ER Assist

Time Entry Instructions Table of Contents 

ACCESS to ER Assist Software:3

User Name:3

Password:3

Initial Password3

Forgot Password/Password Reset3

MOBILE APPLICATION4

WEB APPLICATION INSTRUCTIONS4

ACCESS TO TIME MODULE4

TIME ENTRY5

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.5

Manual Entry6

Fields6

Date*6

Time In*6

Time Out*6

Site*7

Activity*7

Comments*8

Equipment8

Mileage9

EDITING RECENT TIME ENTRIES9

Grid view10

Grid View11

Column Header/Grid  Filters12

EDITING LOCKED, INVOICED, or PROCESSED INVOICES14

INVALID ENTRIES14

Checking the Calendar15

How To Enter Your Time-Quick Explanation Sheet 

(detailed explanation next page)

1. Login 

2. Click “My Time” 

3. Choose “Manual Entry” or “Quick Start” 

   1. If you click “Manual Entry”-Enter 

Date*

Time in* 

Time Out*

Time Increments- Time increment is defaulted to 15 min, your time admin can change it to minutes, 30 minutes, or full hours.  

Site*: dropdown (start typing to narrrow selection).  If you don’t see a needed sit ask your software admin.  

Activity*:  dropdown (start typing to narrrow selection).  If you don’t see a needed activity ask your software admin. 

Comments*

Equipment: Dropdown (start typing to narrow selection, if you don’t know anything to start typing, enter your agency/employer name to see all equipment active and entered in the system).  

Mileage:  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.    

OR

b.  If you click “Start” - Write a quick summary of what you’re working on in the “What are you working on?” box and then click the start button.

 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 reopen it. Enter the Client, Site and Activity and then click save. 

How to Enter Your Time- Detailed Explanation

ACCESS to ER Assist Software:  

Go to portal.erassist.com and enter your Username and Password.

User Name: 

 Determined by your software admin.  Two common formats are first.last or your work email address.  

Password: 

Initial Password 

Your password has been emailed to the email address associated to your account when you were added as a user to the software.  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.  

MOBILE APPLICATION

Entering time is essentially the same on the mobile and web applications.  These additional steps or pointers may help you use the mobile app.

1. Download the mobile app from Android or iOS

1. 1. Android users: go to play.google.com and look for ER Assist or download here

2. Iphone iOS users: go to itunes.apple.com and look for ER Assist or download here  

2. Ensure you have updates installed.  

1. If you just downloaded the app from the app store, the most recent version should be on your device.   

2. If you’ve previously installed the mobile app, look for “Available” updates before or after you login in (“Check for updates” underneath the tools section in the ER Assist app). 

3. To make updates happen automatically turn your “Automatic Downloads” setting on your phone ON. Exact location may vary by device.  

   1. iOS. 

      1. iPhone instructions: Settings-> iTunes & App Store -> Under the “Automatic Downloads” section turn the “Apps” icon ON. 

   2. Android

      1. Android instructions: General Settings->Application Manager->Under “Downloaded” section click ER Assist-> ER assist application settings will be displayed.

3. Log In to the ER Assist Mobile App using your username/password

4. After logging in to the Mobile App you will have a home screen such as the one below.

5. Select My Time from the menu on the left side of the screen.  Your time clock options will appear on screen, from this point follow the directions provided above to start and stop the time clock.

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.  

1. 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. 

2. 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 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:

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).  

Need Help?  

1.  Submit a support ticket.  

click on the green support button on right side of each ER Assist page.  A message box will appear and will allow you to submit a support ticket or browse articles.  To submit a support ticket, describe your request, select the “include a screenshot” button and click send.   

2.   Browse support articles.  

click on the green support button on right side of each ER Assist page.  A message box will appear and will allow you to submit a support ticket or browse articles.  Click Browse Articles.  

3.   Call the help desk during business hours.   (855) 336-2337

Most common questions:  

Q1:  I can’t remember my login.

A1:   Your login has been assigned by your software admin. Check with them first.  You can also click the password reset, enter the email associated with your account (usually your work email) and the password reset email will tell you your login/username.  

Q2:  I can’t remember my password.  

A2:  Click the “forgot password”  A password reset page will be sent to the email associated with your user name.  

Q3:  I can’t remember my login or password.

A3:  Click the “forgot password.”  Enter your email address.   The password reset email will tell you the login associated with your email and allow you to reset your password. 

Q4:   I can’t remember the email I have associated with this account.   

A4:   If you know your login and password, you can verify or reset your email address under your name in the top left of any page.  

Q5:  I can’t remember my login, password, or email address associated with this account.   

A5:  Uh oh. It’s probably a rough day for you, and we’ll do our best to help, because we’ve been there.  Your best bet is to contact your software admin.  In a pinch, the help desk can search for your user account by first name and last name and can tell you the email address associated with the account (assuming some other cross check of verification can be made e.g. phone number you are calling from matches the phone number on file).  

Q6:  Why is my time showing as invalid?  

A6: