned to it.

If the entries have already been copied to a job, the job ledger entries created from them are deleted as well. This requires that the user running the function be authorized to post job ledger entries.

Employees without this kind of permission must ask the project manager to cancel cards. Job ledger entries that have been invoiced cannot be deleted in either case.

Job Time Entries / Job Ledger Entries#

Shows the job time or job ledger entries related to the card (provided that these entries have been created for the job).

Absence Registration#

Used to specify absence. You can only choose this option when you open a posted card.

Dimensions#

Shows the dimensions stored on the header of a card.

Record time#

To store work hours, pick a day on the calendar. This creates a new time record, that is, an unposted CTC card, automatically.

You can also use the Create CTC Cards function to create a record.

Record activities#

A resource’s work hours are allocated to individual job activities on CTC lines.

To enter the activity last worked on for a job, choose Functions > Get Last Activity on the Lines FastTab. This retrieves the line activity or work package last opened by the relevant employee.

Release a record#

Like on CTC cards, days on which you recorded work hours must be released before posting. Some plausibility checks are performed during that process, for example, to see if the entire CTC card quantity has been allocated on the lines.

By using this action, you can release either a single day or multiple days at once.

Post a record#

Released days must be posted. You can post a single day or multiple days.

Only when you post time does the system create time entries. These are then copied to the job as job ledger entries following a review by the project manager.

Time sheets#

Time sheets are yet another method to specify how much time a resource has spent on a job. You can record usage in time sheets in seven-day increments. Before you can work with time sheets, you need to set up the feature by registering the relevant resources and turning on the Use Time Sheets toggle on their resource cards. You also need to create new, mostly blank sheets.

To create a batch of time sheets:

1. Choose the Search icon, enter Create Time Sheets, and then choose the related link.
2. Alternatively, open a resource card. On the ribbon, choose Process > Create Time Sheets.
3. Fill in the fields as described in the following table.

You can then use the fields on the Filter FastTab, for example, to set up sheets for specific resources or external employees.

To see the newly created sheets, choose the Search function, enter Time Sheet List, and then choose the related link.

Like a CTC card, a time sheet can only be viewed by the resource linked to the sheet unless the Other Res. in Time Tracking toggle is turned on for a user in User Setup. After the sheets have been created, you can report work hours on a weekly basis:

1. Open the Time Sheet List, select your sheet, and enter the work hours on the lines related to the current calendar week.
2. When all hours have been entered, choose Submit to release them for posting.

The time you recorded is then converted into time entries, which can be done on a regular basis by using a job queue. If the status of an entry is set to Submitted but the line hasn’t been posted—that is, it isn’t yet part of the Job Time Entries Created—you can still reset the status to make changes to a work package, a line activity, or a quantity.

You can choose Budget Line Activities (Open) on the ribbon to see a list of unposted line activities assigned to the current resource. This doesn’t include line activities for resource groups, however.

To copy all the lines from the previous week, use the Copy Lines from Previous Time Sheet action. You can do this week by week.

To add comments to a record, fill in the text fields next to the Quantity field on a line. This ensures that the data record is assigned to the correct time entry when you post the line. The comments can also later be used on a proof of performance document sent to the customer.

Related#

If you want to see a list of all job ledger entries related to a time sheet line, select the line and, on the ribbon, choose Related > Ledger Entries.

To open the related resource card or see more information about time entries stored on the line (like on a CTC card), choose Related > Resources > Time Entries.

Lines#

To retrieve a work package, choose Line > Get Work Package on the Lines FastTab. You can now select a package from all work packages set up for the resource or the related resource group.

Job journals#

Job time journals, CTC cards, and time sheets are all used to record worktime.

To ensure that projects include posted time entries—or, more specifically, that these entries are stored as job ledger entries—time spent on a job must be posted through a job journal.

Although this journal is used to post all kinds of job ledger entries—including entries covering the use of material taken from a warehouse—the following paragraphs will focus on job time entries only.

To copy time entries to a job journal:

1. Choose the Search icon, enter Job Journals, and then choose the related link.
2. Select a journal. On the ribbon, choose Process > Get Job Time Entries.

This opens a page where you can filter for specific job time entries. As a rule, project managers copy only entries entered by resources for which they are responsible. For this purpose, they can either edit a specific job or use the Person Responsible filter.

When you choose OK, the journal is filled in with the required time data and a journal line is created for each time entry within the filters you set. Posting the lines will then create job ledger entries from them and clear the journal.

Business registration certificates#

A Freistellungsbescheinigung (often translated as a certificate of exemption) was introduced by the German government to combat tax evasion, especially in the construction sector.

This business registration certificate must meet the regulations stipulated in §48 of the German Income Tax Act, where it says that a subcontractor needs to present the document to its customers as proof that the company pays its fair share of taxes.

If a certificate cannot be provided, the business that hired the subcontractor will be required by law to withhold 15% of the invoice total to cover potential tax liabilities. You can open a vendor card to check the status of registration based on the following (purely informational) fields:

External resources#

Set up an external resource#

External resources can be procured through purchase documents.

All external resources require a vendor for billing services. This vendor might be a staffing agency, for example. For a freelancer, you need to register both a resource and a vendor and link them to each other.

When you later enter the resource on the budget line of a job, the associated vendor is also copied to the line. This way, you can have the system calculate unit costs for the resource-vendor combination and use the vendor to create purchase orders from the budget.

External resources can have unit costs, unit prices, job-specific resource prices, and purchase prices. In contrast to standard unit costs, prices and costs set up this way are always tied to a certain vendor, that is, the relevant vendor is retrieved when you procure the external resource or include the resource in a budget.

If no unit cost is stored with the vendor, a unit cost is copied from the standard Unit Cost table. If no suitable cost is found there either, the required value is copied from the associated resource card.

If you have a specific group of external workers in mind when you start working on a job, we recommend that you set up a resource for each of them and assign a vendor, costs, and prices right away.

For external resources who record time like employees, you need to turn on the Use Purch. Invoice Entries toggle on their resource cards. This will create invoice entries for them during billing so that jobs aren’t posted to twice.

Procure a resource#

You purchase a resource in the same way as you do items:

1. Open the WBS of a job.
2. On the ribbon, choose New > Create Purchase Document.
3. Fill in the fields as necessary.

This copies the resource to a requisition worksheet or a purchase order.

You can also create a purchase document manually. In this case, you need to enter the relevant job number on individual document lines (if you’ve entered the number on the header, it is copied to new lines automatically) and use the Get Work Package function to copy the number to a WBS line or a budget line, depending on the Purchase Posting Level specified for the job.

Choose Yes on the dialog page that appears if you also want the description of the resource copied from the WBS or budget line. If you choose No, the system will retain the description that you entered on the purchase line.

Typically, you would then post consumption from a purchase order when items have been received by adding their quantities and prices to the job. In the case of external resources, however, the services rendered are often posted with receipt of a bill.

If, on the other hand, you want to post the acceptance of services immediately—that is, post job usage before you get a bill—and the bill shows a different unit cost for the external resource, the job ledger entries created from the resource’s time postings are adjusted automatically based on how much you need to pay.

Track resource costs#

Like other resources, an external resource can post hours in a time journal. This isn’t a requirement; a purchase invoice that lists the hours worked would be enough.

However, because a considerable amount of time might pass before the hours are billed, you might run into problems when trying to invoice your own customers. For this reason, we recommend that external resources post their times immediately.

To avoid a situation in which expenses are posted to a job twice, the invoice you get from an external resource will later be applied to the job ledger entries created from the resource’s time journal.

Purchase invoices and invoice entries#

When you post invoices for hours recorded by an external resource, you must apply the job ledger entries posted so far to prevent billing a customer twice for the same work (once because of the time entries and once due to the invoice). If the resource doesn’t post time, application isn’t needed.

To prevent the posting of invoices without invoice entries (which have already been recorded as time entries), you must turn on the Use Purch. Invoice Entries toggle on the relevant resource card. After turning on the toggle, you can post neither receipts nor invoices without these entries, and an error message appears if you try to do so.

Receipts and invoices are then posted in one go. Should you want to separate them, you need to assign invoice entries with the delivery of services. Otherwise, job ledger entries will be posted as always.

Example:

An external resource uses a time journal to record a total of 6 hours. These hours are then posted to a job through its job journal.

To settle the amount that you now owe the external service provider, you proceed by creating a purchase invoice from the job and entering 6 in a Qty. to Receive field on a line. You also check if the Line Amount excl. VAT field there shows the correct value.

Afterward, you choose Line > Purch. Invoice Entries (on the Lines FastTab) to assign invoice entries to the line. This opens a new page on which you select the resource’s unapplied job ledger entries and choose Add Entries on the ribbon.

You then choose OK to copy the ledger entries to the purchase line. The invoice entry totals and the Qty. to Receive field values from the line can now be seen in a FactBox on the right-hand side of the Purchase Invoice page.

A difference in these amounts means that there’s something wrong with either the direct unit cost on the purchase line or the unit cost on the resource card. If you don’t see an error message, you can start posting corrections to quantities or job ledger entries, or both.

Value or quantity corrections, or both, are only made when you post an invoice. The corrections are documented on a purchase line in the Correction Job Amount (LCY) and Job Qty. Correction fields. After you posted updates to values or quantities and acceptance of the services, job ledger entries can no longer be added to the invoice.

You can post multiple receipts to a single purchase order to gather invoice entries in one place. When you later post a bill for the order, the Qty. to Invoice must match the combined value of the Qty. to Receive and the Qty. Received fields.

You cannot post partial invoices for the services you accepted, as you cannot assign invoice entries from a purchase line to more than one invoice. The same is true for a correction you make to an entry.

Post corrections#

Because of the use of invoice entries for bills received from external resources, you typically only need to post a job ledger entry if you want to make a value or quantity adjustment. The following list shows what this kind of adjustment might look like.

Adjust quantities#

You post quantity corrections as if you were posting job ledger entries to a purchase invoice without invoice entries. This means that a change in quantity and a change in value always go hand in hand.

Adjust values#

Value adjustments are also posted as job ledger entries but without a quantity. This adjusts unit costs in a job without changing the quantity or even the invoice quantity. You can easily spot job ledger entries adjusted in this way by checking if their Value Correction checkbox has been selected.

Cost of materials#

Besides resources, a project might also require materials. Their costs are added to a job when you order items for it. Whereas you use WBS or budget lines to specify and meet item demand, you usually replenish inventory via the supply chain functionality.

However, you can also fill in a job number on a purchase line to purchase items for a job but not add them to inventory. The items are then consumed immediately as you post their purchase.

Job Purchase Incl. Inventory#

To decouple inventory management from item consumption, you need to turn on the Job Purchase Incl. Inventory Management toggle in Jobs Setup.

With the toggle turned on, items are added to inventory as you post their receipt but aren’t consumed right away. You must use a job shipment to do so manually.

To link inventory items to budget lines, you can use the Create Purchase Document function on a WBS. Alternatively, you can create a purchase order during a planning run and select the Reorder Qty. replenishment method for each item you require.

Both methods will assign items to the job budget through order tracking entries and the Job No., Work Package, Phase Code, Task Code, and Step Code fields.

Manual and automated reordering#

The requisition worksheet feature integrated into Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central provides you with a multitude of options for estimating item demand. Based on how you set up supply chain and inventory management, a requisition worksheet can then be used to calculate demand for an item and suggest a reorder quantity to you.

Requisition worksheets, however, typically ignore demand that goes directly to jobs. To change the behavior of the app and include project materials, you can use either the Requisition checkbox on budget lines or the Create Purchase Document function on a work breakdown structure. The drawback of the function is that it doesn’t check stock or order levels but only informs about them.

As using both options for project management might lead to purchases being made twice, we recommend you stick to one of them for jobs. If a decision on this can’t be made right away, you should at least clear the Requisition fields on budget lines from which you want to order manually.

Automated reorder process#

Automated ordering uses the Requisition checkbox on WBS lines to budget demand for items ordered through worksheets. To automate ordering:

1. Choose the Search icon, enter Requisition Worksheets, and then choose the related link.
2. On the ribbon, choose Calculate Plan.
3. On the Options tab, fill in the Starting and Ending Date fields. The worksheet will ignore demand outside the planning window.
4. Fill in the Use Forecast field if you want a plan that already includes data about demand.
5. Fill in the Exclude Forecast Before field if you don’t want to include demand created before a specified date.

A worksheet you create in this way will then include all items that you entered on the budget lines set up for a job, but only if the lines are part of on active WBS and if the Requisition checkbox was selected on all of them. All related WBS lines must be set to Open as well.

Be aware that a worksheet also retrieves the settings you made on item cards. If the item you want to reorder wasn’t specified well enough there, demand for it might not be estimated correctly or even not at all.

To create a purchase order from a line on the requisition worksheet, choose Process > Carry Out Action Message. To print the order, turn on the Print Orders toggle.

Manual orders#

To order items manually, you can create a requisition worksheet or a purchase order directly from a WBS. You can bypass automated ordering by opening a structure and choosing New > Create Purchase Document on the ribbon.

You can then use filters on the function. For Type (item, resource, or G/L account), you can specify a default value in Jobs Setup. In the Document Type field, you can choose between Quote, Order, or Requisition.

The vendor is specified in the Buy-from Vendor field on the lines. The vendor stored on the related item card is entered on the budget lines automatically but can still be changed here.

When you create orders manually, the system suggests as the reorder quantity the budgeted quantity minus the quantity already ordered or consumed. It also shows the quantities on the purchase quote, purchase order, and the requisition lines, the quantity received, and the usage quantity.

If you want to select individual lines for transfer to the purchase document, select the Copy to Purchase checkbox at the start of each line that you want to transfer.

To copy text from a budget line to the document, select the Copy Budget Text to Purch. checkbox on the relevant line.

Afterward, choose OK to create the purchase document.

Instant Consumption Posting (Purchase)#

As explained under Job Purchase Incl. Inventory, purchased materials are consumed immediately if you turned on the toggle with the same name in Jobs Setup.

If the toggle is turned off, you must use the Post action on a purchase order for this.

When a receipt is posted, consumption is then posted as well. In inventory, a positive adjustment is made at the same time, and the item that you received is posted to the job instantaneously.

For correct posting, the Vendor Receipt No. and Vendor Invoice No. must be filled in, and the order must have been released.

Internal documents#

Internal documents can be used in project management to improve efficiency and transparency in billing.

Job shipments#

Job shipments—or, more specifically, shipping notes—provide your customers with a more detailed explanation of the goods and services that you deliver to them.

Often, the shipments made for a project aren’t related to a sales order. But because they are included in the job budget, you can list the goods and services you shipped on special documents.

There are two methods for creating shipping notes. To create a note manually:

1. Go to your role center.
2. Choose Job Documents > Job Shipments at the top of the page.
3. On the ribbon, choose New, and fill in the lines.

The manual creation of shipping notes is very time consuming and prone to errors. We recommend that you only use this method for editing notes and instead create new notes by running the Create Job Shipment from a work breakdown structure.

This action shows you a list of all the budget lines of an active WBS. To choose one or more budget lines for transfer to the shipment, select their Copy to Job Shipment checkbox and choose OK.

You now see a message that the job shipment has been created, and you can open this shipping note immediately.

As with purchase and sales documents, standard and extended texts can be added at the beginning and the end of a note.

Posting a job shipment then creates time entries or, if a job also involves items, item picks and job usage. You can use the Shipment FastTab on the Job Shipments page to change the shipping values filled in by default.

On the same page, you can also turn on the No Usage Posting toggle so that usage for jobs isn’t posted in the background. This is crucial if you want to use notes only as customer receipts, for example, if the items you bought for a job are consumed right away and aren’t moved to inventory.

The toggle is turned on automatically when you create a note from a job so that the system doesn’t pick items from inventory and posts consumption twice.

Shipping notes can be posted together with warehouse shipments. For this purpose, the notes must be released. A warehouse shipment can be created either by running the function with the same name from the Job Shipments page or from the shipping document itself.

Job vendor shipments#

The vendor shipment feature provides items to a supplier for completing a purchase order. It is used both to pick items from inventory and to send a shipping note to the supplier.

The items picked are then posted as consumption to the relevant job. Each shipment can be assigned to a vendor through a purchase order.

Job vendor shipments and job shipments are based on the same principles. Not only are their functions the same, but you can post either in conjunction with a warehouse shipment. Only the page for processing data has been adapted.

To create a job vendor shipment from a WBS, open a structure and choose Actions > Create Documents > Create Job Vendor Shipment on the ribbon.

To create a vendor shipment manually, you can again use the Job Documents menu. After you choose New, a blank shipment card opens, where you can enter a vendor’s number and address. However, if you assign the shipment to a purchase order in the Purchase Order No. field on the card, the vendor is filled in automatically.