Using WebTK Guide
Using WebTK
WebTK
Web_TK is the Web-client for the Har_TK system. Here is a simple guideline to using it.
Start the Workday
- Click "Check In" to start the day
Each day you start working, use the "Check In" button to show that you've started a block of time.
Record Your Time As You Work
It is difficult for anyone to remember what they do in a day, so we want everyone to record their time as they work. As you move from one ticket to another, We can't always record the work exactly when we do it, but certainly we can do it before the end of the workday.
- Every entry in the time keeping system is referred to as a "Plot Point". In the blue box, select "Plot Point" from the dropdown menu, enter the ticket number you are working on, and click "Save" to start work on a project. Optionally you can enter a note.
The time you start will be automatically entered on the line. The time is adjustable if you need to change it. The time on this ticket will stop when you begin work on a new ticket.
Select a new plot point and enter the ticket number. Keep up this way until you need a break or decide to leave the office.
When you add another Plot Point or Mark, you don't need to enter the time you stop one plot point to start another. Each Plot Point and Mark will signify the end of the previous entry.
Incidental Time
There are tickets for incidental time that is needed to take care of business related to your job. These are
- 10000
- Incidental Time
- Waiting for meetings
- Pop-up meetings not tied to a specific ticket
- 10001
- Timekeeping
- Filling out your daily time
- Reviewing your time weekly
- 10002
- Monday Morning Standup
- 10003
- Company Lunch on Friday
Taking Breaks
No one can work all day without interruption. When you need a break
- Enter a "Mark" if you need to take a break. When you return, choose another "Plot Point" to get back to work.
- Click on Check Out when you are done for the day or leaving the office.
At the end of day, enter a final Out record to your timekeeping for the day. If possible, block and allocate your time for the day before you go home or else first thing the following day. You may also Confirm your entries for the day if you are certain that you will not be working again in the evening.
- PTO and Holiday
When there is a holiday or you take PTO, you need to indicate that in Har_TK. To do this, choose "Other" on the main bar and select "PTO" or "Holiday" as appropriate.
End of Day
Allocate Your Work Time When you have finished your activity for the day, you need to Allocate your time. The bottom panel contains the options you need to do this.
Your day is broken into one or more time blocks. A time block includes all the plot points, marks, etc. between a Check In and Check Out. You will see all the blocks created for the day.
Time is allocated to tickets in 15 minute increments, with a 15 minute minimum. So if you work 1 minute to fix a problem, we will bill the client for 15 minutes. That covers our overhead and allows us to provide value to our client while being fair to ourselves.
We use this same rule for larger amounts of time. We take the clock time actually spent, then divide it into 15 minute units for allocation, always rounding up to the next unit.
- Allocate Today
Click here to allocate your time for today.
Allocating your time is fairly straightforward. If all plotpoints have a ticket number and fall between the Check In and Check Out, your time will be allocated to the right tickets.
If all blocks align correctly, you will receive a confirmation of allocation.
Confirming Your Time
The Confirm Today button is also at the bottom of the screen, just below the Allocate Today command in the list of Actions.
- Confirm Time
Click here to start to review and Confirm your time each day.
In the previous step, all of the time recorded for your efforts during this block of time is divided into Units and assigned to Tickets. You need to look at each block, see if there are adjustments needed, and make the changes.
Each block will have a header. The block’s header will include
- The day of the week and the date, and the start and stop time for the block
- The number of 15 minute units recorded
- The number of 15 minute units allocated to tickets for billing
- The number of Possible Adjustments that could be necessary to make the time record fair to both the client and our company.
We don’t want to overcharge our clients, nor do we want to give away work we rightly performed on their behalf. So, what do we do with the “Possible Adjustments”?
If the number is zero (0), you are done with that block. Continue processing the remaining blocks until your day is complete.
If it’s not zero (0), you may need to adjust the Allocated units up or down to make actual time and computed times approximately the same.
Possible Adjustments < 0
When you see the Possible Adjustments is a negative number, your time is over-allocated. You have more time billed than actual clock minutes worked. This could indicate that rounding has caused you to have allocated more time than you actually worked. This could be legitimate due to the nature of rounding. If you worked a half unit, then it is right to round it up to the next unit. If you worked on more that 2 different client’s tickets in the same unit of time, each client will get at least a 1 unit charge because that is our minimum billing unit. If you ever have a question in this regard, check with your director or the Showrunner.
However, if you feel that the overallocation is unjustified, you should take steps to correct it. You can usually spot the problem by looking at the block detail lines under the header. If a correction is needed, there usually won’t be single, exact adjustment that will “fix everything”. You may have to “figure out” a solution. Let’s work on an example to illustrate.
Example In the following example, Har_TK reports a difference of -2 units between the Duration time and the Billed time. Since a unit is 15 minutes, we will be looking for about 30 minutes of time that we can adjust. In most cases, we will need to find a combination of lines that can be adjusted to remove the difference.
We will compare the Duration time, which is the elapsed clock time recorded in actual minutes, vs. the Billed time, which is computed by multiplying the number of units, shown at the far right of the line, by 15 minutes.
Here is one possible solution. There could be others, but this one will do. Notice these 2 combinations of entries:
- Tickets 2 and 3 together have allocations that are about 1 unit over actual time (90 min - 72 min = 18 min).
- Ticket 4 is about 1 unit over-allocated as well. (2:01 - 2:15 = 14 min).
For this solution, we can subtract 1 unit from Ticket 2, changing the block allocation from 3 to 2.
We can also subtract 1 unit from ticket 4, reducing the block allocation from 9 to 8. The adjusted allocations are reasonably close to the actual time worked, and our Possible Adjustment count goes to zero.
Possible Adjustments > 0
When the Possible Adjustments are greater than 0, your time is under-allocated against tickets. There is more time recorded on the clock than is allocated to tickets.
First, this may not be a problem that needs correction. This is usually due to Marks recorded on the time record, and if you agree that you were on break for the number of blocks in the Possible Adjustments box, no further action is needed.
However, if you came back to work after taking a break but forgot to enter a ticket into the time keeping system, you are potentially giving away your work because your work effort is not assigned to a ticket. If that is the case, enter the missing ticket at the proper start time and make sure it stops at the right time. You may still have a positive adjustment that’s greater than zero (0), but no further action is needed.
After you have made all the adjustments you need, click Confirm to move to the next block. Repeat the adjusting process for each block.
When you have confirmed all your blocks, WebTK will tell you that there are no further time allocations that need to be confirmed. You are done for the day!
If you have questions on specific cases, call Bob Trammel.
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