In Abtrac, you can enable timesheet threshold warnings at the job and/or task levels.
If you have assigned a fee estimate to your job or task, then you can enable Timesheet Threshold Warnings.
Timesheet threshold warnings are budget notifications that pop up within the timesheet entries screen when the threshold value specified is reached or exceeded.
These warnings can be applied to the entire fee budget for the job, or at the task level.
Default threshold warnings can be set up from system settings.
At any stage, a user can still enter time against the task and job.
Because of this, when you enable timesheet warnings, it is a good idea to let the staff know about them, and ask them to contact you if they receive a warning when entering time.
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Job Budget Warnings
The threshold is calculated as a percentage of the Job Billing Details >> Fee value (detailed here).
A pop up message is displayed when the threshold value is reached or exceeded.
In the example below, when the total value of time and cost entered for the job reaches or exceeds 75% of $196,906, a warning will be activated.
Threshold warning stages
There are two stages of warning when a threshold is set for a job.
- When the threshold limit is reached, timesheet users will receive a message like the warning below. The warning details the percentage of time and cost already allocated and the percentage remaining.
This warning will continue to be displayed for every timesheet entry, unless the criteria for threshold is changed for the individual job from the Job Billing Details page. For future jobs, you can disable these warnings altogether by default from System Settings >> Timesheets. See Disabling Timesheet Threshold Warning Message from System Settings.
- And when the time and cost for a job has exceeded its expected fee value, the following message is displayed.
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Task Budget Warnings
You can also enter a threshold percentage warning for individual tasks within a job.
To do so, you will need to enable the Threshold column for Job Tasks page from User Control Settings >> Task >> give a value to ‘Threshold’.
Once enabled, you can enter a percentage of the task fee estimate as the threshold value.
A pop up message is displayed within a user’s timesheet when the threshold value is reached or exceeded.
In this example, when the total value of time and cost entered for the task ‘Tenders and Quotes’ reaches or exceeds 60% of the expected fee value of $9,225, a warning will be activated.
The warning details the percentage of time and cost already allocated to the task and the percentage remaining.
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Job and Task Budget Warnings
Job and task threshold warnings also work together, so users may also see notifications like the one below: in this instance, both the task threshold and job threshold have been exceeded.
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Setting up Email Threshold Alerts from Job People
People associated with an individual job can be set up to receive (or not receive) email threshold alerts from the Job People page.
From Job Details >> click on the Job People tab >> click on the edit button for the job person.
Tick the box for ‘Receives Threshold Alerts’ if this job person needs to receive email threshold alerts.
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Setting up Default Threshold Warnings from System Settings
Go to Administration >> Settings >> System Settings >> from the Clients and Jobs tab, set up the threshold alerts as required, in the ‘Defaults when Creating a New Job’ section.
- Ticking the box ‘Set threshold alerts for Job Owner’ will send an email alert to the Job Owner by default, once a threshold has been reached.
- A value can be entered for ‘Default Timesheet Warning Threshold’ if required. In the screen shot below, the threshold value has been set to 0%. Anything greater than this will activate the warning, in conjunction with the individual job settings.
- ‘Default Timesheet Threshold Warning Fee Option’ lets you choose a warning to be issued for exceeding the budget for fees only, or the total budget for fees, disbursements and subconsultants.
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Disabling Timesheet Threshold Warning Message from System Settings
Go to Administration >> Settings >> System Settings >> from the Timesheets tab, tick the box for ‘Disable timesheet threshold warning message’.
Setting up this default will ensure that threshold warnings will not pop up as timesheet warnings when a threshold is reached or exceeded.
However, a designated job person like a job owner can still be set up to receive email threshold alerts from Job People page.
Abtrac KB# 2152
Abtrac | Knowledge Base 