Rates & Rules Module

 Help Contents
Journyx Timesheet v5.5 provides a robust engine for creating and applying complex payroll and billing rules to time tracked by your organization. The Rates & Rules features are accessible from the Rules & Policies link which is located under the Business Adjustments header on the main admin screen.

Rules and Policies

Rules and Policies are at the very heart of the Rates & Rules module of Timesheet v5.5. Admins create rules that affect how time is handled for payroll or billing purposes. These rules are then combined into policies that are assigned to users within Timesheet. Once these policies have been assigned, each user's time is processed appropriately.

For the Rates & Rules module to function properly, users whose time will be affected by policies must have an hourly pay rate and an hourly bill rate assigned to them in the extra users fields screen, which is accessed when creating or modifying users. Additionally, if your organization intends to use project-based Pay Rates and Bill Rates, you will need to specify those hourly rates for each project in the Extra Project Fields portion of Project creation and modification. Without these rates in place, the Rates & Rules module will not have the appropriate values accessible for the complex mathematic procedures that this module makes use of for rate calculation.

The admin should create rules as needed, with an eye towards the overall polices that will be built from those rules. Each individual user will have only one policy assigned to him within the system. Journyx recommends developing a strategy for Rule and Policy creation that focusses on the primary categories of users within your organization; that is, a strategy that looks at how users are grouped in ways that directly affect their time for payroll and billing purposes. An example of such a strategy would be the creation of policies that relate specifically to Hourly users, who are subject to overtime considerations, and to Exempt (or salaried) users, who are not subject to overtime considerations.

The Create/Edit/Manage Rules and Policies screen is divided into two sections, one specifically for rules, and one specifically for policies. Both sections function similarly, but each one will be discussed separately, to address the complexities of each.

Initially, the only option available for either section is to create a new rule or policy. To begin, simply click the Create New button in the section that you will be working with. Please note: Policies are simply an ordered collection of rules. Therefore, if no rules exist, you will be unable to create any policies.

The next section will look at the actual processes of working rules. Policies will be discussed in the section immediately after Rules.

Working With Rules

Rules are used to specify particular parameters for modifications that should be applied to time records for payroll and/or billing purposes. This section will discuss the creation, modification and deletion of Rules. Each rule is composed of:
Creation of Rules
The process of creating a new rule is outlined below:
  1. Click the Create a Rate Rule button on the Create/Edit/Manage Rules and Policies screen
    Timesheet will display the Create Rate Rule screen. This screen will be used for the remainder of this process.
  2. Enter a name for the new rule
    This name should be unique and help to identify the rule. Examples might include: overtime; double overtime; holiday overtime; weekend; emergency.
  3. Enter a description for the new rule
    This field should be used to describe the rule in more detail. Please Note: This field is limited to 252 characters.
  4. Select a time frame for this rule
    The possible choices for this setting are:
  5. Indicate the Condition for this rule
    The possible choices for this setting are:
  6. Indicate the Trigger Hours for this rule
  7. Indicate the Target for this rule
    The possible choices for this setting are:
  8. Indicate the categories for the new rule. CTRL-click to select multiple items in each list.
  9. Select the Optional Actions for this rule
    The available Optional Actions are:
  10. Click the save button
The Create/Edit/Manage Rules and Policies screen will refresh, displaying a green text message indicating that the new rule has been created. Additionally, the newly created rule will be included in the list of existing rules. The new rule will now be available for editing, copying and deleting.
Editing Rules
If you need to make changes to any existing rules, they can be edited to change any of the following options: To modify the existing rules, simply click the edit button to the right of the rule in question. The Edit Rate Rule screen will be displayed, providing access to make changes to the above mentioned options. The Edit Rate Rule screen functions exactly the same as the Create Rate Rule screen as described above.
Copying Rules
Timesheet provides the ability to copy an existing rule to a new name. This functionality is most commonly used to create a set of similar rules that have only minor differences by copying one rule and then editing it to make the needed changes. To copy a rule, perform the following steps:
  1. Click the Copy button to the right of the rule in question on the Create/Edit/Manage Rules and Policies screen
    Timesheet will display the Copy a Rate Rule to make a new Rate Rule screen. This screen will be used for the remainder of this process
  2. Enter a name for the new rule
  3. Make any desired changes to the rule
  4. Click the Save button
    Timesheet will display the Create/Edit/Manage Rules and Policies screen along with a green text message confirming the creation of a new rule based on the previously existing rule.
Deleting Rules
If you create a rule that you do not need, or a rule that needs such extensive editing that time would be saved by simply deleting it and starting over, Timesheet provides a method for removing rules from the system. To delete an existing rule, simply click the delete button to the right of the name of the rule in question. Timesheet will display a popup window asking you to confirm that you wish to delete the rule. If you wish to proceed, click OK in this window. To abort the deletion process, click the Cancel button. Please Note: If you attempt to delete a rule that is in use by a policy, you will receive the following red text error message:

The following Policy(s) have a reference to the rule you are trying to delete. Please remove all references from Policies prior to deleting a Rule. Policies: [ policy name ]

If the rule you are deleting is not currently in use by any existing policy, the Create/Edit/Manage Rules and Policies screen will refresh, displaying a green text message indicating that the rule in question has been successfully deleted.

Working With Policies

Policies are a logical grouping of rules that are used to make the actual modifications to an employees hours for payroll and billing purposes. Each policy provides for rate modification for payroll as well as the potential for up to three unique billing rate modifications. This section will discuss the creation, modification and deletion of policies as well as the process of assigning policies to individual users.

Each policy is composed of:

Creating Policies
The process of creating a new policy is outlined below:
  1. Click the Create a Policy button on the Create/Edit/Manage Rules and Policies screen
    Timesheet will display the Create a Policy for Rates screen. This screen will be used for the remainder of this process.
  2. Enter a name for the new policy
    This name should be unique and help to identify the target users for this policy. Examples might include: hourly, salary, exempt, non-exempt, contractors and senior staff.
  3. Enter a description for the new policy
    This field should be used to describe the policy in more detail. Please Note: This field is limited to 60 characters.
  4. Specify the Pay Rate Origin for this policy
    Timesheet v5.5 allows your organization to specify whether the pay rate for a specific policy should come from the User or the Project associated with the hours in question. The following options are available for this setting:
  5. Specify the Bill Rate Origin for this policy
    Timesheet v5.5 allows your organization to specify whether the Bill Rate for a specific policy should come from the User or the Project associated with the hours in question. The following options are available for this setting:
  6. Assign rules to this policy
    Although the process of assigning rules to a policy can at first appear to be a daunting task, the procedure itself is relatively simple. Each portion of this process is outlined in detail below. Please Note: Rules within a policy are executed "top to bottom" i.e., the first rule in a policy is applied to the hours first, the second rule is applied second, and so on down the list. This can be particularly important, as the order of mathematical operations can critically affect pay and bill rate amounts. The Rate Check feature, which is discussed below, will help with determining if rules are in the appropriate order.

    Please Note: Each rule in a policy must have at least one operation assigned to it, i.e., every rule must have at least a modification to one rate. If the rule is question does not actually modify the rate, you should simply designate a Rate Modification Type of Add and a Rate Modification Amount of zero.

    1. Edit Order
      This option is most commonly used when editing a policy. By choosing insert, delete, move up or move down you may change the order of rules within the policy being edited. Please see the discussion on editing policies for more detailed information on these tools.
    2. Rule
      These dropdown boxes are used to select the rules that will be used within this policy. For each row, select the rule you would like to apply to hours worked. This rule will be used to determine which hours should be modified by the Payroll and Billing adjustment types and amounts.
    3. Payroll Adjustment Type
      This option determines how the hours affected by this rule are modified for payroll modification.
      • Override replaces the hourly pay rate with the new value specified in the following column, Payroll Adjustment Amount
      • Add increases the hourly pay rate by the amount specified in the following column, Payroll Adjustment Amount
      • Multiply multiplies the hourly pay rate by the amount specified in the following column, Payroll Adjustment Amount
    4. Payroll Adjustment Amount
      This option specifies an amount by which the Payroll rate should be modified. This field accepts positive integers with decimals.
    5. Billing Adjustment Type #1
      This option determines how the hours affected by this rule are modified for the first Billing modification.
      • Override replaces the hourly billing rate with the new value specified in the following column, Billing Adjustment Amount #1
      • Add increases the hourly billing rate by the amount specified in the following column, Billing Adjustment Amount #1
      • Multiply multiplies the hourly billing rate by the amount specified in the following column, Billing Adjustment Amount #1
    6. Billing Adjustment Amount #1
      This option specifies an amount by which the first Billing rate should be modified. This field accepts positive integers with decimals.
    7. Billing Adjustment Type #2
      This option determines how the hours affected by this rule are modified for the first Billing modification.
      • Override replaces the hourly billing rate with the new value specified in the following column, Billing Adjustment Amount #2
      • Add increases the hourly billing rate by the amount specified in the following column, Billing Adjustment Amount #2
      • Multiply multiplies the hourly billing rate by the amount specified in the following column, Billing Adjustment Amount #2
    8. Billing Adjustment Amount #2
      This option specifies an amount by which the first Billing rate should be modified. This field accepts positive integers with decimals.
    9. Billing Adjustment Type #3
      This option determines how the hours affected by this rule are modified for the first Billing modification.
      • Override replaces the hourly billing rate with the new value specified in the following column, Billing Adjustment Amount #3
      • Add increases the hourly billing rate by the amount specified in the following column, Billing Adjustment Amount #3
      • Multiply multiplies the hourly billing rate by the amount specified in the following column, Billing Adjustment Amount #3
    10. Billing Adjustment Amount #3
      This option specifies an amount by which the first Billing rate should be modified. This field accepts positive integers with decimals.
  7. Please Note: Any rule that does not directly affect a pay or bill rate (i.e., an automatic rejection or an automatic accrual rule) must have an actual Adjustment Type and Adjustment Amount associated with that rule. Journyx recommends using either "Add 0" or "Multiply by 1" for these types of rules, as both operations will not affect the rates in question.
  8. Continue adding rules to the policy in question as needed, by repeating the steps above.
  9. Once all the required rules have been added to the policy in question, click the Save button at the bottom of the Create a Policy for Rates screen. The Create/Edit/Manage Rules and Policies screen will be displayed, including a green text message confirming the creation of the new policy.
You may cancel the Policy creation process at any time by clicking the Cancel button at the bottom of the Create a Policy for Rates screen. Clicking Cancel will return you to the Create/Edit/Manage Rules and Policies screen and about the policy you are currently creating.
Editing Policies
If you need to make changes to any existing Policies, they can be edited to change any of the following options: To modify the existing Policies, simply click the edit button to the right of the Policy in question. The Edit a Policy for Rates screen will be displayed, providing access to make changes to the above mentioned options. The Edit a Policy for Rates screen functions exactly the same as the Create Rate Policy screen as described above.

Editing the Order Of Rules Within A Policy
The first dropdown menu in the Edit a Policy for Rates screen provides access to a set of controls for changing the order in which rules are applied within a policy. Although the option to edit the order of rules is available during the initial policy creation process, it is most commonly used during policy editing. The possible order changes, and their effects, are:
Copying Policies
Timesheet provides the ability to copy an existing Policy to a new name. This functionality is most commonly used to create a set of similar Policies that have only minor differences by copying one Policy and then editing it to make the needed changes. To copy a Policy, perform the following steps:
  1. Click the Copy button to the right of the Policy in question on the Create/Edit/Manage Rules and Policies screen
    Timesheet will display the Copy a Policy to Create a new Policy screen. This screen will be used for the remainder of this process
  2. Enter a name for the new Policy
  3. Make any desired changes to the Policy
  4. Click the Save button
    Timesheet will display the Create/Edit/Manage Rules and Policies screen along with a green text message confirming the creation of a new Policy based on the previously existing Policy.
Deleting Policies
If you create a policy that you do not need, or a policy that needs such extensive editing that time would be saved by simply deleting it and starting over, Timesheet provides a method for removing policies from the system. To delete an existing policy, simply click the delete button to the right of the name of the policy in question. Timesheet will display a popup window asking you to confirm that you wish to delete the policy. If you wish to proceed, click OK in this window. To abort the deletion process, click the Cancel button. Please Note: If you attempt to delete a policy that is assigned to one or more users, you will receive the following red text error message:

The following user(s) have a reference to the Policy you are trying to delete. Please remove all references prior to deleting a Policy. Users: [ user login IDs ]

If the policy you are deleting is not currently assigned to one or more users, the Create/Edit/Manage Rules and Policies screen will refresh, displaying a green text message indicating that the rule in question has been successfully deleted.

Policies And Users

Once you have created rules and built policies out of those rules, each user who is subject to the effects of Policies should have a policy assigned to him. Each user can have exactly one policy assigned to him; therefore, policies should be designed and assigned with an eye towards the overall effect required by your organization. As stated before, the most common strategy for Policy assignment is to break your users into discreet categories based upon their employee type, i.e., full-time hourly, exempt (or salaried), contractors, and so forth.

Assigning Policies To Users

Policies are assigned to users via the Assign Policies to Users screen, which is available from the Policy Assignment link which is located under the Business Adjustments header on the main admin screen. The Assign Users to Policies screen will serve as the master control panel for assigning policies to users. This screen, like the User Entry and Modification and several other screens in Timesheet v5.5 lists up to 10 users at one time, as well as providing alphabet search buttons across the top of the screen. Additionally, you may search for users by entering a portion of their names in the Search for Employee Name field and clicking the Search button. Once you have reached the page that lists your desired users, you can begin the policy assignment process, which is outlined below.
  1. Select the user(s) to whom you will be assigning policies
    You may select specific users by clicking the box to the left of their names, or you may select all users displayed on this screen by clicking the Select All box.
  2. Select the policy you intend to assign to the selected users
    The Policy Selection dropdown menu, which contains all available policies, is located immediately to the right of the Assign Users to Policy button
  3. Click the Assign Users to Policy button
    The Assign Policies to Users screen will refresh, displaying a green text message confirming that the policy assignment process was successful for the selected users.
This screen may also be used to change the policy assigned to users. Simply select the user(s) in question, select the new policy and click the Assign Users to Policy button. Again, the screen will refresh, displaying a green text message confirming the change.

Rate Checking

After you have created policies and assigned them to your users, you will want to check the final results of the this process. Timesheet provides a simple interface for determining exactly how the policy assigned to each user affects the pay and bill rates for those users. The Rate Check link, which is located under the Business Adjustments header on the main admin screen, displays the Administrator's Rate Table Sanity Check screen. This screen provides an "at a glance" overview of the maximum and minimum for each user's pay rate as well as each of the three possible bill rates for those users.

This screen, like the Assign Users to Policies screen, lists up to 10 users at one time, as well as providing alphabet search buttons across the top of the screen. Additionally, you may search for users by entering a portion of their names in the Search for Employee Name field and clicking the Search button. Each page displays up to ten users along with the minimum and maximum for their pay rate and for each of their three possible bill rates. If a rate is shown as having a minimum of "-", check to see if an hourly dollar amount has been assigned for that rate for that use in the extra user fields portion of user modification. Without an actual hourly rate assigned for the user(s) in question, Timesheet cannot effectively determine what the minimum and maximum values are for each particular rate category.

If the rates displayed on the Administrator's Rate Table Sanity Check screen appear to be excessively high or low, you may need to modify any policies that are associated with users who are shown to have these suspect rates. Remember, modification of rates by policies is subject to standard mathematical rules as well as the order in which they appear in each policy. The Administrator's Rate Table Sanity Check screen indicates which policy is assigned to each user and provides a link to the Edit a Policy for Rates screen that targets the policy named. Please Note: If you click on the link for a user whose assigned policy is shown as -none- you will receive the following red text error message:

exceptions.IndexError
list index out of range

This message indicates that the user in question does not have a policy assigned to him and therefore you are unable to use this link to jump to the Edit a Policy for Rates screen. In this case, simply assign a policy to these user(s) via the Assign Policies to Users screen as discussed above.

Rate Reports

The Rates & Rules module is completed by the Rate Reports engine, which is available from the main admin screen via the Rate Reports link, located beneath the Expansion Modules Management header. For rate reports to display information, your organization must have the approvals process in place. Additionally, rate reports will only reflect data contained within timesheets that have been submitted for approval, i.e., time records contained within timesheets that are open for time entry will not appear in any rate report.

The primary control center for rate reports is the Manage Rate Reports screen. This screen is used to create, edit, copy, delete and run rate reports.

Initially, there is only one report, named Approval, listed in this screen. This report is directly associated with the Approvals process and is not available to view via the rate reports portion of Timesheet. This report can be modified to affect certain aspects of the display that approvers see when they are viewing a submitted timesheet. Please Note: The date range and user selection portions of this report are locked and changing them in the edit screen will not make actual modifications to the report.

Creating Rate Reports

To use the Rate Reports feature of Timesheet, you will need to create one or more viewable reports. Each Rate Report is composed of: The process of creating Rate Reports is outlined below:
  1. Click the Create a Rate Report button on the Manage Rate Reports screen
    Timesheet will display the Create Rate Report screen, which will be used for the remainder of this process.
  2. Enter a name for the new Rate Report
    This name should be unique and help to identify the rate report.
  3. Enter a description for the new Rate Report
    This field should be used to describe the rate report in more detail. Please Note: This field is limited to 252 characters.
  4. Select the Date Range for this report
    The possible date ranges for rate reports are:
  5. Define the Filter for this report. CTRL-click to select multiple items in each list.
    1. Select the user(s) whose data will be displayed in this report
      Please Note: Leaving this option blank is the same as selecting *All*
    2. Select the project(s) whose data will be displayed in this report
      Please Note: Leaving this option blank is the same as selecting *All*
    3. Select the task(s) whose data will be displayed in this report
      Please Note: Leaving this option blank is the same as selecting *All*
    4. Select the pay type(s) whose data will be displayed in this report
      Please Note: Leaving this option blank is the same as selecting *All*
    5. Select the bill type(s) whose data will be displayed in this report
      Please Note: Leaving this option blank is the same as selecting *All*
  6. Define the Grouping Rules for this report
    Select the primary, secondary and tertiary groupings for this report. The secondary and tertiary groupings are optional. The possible groupings options are: User; Project; Task; Pay Type; Bill Type; Year; Month; Week; Day; Rule. Please Note: No two groupings can be set to the same option. If you have set two grouping options to the same value, you will receive the following red text error message when you attempt to save this report:
    The Grouping Selections for Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary can not be the same. Please change. Thanks!
  7. Define the Content Rules for this report
    Select which rate categories are to be displayed in this report. The rate categories are available for display are: Pay Rate; Bill Rate #1; Bill Rate #2; Bill Rate #3.
  8. Define the Configuration rules for this report
    1. Select which day of the week should be used as the start day for this report
    2. Select the category of timesheet that should be included in this report
  9. Click the Save button
    Timesheet will return to the Manage Rate Reports screen and display a green text message confirming the creation of the new report.

Editing Rate Reports

If you need to make changes to any existing rate reports, they can be edited to change any of the following options: To modify the existing rate reports, simply click the edit button to the right of the rate report in question. The Edit Rate Report screen will be displayed, providing access to make changes to the above mentioned options. The Edit Rate Report screen functions exactly the same as the Create Rate Report screen as described above.

Copying Rate Reports

Timesheet provides the ability to copy an existing rate report to a new name. This functionality is most commonly used to create a set of similar reports that have only minor differences by copying one report and then editing it to make the needed changes. To copy a rate report, perform the following steps:
  1. Click the Copy button to the right of the rate report in question on the Manage Rate Reports screen
    Timesheet will display the Copy a Rate Report to make a new Rate Report screen. This screen will be used for the remainder of this process
  2. Enter a name for the new rate report
  3. Make any desired changes to the rate report
  4. Click the Save button
    Timesheet will display the Manage Rate Reports screen along with a green text message confirming the creation of a new rate report based on the previously existing rate report.

Deleting Rate Reports

If you create a rate report that you do not need, or a rate report that needs such extensive editing that time would be saved by simply deleting it and starting over, Timesheet provides a method for removing rate reports from the system. To delete an existing rate report, simply click the delete button to the right of the name of the rate report in question. Timesheet will display a popup window asking you to confirm that you wish to delete the rate report. If you wish to proceed, click OK in this window. To abort the deletion process, click the Cancel button. The Manage Rate Reports screen will refresh, displaying a green text message indicating that the rate report in question has been successfully deleted.

Running Rate Reports

You can run an existing rate report simply by clicking the Run button to the right of each report listed on the Manage Rate Reports screen. If the report you are viewing is designed in such a way that there are no records that meet its parameters, Timesheet will display a screen indicating that this is the case. This screen will provide a Back button that will return you to the Manage Rate Reports screen.