Open Job (or project, depending on your Abtrac naming convention) is simply, a tick box in the Job Details page which can be used to keep a job open or closed to some employees.
Continue readingCategory Archives: Time & Cost
How to Commit and Uncommit Timesheets
In Abtrac, users can commit and/or uncommit timesheets depending on their user group privileges.
Continue readingAbtrac 3rd Party Sign Off
In Abtrac you can set up a third party sign off for a job if required. This feature comes useful if the job involves work at a third party site and requires a sign off/acknowledgement from someone at that site.
Continue readingThreshold Warnings
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.
Continue readingTimesheet Entries Reports
The Timesheet Entries report shows all time and cost for the chosen criteria.
There are quite a few variations on the ‘basic’ timesheet entries report with options for lots of different filters, groups and sub-groupings.
It is often used in conjunction with the Manage WIP Screen, or the Unbilled Work Quick Summary to determine what can be billed each month.
Continue readingManaging WIP – Unbilled Work Quick Summary
The Unbilled Work Quick Summary page shows all unbilled time and cost from all time up to a chosen date.
It’s used to quickly see where you are at on a job (project), and what you need to bill.
From this screen you can access further reports, or start invoicing and assigning time.
Continue readingSubconsultant Reports By Job
The Subconsultant Reports By Job report option gives a selection of summaries of all subconsultant work for a selected job.
From one menu choice in the reports screen three types of reports can be produced – Subconsultant Fees and Costs by Job, Subconsultant Fees and Costs by Job Detail and the Subconsultant Invoice Supplement.
Continue readingSub-Consultant Invoice Listing Report
The Sub-Consultant Invoice Listing report option can be used to get a summary of sub consultant claims and invoices for all or selected subconsultants, between two dates.
You can choose to view all sub consultant invoices, just those that have been fully processed, or only those still waiting to be fully processed.
Continue readingSubconsultants Purchase Orders Report
The Subconsultant Purchase Orders report gives a list of purchase orders for all subconsultants.
Continue readingAdding a percentage to disbursements
One of the ways to apply a margin to disbursements in Abtrac is to apply the mark up percentage based on disbursement types.
Under Administration >> Maintenance >> Disbursement, you can add an ‘adjustment’ to a disbursement type.

For this mark up to take effect you also need to confirm Disbursement Margin rules from Administration >> Settings >> System Settings >> Timesheets & Disbursements.
Continue readingAdding a Percentage Admin fee onto an Invoice
In Abtrac, a percentage admin fee can be added onto an invoice. This can be added by editing the Additional Fee in the Invoice Management screen.
Continue readingUsing Abtrac on a Mobile Device
If you are within a mobile coverage area, or on Wifi, you can access and use AbtracOnline on your mobile device, IPad, tablet or laptop.
This is useful for managing timesheets, looking up contact details and addresses in particular while away from your desk.
Continue readingCloning Timesheets
If you find that you work on the same clients and projects from one week to the next you can use a previous timesheet as a template and save some data entry time.
The clone feature will copy across the client, job, task, and activity but it will not copy the units or the comment.
Here’s how to clone all the clients, projects, and tasks from one week to the next.
Bulk Edit Timesheets
This screen is useful when you need to update timesheet details in bulk, it eliminates the need to open and edit the individual users’ timesheets.
This timesheet maintenance screen is most typically used in the following situations:
- Updating Employee rates
- Editing Stage/Task or Activities that have been incorrectly assigned
- Changing the job code an employee is assigning time to
- To check if/when timesheets have been billed and
- To check which invoice the WIP has been assigned to
- To obtain data not available in performance reports for specific employees, in particular, to view timesheet data for employees who are no longer current.
Importing Disbursements
Importing Creditor/Supplier Invoices, Bills etc. into AbtracOnline
AbtracOnline allows you to import disbursements via two methods.
If you are using MYOB Account Right or Xero the available API connections to these systems will allow you to import your disbursements with the click of a button.
If you don’t use MYOB or Xero, or if you want to import things such as PaperCut files, Linz Fees, Uber Receipts etc., then you can import your disbursements through a file-based import.
Either way, with our import disbursement functionality you don’t have to spend hours re-keying information that you probably have available from other systems.