Contractor Time Tracking Features (including timesheets and invoicing) for Software Admins
**Related How-To: Governmental Entity Time Tracking features (aka Force Account Labor)
There are many features of the ER Assist software that are unique to “admin-level” users.
Admin level users may:
Add time for personnel who don’t have access to software
Give personnel access to software
Make other users admin-level users
Use the time invoice feature
Lock Entries
Invoice Entries
Process Entries
Assign payroll rates (for client/governmental employees) by time period
Assign contract rates (for contractor employees)
Assign fringe rates
See Time Entries for people other than themselves
Add Clients (Contracts) for your employees to bill to
Adding Time- For Personnel without Web-Access
Creating Time Reports Per Project (for Grant Usage)
Add Personnel
Under Time, click the personnel module.
You can add personnel one by one (Add New) or by bulk import (Import).
Option 1: Add Employee individually Click Add New
For Web users (aka employees who will be logging into the portal) you will need to enter:
First Name
Last Name
Email Address
Username- A suggested username is the employee’s work email address.
-
This is also the point at which you choose to give Basic Access or Administrator Access
To give Admin Access simply check the box beside Administrator
After Creating the user you have the options to save, save and continue, or save and add another. Once you hit save, the page will refresh and the employee will show up in your Employees with Web Access list.
After choosing “Save and Continue” you will have the option to update personnel rates by clicking the “Add” button.
The following form will open and should be filled out if the information is available. This will provide the rates at which the individual will be invoiced at over a specific period. This also serves as the form in which you incorporate fringe rates, Over Time, Status, and Position.
Option 2: Import Employees in bulk- click import
Follow the steps on this page and finish by uploading the template populated with your employee data. You do not have to enter email or password to create employees when using the import, however an email is required for a web user. The import will tell you if you have populated employees successfully. If the username for an employee has already been taken, it will notify you that the employee did not successfully get created.
Time Admin. You will need to make at least one of your employees an Admin. You can do this under personnel by clicking over the Admin switch.
Add Equipment
OPTIONAL.
You can add equipment to track as a billable item or just for information. Add equipment in the equipment module. Equipment marked as “is active” is available as drop downs for time entries. Typical equipment used by contractors may include things like large trucks, office trailers, rental cars, or computer equipment.
Add Sites
Sites may be thought of as jobs, work orders, or in the strict FEMA Public Assistance grant program definition of Site, a subset component of a project. Time, equipment, and expenses are grouped to sites.
There is a sites module how to at www.erassist.com/help
As an admin, you can add sites to either your company, or to your governmental client.
You need to have at least one site for your employees to bill time to, either at the employer level or at the client level. You can add a site by clicking the “+New Site” button under the Sites Module for your company or for a client which you have software access.
Note: Nonbillable time spent on a particular client or project can either be tracked under an employer level site or a client level site, the differenc
Employer/Contractor Level Site |
Client (aka Government) Level Site |
Only visible to your employees |
Visible to the Client, and to all contractor employee users (including other companies) assigned to the client through the client “add contractor access” button |
Time/expenses associated to employer site are not available to be imported/viewable in project costs for a client project. |
time/expenses associated to client site show in project costs |
Contractor sites can not be merged with client sites |
Client sites can be merged to other client sites (e.g. you realize that Hwy 102 and 14th Street are the same road). |
Contractor sites can not be associated to client projects |
Client sites can be grouped together to client projects |
If you are conducting some work for a client for which you are not charging, you may want to track that time to a client site so it can appear on an invoice as show of good faith, a discount, or as a donated resources documentation.
Add Clients (Contracts) for your employees to bill to
At this time, time admins can not add new clients on your own. When you need a new client set up, please submit a support ticket by clicking the support tab on the right side of the page. Time admins for your organization are not automatically made admins for each client, so you’ll need to tell us at least web user in your organization to make a time admin for the client so that person (possibly you) can add other users and admin to the client . If you have the contract document, please provide that to us as well as part of your client creation support ticket, and we’ll enter the contract particulars for you; otherwise you can upload the contract data and documents yourself at a later time. ER Assist will then create the access between your company and the client.
The employees of your organization who are admins for this client, will be able to navigate to the client’s page and add additional employees of your organization as contractors as either web users or web users with admin access for that client. By clicking the view/edit contractor access be added to a client via the Contractors with Access box on the right side of the Users page.
Once your employee is added as a contractor web user for a client, the employee will be able to track time to that client’s sites (work jobs). Note: client/applicant EMPLOYEES are force account labor, meaning they get paid by the applicant. Your employees are CONTRACTORS to that client/applicant.
Check Time
Time for your employees can be “found” under:
Your company TIME module.
It will not be found under the client time module, even though you may have tracked time to their sites, to protect the privacy of other users of the system. Once your time is invoiced and/or processed time claimed as part of grant applications will appear
Click on Time
Click on Time Entries button
Time Grid
Adding Time- For Personnel without Web-Access
Select “Time” on the Right Side of the page under ER Assist Inc.
Under Time you will select “Dashboard”
Next you will select “Time Entries.” This will open up your options for time entry.
From this module you can Add new entries or view older entries by other personnel as well as your own.
From this page you will select “Add Time”
In this form you will select the “user” you are adding time fo, and fill out the form for the time to be entered. You should then “Save and Close” or “Save and Add Another.”
Exporting Time Entries:
The data in the grid is what will export when you click on the paper icon in the top right corner of the grid.
Filters:
The column headers are filters. The following Logic Terms work in filters:
>,<,>=,<=
! (not) (example: !Smith in last name would exclude all entries with Smith as part of their last name
Blank filters for blanks !Blank filters for non-blanks
Sort:
To multi-sort, run the secondary (or tertiary) sort prior to primary (example if sorting by Project and then by Person, run the person sort/arrow button and then the project sort/arrow button).
To add/subtract fields/columns click on the cog wheel icon to see a list of all fields available. To add fields to grid (and therefore export) Slide “On.” for the field.. You can save “views” (groups of fields/columns) and name them.
Export Time:
To export time, simply enter the date range you would like to export, click on Actions on the right side of page and then select Export Data to Excel.
Cautionary Note: Filters may “stick” but the date range does not, so always check that your date range is correct.
Lock time Entries
*Once time entries are locked, you cannot delete an entry. You can submit a support ticket to delete the entry.
Time admins can change time entries, including changing from client to overhead. The system requires a reason for the change.
Begin by selecting “Entries” under “Time” from the Left Side Menu on ER Assist.
On the Entries page you will first need to select the date range you wish to lock entries for. Do this by selecting the Dates from and to at the top of the page.
Next using the “Actions” drop down select “Lock Entries” and then click OK
Time Sheets
For hardcopy timesheets: Upload signed timesheets.
Create Invoice
Be sure you have reviewed and Locked time entries prior to creating an invoice.
On the Same screen you used to Lock time entries you can also create an “Invoice” by selecting the “Invoice Entries” option in the Actions drop-down menu.
Audit Rates
Since rates and positions are variable per person across client contracts (and sometimes within contracts) rates and positions need to be audited prior to creating the invoice.
Creating Time Reports Per Project (for Grant Usage)
On Time Grid, select the export button and then select time reports. Regardless of what is in the grid, the time reports will export with a pre-set of format and fields using the ids of the time entries on the grid.