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WHITEPAPER -
FORMATTING AN EXPORTED
TIMECARD TEMPLATE USING
MICROSOFT EXCEL ®
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Contents
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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).
Audience
This document is intended for the following audience;
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.
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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.
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
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).
4) Choose Export
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.
The exported OTL template CSV file comprises the following components:
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)
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Figure 4 – OTL timecard template CSV file (Oracle Reserved Section)
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;
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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
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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;
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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;
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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).
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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.
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7. Create row and column totals for your timecard layout (see figures 12,
13 and 14 below);
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Figure 13 – Create Hours totals for Tuesday
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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);
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)
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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);
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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;
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;
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.
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.
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To deploy the spreadsheet as depicted in figure 21 above, the System
Administrator must follow the instructions described below:
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.
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.
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