Time Card

Overview

Time Card is the simplest and easiest way to enter your time in BQE CORE on a daily or weekly basis for various periods. It requires a minimal amount of data entry and allows you to reuse the commonly performed activities on various projects besides saving entries automatically. You can customize the date range of your time card so as to match and sync your time card with your payroll period. Besides this, you can add memos and view entry details on it, see the workflow status (submit-approve indicators), billed status, and memo on the grid, and do much more. If you use time card regularly, you must familiarize yourself with the icons used to indicate different workflow status, billable status, and locked status (some entries show a locked status because they are being invoiced) in CORE. 

Icon	Status
	Submitted
	Approved
	Billed
	Forwarded
	Rejected
	Locked

Time Card attempts to duplicate a real-time sheet with its grid-like layout and comes in two views: 

• Week 
• Day

You can set the Time Card to pre-fill the grid with the last used projects-activities or allocated tasks to speed up the time entry process, besides setting up incomplete time card reminders for yourself. This can be done in User Settings. You can also view your task allocation summary on this screen to keep track of allocated hours used and remaining. CORE allows you to copy the entire time card to the next week or day. Click to watch this video on time entry in CORE.

Field Descriptions

How To

Enter Time in Week View

Enter Time in Day View

Remove Recent Activities Rows

Submit Time Card

Approve Time Card

Copy Time Card

Show/Hide Columns in Grid

Group by Projects

Show/Hide Entry Details

Add Memos

View Reports

Send Time Card for eSign

Set Preferences

Apply Filters

Mark Screen as Favorite

Field Descriptions

Field Name	Field Description
Time Card >
Dates	The dates and days displayed on the grid depend on your selection of the week/day option above and period from the drop-down. This way the date range of your time card can match and sync with your payroll period, say weekly, biweekly (two weeks), semi-monthly (half a month) or monthly.
Hours	Actual hours worked on a project. The same number of hours is automatically carried to the Client Hours field. If you export CORE data to a payroll system, these actual hours are used as the basis for payroll or job cost reports.
Period Total	The Total column on the Week view shows the total hours (per project-activity line and all together) of all time entered for the selected period, say biweekly or monthly. The Period Total row shows the total hours entered per day for various projects-activities. The Unsubmitted Period Total shows a sum of rejected hours.
L Code	The legal industry has a set of uniform task-based codes Litigation Codes (L-Codes) that is used in coding time for billing purposes. You can select the L-Code for each time entry corresponding to its activity. These codes can be used for mapping purposes when exporting the invoices to LEDES. This is available only for the legal industry type.
Load More Recent Activities	This option displays 10 more rows of recently-used projects and activities on the Time Card grid. These rows are in addition to the number you have specified in the setting Auto-create Time Card activities based on your recent activities with the time entries in User Settings > Time Settings. You can add up to a total of 100 rows for quick access to your recent activities. Note: This option is available in Time Card even if you do not specify anything in the Auto-create... setting.
Time Card > Entry Details >
Memo	You can add a memo for the time entry, especially if it is required. CORE pre-fills it with the associated activity memo, if available.
Billable	The time entry is billable if it is to billed to the client. The status of the time entry is determined by the activity selected for it, but it can be changed here. It displays as NB in the time card cell, if non-billable.
Extra	Any time worked beyond that specified in the contract. It is billable, but not deducted from the contract amount when a project is evaluated as over or under budget, unless specified in the billing schedule. It is in addition to the contract amount. Time entered and flagged as extra creates an exception to the Automatic Evaluation rule. When marked as extra, the billable value is not evaluated against the project's contract amount. It displays as EX in the time card cell.
Overtime	It is the extra time worked on a project exceeding the daily or weekly Standard Hours. Overtime entries have their OT flag checked. According to FLSA, overtime is any time worked beyond 40 hours in a workweek. It displays as OT in the time card cell.
Comp Time	Extra time worked that is banked and then used in the future. Comp time entries have their comp time flag checked. It displays as CT in the time card cell.
Time Card > Submit Period
Submit To	You can submit time entries to your manager or a specific person from the list.
Resource	This can be an employee or a vendor (contract employee or outside consultant). This option is available only if you choose Submit To: Specific.
Type	This represents the type of workflow assigned to the submitted time entries, depending on the purpose of the submission. Billing and Payroll: if time entries are submitted for the purpose of billing the client as well as including them in the payroll of the employee. This option is selected by default. Billing: if time entries are submitted only for the purpose of billing the client Payroll: if time entries are submitted only for the payroll of the employee

Enter Time in Week View

When you open the Time Card screen, you are defaulted to your ID in the Show fields with the current week pre-filtered. It maintains the order of entries when changing the week after updating the time card.  You can enter time in the week view for various periods: weekly, biweekly, semi-monthly and monthly. 

To enter time using the Week view, watch this video or follow these steps:

1. Open the Time Card screen from the side menu > Time & Expenses.  
   
   
   
   
2. If you are a regular Time & Expense user, your Show option is pre-selected to Employee; otherwise, first select the Show option (Employee or Vendor) and then move on. 
3. Select Week on the top-right to enter time in the week view.
4. Under Period, choose the relevant period for entering time on the grid. The dates are displayed accordingly, obeying your beginning of the week settings from Settings > Company > Work Time. Check Field Descriptions above for details.
5. Enter the required information in the top row of the grid and click Done to save the time entry. Check Field Descriptions above for details.
   • Project
   • Activity
   • Description
   • Hours: actual hours worked on a project
6. If you want to add another activity, click + to add a new row under the selected project. This way you can save time in adding a new row and remembering the project name, etc.
7. You can move from one week to another by clicking the left/right arrows and also view the Period Total on the right side according to the period selected. Check Field Descriptions above for details.
8. Click the Hide empty rows toggle to hide activities or rows with no time entries. Disabling this button displays all activities within the selected period, regardless of whether they have time entries. The hidden activities are not deleted, but temporarily removed from display. By default, this button is disabled. 
   Note: To use this toggle button, ensure you have Auto-create Time Card activities based on your recent activities option checked in User Settings > Time Settings panel.
9. Click Load More Recent Activities to display recently used projects and activities on the Time Card grid. CORE notifies you when there are no additional activities available for loading. Check Field Descriptions above for details.
10. You can view the status of entries by selecting the relevant option in Subtotals:
    • None
    • Entry Details: check the hours that are marked as non-billable, extra, comp time, and overtime.
    • Workflow Status: check the unsubmitted, submitted, approved, and billed time. Do note that when a time entry is rejected, the Unsubmitted subtotal updates dynamically to show rejected hours for the submitted entry. Also, when a time entry is unapproved, it no longer appears in the Approved workflow subtotal, but instead displays in the subtotal of the Submitted workflow status. 
11. Click on the subtotals filter of your choice to show only those time entries on the grid that match the filter. 

Note: You can see the date-time stamp of when the time entries are created. It displays there for some time and then disappears from the screen.  

You can view the weekly allocation summary on this screen to keep track of your allocated hours used and remaining. When an individual resource is allocated to an activity group, this dynamic allocation summary does not consider the activities that are part of the group for the used or spent value.

Note: In case of legal companies, you can also choose the relevant L-Code for your time entry. Check Field Descriptions above for details.

Enter Time in Day View

When you open the Time Card screen, you are defaulted to your ID in the Show fields with the current week pre-filtered and today's date pre-selected. The Day view allows you to select any day in the selected period to view and enter time for one day at a time. You can enter time in the day view for various periods: weekly, biweekly, semi-monthly and monthly. 

To enter time using the Day view, watch this video or follow these steps:

1. Open the Time Card screen from the side menu > Time & Expenses.
   
   
2. If you are a regular Time & Expense user, your Show option is pre-selected to Employee; otherwise, first select the Show option (Employee, or Vendor ) and then move on.
3. Select Day on the top-right to enter time in the day view.
4. Under Period, choose the relevant period for entering time on the grid. The dates are displayed accordingly, obeying your beginning of the week settings from Settings > Company > Work Time. Check Field Descriptions above for details.
5. From the given period, select the desired day-date for your entry.
6. Click Add and enter the required information in the top row of the grid. Check Field Descriptions above for details.
   • Project
   • Activity
   • Description
   • Hours: actual hours worked on a project
7. You can scroll horizontally to move from one day to another to enter time. Click Save.

Note: You can see the date-time stamp of when the time entries are created. It displays there for  some time  and then disappears from the screen.  

You can view the daily allocation summary on this screen to keep track of your allocated hours used and remaining. When an individual resource is allocated to an activity group, this dynamic allocation summary does not consider the activities that are part of the group for the used or spent value.

Note: In case of legal companies, you can also choose the relevant L-Code for your time entry. Check Field Descriptions above for details.

Remove Recent Activities Rows

CORE allows you to pre-fill the Time Card grid with recently worked on project-activities. This setting is specified in User Settings at the individual level. You can also load more of these activities by using the Load More Recent Activities option at the top of the grid. This list of recent activities is updated as you enter time on them. However, even if you enter time on these activities recently, you can remove them from the grid for any reason. You will be prompted when trying to remove rows with time entries in them.

To remove rows with recent activities in the Time Card grid:

1. Open the Time Card screen from the side menu > Time & Expenses.
   
   
   
   
2. In the Week view, select a row on the grid that you want to remove. 
3. Click the row-action menu and select Remove from my recent activities. It removes the selected row (with or without time entries) from the grid.

Submit Time Card

In case of email notifications, CORE allows managers to quickly approve or reject the workflow entries or items submitted by employees directly from the emails.

To submit a time card for approval, watch this video or follow these steps:

1. Open the Time Card screen from the side menu > Time & Expenses.
   
   
   
   
2. Select a view (Week or Day) and date. The relevant time entries are displayed on the grid.
3. In the Week view, click Show Status toggle from the More menu to see the status of time entries.
4. Select the time entries on the grid that you want to submit.
5. Click Actions > Workflow > Submit. In the Day view, you can do the same and select rows to submit. If you want to un-submit time for some reason, select those rows and click Actions > Workflow > Unsubmit instead. Alternatively, you can submit the entire time card by clicking Submit Time on the top-right of the screen. This automatically submits all time entries within the current period. You can also select time entries on the grid and click Submit Period.
6. On the Submit Time dialog, enter the required information. Check Field Descriptions above for details.
   • Submit To
   • Resource: This can be an employee or a vendor (contract employee or outside consultant). This option is available only if you choose Submit To: Specific.
   • Type:
     - Billing and Payroll
     - Billing
     - Payroll
   • Note
7. Click Submit.

Approve Time Card

As a part of the workflow, CORE allows you to approve the time entries submitted to you. Only billable and approved entries are available for billing even though CORE charges all entries against the budget or contract amount. Approving time entries prevents modification by any user with limited security permissions. You can also reject the submitted time entries for any reason. However, only submitted or forwarded time entries can be rejected, not the approved ones. In case of email notifications, CORE allows managers to quickly approve or reject the workflow entries or items submitted by employees directly from the emails.

Note: Company managers or owners might want their time entries to be approved automatically. You can select the auto-approve options for time and expense entries at the global level for all (Settings) or at the project level for selected projects.

To approve a time card, watch this video or follow these steps:

1. Open the Time Card screen from the side menu > Time & Expenses.
   
   
   
   
2. Select a view (Week or Day) and date. The relevant time entries are displayed on the grid.
3. In the Week view, click the Show Status toggle button from the More menu to see the status of time entries.
4. Select the time entries on the grid that you want to approve.
5. Click Actions > Workflow > Approve. In the Day view, you can do the same and select rows to approve. If you want to un-approve time for some reason, select those rows and click Actions > Workflow > Un-approve instead.
6. On the Approve Time dialog, enter a Memo, if needed, and click Approve.

Copy Time Card

CORE allows you to copy the time card from one day or week to another. It also allows you to copy selective or individual time entries to another date. This is a useful option when you are working on the same project and activities. However, this option is not available for semi-monthly and monthly periods.

To copy the time card, watch this video or follow these steps:

1. Open the Time Card screen from the side menu > Time & Expenses.
   
   
   
   
2. Select your Week or Day view from the top and then under Period, choose the relevant period for copying time. The dates are displayed accordingly, obeying your beginning of the week settings from Settings > Company > Work Time.
3. Click Actions > Copy From.
4. On the Copy From dialog, select the week/two weeks or dates whose time entries you want to copy to your current time card. CORE displays the total number of hours that exist in that source week/two weeks to allow you to decide if it is the right week.
5. Click Continue. The time entries fill up your time card.

Alternatively, you can also copy the selective time entries to another week or date. To do so:

1. On the Time Card, after choosing your period, select the time entries on the grid that you want to copy.
   
   
   
   
2. Click Actions > Copy To.
3. On the Copy To dialog, select the week/two weeks or day to which you want to copy the time entries.
   • Next Week: The next week is in reference to the current date and not the selected time card week.
   • Previous Week: The previous week is in reference to the current date and not the selected week.
   • Custom: date or week
4. Click Continue. The selected time entries fill up your time card for the selected period.

Note: CORE displays the total of hours that are already logged in the target week/two weeks to allow you to make any adjustments while copying time entries.

Show/Hide Columns in Grid

You can configure the fields or columns that appear on the grid. You can hide or show columns, and sort the order of columns according to your requirements.

To do so, watch this video or follow these steps:

1. Open the Time Card screen from the side menu > Time & Expenses.
   
   
   
   
2. Click More > Show/Hide Columns on the action bar. Select or un-select the column names in the drop-down list, say Client.
3. Next, click the column name you want to sort the data by, say Activity.
4. Click once for ascending order (A-Z) and twice for descending order (Z-A).

Note: You can resize the column widths on the grid and then reset them if needed (More > Reset Column Widths).

You can also check the detailed video on navigation and customizing grids in CORE.

Group by Project

CORE allows you to group time entry rows by projects so that you are able to enter time quickly for the same projects. This is a useful option that allows you to group projects and activities associated with these projects. By default, group by project is enabled. 

To group by project, follow these steps, watch this video or follow these steps:

1. Open the Time Card screen from the side menu > Time & Expenses.
   
   
   
   
2. Click More > Group by > Project on the action bar.

This groups the time entries by their projects. You can select Group by > None instead to view the time card without any grouping.

Show/Hide Entry Details

To view or hide the details associated with a time entry, watch this video or follow these steps:

1. Open the Time Card screen from the side menu > Time & Expenses.
   
   
   
   
2. In the Week view, click the More > Show Memo toggle button.
3. Then click any cell to enter your time and open the Memo dialog. 
4. Enter the required details. Check Field Descriptions above for details.
   • Memo: CORE pre-fills it with the associated activity memo, if available.
   • Billable
   • Overtime
   • Extra: any time worked beyond that specified in the contract
   • Comp Time: any banked time that is not regarded as overtime
5. Click Done to save the entry details.
6. The cell displays a memo icon when hours are entered even before the entry details are saved.  Make sure the Show Memo toggle is on. 

This does not apply to the Day view as you can view all the details on the grid itself. The Memo dialog also displays workflow status icons when the Show Status toggle is on. You can view these icons on the grid as well.

Add Memos

Depending on your chosen view, Week or Day, you can enter a memo In Time Card, especially if it is required to do so. CORE pre-fills it with the associated activity memo, if available. When a memo is required for a project, CORE highlights those entries and notifies you about those projects. Memos accept formatted text with html input and images. CORE also allows you to view pre-defined memos of activity and fee schedule service line items prior to saving an entry. 

To add a memo, watch this video or follow these steps:

1. Open the Time Card screen from the side menu > Time & Expenses.
   
   
   
   
2. Select Day or Week on the top-right and then enter your time. 
3. In the Week view, click a grid cell to open the Memo dialog. Make sure the Show Memo toggle is on. You can also use Ctrl + M to open the memo box. The cell displays a memo icon when hours are entered even before the entry details are saved. 
4. Enter a memo into the text box and apply formatting using the formatting toolbar.
5. Click the Tab key on your keyboard to save the memo and move to the next time entry. The time entry is saved automatically and the cell displays an icon to denote the appended memo. (You can hover on that cell anytime and click the icon to open the saved memo on the Memo dialog.) Click Done to save the memo and close the dialog. Click Cancel to close the dialog without saving the memo. This dialog also displays the workflow status icons when the Show Status toggle is on.
6. On the other hand, in the Day view, click on the Memo field in the data entry grid.
   
   
7. On the Enter Memo dialog, enter a memo and then close it by clicking X on the top-right.
8. Click Save.

View Reports

To view a report, watch this video or follow these steps:

1. Open the Time Card screen from the side menu > Time & Expenses.
   
   
   
   
2. In the list view, click More > View Reports.
3. Select a report from the Report List dialog. It opens in the viewer.
4. Preview the report and then choose to export or print it.

You can also check the detailed video on running and managing reports in CORE.

Send Time Card for eSign

You can send your time card and reports to your external clients, CORE employees or other contacts to be reviewed and signed electronically via DocuSign. For that, you must have first connected CORE to your company's DocuSign account via the Integrations screen. CORE automatically adds the signed documents to the Documents tab of the entity (record) as separate attachments.

To send a time card for eSignature, watch this video or follow these steps:

1. Open the Time Card screen from the side menu > Time & Expenses.
   
   
   
   
2. In the list view, click More > eSign. (This option is not available if your CORE account is not connected to a DocuSign account.)
3. On the Report List dialog, select the time card report you want to send for esigning. To include selective entries in the report, make sure you choose the relevant period and filters beforehand.
4. On the eSign - Email Details dialog, choose the To recipients or contacts to whom you want to send the time card via DocuSign.
   
   
   
   
5. You can review and customize the email message, if needed. It is pre-filled with the email details from the Integrations > DocuSign Settings screen.
6. At the bottom, select your Save Options. You can specify where you want to save the signed copy of the document, say Company (as a company document) or Specific Record (as a document of an individual record of a specific entity). CORE remembers this selected location for the next time a document of that type is sent out for eSignatures.
7. Click the relevant option:
   • Send: Clicking the ‘Send’ button sends the time card to all recipients. If multiple recipients are selected, each recipient receives a copy or version of the time card to sign.
   • Send with Preview: If you choose to preview the document before sending, you are redirected to the DocuSign editor embedded in a new CORE tab. From there you can make adjustments to the DocuSign document like adding, removing, and rearranging tags throughout the document.
8. CORE displays the progress bar and opens the time report in the Send for eSignature screen.
   
   
   
   
9. Here you can insert Standard Fields like Signature, Initials, Date Signed, Name, etc. into your document where needed.
10. You can take more actions on the document by selecting the relevant option from the Actions menu on the right.
11. Before sending, you can also preview the document by clicking Recipient Preview on the top-right. Else, click Continue to skip the preview.
12. Click Send to send the time report to the recipients.

The document is then received as an email by the recipients (your contacts), who can then review and sign it electronically. The recipients also receive an email when the action is completed by them. DocuSign informs us via email if the document was reviewed, accepted or declined by the recipients. The signed documents are saved in the specified location. You can also check the detailed video on sending data for eSign in CORE.

Set Preferences

You can set up time entry-related preferences in the User Settings screen.

To do so, watch this video or follow these steps:

1. Open the Time Card screen from the side menu > Time & Expenses.
2. In the list view, click Settings  on the top right.
3. On the User Settings > Time Settings panel, select the options you want for your Time Card under the Time settings.
   
   
   
   
4. Click Save to save the settings.

CORE automatically pre-fills the Time Card grid with the specific number of recently or last used projects and activities if you choose the option Auto-create Time Card activities based on your recent activities with the time entries. You can specify a number, say 10, 15...etc. in User Settings > Time Settings and the Time Card grid displays the same number of recently used projects and activities. Please note if you delete a row or a batch of rows that you have recently used in the Time Card screen, then these rows won't display in the grid if you have Auto-create Time Card activities based on your recent activities option checked. 

You can also choose to display Time Card activities based on tasks allocated to you. CORE suggests projects and activities while filling out your time card based on your task allocations for the selected period (including allocations to groups you are a part of). This helps in entering your time quickly without searching for projects and activities. The criterion for this is that any of the task allocation dates should fall within the selected period filter. 

Apply Filters

To view selective data on the grid, watch this video or follow these steps:

1. Open the Time Card from the side menu > Time & Expenses.
   
   
   
   
2. In the Week or Day view, click on the right.
3. On the Filters panel, select a filter from the drop-down and specify individual records or range.
4. Click Add Filters to specify more filters.
5. When you have finished, click Apply Filter. You can see selective data now.
6. In the grid view, you can remove the individual filters by clicking on each. To disable applied filters temporarily or remove all filters, click next to the Filters icon and select Disable Filters or Clear All, respectively.

You can also check the detailed video on applying filters in CORE.

Mark Screen as Favorite

You can mark or flag the most-often used and important screens in CORE as your favorites up to a maximum of ten. These favorite screens then display separately on the side menu under the Favorites list. You can manage all your favorite screens in CORE from User Settings.

To mark this screen as your favorite, watch this video or follow these steps:

1. Open the Time Card screen from the side menu > Time & Expenses.
   
   
   
   
2. In the list view, click on the top-right. 
3. You can access this screen from the side menu under Favorites.

You can also check the detailed video on marking screens as favorite in CORE.