ORACLE TIME AND LABOR

WHITEPAPER -
FORMATTING AN EXPORTED
TIMECARD TEMPLATE USING
MICROSOFT EXCEL ®

Global HRMS Development

Creation Date: 01 - Nov - 2004

Last Updated: 09 - Mar - 2006
Version: 1.1

Copyright (C) 2000 Oracle Corporation

All Rights Reserved
Copyright information

Oracle Time and Labor, Releases 11i and 12

Copyright 2000 Oracle Corporation
All rights reserved.

Creation Date: 01-Nov-04

Last Updated: 09-Mar-06

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Contents

Copyright information ..........................................................................................................................................2

Contents................................................................................................................................................................3
Introduction ..........................................................................................................................................................4
Audience...............................................................................................................................................................4
Prerequisite knowledge.........................................................................................................................................4
Problem statement ................................................................................................................................................5
Exporting a timesheet template (.csv file) for OTL’s disconnected entry ............................................................6
Formatting the exported timesheet (.csv file) into a formatted Microsoft Excel ® spreadsheet (.xls file)...........7
Exported OTL CSV File – An Orientation...................................................................................................7
Formatting the CSV File.............................................................................................................................10
Test the Timecard .......................................................................................................................................24
Accessing the Microsoft Excel ® spreadsheet from within Oracle Time and Labor .........................................26
Importing a completed Microsoft Excel ® timesheet into OTL .........................................................................28

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Introduction
This whitepaper provides an example of how to deploy a disconnected
timesheet using Microsoft Excel with Oracle Time and Labor (OTL).

This document covers:

1) How to Export a timesheet template (.csv file) for disconnected entry

and later Import to OTL

2) How to format the exported timesheet (.csv file) into a formatted

Microsoft Excel ® spreadsheet (.xls file)

3) How to access the Microsoft Excel ® spreadsheet from within Oracle

Time and Labor

4) How to import a completed Microsoft Excel ® timesheet into OTL

Audience
This document is intended for the following audience;

• Functional Consultants, HR and Payroll Professionals Note 1

• Technical Consultants, System Administrators and IT Professionals Note 2

Note 1: For Excel spreadsheet formatting of the Exported Template file

Note 2: For MS Excel ® spreadsheet formatting and technical aspects of deploying

the resulting timesheet.

Prerequisite knowledge
To convert the OTL exported timesheet template into a Microsoft Excel ®
spreadsheet, knowledge/familiarity with creating and formatting Microsoft
Excel ® spreadsheets is a pre-requisite.

To deploy the Microsoft Excel ® formatted template within OTL,

knowledge/familiarity of Oracle Applications System Administration is a pre-
requisite.

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Problem statement
Organizations with mobile workforces whose employees do not always have
easy access to their corporate network need to provide alternative
mechanisms for their employees to capture timecard data into their time and
attendance system.

One such mechanism, offered by OTL, is to provide a timecard template that

can be completed when disconnected from the application. The completed
timecard template can then be loaded (Imported) into OTL when the user is
next connected to the application.

The OTL timecard template is exported in the form of a CSV (comma

separated value) file. A CSV file format is an open standards format that is
application and operating system independent. Although offering the
disconnected template as a CSV file provides open standards advantages,
end users that are not familiar with using/editing a CSV file can find the
default format as not user friendly.

What this whitepaper provides is an example of how to format the Exported

CSV Template file using Microsoft Excel ® and deploying the resulting
formatted spreadsheet (.xls format file) within the OTL application. Once
formatted, the spreadsheet can then be used as the template for capturing
the user’s timecard entry.

Note, although we are using Microsoft Excel ® in this example, the same
formatting principle applies using spreadsheet applications from Sun
Microsystems (StarOffice ®), Apple (AppleWorks ®) or IBM Lotus
(SmartSuite ®). You will however, need to refer to the relevant
documentation from those vendors to accomplish the formatting described in
this document.

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Exporting a timesheet template (.csv file) for OTL’s disconnected entry

Detailed instructions on how to export a timecard template can be found in

the document Implementing Oracle & Time (Metalink ® note ID: 207333.1)
and will only briefly be covered in this section.

In the example described in this document, we have chosen a seeded (out-

of-the-box) Projects-only layout as the default Export layout.

You will need to enable the ‘Disconnected Entry’ preference for your users
to allow the download of the template (Export) and permit the upload of the
completed time and labor data (Import).

To export a template for time entry:

1) Choose Templates from the Self Service OTL Menu

2) Do one of the following:

1. Choose Export on the desired template line

2. Choose Create Template, if information you want to export does

not exist as a template.

3) Review the data on the Template window to ensure this is the

correct template to export.

4) Choose Export

5) Select the option to Save File to Disk.

6) In the Windows dialogue box, enter the file name and location. The
file name extension MUST BE .csv.

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Formatting the exported timesheet (.csv file) into a formatted Microsoft Excel ®
spreadsheet (.xls file)

Before listing the steps to format the disconnected timecard template file, the
following section provides an orientation of the main components of the CSV
file that is exported from OTL.

Exported OTL CSV File – An Orientation

The exported OTL template CSV file comprises the following components:

1. Description/Tip Text (rows 6 through 24 in this example – see figure

1)

2. START_HEADER (row 27 in this example – see figures 1 or 2)

3. STOP_HEADER (row 30 in this example – see figures 1 or 2)

4. START_TEMPLATE (row 33 in this example – see figures 1 or 2)

5. STOP_TEMPLATE (row 39 in this example – see figure 2)

6. POSSIBLE VALUES (starting from row 43 in this example - see

figure 2)

7. END_COLUMN (column R in this example below – see figure 3)

8. ORACLE RESERVED SECTION (starts on row 512 in this example

– see figure 4)

Note, the row and column position on which the components appear will be
different for different layouts and customer setups.

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Figure 1 – OTL timecard template CSV file (Description/Tip Text)

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Figure 2 – OTL timecard template CSV file (Start_, Stop_, and Possible Values Rows)

Figure 3 – OTL timecard template CSV file (END_COLUMN)

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Figure 4 – OTL timecard template CSV file (Oracle Reserved Section)

Formatting the CSV File

The CSV template file can be formatted to meet the users’ requirement
using standard Microsoft Excel ® formatting commands. In this example we
have used Microsoft Excel ® 2000. For further details relating to the
formatting of Microsoft Excel ® spreadsheets, please refer to Microsoft Excel
® Help for the version that is installed in your environment.

The example that we are using here is to create the layout shown in the
figure 5 below;

Figure 5 – Example Excel Formatted Timecard (Projects Layout)

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 Formatting Steps:

Note, do not delete any rows or columns from the spreadsheet – you must simply ‘Hide’ them
from the Excel layout. Also, do not delete or update the Oracle Reserved Section.

1. Open the Exported OTL Timecard template CSV file using Microsoft
Excel

2. Insert the desired number of rows between the ‘START_TEMPLATE’

and ‘STOP_TEMPLATE’ rows of the spreadsheet. In this example we
have inserted 10 rows. Ensure that you insert the rows after the ‘Project,
Task, Type’ row (i.e. after row 34 in this example) - see figure 6 below.
(Note you need to click on your right mouse button to get the menu
shown in figure 6)

Figure 6 – Insert Timecard Rows

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 3. Hide any rows or columns that you do not wish a user to see. That is,
after selecting the rows or columns, right click to get the formatting menu
from which you can select the Hide command. See figure 7 below;

Figure 7 – Hide text

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 4. Insert Borders around cells to create a timecard matrix. Also create
Borders around enterable cells for ‘Overriding Approver’ and
‘Comments’, which appear between the START_HEADER and
STOP_HEADER rows. See figure 8 below;

Figure 8 – Create Borders for appropriate Cells

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 5. For each enterable/updatable cell on the timecard, format the cell so that
it can accept the appropriate format of user entry (see figure 9 below).

Note, by default Microsoft Excel creates all cells with the format of
‘General’. You will need to change this to ‘Text’ or ‘Number’ (with
decimal places) as appropriate for you layout. In this example we have
set the Project, Task and Type cells/columns as format of ‘Text’ (see
figure 9 below) and the Hours cells for each day of the template as
format of ‘Number’ with 2 decimal places (see figure 10 below).

Figure 9 – Format Text Cells

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Figure 10 – Format Number Cells

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 6. Create a ‘Freeze Pane’ between the Type column (Column C in this
example) and the first Day (Column D in this example) – see fig 11
below. The Freeze Pane will permit users to scroll to the right of the
spreadsheet while keeping the Project, Task and Type in view.

Figure 11 – Create a Freeze Pane

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 7. Create row and column totals for your timecard layout (see figures 12,
13 and 14 below);

Figure 12 – Create Hours totals for Monday

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Figure 13 – Create Hours totals for Tuesday

Figure 14 – Create Hours total for each Timecard Row

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 8. ‘Unlock’ cells that you will allow users to enter data into. To do this, you
need to select the ‘Protection’ tab of the format cells dialog box (see
figure 15 below);

Figure 15 – Unlock ‘enterable’ Cells

Note: After a cell has been unlocked, you can enter data into it
even after the spreadsheet sheet has been protected.
Note: By default Excel formats each cell as locked.

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 9. Clear contents from any cells that you do not wish to appear in the final
spreadsheet (see figure 16 below)

Figure 16 – Clearing contents from spreadsheet

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 10. After selecting the appropriate cells, format the cell color (using the Fill
Color menu) and cell Borders as required (see figures 17 and 18 below);

Figure 17 – Color fill cells (Timecard border)

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Figure 18 – Color fill cells (day separators)

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 11. Once you have completed your formatting, you may password protect
the spreadsheet sheet using the Tools menu (Tools -> Protection ->
Protect Sheet). See figure 19 below;

Figure 19 – Protect Worksheet

Not shown in this document, but you can further enhance your Excel
templates. For example, you can import your company logo (GIF file)
into the spreadsheet, add instructional tip text for your users, or create
Choice Lists for cells in the formatted spreadsheet. For further details,
please refer to Microsoft Excel Help.

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 12. On completing your formatting, you must save the file as an Excel
spreadsheet (.xls) – see figure 20 below;

Figure 20 – Save Timecard Template as an XLS file

Test the Timecard

Once you have formatted the CSV and saved into a XLS file, you will
need to test the spreadsheet upload prior to deploying the spreadsheet
to your users.

To test the disconnected timecard:

1. Open the formatted XLS timecard in Microsoft Excel ®

2. Enter timecard entries into the spreadsheet
3. Save the timecard entries in the spreadsheet as a CSV file
4. Log into the OTL application as a Self Service user and import the
saved CSV file from step 3 above.

Once you have confirmed that the timecard data is successfully

imported from the disconnected spreadsheet, you can proceed with
deploying the Microsoft Excel ® formatted Template within OTL.

Note, if you encounter problems with the import of timecard data from
the disconnected spreadsheet, to help you diagnose where the problem
lies, you should first rule out any problems that may have been
inadvertently introduced during the spreadsheet formatting process. To
do this, simply enter time data in the unformatted CSV file and test if that
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data can be imported into OTL. If the timecard data from the
unformatted CSV file can be imported into OTL, then the problem must
lie in the formatting of the spreadsheet. In this case, you will need to
retrace your formatting steps to identify where the error was introduced.
In the unlikely event that the unformatted CSV file with timecard data
does not import into OTL, then you should contact Oracle Support.

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Accessing the Microsoft Excel ® spreadsheet from within Oracle Time and Labor
You can deploy the Microsoft Excel ® formatted spreadsheet to users
through a menu function associated with the users OTL Responsibility.
Figure 21 below provides an example of how this would appear to the user.

Figure 21 – Download Microsoft Excel ® spreadsheet from menu function in OTL

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To deploy the spreadsheet as depicted in figure 21 above, the System
Administrator must follow the instructions described below:

1. Move the formatted xls template file to $OA_HTML/<language> virtual

directory on the IAS server.

(The language component of the directory path is established for each

different language installed in your system.)

2. In the System Administration application, open the Form Functions

window (the navigation path is Application --> Function).

• In the Description tab, create a new function by entering a value

for Function, User Function Name, and Description.
• In the Properties tab, select JSP (JSP Interoperable with OA) in
the Type field
• In the Web HTML tab, enter ‘US/<name of your
spreadsheet>.xls’ in the HTML call field.
• Save your work.

3. Using the OTL System Administration Responsibility, open the Menus

window (navigation: Application --> Menu).

• Query up the Menu that is defined for the Responsibility being

used by the employees. If the Menu is made up of Submenus,
then query up the submenu on this form until the menu entry
delivering the seeded spreadsheet is found.
• In the Function field, the seeded value should be displayed as
'Download OTL Spreadsheet'. Change this to be the function
that was just created in step 2 above.
• Save your work

The end user will now be able to download the spreadsheet to their desktop
and enter their timecard data. After updating the spreadsheet the user will
need to save the timecard as a csv file in preparation to upload it into OTL
via the Timecard Import feature.

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Importing a completed Microsoft Excel ® timesheet into OTL
Once a user has completed timecard entry in the disconnected Microsoft
Excel ® formatted timecard spreadsheet, the user must save the file as a
CSV file.

To import the CSV file into OTL, the user must log into the OTL application
and import the spreadsheet from the Recent Timecards screen or from the
Timecard Entry screen.

To import a timecard to Oracle Time & Labor:

1. Choose Time Entry from the Self Service OTL Menu.

2. Choose Import Timecard from the Time Entry window.

3. Select the Timecard Period for the timecard you are importing.

4. Choose the Browse Button and select the file name to Import.

5. Once both the timecard period and file name are displayed, choose
Import Timecard. The Timecard page opens displaying the data entered
from the spreadsheet.

6. Do one of the following:

• Edit your entries

• Save for later without submitting your entries

• Review and submit your entries.

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