NEWS

Statement of Intent - time@work and eXpense Version 2.5

The following describes highly probable new functionality in time@work and eXpense Version 2.5. Current schedules show this as ready for release in July/August, though this date may change.

Professional Services Workbench

Feature Control
Functionality available to an employee, such as Timesheet Entry, Authorisation, Expense Entry, Authorisation and Review, Approval, and all other functions., will be controllable at Employee level, Company level and System level, such that absence of differentiating information at Employee level will result in Company settings being used, and absence at Company level will result in System settings being used.

Integration with Active Directory
As an alternative to the current method of employee authentification using employee id and password information from the Active Directory (id, password and email address) will be used.

Validation - Timesheets and Expense Forms
Extensive validation of timesheet and expense form entries will be made possible using Error Hierarchies defining error conditions and associated severity statuses and messages. This will enable the spcification of expense and time recording policies and the capture of exception conditions.

Expense Forms - Column Sequencing
The sequence of columns on an expense form will be definable for each Expense Form Type.

Expense Forms - Paging
Large expense forms with many rows can be slow to refresh. Version 2.5 will introduce paging to the expense form such that the number of lines per page will be definable for each Expense Form Type and maximum refresh time will therefore become controllable.

Expense Forms - Date Control
Permissible dates (Open From and Open To) will be specifiable on System Parameters. Additionally, use of a future date will incur a warning.

Expense Forms - Total Value
The calculation containing the 'total value' of an expense form will be definable. This will enable improved summary information about each expense form in progress, and, later, validation on overall form total. Zero value forms (defined as containing a total of zero in this Total Value calculation) will be prohibited.

Expense Forms - Date Picker
Improvements to navigation of the date picker.

Expense Forms - Title
A title for an expense form will be enterable by an employee (for example, 'Trip to Paris')

Expense Forms - Notes
The 'Note Accompanying Return' concept will be extended to enable the entering of notes at any stage in the life of an expense form, with full display of preceding notes at each stage.

Expense Forms - Line Numbers
Line numbers will optionally be available as a column in expense forms.

Expense Forms - Initial Column Width
An initial column width (and an option to fix this width) will be specifiable for each column in an expense form.

Expense Forms - Suppress Proportional Splitting
Currently values are proportionately split when a line is split in an expense form. There will be an option against each calculation in an Expense Form Type to suppress proportionate splitting. This is appropriate, for example, when exchange rates are entered as values into an expense form.

Expense Forms - Links to Documents
We are investigating integration with document management systems so that a link from an expense line to an image of the expense document can be made.

Expense Forms and Timesheets - Confirmation Buttons
Optionally Timesheet Types and Expense Form Types can be defined as requiring confirmation of actions such as Cancel and Submit.

Expense Forms and Timesheets - Sorting and Filtering on Historical Grids
Sorting and Filtering will be enabled on grids showing historical timesheets and expenses forms.

Help Text - HTML and Redirection
As an alternative to the Help Text delivered with time@work and eXpense it will be possible to define 'redirection' URLs such that Help will invoke alternative pages instead of the delivered text.
Additionally, Help Text stored in the time@work and eXpense databases will be interpreted as HTML, so that formatting characters can be stored.

Approval Profiles - Access Control
Employees permitted to use an Approval Profile will be specifiable on the Profile.

Approval Profiles - Employee or Project View
Approval Profiles currently show data by Employee in eXpense and by Project in time@work. These will be available as specifiable alternatives on an Approval Profile definition.

Project % Complete
The % complete value for Tasks and Projects will be enterable through the Professional Services Workbench.

time@work and eXpense Maintenance

Enhanced Security - Tabs
Access Profiles will be extended to enable control over access to Tabs for each form for each record type. (This will also enable the complete separation of time@work and eXpense.)

Expense Form Types - Specified Ledger
Optionally a ledger will be definable (Actuals, Budget, etc.) as the target ledger for an Expense Form Type (whether in Maintenance or the Professional Services Workbench).

Invoicing - From and To Dates
Inclusion of From and To Dates in data recorded against an invoice and data forwarded to Crystal for printing.

Invoice Reversal - Option not to release Work in Progress
Currently Invoice Reversal releases work in progress. Alternatively a reversal can be produced without releasing work in progress. Balancing DISCOUNT records will be produced against each reversed line. This invoice will thus have the logic of an ad-hoc Credit Note, but can be based on an existing invoice.

Reporting - Additional Ledger Field
A new field in Ledger tables will indicate which Procedure (Posting, Ledger Modification, Invoicing, etc.) created the transaction.

Calculations - Default Currency
A default currency will be definable as to be derived from Employee Company, Project Company or Client/Project.

Company - Company Name
A Company Name field will be added to the Company record, enabling the use of a company code, and thus the modification of company name when required. Company lookup controls will become double column.

Expense Type - 50 characters
The Expense Type field will be extended to 50 characters.

Projects - Calculation Entry Control
Expense Types currently enable the suppression of calculations as entry fields on expense forms. This concept will be extended to Projects.

Expense Types - Analysis Entry Control
Projects currently enable the suppression of analysis values as entry fields on expense forms. This concept will be extended to Expense Types.

Email technology - SMTP as option for all emails
SMTP will be available as an option for all email transmission in time@work and eXpense, though the MAPI option will be retained for use when large attachments make SMTP a slow mechanism.

Employee Roles
Currently Roles can be defined against System, Company, Client and Project. The concept will be extended to include Employees. This will eventually be used as an option for the definition of authorisers and reviewers of timesheets and expenses, but will also be used for the definition of approvers (approval profiles).

Proxy Employee Logic
Employees will be definable as proxies for the entry of expense forms on behalf of other employees. A confirmation step may be introduced into the expense form workflow to enable an employee to confirm an expense form entered by his proxy.

time@work and eXpense Task Scheduler

The Task Scheduler will execute as a service.

Some of the following enhancements are also likely in Version 2.5:

time@work and eXpense Maintenance

Budget Copying,
Alternative Debtor Account Selection in Invoicing,
Controlled Notification Options on the Routing of timesheets and expense forms and on Reminders,
Copying Data from Historical Timesheets and Expense Forms to current forms
'Current Period': option to derive this from today's date in Inquiry Profiles
Budget Entry by Employee
Invoice Deallocation
Saving Current status of Invoice Worksheet during Approval and Review
Data Import extension to include Accounting Periods and Timesheet Periods

Professional Services Workbench

Returning Transactions to employees from an Approval Profile
Enabling modification of data values in an Approval Profile
Controlling update of forms at authorisation and review stage
Graphs