Handbook/Timesheets
From Open Knowledge Foundation
Some projects and activities involve the keeping of timesheets to record time spent by people. In particular, projects or activities in receipt of funding would usually be expected to keep some kind of record of time spent.
This document provides information and instruction on the keeping of timesheets.
Contents
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Timesheet System
We have just moved to a new system; previously, a range of Google docs was used. As of 1 March 2012 all paid contractors must use Toggl.
New timesheet system: Toggl
This is a web based system at toggl.com which allows easy time recording and also useful reports - for you and for project managers.
To get started, ask Laura James for an account, and she'll get you invited to the system. Please, do not start your own workspace. All paid contractors must use OKFN workspace to report your activities.
Getting Toggl set up for you
Click the link in the email invitation to get started. You are now part of the OKFN workspace. You can edit your Profile to set things like Timezone and date format.
There are a number of Projects set up already, which reflect projects we have. :) Most Projects but not all are linked to a Client, which in our case isn't a real client, but a way of grouping projects, so we have Clients like CKAN, OpenSpending, Core. Some Projects may have Tasks within them, such as 'project management', 'development', or 'community'. These help us see how work within a big project might be divided up.
Using Toggl day to day
You can record time "live" or you can log it later. Note that we don't care about start/stop times, just the hours worked. There's 8 hours in a day unless your contract says otherwise, so if you've worked one day, record 8 hours. All you have to do to record a day's work is enter "N hours", type the date, and select the project from the dropdown - any more detail is lovely but not essential.
To record time live, go to the Toggl home page here and click "start timer" at the top in the middle. This will start a timer, and you can set the Project you are working on in the drop down to the left (you'll see the list of Projects there). You can optionally make a note of what you are doing in the big text box. The timer will run until you tell it to stop! (Once you've used Toggl a bit things get easier. You'll have a list on that page of all the things you have spent time on, and you can switch between these tasks by clicking "continue" next to whatever you are now starting. This means you don't have to bother selecting a project again, you can just switch between the things you do most often with one click.)
To record time later on, you select "add manually" at the top of the home page and then you can select a project from the drop down list, enter the start and stop times and the date, or just the time you worked in the big time box. Note that the big time box doesn't eat units of time greater than hours, so if you are entering several days, you need to convert to hours eg "16hr". What matters for our records is the time total, not the start/stop times. :)
All time entries should have a Project assigned to them (in the drop down). If you don't know what project your work was for, follow up with LauraJ or your project manager. You can optionally add a note about what you were doing (this can be useful for your own records, or your project manager if they are looking to see what you've been up to). Most Projects have Tasks within them (e. g. Community, Development, Project management) - these are also shown in the drop down and we'd love to see those used too as well as the Projects. There is no need to use the "billable" tag one way or another - we don't use it, so it doesn't matter what you set it to.
If you want to see a screencast showing you the minimum you need to do to add time look here.
If you want to see a screencast showing you how to extract info for your invoice look here.
What to do if you record the wrong amount of time (or the wrong project)
The classic case here is if you leave the timer running too long! Or maybe you entered the wrong date or time. Don't panic. Click "stop" first of all. Then you will see on the main toggl page that there's a list of tasks. Click the one which has the wrong time. You'll find it pops open and you can now edit it to make it right - you can edit the start and stop times, date, and total time, so you'll be able to correct whatever has done wrong. You can also edit the project and task if you had those wrong.
What to do if you are stuck
Talk to Laura James.
What to do if the work you are doing doesn't seem to fit into any of the categories
If you aren't sure what project you are working on, talk to Laura J (she might just have forgotten to add your project!). Your project manager may also be able to help suggest a category, but only laura J can add new projects at the moment.
WHen you are ready to invoice us
Click the "reports" tab at the top of Toggl. In the drop down with people's names, select just yours. Leave it set ti "all projects". Select the date range you need (eg a month after your last invoice! it's easiest if you select the little "down" arrow in the date range section and then look at the calendar popup) and select "billable and non billable". Then go down to the bottom bit below the graph, and select "group by projects". You may want to shrink the entries so you get one line per project rather than all your tasks detailed. Then, you can just copy the sum of time for each project into a line of your invoice! It's already categorised into the right project categories, and the time is already added up. You can also rest assured that because you've tracked your time (and your project manager will have been able to keep an eye on this during the month), there won't be any queries about how much you've worked, and your invoice will be approved promptly without any questions about hours worked.
OLD DETAILS FOLLOW
- Use spreadsheet system, preferably google docs spreadsheet.
- Template Spreadsheet (Gdocs) note that separate timesheets are used for Core, CKAN, OpenSpending, and Chapter activity. If you aren't sure which to use for your paid time, ask a foundation coordinator or your project manager.
- All people using the timesheet enter their data into the worksheet 'Time'
- Restrictions are enforced via validation on various columns
- In particular, Who, Project, and Work Type run off lists in Enumerations worksheet
Background
This section gives some background on how we arrived at the current timesheet system.
Requirements for Timesheet system
- Easy to input for users (developers, community coordinators etc)
- Easy to report out of (summable by time period and project)
- Easy to restrict input data (e.g. project name etc)
- Easy to support resource decisions to determine e.g. whether more of less people are needed
Evaluated Timesheet systems
TODO
