Microsoft Dynamics GP Project Time & Expense (PTE) Workflow Best Practices when coming from Personal Data Keeper (PDK)

Have you taken the Project Time & Expense (PTE) plunge? With the nearing retirement of Personal Data Keeper (PDK) and Business Portal (BP), many users are looking for an alternative way to enter timesheets and employee expenses for processing in Project Accounting. In Microsoft Dynamics GP GP2013 R2, we introduced new functionality called Project Time and Expense that is completely built into Microsoft Dynamics GP, utilizing the Workflow 2.0 functionality. Keep in mind, PTE was not created as a one to one replacement for PDK, but is a new way to allow employees to submit and approve timesheets and employee expenses into the Project Accounting module. With many users upgrading to versions of Microsoft Dynamics GP that no longer support PDK and/or BP, there are some general practices that may help you be more efficient with your new PTE setup so let’s walk thru them together: 

1.  I would recommend watching this video to get familiar with PTE Workflows and see it in action. (documentation is also available on this link) 

https://community.dynamics.com/gp/b/dynamicsgp/archive/2015/12/21/on-demand-learning-pte-workflow-setup-and-overview-for-microsoft-dynamics-gp-2015

2. Eliminate the extra step from PDK where the user had to push the approved timesheets into GP.

In PDK after all the timesheets where submitted and approved, the timesheets essentially went into a batch for a ‘final approval’ where another user would push the data into Project Accounting.   With PTE we no longer need this last step.  The process is now streamlined in workflow so that when the timesheet or employee expense is submitted and final approved, it automatically is pushed into the Project Accounting module.  This is something to think about when you set up your workflow.  In most cases there is no reason for this extra approval step.

3. You can still perform edits to a timesheet or employee expense that was submitted incorrectly.

As the approver in Workflow for PTE, consider making your workflow approval process as streamlined as possible. For example, if you are supervisor and your job is to check timesheets and expenses for accuracy against the correct projects and cost categories, make this a one step approval. If your payroll clerk likes to do a final check before posting in Project, no worries, they can still do that on the Project Accounting side! When PTE transactions are approved, they move into a batch within Project Accounting. If the payroll clerk finds a discrepancy in that batch, they can fix it before posting or even after the transaction was already posted.

If you find an issue with the timesheet or employee expense that was entered after the final approval, and BEFORE the timesheet is posted to history in Project Accounting, then you can make your edits on the transactions itself directly in the unposted Project timesheets or Project Employee Expense.  This functionality is just like it was for PDK.   I advise users to make use of the billing notes to create an audit trail of your changes either on the line that you are adjusting or on the timesheet document itself (Project > Transactions > Timesheet Entry). 

Another option is to delete the lines for that timesheet, and have the employee submit and approve a new PTE timesheet or employee expense, once again using the billing notes for an audit trail of why a second timesheet was submitted thru PTE if audit trails are important to your business process.   

If you find an issue with the timesheet that was entered after approving the timesheet, and AFTER the timesheet is posted to history in Project Accounting, then you will want to make adjustments or reverse the entry, which once again functions just as it would have in PDK.  The link below has further details on your options for this. 

https://community.dynamics.com/gp/b/dynamicsgp/archive/2017/04/21/what-do-the-reverse-and-correct-buttons-do-in-the-select-timesheets-for-adjustment-window-for-project-accounting-in-microsoft-dynamics-gp

I hope you find these recommendations helpful as you take the plunge from PDK to PTE.