Symptom
When creating a time entry against a project task, if the Duration and Billable Hours fields are left blank, the system allows the time entry to be activated.
After activation, the system automatically determines the Billable Hours based on the employee's assigned work schedule/time model. This may result in time being recorded beyond the planned working hours.
Environment
SAP Business ByDesign
Reproducing the Issue
- Go to Time Administration work center.
- Select Employees view.
- Search for Employee ABC ( ABC means Employee).
- Select Edit and Navigate to Employee Times Tab.
- Create a new Time Entry against a project task.
- Leave the Duration field blank.
- Leave the Billable Hours field blank.
- Select Action and Activate.
The time entry is successfully activated without a manually entered duration.
Cause
For time entries booked against a project task, the working time must be maintained as part of the standard time-recording procedure.
When the Duration is not manually entered and the time entry is activated, the system determines the Billable Hours based on the employee's assigned work schedule/time model.
For example, if the employee's work schedule is defined as 8 hours per day, the system may determine the billable hours based on the planned daily working hours when the Billable Hours field is left blank.
This is the current standard system behavior.
Resolution
When creating a time entry against a project task, users should always maintain the actual time worked before activating the entry.
- The Duration or Start/End Time should not be left blank when activating a time entry.
- For example, if an employee worked for 4 hours on a project task, enter Duration: 4 hours.
- Alternatively, maintain the corresponding Start Time and End Time.
- This ensures that the actual working time is explicitly recorded and prevents the system from determining the billable hours solely based on the employee's work schedule.
Currently, the system allows a time entry to be activated even when the Duration and Start/End Time are not maintained.
A product improvement is planned to prevent such inconsistent time recordings by displaying an error when the required time information is missing.
The change requires an impact analysis and validation of all relevant time-recording scenarios. Therefore, the correction will be considered for a future release.
Until this improvement is available, ensure that Duration or Start/End Time is maintained when creating and activating time entries against project tasks.
Keywords
time recording, exceeds planned work, overbooking, planned quantity, duration blank, billable blank, timesheet, time administration, activate entry, validation, project settings, outside planned period, working days plan, SAP Business ByDesign , KBA , AP-TIM , Time and Labour Management , Problem
SAP Knowledge Base Article - Public