Timesheet Export Options

The Timesheet Export Options page allows you to configure how time sheet data is exported. You can enable and define multiple export configurations, which is useful if you need to export to more than one system, for example payroll and billing. The following options are provided:

Options

Description

Name

You can name the export, which is useful if you have more than one defined export. For example you might name one 'Payroll' and the other 'Billing'. The name can be up to 80 characters in length.

Description

A description of the export configuration, up to 255 characters.

Enabled

If checked then this export will show up in the list of available exports in the Timesheets and Approvals tabs.

Clip to Date Range

Check this option to clip time entries to the selected date range when exporting. This option is useful if you are exporting time entries for time periods different than the timesheet period. You would want to check this option, for instance, if timesheets have weekly periods but you export to payroll semimonthly.

Exported Fields

Select the data fields to export, as well as their order. This option is useful if you need to integrate data with external systems such as payroll processing, etc. For example, SurePayroll systems require the following 6 fields in this order:

TimeEntry.Date

Employee.ID

Employee.Last Name

Employee.First Name

Pay Code.ID

TimeEntry.Hours

You can create a customized export fields by adding Expression Fields. See the Expression Fields help topic for more information.

Custom Header

For some external systems you may want a special header at the beginning of the export file, rather than the standard list of field names. For example, SurePayroll systems require the following two lines at the start of the file:

00001

Pay Code Rollup

Normally a timesheet export will have one record in the export file for each time entry on an employee's timesheet. You can use the following Pay Code Rollup options to modify this:

Rollup time entries by pay code:

This option will summarize or total the hours by pay code for each employee timesheet. For instance, let's suppose employee Jeff worked 4 days of regular time and 1 day of vacation, and had 5 time entries on his timesheet. The export file would show only two rows for Jeff:

Jeff, RT, 32.00

Jeff, Vacation, 8.00

As you can see above, the 5 time entries have been rolled up or summarized into two rows. If Jeff had worked on only one pay code in the week then there would only be one row in the export file for him. If Jeff had worked on 3 pay codes in the week then there would be 3 rows in the export file for him.

Split time entries by pay code:

This option will split a time entry into multiple rows if there is more than one pay code value for the time entry. For instance, let's suppose Jeff had worked 41 hours in the week, with 9 hours on Friday (8 regular time and 1 overtime). He had 5 time entries on his timesheet. The export file would show 6 rows:

Jeff, Mon, RT, 8.00

Jeff, Tue, RT, 8.00

Jeff, Wed, RT, 8.00

Jeff, Thu, RT, 8.00

Jeff, Fri, RT, 8.00

Jeff, Fri, OT, 1.00

As you can see above, the Friday time entry has been split into two records in the export file, for a total of 6 records for Jeff.

Date Format

Select the date format you want to use for exported date and date-time fields. The following characters specify how the dates are formatted:

d	Day in month. Use dd to always output a two-digit day of month, e.g. "01".
M	Month. Use MM to always output a two-digit month, e.g. "01".
y	Year. Use yy to always output a two digit year, e.g. "14". Use yyyy to always output a 4 digit year, e.g. "2014".

Time Format

Select the time format you want to use for exported time and date-time fields. The following characters specify how the times are formatted:

h	Hour in day using 12 hour clock (1 - 12). Use hh to always output a two-digit hour, e.g. "01".
H	Hour in day using 24-hour clock (0 - 23). Use HH to always output a two digit hour, e.g. "01".
m	Minute in hour. Use mm to always output a two-digit minute, e.g. "01".
a	A.M. or P.M.

Timesheet Export Schedule

You can automate timesheet exporting using the timesheet export scheduling feature. This allows you to export timesheets to a file on the server (or network drive) where Pacific Timesheet is installed (self-hosted only), or to an FTP server. The following options are provided:

Options

Description

Schedule Enabled

Check this option to enable scheduled timesheet exporting.

Schedule

The schedule or frequency for timesheet exporting. The time period can be any created in the System > General > Time Periods page. To specify the exact time within the time period when the export occurs you specify an offset (in hours:minutes) from the start or end of the time period. For instance, if you want to export timesheets at 4:30 PM (16:30) on the last day of the time period, you would specify "7:30 hh:mm before the period ends".

Next Run

As you modify the schedule, this property will update to show when the next export will occur.

Export To

You have several options for where you can send the export file:

Directory	The export file will be sent to a directory on the computer's local file system, e.g. "c:\exports" (self-hosted only).
FTP Server	The export file will be sent to a remote directory using the FTP protocol.
Web Directory	The export file will be sent to the customer's web directory, e.g. "https://someco.pacifictimesheet.com/customers/someco".

If you choose "FTP Server" the following properties must be configured by clicking the settings button that appears to the right of the menu:

FTP Server

The host name or IP address of the FTP server.

The user account or login name for the FTP server.

Password

The password for the login, above.

FTP Directory

The directory where export files will be created, e.g. "/" or "/tmp". FTP server paths start with a forward slash, and backslashes are not valid. If blank, the root directory will be used, which is equivalent to "/".

FTP Port

The port number for the FTP server, where 21 is the default value for most FTP servers.

FTP Mode

Check this option to enable passive mode, which aids when transferring files through firewalls.

Security

If the FTP server has connection security enabled you will need to set the appropriate value here. Your options are:

None	No connection encryption
Implicit SSL	Implicit Secure Socket Layer encryption (FTPS)
Explicit SSL	Explicit Secure Socket Layer encryption, also known as (FTPES)

Directory

The directory on the computer or FTP server where the export file will be created. If the "Export To" property is set to "Directory" then this is the file path to the directory where the export file will be created, e.g. "/tmp", "c:\exports" or "\\morpheus\\c\exports". The path must be valid for the server that Pacific Timesheet is installed on.

If the "Export To" property is set to "FTP" then this is the directory on the FTP server where you want the export file created, e.g. "/" or "/tmp". FTP server paths start with a forward slash, and backslashes are not valid.

File Name

The name of the export file, e.g. "timesheets-for-payroll". The "Append timestamp" option will add the date and time of the export to the file name, e.g. "timesheets-for-payroll.200908150831". Note that the file extension will automatically be added when the export file is created, based on the Format property, described below. For CSV format, the file extension ".csv" will be added to the file name. For MS Excel format, the file extension ".xls" will be added to the file name.

Format

The format of the export file, either comma-separated-values (CSV) or Microsoft Excel (XLS).

File Encryption

You can optionally encrypt the export file using PGP (Pretty Good Privacy). If you choose this option you need to specify the following options:

Encryption Key	The public encryption key to use when encrypting the export file. Click the settings button to the right of the menu to import and manage your encryption keys. An encryption key is required.
Armor	Check this option to output the encrypted file in armored ASCII format, rather than binary format. The file will have the '.asc' file extension appended to it.

When the file encryption is set to PGP the export file will have the '.pgp' file extension appended to the file name. If the armor option is selected then the file will also have the '.asc' extension added to it, so the export file will end in '.pgp.asc'.

Time Period

The time period to use when searching for timesheets to export. For example, you might schedule the export to occur weekly, but want to export the previous week's timesheets.

Status

Select a value if you want to only export timesheets with a particular status, such as submitted or approved.

Group

Select a value if you want to only export timesheets for employees in a particular group.

Export Status

Select a value if you want to only export time entries that are either unexported or exported. Time entries are only marked as exported if the "Mark as Exported" option is selected (described below).

Mark as Exported

Checking this option will mark each exported time entry as having been exported. This works in conjunction with the "Export Status" filter option, described above.