Resource Assignments and Time Sheets

[Tiffany Toper]

In the new Resource Assignments, I am seeing that unapproved resource assignments are showing up for resources on their timesheet. For example, I am requested (pending Resource Assignment)  for a Project and a Demand. Using the Time Sheet Portal, the Demand and Project both show up as available options to enter time against.

What is the correct way to limit time card entry against only those projects or demands that the resource has been "Approved" to work on.

[Anantha Gowrara]

Hi @Tiffany Toper  We had similar kind of issue in RA however thats the way servicenow has designed it. In new Ra there is no difference between pending/approved/unapproved. All the states will be considered for capacity calculation and time booking

[Carina Hatfield]

@Tiffany Toper  and @Anantha Gowrara  two things:

Timesheet - I'll need to look into the relationship between the states and the timesheet.  I suspect there are no current business rules around the timesheet but if I'm wrong I will correct myself.  It sounds like you are looking for a more highly governed process where a team member can't enter any time unless the assignment is approved?  Is that correct or something else?  (Based on your response, we can take that back into the team to consider for enhancement)

Capacity calculations for pending/approved/unapproved - November store release has a new update that enables you to have more control over the states and the calculation.  Check it out!  https://www.servicenow.com/docs/bundle/store-release-notes/page/release-notes/store/business-managem...

There are some additional improvements coming in February as well around the calculations so resource managers have a clear understanding of remaining capacity considering the states by approved first, then approved and pending, etc.   

[JR Laprime]

Hi @Tiffany Toper, I believe that this is the current state expectation as of the Washington release and I am not aware of any changes with the Xanadu release.  Below is a direct quote from the Strategic Portfolio Management (SPM) Fundamentals On Demand (Washington).

Currently, the resource manager uses the approve and unapproved statuses in the resource manager workspace to indicate whether the resource assignment has been approved and confirmed or rejected.  Administrators can create approval workflows using flow designer.  In this release, the allocation status is always set to allocated by default, but future releases will update this to reflect the resource manager’s approval or rejection.

Being in an allocated state would drive the presence of Timecards.

[Chris Cannella]

Hello Tiffany,

Short answer –

• Right now, the page does not consider states. 
• The correct way (today) to limit who can enter time would be procedurally - After an assignment request is denied, the project manager would either remove the assignment or replace the resource. 
• We are looking at feedback and considering an enhancement so that clients can self-select the rules for which states are allowed for time entry.  

I do want to make one correction to the reply from Anatha.  With the November release, we added a setting so that clients can self-determine which status values count towards utilization in the utilization modal used by PW and RMW, the heat map of PW and RMW, the utilization calculation for a resource in RMW, and Capacity Planning within SPW.  Further enhancements to that capability are already in progress (e.g., improved modal and group by) and more will be taken up based on feedback.  So-Thank you for your feedback!

-Chris

Longer answer - When we first released resource assignments, we did not want the status to prevent someone from entering time if they truly had done the work.  We heard a challenge that prior to disapproval the work was done, and sometimes the RM had not gotten around to approving. 

Because we knew different clients would want different policies (and there are my potential policies), and based on feedback from clients (who generally viewed the classic system as too locked down), we chose the option that would not prevent work from moving forward. 

The current model leans into a less centralized\more manage by exception model.  As a group, we can absolutely see the argument that says ‘denied assignments should not allow to enter time’ and for highly centralized clients I can see a desire to say ‘only approved assignment should be allowed to track time’. 

Just like we did for utilization calculation, we are looking at feedback to determine if we should support the other processes via policy or enhanced code.  We are open to the enhancement, the question would be prioritization and timing.  So again – Thank you for the feedback so we can take that into account.