The time recording allows the control, evaluation and management of working time bookings of your personnel.

Summary

What do I use the time recording for?

The time recording module gives you access to your personnels working time bookings and evaluates them based on various criteria. Furthermore, you have the opportunity to view the history of existing bookings, can add, correct and delete time bookings. Under the tab cost centers you have an overview of all current active cost centers of your company as well as the totals of the booked times, grouped by activities.

Users who have enabled the time recording on their displays can make time bookings. In addition, the user also has the option to assign a new booking to an existing cost center or, if desired, to create a new cost center.

General basics of the module

To any time booking belongs always an activity that on the one hand fundamentally describes whether a time booking is part of working hours and on the other hand, a way to group time bookings. A time booking can also be assigned to a cost center. The duration of an activity is the time between this and another activity. In other words, each activity ends the previous activity. The standard activity "Go" or "End of work" ends the current activity and automatically starts a break or rest period.

Requirements

Access to the time recording module can be booked as an option. From this point of time on you can grant access to time recording to each of your users.

Functions of time recording

Bookings

The booking overview allows a check or evaluation of the working hours of all persons with time bookings. After selecting a person, evaluation of the last month is displayed.

Using the button for switching the type of data presentation  , you can switch between the calendar view and shift-based processing of the data.

From the views, it is also possible to display the detailed bookings of a period. Such a period can be either a single day, a week or even the entire selected period in the calendar view. In the evaluation by shift days, the possible periods are either a single shift or the entire period.

The detail view is again subdivided into 3 ways of representation. First, a purely tabular edition with the exactly booked times. This table can also be displayed in a graphic evaluation. Here, the individual time bookings are entered on a bar per day. The colors in the graphical representation correspond to the color of the activity assigned to each time booking. The third possible view is the editor, in which it is possible to change, delete or create new bookings. In the Editor view, a change history is displayed for each booking day, if any.

From every view a export to PDF, Excel or CSV file is possible. The content of the files depends on the data currently displayed.

Schaltflächen:
	Reload	Reloads the current view

Bulk actions

You can use the selection boxes in the 1st column of the calendar evaluations to select several entries for a bulk action.
The addition of bookings is currently available as a bulk action.
If at least one entry has been selected, an action menu appears on the right above the table, which you can use to add one or more bookings for all selected days.
If there are already bookings on the selected days, you can choose from 3 options in the subsequent dialog:

• Ignore: No new bookings will be created on days with existing bookings.
• Overwrite: All existing bookings will be deleted on these days.
• Insert: The new bookings are saved in addition to the existing bookings

Cost centers

The cost center overview allows a quick evaluation of all active cost centers of the company. Each cost center is displayed in the overview with its own tile.

The basic structure of each cost center tile is the same, however, depending on the set parameters, there are different representations of this structure. If a planned duration has been defined for a cost center, a progress bar is displayed next to the account name in the tile. The same behavior exists for the individual activities that were booked to a cost center. If a planned duration defined for an activity within a cost center, a progress bar is displayed for this in the overview in the appropriate tile. These progress bars fill up with each successful time booking made to a cost center.

Via the action menu  you have the possibility to view the detail view of the booked activities for this cost center (more about this point under the item "display cost center bookings). You can also change the settings of a cost center that have already been made here. Among other things, you can set to allow only certain activities or persons for a cost center.
If you want to close a cost center so that no new bookings can be made, then you will find the corresponding function in the same action menu.

Schaltflächen:
	Reload	Reload cost center overview
	create new cost center	Opens the wizard. This takes you through all necessary steps to create a new cost center

Create new cost center

You will be guided through all necessary steps by an assistent to create a new cost center.

cost center basic data

In first step of the assistent you can set common data for your new cost center. Choose a description, an identification, the valid time range and a planned duration. Valid to and planned duration are optional and can be left empty. The planned duration can also be filled automatically during next step.

It is possible to finish the assistent after this step. All further data is optional.

activities

In next step you define activities which should be booked to this cost center. It is optional to set a duration for these activities. If you have chosen at least two activities, the total duration will be displayed. Select 'set planned duration to total duration' to adjust the planned duration from step 1 to the value of total duration. By clicking 'allow other activities' it is also possible to define wether only the set activities or also other activities should be able to book to your cost center.

If you have set a planned duration manually in step 1 and now assigned activities which total duration is longer than the planned duration, you will get a hint about that. Again you can decide if you want to adjust planned duration automatically.

To delete an activity click on  symbol behind the corresponding activity. You are also able to sort your activities. Click and hold the symbol and drag the actvity to the desired position to do so. This influences the order in which the activities will be shown in portal and on the displays of your personnel.

personnel

In third step you can assign personnel to your cost center. If you do not assign any persons, be default all personnel can book to this cost center. To choose a personnel, select an optional group first and afterwards the desired person. Choose 'all persons' if you want to add all persons of currently selected group.

To delete personnel, click on   symbol behind the person. If you have chosen at least two persons, you can also reset the entire assignment by clicking 'deselect all'.

done

With following step you finish creating the cost center. All your set data will be summarized.

Edit basic data

Change here the global data of a cost center. See cost center basic data.

Edit activities

Define here which activities can be booked within this cost center. See activities.

Edit personnel

If you only have certain people in your company who are allowed to book into a cost center, then here you have the option to define them. See personnel.

If this cost center was created or edited by another user, there might be personnel assigned on whom you do not have the necessary rights. These persons will be displayed as a number of anonymized persons. It is not possible to edit these assignments. Even if you click 'deselect all', these assignments will still remain.

Close cost center

Close a cost center by setting a new "valid to" date. This always corresponds to the current date and time.

Display cost center bookings

Gives you a tabular overview of all time bookings of a selected cost center. The default view automatically displays all postings of all persons involved over the entire period of the cost center.
The time entries of a cost center are displayed grouped according to activities and booking days. This structure of the overview table is the same for every cost center.

Schaltflächen:
	Back to cost center overview	Opens the cost center overview with all active cost centers
	Reload	Reload the cost center bookings overview
	Create new time booking	Opens a dialog to quickly create a booking for this cost center

Settings

Work time profiles

Every person in your organization is automatically linked to a default profile once time recording has been activated.

A working time profile specifies for a person e.g., how overtime is calculated, when a working time is considered night work or from when to when the core working time applies.

Each profile that you create or has been created always has a validity. For active, still valid profiles, the end date is either free (meaning infinitely valid) or it is in the future. Inactive profiles always have an end date that is in the past.

Overview

At the work time profile section, you will find an overview of all available profiles. You may display deleted profiles on your demand as well. At each profile you can see which personnel is currently assigned and which personnel might miss a valid assignment.

Via the action menu you can interact with the profiles. The following actions are available:

• Edit: Opens a dialog to change a specific working time profile
• Person assignment: Provides a direct way to assign a profile to multiple people at once
• Delete: Deactivates a profile by setting a new end date for validity
• Create new profile: Opens an editor mask to create a new work time profile

Edit profile

Work time profiles are a mighty tool with various settings. Many of these are optional. Decide by yourself which are relevant to you and your company.

Working times

First decide on the target working time on each day. By using compensated overtime, you can state that a small set overtime of the target time must not be counted as overtime.

In the export formats of time recording, you can add the value of the average working time by working rule, meaning over a legal time span, if you want to. Here you can change the value which is used as calculation base.

Rounding rule

You can use the rounding setting to specify the minute value to which the bookings should be rounded. If rounding is active, all report columns are calculated taking the set rounding into account. The detail view of the booking view remains unaffected by this rounding rule.

Below are some examples of bookings and their behavior with the different rounding settings:

average working time

With the setting calculation basis defines the calculation base for calculating the average working time according to working time regulation.

The Calculation of absence entries determines how entries such as "holiday" or "sick" are to be taken into account when calculating the average working time. With the option "Take account of absence entries neutrally", the absence times are included in the average according to the proportion and the daily TARGET working time. The other option "Ignore absence entries" ignores both the days and the credited working time of the absence entries when calculating the average values. This means that the underlying compensation period is reduced by the number of days of absence.

Break time rules

Each work time profile can have its own, self-defined, pause control record. This break rule is based on the German Working Hours Act for each new working time profile by default. You can deposit up to 3 different break levels.

By default, the breaks are according to ArbZG:

• from 6 hours working = 30 minutes break
• from 9 hours = 45 minutes break

Only breaks that are at least 15 minutes long are considered. You can change this value by adjusting the setting "break threshold" in the working time profile.

Changes to the break regulation always influence the following 2 evaluation columns: Working time according to work time profile (formerly shift working time according to ArbZG) and break time according to work time profile (earlier break in shift according to ArbZG).

Custom columns

Time recording offers a lot of different calculated values. Sometimes it still might be needed to define a custom calculation formula to represent your internal processes as good as possible. To do so you can use custom columns. These can be displayed in all export formats if you activated them at the table configuration.

Click on “create new column” to start the configuration. Choose a name first – it will be used as the column identifier at the export tables. Now you can create the formula for your new column. You must decide on a base value which should be used. Click on the grey circle to do so and choose first if your new value shall be added or subtracted. Afterwards choose the value itself. There are multiple types of values available:

• time recording data: These are the values of columns which were already defined by YellowFox.
• custom column: If this is not your first custom column, you can reference another custom column.
• extra time span: You can use your self-defined time spans as well. The shift duration in respect of the time span will be used.
• fixed value: You might also add a fixed minute value. Might be useful to add preparation times by default.

After choosing a value you can now add conditions if needed:

• minimum: If the value of this part of the formula will fall below the set value, it can be adjusted automatically. Might be useful to avoid negative values.
• Maximum: If the value of this part of the formula will rise above the set value, it can be adjusted automatically. Might be useful to restrict the maximum day value to 24 hours.
• Does not apply to absences: Absences are handled as an own shift at YellowFox. If you have activated this option, you could e.g. avoid adding preparation times to absence shifts.

Finish adjusting the value by clicking on accept. The editor mask will close. To delete or re-edit a value, click on it at your formula. You can add as many parts to your formula as you want to.

flex time

Flex time account states how much more or less in comparison to the target working time has been worked. To calculate this difference, you can decide on a value to use as calculation base.

By default, the flex time account will be reset at the turn of the year. Set if and at which day of the year to apply this rule.

The flex time account of a new co-worker starts at 0 by default. You might alter this value. You can also set if the flex time account should not be lower or higher than a set value.

Extra time spans

You can store up to 10 separate time spans in each work time profile. These are then offered as an extension to the columns "shift time" and "booked work". If you are creating a time span for the first time, then you must adjust the desired table configuration in the "Bookings" area to show the new column. The newly created time periods are not visible in reports by default.

You can also define conditions under which the time span is activated. These can be:

• Shift start before XX: XX o'clock: This span is only used if the corresponding shift started before the selected time.
• Minimum working time within more than XXX minutes: This time span is only used if the working duration of the person is equal or higher than the specified value.
• only active on the following days: This span is only shown on the specified days of the week. It is also possible to specify whether this span is valid on a holiday.
• subtract the following time span: It is possible to subtract another time span. If both were active on a day, the value will calculated by subtracting the value of the selected other time span.

It is possible to activate multiple conditions at the same time. Please note, that all conditions must be met to take the time span into calculation (AND operation).

Activities

All usable activities of a company are presented in an overview table.
Here you have the possibility to change existing activities, to delete or to create new activities. Each  

You can also use the action menu in the list to specify the personnel assignment for each individual activity.
Each activity always consists of a name and the setting whether or not it counts as working time.

By default, there is no personnel restriction for activities, so all persons can use any activity. The standard activity "Walk" is always available for all persons. Personnel restrictions are not possible for this activity.

In . In addition, it is optionally possible to specify a color for an activity.  This This is used in various reports and graphical overviews.

Persons

For the overview of the personnel, you can specify which table columns should be displayed in which order.

Labels

Certain labels of time recording can be adapted globally for a company to its own requirements.
Each label will be replaced immediately after a change in all places. Already created reports are not changed.

Absence management

In absence management you can create user-defined absence reasons and manage them.

To create a new absence reason, please select add another absence reason. You are now able to define your new absence reason by a description, a shortcut and a color. To change these settings for an existing absence reason, open the action menu in the action column and click on edit. Please notice that this also effects absence bookings that were done in the past. To delete an absence reason, click on delete in the action menu.

Wage export

The portal offers you the possibility to export your time recording bookings in different formats, so you can import them later on to a suitable payroll accounting program. YellowFox supports the following formats:

• DATEV LuG (Lohn und Gehalt)
• DATEV LODAS
• Sage
• Lexware
• BRZ
• BauSU

To be able to export data, first you have to create a configuration for the desired format. This is done at this part of settings.

First you have to choose the desired format at format. Next you have to enter the needed numbers. Depending on which format you picked, different fields are mandatory. For Lexware you do not have to enter either a mandate ID nor a consultant ID. Sage and BRZ needs a mandate ID. DATEV LuG and DATEV LODAS both need both numbers.
For the BauSU format, you can store a wage type number for each time recording activity.

For the formats DATEV LuG (Lohn und Gehalt), DATEV LODAS, Sage, Lexware and BRZ:
At least one wage type number must be specified for the working time in order to create the configuration.
Entering a wage type number for any absence is optional. Please notice though, that only bookings which have a valid wage type number will be exported later on. Furthermore you can only export persons, who have a personnel number registered in the personnel management.

Wage type IDs for deleted absences are still stored. Nevertheless you are not able to edit them after deleting the respective absence reason.

To delete a configuration click on reset configuration. Alternatively you can also empty all fields by yourself and click on save. To dismiss all changes in the current session, click on cancel. You will return to the last save state.

Required fields

Note: The employee/personnel number can be set separately for each person via the personnel management page.

Time export

It is possible to export the time recording bookings in various formats for third-party programs.
For this, however, it is necessary that a correct configuration of the respective export format is available. Depending on the format, there are certain mandatory (required) fields that must be available, otherwise no or incorrect data will be exported.

Required fields

Note: The card number can be set separately for each person via the personnel management page.