OTL Timecard Needs a Makeover

October 16, 2006 on 7:46 am | by Marian Crkon | In Ideas and Opinions, Reviews | 18 Comments | Print Print | Email Email

Here is some unsolicited feedback for you, Oracle Time and Labor (OTL) developers. Implementing Financials and Projects (11.i.10) I spent a good deal of last month with a group of Oracle users whose primary interaction with Oracle Applications was entering time and expenses against the projects they worked on. Being new Oracle users, they reminded me how “different” Oracle was and how it took some time to “get used to Oracle’s nuances”. I documented some their comments and observations below:

Usability

  • Users are having tough time remembering to hit the “Go” button when they change time periods or templates; as a result, many timecards get entered into wrong periods.
  • It is not very obvious one has to hit TAB to navigate across fields to “commit” values in each field (this is a general Framework issue). If you, for instance, entered a project number without hitting TAB and hit Search for tasks (Flashlight), the form generates an unintuitive error message or starts an infinite search that freezes the page
  • It would really help the time entry process if users could see additional fields including project name, task name, or customer on their timecard lines. This would be particularly useful when, due to business requirements, you cannot limit the list of available project values based on people’s assignments.

Error Messages

Many existing OTL messages are not user friendly and explanatory. Error messages should explain to users what they did wrong. The existing OTL messages quite often tell the users what they don’t need to know and don’t not tell what they do.

OTL and OIE Inconsistencies

There are several differences between the OTL and iExpenses (OIE) look and feel that let you know you are using two separate applications developed by separate teams. For instance:

  • Time Entry responsibility (sub-menu) lists the OTL functions in the Navigator window; OIE has a consolidated Expenses Home link with functions as Tabs.
  • OTL lets you restrict a list of project-related values (project, task, expenditure type), OIE does not.
  • OIE lets you search for projects by Project Number, Project Name, Start Date, End Date and Organization, OTL does not. In OTL, you can only search by Project Number and Project Name.

No Save at Timeout

If you walked away from your desk before saving your timecard – too bad for you. Typically, there is a 10 minute “inactivity” timeout that terminates your Oracle session after 10 minutes of no activity. This is a general Framework feature, not just OTL. Make sure you save your work every time!

Offline Timecard

This feature may look good on the OTL data sheet, but in reality, it is a joke (it generates laughs and sarcastic remarks every time we show it to end users, so we no longer do so). I’d really like to know if anyone is actually using it.

Project Timecard Approval and Import

There are, essentially, no parameters to control which timecards get approved and imported into Projects when the background approval method is used. It would be very useful to restrict approval and import by time period, organization, project type, or range of projects.

OTL and iExpenses are often the only two Oracle applications that many users will see. When they do not provide user experience people expect, they give the applications a reputation they do not deserve.

What is your experience with using OTL timecards and expense reports? Share your thoughts and experiences as comments below!

18 Comments »

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  1. May be Oracles’ answer to “No Save at Timeout” is “Offline Timecard”

    Comment by Shree — October 16, 2006 #

  2. I like your sense of hunmor :-)

    Comment by Marian Crkon — October 16, 2006 #

  3. I used to use the offline feature with iTime; But my company just switched to OTL, and for some reason disabled the button for downloading the CSV template for offline time entry. They still allow users to upload their CSV’s, and they still mention the offline capability in the training, but we have no way of obtaining the CSV to actually use this feature.

    So.. would anyone mind sending me the CSV template? Pretty please? I don’t know how much longer I can retain my sanity if I have to continue using the online interface. I’ll gladly share my thoughts on the offline experience here if someone would send me the template ;)

    sean > scummins.com

    Thanks,

    - Sean

    Comment by Sean — November 6, 2006 #

  4. You seem to be running a old version of OTL. Hitting the Go button is not required in the current version of OTL. Please upgrade.

    Additional fields can be added to a timecard. All the timecards are customizable. Contact your support representative.
    Error messaging has also improved a lot. You will see differences after you upgrade.
    You didn’t specify what issues you were facing with the offline timecard. It’s a good and simple option.
    If you don’t save your work, you will lose your data and that’s something which is not typical to OTL or oracle applications. It happens for most of the software applications.I think the period (10 mins or whatever) for timeout is also a customizable option (contact your sys admin if you want to increase it).
    There are lots of ways you can approve the timecard. It depends upon the approver, which timecards to approve and when. If you are using auto approve, the timecards will be approved automatically (it’s not usual to expect only some specific timecards to get auto approved. If you want that, you should use some other approval style (and OTL does provide a lot of options). I agree that currently there are some limitations with importing timecard data into Projects (though there are many parameters available for importing in Payroll).

    Comment by Navin — November 16, 2006 #

  5. Navin,

    Thank you for joining the discussion and standing up for OTL. I feel like I have to be doing a lot of that in front of the users.

    Which OTL version has the usability improvements you are talking about? We are currently on HXT.I, and about to upgrade to HXT.J.

    We know that some additional fields can be added to a timecard, but not all obvious ones can, and certainly not the ones we currently need.

    Have you ever used the offline timecard upload? I am glad you like it!

    We looked into and are aware of several different ways to define timecard approvals. We appreciated that the OTL approval rules were much more robust and flexible than the ones for expense reports. However, we ended up not requiring timecard approvals as approvals by project managers would require multiple approvals for one timecard, and hinder the time entry and billing process. Hence we approve timecards with the workflow background process.

    I am glad to hear the interface between OTL and Payroll is better. Unfortunately, we use the one between OTL and Projects.

    Marian

    Comment by Marian — November 16, 2006 #

  6. Also refer to the Metalink document 304340.1 – Oracle Time & Labor Timecard Configuration 11.5.10+. You can download the full document at: https://metalink.oracle.com/cgi-bin/cr/getfile.cgi?p_attid=304340.1:004

    Comment by Marian — November 16, 2006 #

  7. Hi Marian,
    The usability improvements I am talking about are available in HXT.J. If you are upgrading, better upgrade to the latest and the greatest, which is HXT11iRUP (Metalink Note- 386553.1). This one is two releases superior to HXT.J.
    I use offline upload feature sometimes and didn’t face any major issues as such. Maybe, your requirements are something different.
    Reading your article it seems you need three additional fields- Project Name, Task Name and Customer. Project Name and Task Name can be added to the timecard and also defaulted depending upon the Project Number, Task Number. It’s better (and easier to customize) to have the search option on either Project Number or Name and not both the fields. Even when there is only one field, you can change your default search option to be Project Name and not Project Number. I am sure Customer can also be added to the timecard.

    Workflow background process is not an approval style. You must be using Auto approval style. The process is required to be run so that approval notifications are generated and if the approval style is ‘Auto’, the timecards will get auto approved. If you don’t know, there is a profile OTL: Defer Approval Process on Timecard Submission, which if set to No, you won’t require to run the workflow process. Timecards will get approved/sent for approval as soon as submitted. I don’t understand why do you want to auto approve only certain timecards and not all. If yoy don’t want to use Project Manager, you can use other approval styles, like- Person, HR Supervisor or let the users enter the approver in the timecard by using Overriding Approval style. For all of these, timecard will require only one approval.
    I am sure interface between OTL and Projects will get better.

    Comment by Navin — November 22, 2006 #

  8. OTL Timecard is the worst software I have ever used. I’m getting used to it, but that’s kind of like saying I’m getting used to Leukemia.

    Comment by Erik — December 15, 2006 #

  9. Erik,

    What is it that you like and do not like about it? How can they make it better?

    Comment by Marian — December 15, 2006 #

  10. 1. If you get something wrong in a field, you must clear it or fix it before saving. Why? Until I submit it it should not keep me from saving everything, provided it’s not 500 characters long in a field or something.
    2. Be default it should have project names on the timesheet. Every place I know using this thing either changes it or puts up with it because of the risk/expense of changing it. They claim it was sold as an out of the box solution so it must be good enough.
    3. Server round trips every time you move between fields, disrupting entry flow.
    4. It would be nice to be able to navigate between boxes using navigation keys. See Google Spreadsheet for an example of how this could work.
    5. default for searching should be for project name instead of project number, if I knew the number I’d have entered it so it’s assured that I will search on name. So I change it every single time I query.
    6. If every application is going to go to online, then application timeouts need to be removed. I acknowledge there is disagreement about this, but as it stands it is just one more irritation on the pile.
    7. Most buttons are confusing-I don’t know how to quantify this, they just are.
    8. Can login be integrated with your company’s login system? Not sure about this one, I’m just a user. Wish I could use my active directory login instead of memorizing another user/pass combination.

    Nice blog here, btw.

    Comment by Erik — December 26, 2006 #

  11. Hi,
    Even our users are facing the same issue, and we kept the session timeout to 2Hrs, but still they go out for while and come back they lost the connection. Due to this timecard entered all unsaved. Pls if somebody have the solution for it, pls suggest.

    Comment by Shiva — March 8, 2007 #

  12. Hi,
    Here the same complaint from end-users : timeouts, missing project name, and default search on number…
    We are still on iExpens but OTL will be implemented shortly. As I understand from this forum, OTL is not ‘improved’ in these areas.
    However, internal research made clear that the project name can be added, however via ‘custo’.
    Regards.

    Comment by Kim — April 4, 2007 #

  13. We are having the same issues with OTL as others. My users are starting to revolt! They want a better interface. Has anyone looked at what it would take…are there any other viable solutions. We are on 11.5.10.2 and are interfacing OTL with Projects.

    Comment by Anne — May 17, 2007 #

  14. hi all,

    how to configure existing time card in Oracle time and labor. version 11.5.10.2

    regards
    ram

    Comment by ramkumar — June 6, 2007 #

  15. Our apps folks are looking at OTL – we have been told by a vendor that we need 50MB of real memory for each user connected to OTL – Is this really true in your experiences?

    thanks,
    mark

    Comment by mark — July 13, 2007 #

  16. Anyone have any experience shifting from iTime to OTL? We’ll be running 11.5.10.2 and in Phase I we’re planning to model OTL scope on current iTime and will enhance further in additional phases.

    Related…from users point of view, is OTL user interface (w/out customization) better, neutral or worse vs iTime?

    Thanks!

    Comment by Rob — November 8, 2007 #

  17. Hi,
    I need some information regarding customization of Timecard screen. Here is what we plan to do:
    We want to default the Tasks alongwith Projects based on Project Assignments data for an employee. Can you pl suggest how to go about it?
    Thanks.

    Comment by Hitesh — March 25, 2009 #

  18. HI,

    We have requirement in OTL, where we need to make project and Task as mandatory field…Is there any setup up or how to do this.

    Thanks
    meena

    Comment by meena — March 25, 2011 #

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