Batch Labour Journal
Overview:
Timesheet Batches (Labour Journal) are used to export Labour Recoveries that originated from Timesheets to your Financial System. These recoveries are used as part of Workbench's Standard Costing concept. Costs from timesheets take into consideration any combination of Employee Classes, Activities, and Time Codes.
Once timesheet transactions are included in a batch, they cannot be edited unless they are removed from the batch. This process locks them to maintain data integrity, especially once the batch has been exported to the Financial System.
It is important to not confuse Timesheet batches with Payroll Batches. Payroll batches send payroll information to the payroll software only, while Timesheet batches send labour recovery journals to the financial system.
Screen Guide:
Initial List:
The default filter will always show open batches in the current Period, but you can change this in the Filter section.
You can create a new batch by clicking + New Batch, which will pop up the Create Batch window (see below).
Clicking on the Batch No field of an existing batch will open the Timesheet Batch Entry screen where you can add transactions to the batch. The blue ellipsis button allows you to edit the batch itself, mark it as closed or not for export (exporting happens in Batch Control), and run reports on the contents using Print.
Create/Edit Batch:
Batch Type
Timesheet will only select time transactions
Plant Issue - from version 4.5.45 these transactions are auto-batched when saving a Timesheet line and are added to a System Plant Issue Auto Batch. It will only include Plant Issues entered from a Timesheet.
Disbursement - from version 4.5.45 these transactions are auto-batched when saving a Timesheet line and are added to a System Disbursement Auto Batch. It will only include disbursement transactions entered from timesheets.
Check section Plant Issues & Disbursements on Timesheets - auto batching process at the bottom of this page for details.
Batch Date can be any date and will define the Year/Period the batch is in. Note that Time Period End can potentially be different to Period End. See Period Ends for more information.
Example: A Period might end on the last day of the month, however, that last day of the month might not be the same as your Week Ending day. So for Timesheets only, you can make the last day of the week match the Time Period Ends, in order to include the whole week in the same Period.
Period is populated by the system based on the Batch Date.
Reference is typically the Week Ending date you are batching, but doesn't have to be unique.
Financial Company allows selection from the list of Financial Companies if you have more than one in Workbench. Each FinCo will have its own batch for the selected dates.
Batch Notes is free entry text and is optional, generally used in the case of non-standard batches.
Batch details can be reached by clicking on the blue ellipsis button and selecting Edit Batch. You can adjust most fields from the creation screen here.
You can mark batches as Closed or Not for Export here, but it is more commonly done in Batch Control.
The Print button is used to print batch reports, showing the contents of the batch.
Timesheet Batch Entry:
This screen is reached by clicking on the Batch No field of the desired batch in the list screen. Here, the details from the create/edit window are displayed in the header section, with the lower section used as a filter to narrow down the range of timesheets to include in this batch.
To add transactions to the batch, select from the available filter options to accurately target the desired transactions.
People By changes whether you want to include a specific Profit Centre or Profit Centre Group.
Payroll Name comes from the Users profile, allowing grouping based on key words such as "wages" or "salary."
Timesheet Group targets a specific Timesheet Group.
You can switch between the following Timesheet by methods:
Timesheet Week Ending is the last day of the timesheet week and includes the 6 days prior.
Timesheet Line Period is in Batch Period selects all transactions that are in the same Period as the batch.
Timesheet Lines Date allows you to specify exact dates of transactions rather than week-ending dates.
You can change how it targets a specific Timesheet Status by choosing between All, Completed, or Approved timesheets. Additionally, you can cause the timesheets to Complete/Approve on Batching if needed.
Click Save once your filters are set. Workbench will include all of the transactions in the filter parameters if any exist. A green bar will appear at the top of the screen informing you if the batching was successful. You can go to the Edit Batch window and click Print to view the included timesheets.
If a mistake was made, we can easily reset this batch by returning to Timesheet Batch Entry and clicking the red Reset Batch button. This will return all included transactions to an unbatched state. A prompt will be shown to select what action the system should take when reseting this batch:
Unbatch and maintain existing statuses (Approved and Complete): This will remove all timesheets from this batch, without making any changes to the status of those Timesheets.
Unbatch and Unapprove: This will remove all timesheets from this batch, and leave them as Unnapproved.
Unbatch and Unapprove and Uncomplete: This will remove all timesheets from this batch, and leave them as Unnapproved and Uncomplete, ready to be edited again.
Note that if the payroll batch has been exported to the financial system, the situation becomes more complicated and an administrator must be aware of where the data is in both systems before attempting to change data with Utilities.
Should your timesheet week cross over a period end you will need to batch for each period. The suggested method to ensure all time transactions are batched is to use ‘Timesheet Line Period is Batch Period’ that will batch any time transactions with the period of the Batch selected.
Plant Issues & Disbursements on Timesheets - auto batching process:
A disbursement or Plant issue created from a Timesheet line will be automatically batched into a batch for the corresponding period as soon as the Timesheet is saved. The system will create a new System batch if an opened system batch does not exist. The batch will have a reference of Disbursement Auto or Plant Issue Auto.
Plant issues or Disbursements can be deleted from the Timesheet and this
When the Timesheet line with a Plant issue/disbursement or the Plant issue/disbursement is deleted, the plant issue/disbursement is removed from the batch as long as the batch has not been exported yet. Even when the batch was Closed (but not exported), the Plant issue/disbursement is removed from the batch.
Next Steps:
Now that we have the desired transactions in a batch, we can export the batch using the Batch Control screen. The exact method of data transfer will depend on the financial software you use, and can range from seamless transfer from Workbench to the software or involve the creation of a .csv file that is manually imported. Speak with your consultant if you are not sure how to proceed.