Timesheet Export Options

The Timesheet Export Options page allows you to configure how time sheet data is exported. You can enable and define multiple export configurations, which is useful if you need to export to more than one system, for example payroll and billing. The following options are provided:

Options	Description
Name	You can name the export, which is useful if you have more than one defined export. For example you might name one 'Payroll' and the other 'Billing'. The name can be up to 80 characters in length.
Description	A description of the export configuration, up to 255 characters.
Enabled	If checked then this export will show up in the list of available exports in the Timesheets and Approvals tabs.
Clip to Date Range	Check this option to clip time entries to the selected date range when exporting. This option is useful if you are exporting time entries for time periods different than the timesheet period. You would want to check this option, for instance, if timesheets have weekly periods but you export to payroll semimonthly.
Exported Fields	Select the time entry data fields to export, as well as their order. This option is useful if you need to integrate timesheet data with external systems such as payroll processing, etc. For example, SurePayroll systems require the following 6 fields in this order: TimeEntry.Date Employee.ID Employee.Last Name Employee.First Name Pay Code.ID TimeEntry.Hours
Custom Header	For some external systems you may want a special header at the beginning of the export file, rather than the standard list of field names. For example, SurePayroll systems require the following two lines at the start of the file: TC 00001
Rollup	Check this option to roll up or total the hours in each time period for each pay code. Instead of outputting an individual record for each time entry, time entries will be summarized by pay code.

Timesheet Export Schedule

You can automate timesheet exporting using the timesheet export scheduling feature. This allows you to export timesheets to a file on the server (or network drive) where Pacific Timesheet is installed (self-hosted only), or to an FTP server. The following options are provided:

Options

Description

Schedule Enabled

Check this option to enable scheduled timesheet exporting.

Schedule

The schedule or frequency for timesheet exporting. The time period can be any created in the System > General > Time Periods page. To specify the exact time within the time period when the export occurs you specify an offset (in hours:minutes) from the start or end of the time period. For instance, if you want to export timesheets at 4:30 PM (16:30) on the last day of the time period, you would specify "7:30 hh:mm before the period ends".

Next Run

As you modify the schedule, this property will update to show when the next export will occur.

Export To

You have the option of exporting to a directory on the computer running the Pacific Timesheet service (self-hosted only), or exporting to an FTP (File Transfer Protocol) server.

If you choose "FTP Server" the following properties must be configured by clicking the settings button that appears to the right of the menu:

FTP Server

The host name or IP address of the FTP server.

The user account or login name for the FTP server.

Password

The password for the login, above.

FTP Directory

The directory where export files will be created, e.g. "/" or "/tmp". FTP server paths start with a forward slash, and backslashes are not valid. If blank, the root directory will be used, which is equivalent to "/".

FTP Port

The port number for the FTP server, where 21 is the default value for most FTP servers.

FTP Mode

Check this option to enable passive mode, which aids when transferring files through firewalls.

Security

If the FTP server has connection security enabled you will need to set the appropriate value here. Your options are:

None	No connection encryption
Implicit SSL	Implicit Secure Socket Layer encryption (FTPS)
Explicit SSL	Explicit Secure Socket Layer encryption, also known as (FTPES)

Directory

The directory on the computer or FTP server where the export file will be created. If the "Export To" property is set to "Directory" then this is the file path to the directory where the export file will be created, e.g. "/tmp", "c:\exports" or "\\morpheus\\c\exports". The path must be valid for the server that Pacific Timesheet is installed on.

If the "Export To" property is set to "FTP" then this is the directory on the FTP server where you want the export file created, e.g. "/" or "/tmp". FTP server paths start with a forward slash, and backslashes are not valid.

File Name

The name of the export file, e.g. "timesheets-for-payroll". The "Append timestamp" option will add the date and time of the export to the file name, e.g. "timesheets-for-payroll.200908150831". Note that the file extension will automatically be added when the export file is created, based on the Format property, described below. For CSV format, the file extension ".csv" will be added to the file name. For MS Excel format, the file extension ".xls" will be added to the file name.

Format

The format of the export file, either comma-separated-values (CSV) or Microsoft Excel (XLS).

File Encryption

You can optionally encrypt the export file using PGP (Pretty Good Privacy). If you choose this option you need to specify the following options:

Encryption Key	The public encryption key to use when encrypting the export file. Click the settings button to the right of the menu to import and manage your encryption keys. An encryption key is required.
Armor	Check this option to output the encrypted file in armored ASCII format, rather than binary format. The file will have the '.asc' file extension appended to it.

When the file encryption is set to PGP the export file will have the '.pgp' file extension appended to the file name. If the armor option is selected then the file will also have the '.asc' extension added to it, so the export file will end in '.pgp.asc'.

Time Period

The time period to use when searching for timesheets to export. For example, you might schedule the export to occur weekly, but want to export the previous week's timesheets.

Status

Select a value if you want to only export timesheets with a particular status, such as submitted or approved.

Group

Select a value if you want to only export timesheets for employees in a particular group.

Export Status

Select a value if you want to only export time entries that are either unexported or exported. Time entries are only marked as exported if the "Mark as Exported" option is selected (described below).

Mark as Exported

Checking this option will mark each exported time entry as having been exported. This works in conjunction with the "Export Status" filter option, described above.