Phase 2 Release 3 enhancements: released for User Acceptance Testing

Phase 2 Release 3 was made available for UAT testing on Friday 19th October.  Most of the changes were covered by demos to stakeholders earlier in the week.  In addition, the following Release Notes were issued by the Development Lead.

Special Notes: 

1.  There is one feature relating to Research Timesheets that was not covered in the demos - BRD requirement 1.19 relating to the ability to view Timesheet Approvers has been implemented, allowing Research Approvers and Time Recorders to see the list of Approvers for a Timesheet by clicking the '?' icon alongside a listed Timesheet;

2.  Note also that Approvers and Admin users will see the new 'history' icon linking to the audit trail for Tasks, Pay Claims and Timesheets in the Approver dashboards, the Timesheet and Pay Claim pages and in Task Search Results. 

Release Notes:

Enhancements Included:

1. Task audit trail (BRD id 1.9)  https://www.jira.is.ed.ac.uk/jira/browse/FIN072-300

A Task History page similar to the Timesheet and Pay Claim History pages is now available to provide an audit trail of Task actions.  The Task History includes both Workflow and Task Editing activities and is accessible via a new icon in the following locations:

• viewing a Task list in a Timesheet;
• viewing a Task list in a Pay Claim;
• viewing Task Search Results;
• when viewing Tasks listed in a Time Recorders dashboard. 

As for the Timesheet and Pay Claim History, the icon is only accessible to Approvers and Admin users.

For consistency, the History icon is also shown in lists of Pay Claims and Timesheets to allow access to the Pay Claim or Timesheet History page.  This affects the following locations:

• viewing the Approve Timesheets dashboard;
• viewing a list of Timesheets for a Research Time Recorder;
• viewing the Approve Pay Claims dashboard;
• viewing a list of Pay Claims for an HTBN Time Recorder;
• viewing the user dashboard for a Research or HTBN Time Recorder.

*Note* that the Task History for a Research Task includes Timesheet History entries which show the Approval process as individual Task approval is not logged in a separate Audit entry.

*Note* that the Task History for an HTBN Task includes the Pay Claim entry made when the Pay Claim associated with the Task is Sent to Payroll as there is no individual Task Audit entry for this action.

*Note* that the addition of the new Task History icon means that certain pages which did not previously scroll must now scroll to allow for the additional width required for the Action column.

2.  Payroll Extract Costing Fields (BRD ID 1.22)  https://www.jira.is.ed.ac.uk/jira/browse/FIN072-378

The Account Code, Cost Centre and Job Code fields in the Payroll Extract now appear as three separate columns in the CSV file instead of appearing as a concatenated single value.

3.  Task Hours Validation - Duplicate Tasks (BRD ID ID 4.2)  https://www.jira.is.ed.ac.uk/jira/browse/FIN072-379

Validation now prevents a Task from being saved in the following situations:

• the Task spans a *single* day and there is already another Task which    overlaps with the specified Start and End Time;
• the Task spans *multiple* days and all date and time values are exactly the same as another Task (i.e. the Task is an exact duplicate).

The error validation appears in the same format as existing Task validation when the user tries to save the Task.

4.  Timesheet Approver Listing (BRD ID 1.19)  https://www.jira.is.ed.ac.uk/jira/browse/FIN072-387

A new icon appears for approvers when viewing the Approve Timesheets dashboard or the Timesheet listing for a Time Recorder.  The icon links to a list of Approvers for the Timesheet, showing the same information as the Approver lists for Pay Claims and Tasks.  The icon is also shown for Approvers when viewing the user dashboard for a Research Time Recorder.

Fixes Included:

1. Minor alterations to warnings related to HTBN Visa restrictions  https://www.jira.is.ed.ac.uk/jira/browse/FIN072-380

When an HTBN Timesheet has more than 80 hours for a Visa restricted Time Recorder, the following warnings now apply:

• when viewing the Timesheet, this text appears alongside the total hours    for the Timesheet - "Standard VISA hours exceeded!"
• when viewing any Pay Claim which includes Tasks for the Timesheet month,    this text appears at the top of the Pay Claim - "Standard VISA hours    exceeded for Timesheet dated <Month> <Year>."
• when creating or editing a Task for the Timesheet, this text appears when    saving the Task - "If you save this Task, the Timesheet will have a total of NN hours. This exceeds the Standard VISA 80 hours. Are you sure you want to save this Task?"

The behaviour on saving the Task is unchanged; the changes are merely textual.

2.  Terminated assignments showing as active in eTime  https://www.jira.is.ed.ac.uk/jira/browse/FIN072-381

The following changes have been made with regard to inactive Assignments:

• only Active Assignments may be selected when creating a Task;
• an inactive Assignment may be shown when viewing or editing a Task if the inactive Task Assignment is already selected (i.e. the Assignment was active when the Task was created);
• only active Assignments are listed in user details;
• only active Assignments are listed in the user info bar.

3.  Columns and fields in Internet Explorer  https://www.jira.is.ed.ac.uk/jira/browse/FIN072-382

Strange behaviour in IE 8 when scrolling horizontally in lists throughout eTime is now rectified (for example, the Payroll Extract, Task Search Results and Research Reports pages now all scroll correctly).  In addition, offset buttons in certain pages (e.g. User Search results and Task Search results) are now aligned correctly.

4.  Inappropriate approvers for Research Timesheets and Tasks  https://www.jira.is.ed.ac.uk/jira/browse/FIN072-383

Authorisation checks when generating a list of approvers for a Research Task now take into account the relative access of the Time Recorder and the Approver to ensure that no user is treated as an Approver for a Time Recorder where the Approver does not have the appropriate access.  For example, a Level 1 Approver for level 4 Cost Centre XXX will not be treated as an Approver for a Time Recorder who has higher Cost Centre access (e.g. level 2 or level 1).

5.  Task Search restricted based on user access instead of cost centre access  https://www.jira.is.ed.ac.uk/jira/browse/FIN072-384

When a Research Approver is using Task Search or is running the Research Project Summary Report, they are now able to see all Tasks which fall within their access settings. Previously, the Task Search checked to ensure that the Time Recorders for Tasks were accessible when an approver performed a search or ran a report. For reporting purposes, if a Research Approver has access to research projects within a specific cost centre, they should be able to see data relating to those research codes.  This access is now available in Task Search and Research Reports.

*Note* Where a user performing a search does *not* have access to the Time Recorder for a particular Task, they will be prevented from editing Tasks or Timesheets relating to that user - authorisation errors will be shown if they click on the Action icons associated with the Task.

6.  Application error when saving a Task with blank Hours field  https://www.jira.is.ed.ac.uk/jira/browse/FIN072-386

An application error no longer occurs when a user attempts to save a Task with a completely blank Hours field.  Instead, the appropriate validation is applied for the Task and any validation errors are shown.

7.  Task Type for Research Tasks disappearing after validation error  https://www.jira.is.ed.ac.uk/jira/browse/FIN072-388

The Task Type selection and list population no longer disappears when a new Task is being created and the Task fails validation.  

8.  Payroll extract screen showing un-multiplied hours  https://www.jira.is.ed.ac.uk/jira/browse/FIN072-389

The Payroll Extract screen now correctly shows the Multiplied Hours value in the Mult. Hours column instead of the actual Hours value.  

9.  Change to email address population  https://www.jira.is.ed.ac.uk/jira/browse/FIN072-391

The Email address for a user is no longer over-written by a NULL value when there is no email address in IDM.