Exclude Internal Labor Time Cards from Expense Lines + Cleanup of Historical Data

[dennisreuko]

Hi everyone,

I’m working on a requirement specifically for pm_project records, where internal labor time cards should not appear in expense lines or affect project financials.

Acceptance criteria:

No internal labor time card entries should impact:

• Actual Cost

• Estimate at Completion (EAC)

• Estimate to Completion (ETC)

What I’ve done so far (for new records):

Implemented a solution to prevent new expense lines from being created from time cards.

Business Rule:

• Table: Expense Line [fm_expense_line]

• When: before insert

• Order: 1

• No OOB records modified (upgrade safe)

Logic:

• If time_card is populated, OR

• If short_description contains " Time Card ("

  → abort insert (gs.setAbortAction(true))

This is working as expected - no new time card expense lines are being created for pm_project records.

Where I’m stuck (historical data):

There are many existing expense lines already created from time cards, and I need to clean those up for pm_project financials.

Issues:

• Many records don’t have the time_card reference populated

• Sometimes the only indicator is the description (e.g., “Time Card (…)”)

• Some descriptions are truncated (e.g., "Time Car", "Time C", "Time", "Tim")

• category = Labor is not reliable since it includes valid external labor

So it’s hard to safely identify only time card–generated expense lines without risking valid data.

What I’m trying to solve:

• Remove or exclude only internal labor time card expense lines tied to pm_project

• Keep the solution safe and reversible

• Stay as close to OOB behavior as possible

Questions:

1. Has anyone handled cleanup of legacy time card expense lines specifically for pm_project financials?

2. Is there a reliable way to trace these back to time cards when the time_card field is empty?

3. Would you recommend?

Appreciate any suggestions, thanks!