Project Server 2010 Timesheet - Project level only

[remeng]

Hello all!

I have been asked to make sure that the Timesheet is only going to display the Project Name level and not the task level. I have gone into the Server Settings page, clicked on

Timesheet Settings and Defaults

Set Default Timesheet Creation Mode to Current Projects.


Is there something I missed because it is still showing the tasks under the projects. The manager doesn't want to see that much detail, just what the overall time spent on a project per day is.

Thanks,

Mike

PS: He also only wants the project engineers to see and edit the project level work they are doing instead of the individual task level.

 

[JulieInMaine]

Also posted to:

http://social.technet.microsoft.com...-server-2010-timesheets-at-project-level-only

 

[remeng]

Thanks Julie,

That's actually my post over there

 

[JulieInMaine]

Yes, I know. That is why I posted the link to your other post - so people seeing this post could follow the conversation on the other forum.

 

[remeng]

Here is the solution:

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First, if you made the timesheet configuration changes and still see the tasks on the timesheet, try deleting the timesheet and re-creating it.

Second, more explanation of progress tracking versus time tracking in Project Server...

There are two mechanisms available in Project Server -- progress tracking and time tracking -- that are related, but have two very different purposes and two different audiences:

Progress Tracking: the mechanism for the Project Managers to communicate task assignments to project team members via the PWA 'Tasks' page, allow them to submit their progress updates against those assignments, approve the updates, and use them to automatically update the project schedule to reflect the most recent progress made by the team.
Time Tracking: the mechanism for the functional managers or the financial folks to capture how much actual work effort people spend on project activities and non-project activities via the PWA 'Timesheet' page.

When you configure Project Server, you can chose to use either, both, or neither of these mechanisms, depending upon your specific needs. Here are the options:

Progress Tracking ENABLED, Time Tracking DISABLED: project team members view and update progress against their task assignments, and this information is used to automatically update project progress. Time tracking is not performed in Project Server, either because it is not important to track people's actual work effort, or because it is tracked in separate tool.
Progress Tracking DISABLED, Time Tracking ENABLED: project team members complete periodic timesheets to track the actual work effort that they spend on project and non-project activities, but they do not submit task progress updates to the Project Managers for schedule updating. Instead, the PMs may manually gather the status information from the team members (written, verbally, etc.) and manually update the progress directly in their project schedules.
Progress Tracking ENABLED, Time Tracking ENABLED: project team members complete periodic timesheets to track the actual work effort that they spend on project and non-project activities, and they also update progress against their task assignments, which is approved and used by the PMs to update project progress.
Progress Tracking DISABLED, Time Tracking DISABLED: project team members do not update progress against their assigned tasks or submit periodic timesheets with their actual work effort spent on project and non-project activities. The PMs must capture progress information manually and update their project schedules manually, and time is not captured or it is done in a separate tool.

Having said all of this, let's explore the third option (Progress Tracking ENABLED, Time Tracking ENABLED) a bit further...

When you enable both mechanisms and ask team members to use both of them, it may seem as though team members are being asked to visit two different areas of PWA and enter essentially very similar information twice. This is why the folks at Microsoft added a feature called 'Single Entry Mode' to Project Server. With this feature enabled, project team members do not need to visit the PWA 'Tasks' page to view and update progress on their task assignments, then visit the PWA 'Timesheet' page to submit the actual work effort that they spent on those same activities.

Instead, team members can simply visit the PWA 'Timesheet' page, view the tasks to which they are assigned during that period, enter their actual work hours, update their estimate of remaining work hours, and submit. The actual work data and remaining work data are both sent to the PM to indicate the progress that they made on the task, and the information is combined with the other actual work effort on other activities to comprise the entire timesheet package that is typically sent to their functional manager.

This, however, assumes that you want people to enter actual work hours at the detailed task level into their timesheets.

If, instead, you want to track via the timesheets the total work that people spend on a project -- rather than how many hours they spend on each detailed task -- then you must disable the 'Single Entry Mode' feature. If someone enters information into their timesheet stating "I worked 20 hours on this project this week" without indicating how many of those hours were spend on each individual task, it is impossible for Project Server to determine which detailed tasks in the project should receive those actual work hours for progress tracking purposes. Therefore, one of two things will need to happen:

Project team members will need to visit the PWA 'Tasks' page separately to enter the progress that they made against their assigned tasks, or...
The PM will need to use another method (e-mail, phone calls, status meetings, etc.) to gather the task progress information from the assigned team members and manually update the progress directly in the Microsoft Project schedule.

Hopefully this has shed some light on how these mechanisms work in Project Server, and it has helped you to understand how to more effectively use the tools that you have available to you.

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What a great explanation. Here is what my manager is looking for as a result:

1) The project engineer uploads their project timeline with assigned tasks

2) The person that has the tasks assigned to them in the project goes to the Timesheet page and enters in the hours that they work that week at the project level and not the task level.

3) The manager and project engineer can then see the total time spent on each project so that they can create a report (manually if needed).

I think that it would be the Progress Tracking Disabled and Time Tracker Enabled.

I do need the project level only in the Timesheet page so I disabled the Single Entry Mode checkbox, however I am still seeing the task level. What did I miss?

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After you have disabled 'Single Entry Mode' and set the timesheet options to only display projects on people's timesheets (with no task detail), be sure to delete the timesheet and re-create it. You may also need to open each project and re-publish it. This is why it is best to do your homework and make these configuration decisions before people start using the system. ;-)