User Profiles

This section allows you to create, edit, remove and manage the users of your system.

Adding a new user

In order for a user to be able to access the system, they must first be created here. There are different types of users available, depending on what the user needs to be able to do and for what purpose they are being added.

Go to Admin > Users.
Click New User.
Select the User Type (see table below for more info on the differences between these user types).
Enter the basic User Profile information (see table below).
Enter the User Core Working Hours.
Enter the User Target Utilisation.
Enter the users Hourly cost rate.
Enter the users Hourly standard charge out rate.
Set whether the user Must submit core hours.
Set whether user is Active.
Set whether the user can Receive E-mail alerts.
Set the users Approvers.
Set the users Holiday entitlement.
Click Save and Close.

User types

User Type	Description
Employee	The standard category of user who can log in These represent real users (employees of your company)
Associate Sub Consultant	Represents your associates/consultants who will be doing work for you (e.g. submitting purchase invoices) but may not be full-time users. Associates can still have access to the system as normal users, but with distinct differences: They cannot log extra time They can have different internal cost rates on different Work Stages/Tasks within different projects (these are assigned in the Projects > Work Structure/Gantt/Resources screens)
Generic	A dummy user of the system. Generic users cannot log in so do not have access to the system, and do not represent real people Their purpose is for resourcing you can resource a generic user to a project to represent a user who, for example, is unknown at the time This helps you anticipate costs against projects before you have allocated the specific workers

User profile

Field	Description	Compulsory for User Type
First Name	Users first name	Employee, Associate/Sub Consultant, Generic
Last Name	Users surname	Employee, Associate/Sub Consultant
Username	This will be the name that the user will type in the login screen We recommend using the users email address	Employee, Associate/Sub Consultant
E-mail	Users company email address	Employee, Associate/Sub Consultant
Business Phone	Users work phone number	Optional
Mobile	Users mobile phone number	Optional
Fax	Users fax number	Optional
Supplier	Only required when creating an associate All associates must be linked to a supplier in order to be linked with purchase invoices	Associate/Sub Consultant
Region	The region this user works in Regions are setup in Admin > Company Settings > Regions	Employee, Associate/Sub Consultant
Department	The department of your company in which the user belongs Departments are set up in Admin > Company Settings > Departments	Optional for Employee only
Job Role	The role in the company that this user will hold. Job Roles can be defined by navigating to Admin > Users > Job Roles Job Roles are useful when reporting as you can filter report information by these	Employee, Associate/Sub Consultant
Password	Assign a password to the user, and re-type it in the Confirm Password box See Changing your password for tips on creating strong passwords	Employee, Associate/Sub Consultant
Security Group	The security group that the user will be assigned to, as defined in Admin > System Settings > Security Groups This will define what permissions the user has in the system	Employee, Associate/Sub Consultant
Accounts Reference	This field is used when exporting expense information via AccountsLink and is also available in the user export	Optional
Timesheet Start Date	This date defines the current timesheet that the user will be shown when they log in If a user has been away for a period of time, it can be useful to reset this date so they are viewing the correct timesheet. This will skip any weeks without consequence If a non-Monday date is chosen, the timesheet will start on the previous Monday	Employee, Associate/Sub Consultant

User Core Working Hours

Each user can be assigned a set of Core Working Hours. These are the standard/core hours that the user is expected to work. Any time outside of these hours would normally be logged as extra time.

Specify the users core working hours by selecting the appropriate hours and minutes for each working day. This information has the following effects:

Drives budget and forecast figures when you enter your resources.
Users can be required to enter their core hours on their current timesheet. The hours defined here will define the total core hours which need to be recorded on the weekly timesheet. If must submit core hours is ticked, any hours outside of these will need to be marked as extra hours.
If managing user holiday entitlement in hours, the daily number of hours and minutes will be removed from their allocation based on holiday request approved.

Note: When you change one item on any day a Change from date field will appear make sure you choose the correct effective date for your new selections before you save. Once this date is reached, the core hours you have entered will become active for that user.

User Target Utilisation

Each user can be assigned a Target Utilisation. This is the percentage of time that you are targeting the user to be working on project activity. This figure is used in the Resource Utilisation vs Target report to analyse their actual project utilisation compared to target.

Custom Fields

Custom fields can be assigned against users in Admin > Company Settings > Custom Fields.

Hourly cost rates

Here you can set the default internal cost rate for the user. Cost rates are defined per hour, and you can set up multiple rates to span different time periods. Rates entered here will be applied to users logged time to calculate the total cost of that time.

Click on the calendar box and select a date to apply the user cost rate from.
Enter the users hourly Salary. This is the cost of the individual employee to your company (their salary worked out per hour).
Enter the users hourly Overhead. This represents the extra cost of the employee to your company for office overheads.
The total hourly Rate is calculated by Salary + Overhead.
Click the Add button.

Note: Associates can have different hourly cost rates assigned to different Tasks within a project will override the default rate entered here.

Hourly standard charge out rates

Here you can enter the default hourly charge out rates for the user. These are the rates that time will be charged at when invoice items are generated for time. See the invoicing help section for more information on invoice items. As with the hourly cost rates, you can have multiple charge rates to govern different periods of time.

Select a date from which to apply the user charge out rate from.
Enter the users hourly charge out Rate. Charge rates can be entered to 2, 3 or 4 decimal places. Additional decimal place rates may be required for precise billing calculations when totaling hourly time charge invoice items in order to calculate daily rates.
Click the Add button.

Must Submit Core Hours

If this option is enabled, a user must log the exact number of total core hours for the week prior to submitting their timesheet. Any additional time must be logged as extra time. The daily core hours logged can differ from those set against the user as long as the weekly total matches.

Active User

If enabled, this option allows the user to log in to the system. If this is not ticked, the user will not be able to log in to the system.

Note: Setting a user as inactive will not delete any time, expenses or other such data they have entered. They can be made active again at any time. You can choose to exclude inactive users from reports where applicable.

Receive Email alerts

If enabled, this option allows users to receive email alerts as configured in Admin > System Settings > Email Alerts.

Receive Task Resourcing E-mail Alerts

If enabled, this option allows users to receive email alerts when assigned as a resource to a project task. They will also receive email updates when details of the task change or if it is deleted.

Approvers

There are five different types of approvers for an individual Timesheet, Expenses, Absence, Purchase Order 1* and Purchase Order 2*. See the table below for information on each type of approver

Field	Description
Timesheet Approver	The person who will approve the users submitted timesheets
Expenses Approver	The person who will approve the users submitted expenses
Absence Approver	The person who will approve the users submitted absence requests
Purchase Order approver 1*	The person who will approve the users submitted Purchase Orders, providing that the Purchase Order does not exceed the users Authorisation Limit. If the limit is exceeded, this approver will not see the Purchase Invoice for approving.
Purchase Order approver 2*	The second-level approver who will be required to approve Purchase Orders that have been submitted by the user but exceed that users Authorisation Limit. This approver is only selectable if an Authorisation Limit has been specified. If no limit has been set, then the Purchase Order approver 1 will be able to approve all submitted Purchase Orders by this user.

* These features are available to ProjectMinder users only.
To upgrade to ProjectMinder, please contact your Client Development Manager on 0844 815 5710.

Holiday Entitlement

Each user can be assigned a number of entitled hours or days holiday for each year. This allows you to keep track of how much holiday a user has taken and how much holiday they have remaining. For further information on tracking this information, see the Absence Requests report.

Days or Hours entitlement?

Daily entitlement is generally most suitable when staff work inconsistent core working hour patterns and have holiday entitlement pro-rated in days. Using daily entitlement all day and half-day holidays are treated equal in terms of reducing remaining entitlement, regardless of the hours scheduled to be worked on that day. Hourly entitlement is most suitable where staff work flexible working hours but to an agreed daily pattern. Using hourly entitlement, day or half-day holidays reduces the user entitlement in accordance with the scheduled hours worked on that day.

The table below provides different scenarios and advises on whether to use days or hours entitlement for your user.

Scenario	Days or Hours
Your company has a standard working week whereby one day a week requires staff to work less hours than the other four days. Taking the shorter day off counts the same as taking any other day off. Example: The company requires staff to work 8 hours Monday to Thursday and only 6 hours Friday.	Days
Your company treats a half-day morning off as a different number of hours to a half-day afternoon, however taking a morning or afternoon off still counts as the same 'half-day' entitlement. Example: Your user works a 7.5 hour day. If they take the morning off they get 4 hours off, if they take the afternoon off they get 3.5 hours off.	Days
Your user works flexi-time hours. They have no daily core working hours set and can work any daily hours at will as long as they work the appropriate amount of hours over an agreed period. Example: Your user works a 40 hour week but can work any number of hours per day at their will.	Days
Your company has a standard working week whereby your user works the same number of hours every day as per the standard working week. Example: Your company standard working week is 7.5 hours Monday to Friday. Your user works 7.5 hours Monday to Friday.	Either is suitable. Your decision is most likely to be based around the impact this will have on the Absence Request screen. See below for details.
Your company has a standard working week whereby one day a week requires staff to work less hours than the other four days. Taking the shorter day off does not count the same as taking any other day off, and should reduce holiday entitlement on a pro-rata basis. Example: The company requires staff to work 8 hours Monday to Thursday and only 6 hours Friday.	Hours
Your user works pre-agreed flexible working hours. Example: Your user works 7.5 hours Monday to Wednesday, 3.75 hours Thursday and Friday.	Hours

Completing Holiday Entitlement

Field	Days Entitlement	Hours Entitlement
Entitlement This Year	Enter the standard holiday entitlement in days due this year.	Enter the standard holiday entitlement in days due this year, the number of hours will automatically update. Alternatively, enter the standard holiday entitlement in hours due this year, the number of days will automatically update. The calculation is based on the Absence Standard Day assigned to the user Region.
Carried Over To This Year	This is populated automatically from holiday carry over submitted by the user from the previous holiday year and subsequently approved. Users can request carry over via the Absence Request page.
Carried Over To Next Year	This is populated automatically from holiday carry over submitted by the user from the current holiday year and subsequently approved. Users can request carry over via the Absence Request page.
Total Entitlement	The total entitlement for this user this year. Based on Entitlement This Year and Carried Over To This Year.
Entitlement Next Year	Enter the standard holiday entitlement in days due next year.	Enter the standard holiday entitlement in days due next year, the number of hours will automatically update. Alternatively, enter the standard holiday entitlement in hours due next year, the number of days will automatically update. The calculation is based on the Absence Standard Day assigned to the user Region.

Note: You can set the default standard entitlement to be populated automatically when creating new users. This can be done from Admin > Company Settings > Non Project Activities and entering in the value into the Standard Holiday field.

Impact on Absence Request entry

If you have switched on days entitlement for the user, in their Absence Request entry screen they will only see holiday entitlement and relevant data in days. If you have switched on hourly entitlement for the user, in their Absence Request entry screen they will see holiday entitlement in both hourly and pro-rata daily values. The pro-rata value is calculated based on the user Region Absence Standard Day.

When a user with days entitlement has a full or half day approved, it simply removes 1 or 0.5 days from their remaining entitlement. When a user with hours entitlement has a full or half day approved, it removes the number of hours from their entitlement based on the day(s) approved and the core working hours they work that day.

Non Working Time

The non working time values are automatically populated based on the user Region and Non working time assigned.

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