Whiteboard: Timesheet Tasks

Have you every seen a "timesheet" where you choose a client, then a project, then a task from dropdowns?  This isn't one of those.

Those are the worst.

Only What's Applicable to You

"I hate those dumb drop-downs"

Instead, you see all your projects and tasks in one simple list.  Just enter hours next to a task and you're done.  You only see tasks assigned to you, so the list isn't too long.  Plus, projects and sub-projects can be collapsed so the list is even shorter. Need the timesheet even shorter and more relevant? Try Timesheet Favorites. Favorites show only the projects you're working on right now.

Here's a nice little video for inspiration. After you watch it, scroll down for more.

Are timesheet tasks required?

Only if you want them to be. Right out of the box, you can start using projects without tasks. But you can run the projects wizard and add some pretty quickly. Here's an image of tasks being added to the timesheet. Once they are added, you can begin entering timesheet hours against them immediately.

The good thing about tasks is that you can do a lot of things with them. Consider these advantages, when using tasks.

1. You can link tasks to others. Here's a task linking video.
2. You can compare estimates to actuals
3. You can create tasks under subprojects and phases, as discussed below
4. You can prevent budget overruns, as discussed below
5. You can assign tasks to users, which lets you see employee availability. Here's a video on employee availability.
6. You can report on how much time is spent on each task
7. You can scan them to start and stop a timer

"Our projects only have five tasks"
"Same for every project"
"Simple!"

Task breakdowns

The image below is an example of how you could break a project into phases or divisions that help divide the work into manageable parts. You see the project at the top level, with phases or sub-projects under it. The actual tasks are under those. That is where employees enter hours. You can see those hours totaled at the project level above the tasks.

"Each subproject is a phase"
"We mark them complete and move on"

Task warnings prevent budget overruns

The message below appears when you have configured the timesheet tasks for warnings. What are task warnings? Warnings prevents users from entering too much time against a task. You may have to do this if clients are unwilling to pay more than a certain amount, or you just want to nudge employees to finish up and move on to the next task.  Here's a task warning video on this very topic.

"We decreased the budget 6%, just from these little warnings"

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