User Name:
Determined by your software admin. Two common formats are first.last or your work email address.
Password:
Initial Password
They system emails an initial login page to the email address associated to your account when you were added as a user to the software. You'll be able to add a password from that link.
System admins (aka time admins) can update email addresses, but they can not reset passwords for individual users.
Forgot Password/Password Reset
If you forgot your password, request a password reset via the “Forgot Password” link. If you do not receive a password reset email within 15 min of clicking the password reset link, verify the email address associated to your account with your time admin.
Password requirements: your password must be a minimum length of 8 characters and it must include one number, one letter and one special character(special characters include: !,@,#,$,%,^,&,*).Password examples: ERAssist1! or A123456#
Correctly entering your username and password will take you to your landing page/home page, which displays all of the modules, disasters, applicants, and tasks for which you have access.
WEB APPLICATION INSTRUCTIONS
ACCESS TO TIME MODULE
You can access time tracking by clicking MY TIME.
TIME ENTRY
Time entry can be done one of two ways on the Web Application.
Quick Start -Some people like the ease of pressing the start button and filling in comments later. For those people, we offer the quick start button.
Simply write a quick summary of what you’re working on in the “What are you working on?” box and then click the start button. The summary can be any length.
Once you’ve clicked start a stopwatch will be displayed. Whenever you’re ready to “Time Out” or “Clock Out” click the stop button.
After clicking stop, your time entry will be listed as “Invalid” because you will need to fill in the Client, Site and Activity. Click on your recent time entry to open it.
Enter the Client, Site and Activity and then click save.
Manual Entry
Click Manual Entry Button from the top right.
Fields
Date*
Date will pre-populate today’s date. You can change the date by typing or by using a date picker tool. Internet Browsers (e.g. Internet Explorer, Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Safari) display date “pickers,” “rollbars,” or calendars in different ways. If the date picker tool appear funky on your web display, it’s likely that you need to update your browser.
Time In*
Time in is the time you start an activity. Start Time and Time In are the same.
Time Out*
Time Out is the time you end an activity. End Time is the same as Time Out.
Time Increments-The system allows time to be tracked in any variety of time settings. The most common is in 15 min increments (i.e. times ending in :15, :30, :45, :60), and that is what time entries are defaulted to. The time increment setting is set employer-wide or client-wide and is set by time admin.
Site*
Site: Select the site that you worked on. Double check the disaster #, Project# and Site name before you select.
Activity*
Activity: Select the activity that best describes the action that you performed for the time entry.
Contractors (or Governmental Agencies performing Mutual Aid on behalf of other agencies) will see different “clients” at the beginning of the activity, as activities are assigned per agency.
Activities are set up and “turned on/off” by Time Admin.
Activities have a standard display of I, D, or O.
O-Activities (Operational Activities) can be thought of work done as the main part of the project/grant.
I-Activities and D-Activities are Indirect Administrative Time and Direct Administrative Time. It is important that you select the right type of Activity, as the Activity Type determines if and where the cost of the time/equipment gets claimed/reimbursed as part of the grant.
Comments*
Comments should include standard notes as well as any explanatory notes which will support future reimbursement questions regarding this time/activity.
Operational Example: "Debris Cleanup was time consuming due to the slope of the Right of Way and Traffic/Safety Issues."
Administrative Example: "Collecting time daily work records was time intense, as all records are in single paper copy paper, and have not yet been organized in any way. I had to dig through the entire department’s records to find anything related to the flooded culvert repairs."
Equipment
Equipment is a “dropdown” field that populates from the equipment tracker. If the equipment you used is not visible in the dropdown please advise your software admin. The equipment either needs to be entered into or turned on as “active” within the equipment inventory module. To find the correct piece of equipment, start by typing the unit # of equipment description. You can search equipment by the applicant name (owner), equipment unit number, equipment description or the equipment cost code.
Mileage
If using this field, Enter mileage duration in number form. You cannot enter letters or a negative number. Enter the mileage duration (e.g. 100 miles) not the odometer reading, as the mileage field is multiplied by the rate field to track costs in other sections of software.
EDITING RECENT TIME ENTRIES
If you want to edit an existing time entry, click “My Time” on the dashboard to load the Recent Time Entries Page. All of your recent time entries will be displayed. Simply click on the line entry you wish to edit. If you do not see the line entry you want to edit, click “Load More Entries” at the bottom of the page. The Recent Time Entries page is a quick view. For a more detailed view with filter options, go to the time grid.
Or if you want to find specific one, you can click Detail View, then use the grid filters.
After clicking “Detail View” the screen blow will be displayed to search for the entry you’re wanting to edit. All of the column titles/headers double as filters. You can type whatever you’re wanting to search into these boxes. If you have a filter “active” it will show up as a grey circle. To remove the filter click the x within the filter circle or delete it out of the column header and click into another column header.
Grid view
Most modules within ER Assist software have a “Grid View.” You can think of it as an excel view of entries related to the module. To change the Columns/Fields in a Grid View, Click on the sprocket in the top right.
To customize your grid click customize this view.
Grid View
Grid Views are groups of fields usually used in a report. For example you may not want to see all 31 fields available in a time entry, if you only want to see Start and End times, click/turn on only the fields “Start” and “End” then click/turn off all other fields; finally, save the ‘view’ as Start/End. Next time you use the grid view, just click the Start/End View.
Column Header/Grid Filters
The header filters allow text, and the operators >,<,=,! (not) text, Blank, !Blank, Empty, and !Empty.
For yes/no fields, you can additionally use Y, N, Yes, No, T, F, True, False, On, and Off.
Symbol Key:
Symbol |
Short Explanation |
Longer Explanation |
Example or Notes |
> |
Greater than |
Works with #, dates, and for advanced users, works with text |
>4 returns 5, 6, 7… >12/31/2015 returns dates 1/1/2016 forward >F returns Ford; >Ford returns Ford; >Forda does not return Ford. |
< |
Less than |
Works in the same way as > |
|
>X <Y |
Greater than X and less than Y |
Will return results between X and Y |
>1 <5 will return 2, 3, 4 Do not use punctuation like commas or quotes, as the system will see it as alphanumeric text. If you enter military time, the system will automatically convert over to standard time. |
>=X <=Y |
Greater than or equal to X, and less than or equal to Y |
>=1 <=5 will return 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 |
|
= |
Equals |
Will return exact match, be careful of spacing. |
|
<= |
Less than or equal to |
<= 12/31/2007 will return all entries on or before Dec 31, 2007 |
|
>= |
Greater than or equal to |
||
! |
Exclude |
The ! operator is often referred to as “not.” |
|
!Text |
Exclude “Text” |
Will return results that do not include “Text” |
Can be compound, for example !truck !car !airplane will return results that do not contain truck, car, or airplane. Do not use any punctuation in between excluded items. |
Blank, Null, None, or Empty |
Value is blank |
||
!Blank, !Null, !None, or !Empty |
Value is not blank |
||
Y, Yes, T, True, On |
Positive |
Checkboxes are clicked on/off. Filtering for “yes” in a true/false field will return all the entries with the field marked true. |
|
N, No, F, False, Off |
Negative |
Checkboxes are clicked on/off. Filtering for “no” in a true/false field will return all the entries with the field marked false. |
When you have found the time entry you would like to edit, simply click on it to bring up the Edit Entry screen. Edit any of the information that is needed and click on any of the save options on the bottom.
Save Options
Save and close will take you back to your “my time” dashboard and it will display all your time entries. Save and add another will save your work and give you a blank entry to fill out. Save will save your information but it will keep you on the same page.
EDITING LOCKED, INVOICED, or PROCESSED INVOICES
Time entries are locked by Time Admins, usually as a step in the timesheet, pay period, or invoice process. Locked time entries may not be changed by users and must be changed by time admins (the admin will be required to annotate the change reason).
If you need to change a locked entry, contact your time admin for assistance.
Invoiced or Processed time entries are much harder to change, as they affect invoices or grant applications. Invoiced or processed entries usually require help desk assistance to change.
INVALID ENTRIES
If any required information is missing or a time entry overlaps with another, your time entry will show as Invalid. If this occurs, simply click on the invalid time entry which will bring you to the Edit Entry Screen.
Errors will be shown on the right and from there you can correct the errors and Save, or Delete the entry if it is no longer needed.
Checking the Calendar
A quick way to see if you have entered all your time, is to check the “my time” calendar, which shows ALL of the time you have entered into the system by day, regardless of client, billable/non billable or valid/invalid/locked/invoiced/processed status.
Calendar Days shaded in RED show a day with an INVALID time entry.
Calendar Days shaded in GREY show a day on which time entries should not exist (“blocked” days as determined by time admin).