TMW is a user interface that optimizes the recording and maintaining of time data for decentralized time administrators.
The role of a decentralized time administrator can be fulfilled by supervisors, shop forepersons, administrative assistants, or secretaries in their own departments on site. These groups of employees maintain time data for a number of other employees, in addition to their usual tasks.
The TMW user interface is designed to be easy to learn and user-friendly.
Task Areas and Views in TMW
TMW provides an integrated user interface to maintain time data and process time evaluation messages. The standard system includes the Time Data Maintenance and Message Processingtasks.
Using time data maintenance, your decentralized time administrators can enter, correct, or complete time data for the employees assigned to them.
The message processing function in the TMW provides time administrators with a comprehensive tool with which they can assess and process messages generated during time evaluation.
When processing messages, time administrators can toggle between the following views:
- Message-oriented view
- Employee-oriented view
The appropriate screen layout is provided for each of these tasks. These layouts can also be used as templates for your own customized layouts. The actual screen layouts and scope of functions displayed in the TMW can be modified in Customizing according to your company-specific requirements.
Note
Layout and Screen Areas in TMW
The animation shows the layout of the screen areas for the Time Data Maintenance task in the TMW. The basic structure of the Time Data Maintenance task is similar to the Message Processing task, and provides users with a consistent user experience.
The screen areas are as follows:
- Calendar:
- The Calendar is used to select the time period for which time data is to be entered.
- Employee List:
- The Employee List contains the employees assigned to the time administrator. Time administrators can select the employee or employees for whom they want to enter or change time data from this list.
- Info Area:
- The Info Area can be used to display additional information, such as details on master data or time accounts, for any selected employee.
- Time Data:
- In the Time Data area, time administrators enter and maintain time data using intuitive time data IDs such as "ILL" for illness or "LV" for leave.
- Details:
- The Details area can be used to enter any additional specifications (such as activity allocation specifications for an attendance) for time data, if required. A selection of tab pages appears on the screen related to the type of time data you enter; you can further specify your time entries on these tabs.
- Messages:
- The Messages area contains any messages or confirmations concerning the time data entered by time administrators. These messages can be informational, warnings, or error messages.
Customization of TMW for Time Administrators’ Tasks
Depending on the type of information and the scope of functions you require in your company, you can modify TMW to reflect the task-specific needs of your time administrators.
This is possible using profiles. Time administrators call the TMW using a profile that contains specifications for the scope of functions and the screen layout that will appear.
TMW Screen Areas – Calendar and Employee List
The calendar is used in the TMW to select the period for which time data is to be entered.
When you access the TMW, a period is automatically selected. You can define this default period in the profile settings when customizing the TMW.
The employee list displays the employees assigned to the time administrator according to the profile assigned to the time administrator. From the employee list, time administrators select the employees for whom they want to maintain or display data.
Depending on their profile settings, time administrators can be assigned several employee lists that they can toggle between.
The profiles serve the following purposes:
- The profile determines whether or not, and according to which selection criteria, time administrators can create, change, or delete their own lists.
- The profile used to access the TMW also determines how the employee list is displayed on the screen.
Additional information about your employees, such as the cost center, payroll area, and work schedule rule, may be available.
Time administrators can perform the following additional activities using the employee list:
- Display the employee list in a tree structure or without a hierarchy.
- Temporarily add employees for whom they are not usually responsible to the employee list.
Time Data Recording
The Time Data area enables time administrators to maintain all the time data for their employees without having to jump to different screens.
The following views are available for the Time Data area:
- Multi-Day view:
- Allows you to maintain several days of time data for one employee
- Multi-Person view:
- Allows you to maintain one day’s time data for several employees at one time
- One-Day view:
- Allows you to maintain time data for one specific day for one employee
- Team view:
- Allows you to maintain time data for several employees for a selected period
In the standard system, the following tab pages are included for the Multi-Day view:
- Time Events:
- You can maintain time data stored in the Time Events infotype (2011) on the Time Events tab page. The Time Events tab page is not available in the One-Day view, Multi-Person view, or the Team view.
- Time Data:
- You can maintain all other types of time data for all of the remaining time management infotypes on the Time Data tab page. The time data from the Time Events infotype (2011) is displayed in pairs on this tab page, however, they are only used for display purposes.
Time Data Recording: Day Dominants
Time data is entered using intuitive time data IDs. This significantly reduces the administrative work load of time administrators. For example, the time administrator can enter "ILL" to create an illness record. You define the actual time data IDs that can be used for specific or general time data in Customizing, based on the business requirements of your company.
Additional fields enable you to store additional information about the time data entered. The fields that are displayed are defined in the profile that is used.
The time data entered using time data IDs is stored in the following infotypes:
- Absences (2001)
- Attendances (2002)
- Substitutions (2003)
- Availability (2004)
- Attendance Quotas (2007)
- Employee Remuneration Info (2010)
- Time Events (2011)
- Time Transfer Specifications (2012)
In the Time Data area of the TMW, day dominants are used to represent the most important information that applies to each day. The focus is on the employee’s availability. Day dominants always represent information that applies to an entire day. They are available for use in the One-Day, Multi-Day, Multi-Person, and Team views.
If you collapse the time data for a specific day, only the dominant information for that day is displayed. If you expand the day’s data, all of the time data for the day in question is displayed. An additional blank line appears on the screen in which you can enter additional time data. In the Team view, you can enter data only in the time data ID line of the dominant.
Calendar Views
The Calendar view has the following features:
- It provides a graphical overview of a person’s time data (time entries and time events).
- You can choose between a daily, weekly, monthly, and annual calendar. The calendars provide you with a quick overview of a relatively large period.
- The use of colors for time data IDs enables you to quickly differentiate different types of time data.
- You can also maintain data in this view. The color-coded time data IDs are displayed in a bar to the left of the calendar. You can drag and drop them to the required days. You can also edit these further by copying and pasting them. For example, recurring attendances and absences are copied to the appropriate days.
Because they work in a similar way to PC applications such as Microsoft Outlook, the calendars are very easy to use.
Note
Calendar Views: Weekly Calendar
The weekly calendar represents a seven-day week. Users select the week they want to display or maintain in the calendar in the upper-left screen area.
The weekly calendar displays the date in the top row. The row also displays public holidays, taken from the holiday calendar assigned to the employee. The day dominant is displayed in the row below. It is defined as it is represented on the Time Data tab page. Then, the full-day records of the Attendances or Absences infotype are displayed. If there are no records, the planned working time is displayed.
The time data with clock times is displayed below that. They are displayed alongside the appropriate time in the calendar. The recorded clock time and the duration can also be displayed.
Features of the Weekly Calendar
The weekly calendar view has the following features:
- You can display time data and time events at the same time.
- To maintain time data, administrators can simply drag and drop the color-coded time data IDs from the list to the left of the calendar.
- To enter records of more than one day, you double-click the detail area. You can also drag and drop time entries to change their position.
- If you want to maintain a time entry more than once, you can use the copy and paste function. You can also use the Delete pushbutton to remove incorrect time entries.
- You can customize the appearance of the calendar views to suit your requirements. In addition, all users can maintain their personal settings. For example, users can define their own color scheme for each of the four views. The Settings pushbutton is to the left of the Day pushbutton.
The TMW calendar views also include the daily calendar. It contains the same functions as the weekly calendar, but focuses on one day to aid readability.
Calendar Views: Monthly Calendar
The monthly calendar provides an overview of an entire working month. As with the weekly calendar, you can select the period in the calendar to the upper left.
The calendar displays the weekdays horizontally and the calendar weeks vertically. The date is displayed in the box for the day. The current day is highlighted in bold. Public holidays are displayed here in place of the current date.
To prevent the display from becoming too cluttered, you can customize it so that the partial-day records are collapsed when they are displayed. To view further information for the day, select it by clicking it, and then switch to the weekly view or the day view.
Calendar Views: Annual Calendar
The annual calendar provides the broadest overview of your employee’s working times. You can view time data for an entire year at a glance.
You can check the shift pattern of the assigned work schedule and the vacation planning, and also maintain data such as a change in leave or an illness over a longer period of time. You can use the drag and drop and copy and paste functions in this view too. You can double-click to view details for time data.
Team View
The Team view is a list-oriented color display of a group of employees’ time data over a period of your choice. It provides an overview of the position and frequency of full-day and partial-day data for your entire team. The Team view is ideal for entering time data when you want a quick overview of full-day time data for your team.
If partial-day data is available for employees, you can display it by double-clicking the selection icon next to the dominant. This takes you to the One-Day view for the employee, where you can select the entry and branch to the detail view. To return to the Team view, double-click the Team View option.
You select the period you want to edit in the calendar. You can select the employees from the employee lists. You can also add employees to the team temporarily.
If you want to plan shifts and vacation for your team, the different colors of the time data IDs enable you to recognize at a glance the position and frequency of the different shifts, and detect any bottlenecks.
The Team view provides a quick overview of full-day and multiple-day time data for your entire team. To simplify the planning process, you can use a customer-specific Business Add-In (BAdI) to define additional rows and columns for the information you require. Examples of additional information to be displayed include the number of employees off sick, or a shift counter displaying the number of early, late, or night shifts.
Team View – Maintaining Time Data
The list-oriented Team view contains many familiar functions from PC applications, which enable you to process time data quickly and easily. You can enter time data for individual employees or an entire team.
You can customize particular colors for the time data IDs that are permitted in a profile for the Time Manager’s Workplace. You can also have IDs representing similar business situations displayed in the same color or a similar color so that time administrators can analyze an employee’s time data at a glance.
In addition to the color aid, the ID itself is also displayed in the field to indicate the exact nature of a time entry. The color IDs are listed in a key in a column next to the calendar view.
In the Team view, you can enter data only in the time data ID line of the dominant.
Whole-Day Time Data Entry
You can enter whole-day time data in the following ways:
- You can drag and drop time data IDs from the column to a field of the calendar. To do so, select the ID in the list, click it again and drag it to the required position in the Team view. Alternatively, you can select the required field in the Team view and double-click a time data ID; or you can simply enter the required time data by overwriting the existing time data ID.
- You can use the same functions for copying, creating, and deleting time data that you use in the other list-oriented views.
Caution
Processing of Partial-Day Entries in the Team View
To enter partial-day information, double-click the dominant (the field to the right of the time data ID) of the required day. The One-Day view is automatically expanded. In it, you enter information, such as a doctor’s appointment, to specify the time entry. You can branch from the One-Day view to the Detail view to enter additional data.
If partial-day time data exists for a day, a selection icon is displayed in the field beside the dominant. You can click the checkmark to branch to the One-Day view that displays the partial-day time data. You can then edit the data. To return to the Team view, double-click Team View in the menu.
Details
The Details screen area can be used for various functions.
If the columns displayed in the Time Data screen area are not sufficient, you can display the Details area to further specify the time data.
You can define the specific type of time data where a generic time data ID has been used. The Details screen area can be used to enter multi-day time entries.
If the Details area is displayed for an existing time entry, the tab pages and fields used for that type of time data are displayed on the screen.
Generic Time Data IDs
Only define generic time data IDs for data that is regularly used by time administrators. Time administrators can also use these generic time data IDs for other types of time data and then use the Details area to further specify the data.
For example, there are two different time data IDs used for the most common types of attendances in your enterprise. A generic time data ID is used for all other attendances. When one of these more seldom used attendance types must be used, time administrators simply enter a generic time data ID and then further specify the type of attendance in the Details area.
Employee Data Screen Area
The Employee Data screen area displays additional contextual information about the selected employee, such as HR master data or time account balances. Time administrators can use this information to assist them when entering data.
It is useful for time administrators to be able to view their employees’ time account balances when recording leave or time off from overtime, so that they know whether enough quota remains to record this data.
Objects (that is, individual information) that are displayed together can be grouped in a layout called an InfoGroup.