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General Workspace Settings

  • Updated

The first menu option within Settings area (Figure 1) is called Workspace. This area contains the high-level configuration options for the workspace.

 

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Figure 1 - Workspace is the default, and first, option in the Settings area

 

The configuration sections available in Workspace Settings are:

 

Workspace Identification

The first section within Workspace is Workspace Identification (Figure 2). This section allows you to set the name of the workspace, upload a logo, and specify the unique workspace identifier. Note that the identifier must be unique across all Ruddr workspaces.  Also note that changing the unique workspace identifier will break existing links to the workspace.

 

Figure 2 - You Can Make Changes to Key Workspace Identifiers

 

Company Information

The Company Information section (Figure 3) allows you to manage your company name.

 

Figure 3 - Update Your Company Name

 

Business Days and Default Capacity

The Business Days and Default Capacity section (Figure 4) allows you to set your company's standard business days. This defaults to Monday through Friday but you can change this as needed.  When you add new members to your workspace, their default capacity will be the number of Capacity Hours Per Day for each of the standard business days that you set in this section.

 

Figure 4 - Manage Your Organization's Business Days

 

Regional Settings

The Regional Settings section (Figure 5) provides you with the ability to set default settings for time zone, currency, and regional format. The regional format affects date, time, number, and currency format. By specifying these defaults, you are establishing the default settings for the workspace. Each member, however, has the ability to specify their own, preferred regional settings through the My Profile screen. 

 

Figure 5 - Configure the Default Date, Time, Number, and Currency Formatting for your Workspace

 

Default Time Format

The Default Time Format section (Figure 6) allows you to specify the default time display format that will be used for new workspace members. You can select either clock format (1:30) or decimal format (1.5). Note that here you are merely controlling the default setting; workspace members have the ability to set their own preferred format within the My Profile screen. Hours can be typed into Ruddr's time screens in either clock or decimal format and will be automatically converted to the member's preferred format. Reports and invoices in Ruddr always use decimal format.

 

Figure 6 - Set the Default Time Format for Members of Your Workspace

 

Time and Expense Settings

The Time and Expenses Settings section (Figure 7) allows you to adjust settings related to:

  • Acceptable time and expense dates
  • Holiday time entry creation
  • Expense project requirements
  • Permit members to copy time entries from the previous week
  • Time and expense locking

For more information on locking, see the time entry locking article.

 

Figure 7 - Configure Various Time and Expense Settings for Your Workspace

 

When the option Time and expenses must be created within the project start and end dates is checked, the following is true when creating a time and / or expense entry for the a specific project:

  • If the project does not have either date specified, a time and / or expense entry can be created for any date.
  • If the project only has a start date, then Ruddr will only ensure that the entries are created for dates after the start date.
  • If the project only has an end date, then Ruddr will ensure that entries are created for dates before that end date.
  • When both dates are specified on a project, Ruddr will ensure that the entries are created for dates within the start and end date range.

When the option Automatically create holiday time off entries is checked, Ruddr will evaluate your members' holiday schedule, and will create holiday time off entries for your members. These time off entries are created at the beginning of the week (Monday morning) in which the holiday occurs. Any holiday time off entry created by Ruddr can be edited / deleted just like any other time entry for that week, provided it is not locked by general time locking rules (such as timesheet submission, for example).

 

Time and Expense Notifications and Reminders

The Time and Expense Notifications and Reminders section (Figure 8) of Workspace Settings provides a number of options for reminding workspace members to enter, submit, and / or approve time and expense at a determined interval. There are three classifications of reminders that can be configured:

 

Figure 8 - Configure Notifications / Reminders for Time Entry, Submission, and Approval

 

In Ruddr, Missing Time is a capacity-based calculation, comparing a member's capacity for a period to the number of hours entered for that same period. If a member has entered fewer hours than their capacity, that member is considered to have missing time.

Unsubmitted Time in Ruddr refers to any time entries that have yet to be submitted for approval, or those time entries in a "Not Submitted" status.

For workspaces that have the Timesheets feature enabled, Unsubmitted Timesheets refers to timesheets that may or may not have time entries, but have yet to be submitted.

Missing Time Reminders

Missing Time reminders (Figure 10) notify members that they are missing time for a specific period. As stated above, this is a capacity-driven calculation, meaning that a member's capacity is evaluated to determine if they have entered enough hours for a period.

 

Figure 10 - Elect to Send Missing Time Reminders to Members in your Workspace

 

Notification Delivery

  • Daily: these are sent at 9 pm in the user's time zone
  • Weekly:  sent on Monday mornings at 3 am in the user's time zone
  • Monthly:  sent on the 1st of the month at 3 am in the user's time zone

Unsubmitted Time / Timesheet Reminders

For workspaces that are do not have the Timesheets feature enabled, Workspace Admins can elect to send member reminders that they have unsubmitted hours for the period. Similar to the Missing Time reminders (Figure 10), these Unsubmitted Time reminders (Figure 11) can be sent daily, weekly, and / or monthly.

 

Figure 11 - Send Unsubmitted Time Reminders to Members in your Workspace

 

Notification Delivery

  • Daily: these are sent at 9 pm in the user's time zone
  • Weekly:  sent on Monday mornings at 3 am in the user's time zone
  • Monthly:  sent on the 1st of the month at 3 am in the user's time zone

Timesheets

For workspaces that do have Timesheets enabled, workspace admins can elect to send timesheet submission reminders (Figure 12).

 

Figure 12 - Configure Unsubmitted Timesheet Reminders

 

Enabling this setting will ensure that an email reminder is sent to any workspace member who has not submitted a timesheet for the current week or any of the four previous weeks. The reminder can be scheduled at the preferred hour on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday. The reminder will be sent at the designated time in each workspace member’s local time zone. Optionally, you can Cc the member's manager on this reminder email.

Manager and Approver Notifications

For Workspace Admins that are looking to delegate the responsibility of tracking down missing time, Ruddr can send weekly notifications to all managers in the workspace that have direct reports with missing or unsubmitted time.  To enable this, check the corresponding box (Figure 9) in Time and Expense Settings.

Approver notifications (Figure 9) send emails to members to notify them that they have items in their approval queue. Manager notifications provide managers with insights into any of their direct reports that have missing time or unsubmitted time.

For workspaces that leverage Multi-Step Approval Workflow, it is important to note the following with regards to time and expense notifications / reminders (Figure 9).  These notifications / reminders will be sent to any / all approvers listed for the current step in the approval workflow.  For example, if an approval workflow is currently in Step 2 of 3, and there are three approvers listed for Step 2, all three approvers will receive a notification and will also receive an approval reminder if either of these options (Figure 9) are enabled.

 

Figure 9 - Enabling Time and Expense Approval Notifications and Reminders

 

Notification Delivery

  • Weekly manager notifications are sent once a week, on Monday mornings at 3 am in the user's time zone.
  • Time and Expense approval notifications are sent immediately when a time entry or expense item needs approval.
  • Daily approval reminders are sent at 9 am in the user's time zone.

Timesheet Settings

For workspaces that leverage the Timesheets feature, the Timesheets Settings section (Figure 13) will be available. In this section, Workspace Administrators can configure automatic timesheet submission and timesheet unsubmission rules.

 

Figure 13 - Configure Timesheet Submission and Unsubmission Settings

 

Automatic Timesheet Submission

In some circumstances, you may want to automatically submit timesheets on behalf of members that have yet to submit them in an appropriate timeframe. There are two options available (Figure 14) in Timesheet Settings to have Ruddr automatically submit timesheets for members.

  1. You can submit timesheets for the previous week on a given day of the next week.
  2. You can also submit all timesheets for the previous month on a given day of the new month.

With regards to the automatic submission of timesheets, note that Ruddr will only attempt to submit completed weeks. Ruddr will not attempt to submit timesheets for weeks that are still in progress.

Also, Ruddr will not submit a timesheet that does not meet capacity requirements if the "Do not allow timesheet submission until this member's capacity is met" setting on their Member Profile is checked.

 

Figure 14 - Configure Automatic Timesheet Submission in your Workspace

 

In either case, members will receive an email notification (Figure 15) letting them know that their timesheet was automatically submitted. This adds efficiency to the oversight and management of timesheet submission in the workspace.

 

Figure 15 - Email Notification of Automatically Submitted Timesheets

 

Timesheet Unsubmission Rules

When a workspace member submits a timesheet, that member may later realize they need to make a correction. In that scenario, the member needs to unsubmit the timesheet, make the correction, and then resubmit the timesheet. In many cases, a workspace may wish to allow members to unsubmit their timesheet for some period of time, as it reduces the administrative burden that would otherwise fall on senior-level personnel. Ruddr provides workspace settings (Figure 16) that allow the Workspace Admin to identify the scenarios in which timesheet unsubmission will be prohibited.

 

Figure 16 - Prohibiting a Member from Unsubmitting a Timesheet

 

Client Settings

The Client Settings section (Figure 17) allows you to specify the default payment terms for clients in the workspace. These payment terms will be set by default when you initially create a client.

These settings also allow workspaces to turn on automatic client codes, similar to the what is available in Project Settings.  With automatic client codes, you can specify a format for the code (Figure 18) and each new client created in the workspace will be assigned a client code with that format. Additionally, you can specify whether you want to require unique client codes throughout the workspace. When this setting is checked, a client's settings can not be saved if the client code already exists on another client within the workspace.

 

Figure 17 - Turn on Automatic Client Codes

 

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Figure 18 - Configure the Seed Number and Format of Automatic Client Codes

 

Project Settings

The Project Settings section (Figure 19) allows you to configure project defaults for every new project that gets created in the workspace. For more information about project settings, see the create a new project article.

You can also turn on automatic project codes in this section. With automatic project codes, you can specify a format for the code (Figure 20) and each new project created in the workspace will be assigned a project code with that format. Additionally, you can specify whether you want to require unique project codes throughout the workspace. When this setting is checked, a project's settings can not be saved if the project code already exists on another project within the workspace.

Lastly, if the Multi-Step Approval Workflow feature is turned on in your workspace, you can manage the default approval workflow for time and expense.

 

Figure 19- Specify Default Settings for Projects in Your Workspace

 

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Figure 20- Configure the Seed Number and Format for Automatic Project Codes

 

Allocation Settings

For workspaces that leverage the Resource Allocations feature in Ruddr, the Allocation Settings section (Figure 21) give you the ability to set defaults related to resource allocations. When creating an allocation, you can specify a number of allocated hours for each resource. You can allocate by day / week / month, apply a total number of hours, or allocation based on a percentage of a member's capacity. Here, you can specify the default allocation method setting for the workspace. Additionally, you can default whether or not new allocations will override a member's time off.

 

Figure 21 - Configured Default Allocation Settings

 

Lastly, if you would like for a member's allocations to be shown on the week view of the time screen, you can enable that in this section of workspace settings. This will allow members to quickly create time entries from their allocations.

Utilization Settings

The Utilization Settings section (Figure 22) allows you to manage how utilization may be displayed or tracked in the workspace. By checking the Default utilization values to adjust for Time Off, each screen and or report that allows you to view utilization and Adjust for Time Off will default to this setting being turned on. When any Adjust for Time Off setting is applied when viewing utilization, the capacity being leveraged in utilization calculations is reduced by the number of time off hours taken during the period. 

 

Figure 22 - Configure the Default for Time-off Adjusted Utilization 

 

For more on this Adjust for Time Off setting, please refer to the Personal Dashboard and / or Utilization Reports articles in the Ruddr Help Center.

 

Task Settings

The Task Settings section (Figure 23) allows you to turn on automatic task codes, similar to the what is available in both Client Settings and Project Settings.  With automatic task codes, you can specify a format for the code (Figure 24) and each new task created in the workspace will be assigned a task code with that format. Additionally, you can specify whether you want to require unique task codes throughout the workspace. When this setting is checked, a task's settings can not be saved if the task code already exists on another task within the workspace.

 

Figure 23 - Turn on Automatic Task Codes

 

Figure 24 - Configure the Seed Number and Format of Automatic Task Codes

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