Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

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OroTimesheet is a web application for project time tracking. It allows you to record the time each employee spends on your various projects. In addition to time tracking, it also supports cost tracking, billing, expense management, and employee time bank management.

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Before entering timesheets, you must first create the following basic elements in this order:

1. Create your employees (Employees tab)
2. Create your customers and projects (Projects tab)
3. If needed, define your activity types (Activity Types tab)

Once these three elements are in place, you and your employees can start entering timesheets.

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• An Employee can have timesheets.
• A Software-only User cannot have timesheets. This type is intended for supervisors or administrative staff who manage the software without entering time. Access for this type of user is free.

You can change a user’s type at any time.

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Go to the Employees tab and click New Employee. You must enter a name and an email address. Check the Notify the employee by email box so that the employee receives an automated email containing a URL allowing them to choose their password. The employee can then log in using their email and password. They can also reset their password by clicking Forgot password on the login screen.

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OroTimesheet distinguishes two types of rights:

• Access rights: allow an employee to access specific features in the software (e.g., customer management, reports, etc.). These are configured in the Security section of the employee record.
• Supervision rights: allow an employee to view and approve other employees’ timesheets. A supervisor has access to the Costs, Billing and Expenses sections of the timesheets of the employees he/she supervises.

These rights can also be assigned to employee groups, and an employee automatically inherits all the rights of every group they belong to.

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Go to the Timesheets tab. Select the week. Two entry modes are available:

• Standard entry mode: add one time transaction at a time by clicking Add time under the desired day.
• Quick entry mode: enter time directly in a grid, row by row, across multiple days. Ideal for quickly capturing time across multiple projects.

Each transaction must include at minimum: a project, an activity type, and the number of hours worked.

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You can enter durations in two ways:

• Hours:minutes format: e.g., 2:30 for 2 hours and 30 minutes
• Decimal format: e.g., 2.5 or 2,5 for 2 hours and 30 minutes

To enter 15 minutes, you can type .25, ,25, or :15. On a mobile device where the keyboard does not display the : character, you can substitute it with two consecutive periods (..) or two consecutive commas (,,). For example, 2..30 will be interpreted as 2:30.

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Go to the Timer tab and click Start a new timer. Select the project, sub-project (if applicable), and activity type, then click Start. You can:

• Run multiple timers simultaneously
• Pause one timer without stopping others
• Leave the application without losing the count — the timer continues running server-side

When you click Stop, a window appears allowing you to adjust or round the elapsed time before it is converted into a time transaction in your timesheet.

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In the desktop view, go to the Timesheets tab for the relevant week and click Submit for approval. In the mobile view, open the menu (top right corner) and select Submit for approval.

Once submitted, the timesheet can no longer be modified. The supervisor can approve or reject it. If rejected, the employee receives an email with the reason for rejection and can make corrections and resubmit.

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Go to the Timesheets tab, select the employee from the drop-down list, and navigate to the relevant week. Click Approve this timesheet to approve it, or Reject this timesheet to reject it. When rejecting, you can enter a reason and check Notify the employee to send an automatic email.

The Dashboard tab also gives you a quick overview of the timesheet status for all the employees you supervise.

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Go to the Projects tab and click New Project. You must enter a unique description for the project and associate it with a customer. If the customer does not yet exist, type their name directly in the Customer field — it will be automatically created when you save the project. You can complete the customer record (address, email, etc.) later via the Customers tab.

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Yes. Sub-projects are optional but useful for organizing a project into phases or stages. To add them, open the project record and click New sub-project. Each sub-project must have a description that is unique within the project. Sub-projects can have their own budget and time bank that are separate from the main project.

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In the project record, you can choose between two modes:

• Fixed price: OroTimesheet will never invoice more than the fixed amount you specify. You define the expected number of invoices and the percentage to bill for each.
• Hourly based on timesheets: every billable hour entered is invoiced according to the applicable rate.

This setting is especially important when generating invoices automatically.

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Go to the Invoices tab and click Generate invoices. You must:

1. Specify the date up to which unbilled transactions should be included
2. Optionally filter by customer, project, activity type or even employee
3. Choose whether to generate one invoice per customer, per project, or per sub-project
4. Review the proposed invoices list and uncheck any you do not want to generate yet

OroTimesheet automatically marks invoiced transactions to prevent duplicates. If you delete an invoice, the transactions become uninvoiced again and can be re-invoiced.

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Billing rates can be defined at multiple levels, from most general to most specific:

• By employee or activity type: in the employee or group record
• By customer: in the Special billing rates section of the customer record
• By project: in the Special billing rates section of the project record
• Based on multiple criteria: via the Advanced calculation rules option

In case of conflict, the rate defined at the project level overrides the customer level, which in turn overrides the employee level. The correct rate is automatically entered in the employee’s timesheet, even if they do not have access to billing information.

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Each employee has three time banks: Accumulated time, Vacations, and Sick. An administrator must manually run the Update employee time banks option (from the More tab).

During this update, the software compares the actual time worked to the expected number of hours per week (Time usually worked per week). Overtime is added to the Accumulated time bank, and absence hours are deducted from the Vacations or Sick leave bank based on the project used to record them.

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For an absence to be properly reflected when updatine time banks, the employee must enter time on a project linked to the Vacations or Sick leave time bank. OroTimesheet includes a default project called Vacation / Leave with sub-projects Paid Vacation / Leave, Paid Sick Leave, and Unpaid Leave, all already correctly configured.

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Expenses are entered within a time transaction. From the transaction detail view, click Add expense in the Expenses section. You must select an expense type, enter a quantity, and provide a cost. Expense types are managed via More > Other options > Expense types.

The employee can take a photo of the receipt and attach it directly to the expense by clicking the paperclip icon.

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User defined fields allow you to store company-specific information in the following modules: Customers, Projects, Sub-projects, Activity types, Employees, Timesheets and Invoices. Available types include: Character string, Integer number, Decimal number, Currency, Text, Date, Time, Date and time, Dropdown list, Radio buttons, Check box, Duration and Hyperlink (URL).

To add a custom field, go to More > Configuration > User defined fields. Once created, it is immediately available in the chosen module and can be used in filters and reports.

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The Quick Reports/Exports option (More > Reports) allows you to create custom reports in 7 steps:

1. Select a report template
2. Choose the columns to display
3. Define the sort order
4. Set filtering criteria
5. If needed, configure additional settings (e.g., skip detail rows)
6. Run the report (available formats: HTML, Excel, CSV, PDF, and more)
7. Save the report for future use

Saved reports can be shared with other users by checking Share this report with other users.

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Fiscal periods allow you to block edits to timesheets for a given period. When a period is set to Closed, all time transactions dated within that period become read-only, regardless of whether they have been approved by supervisors or not.

To access this option: More > Configuration | Fiscal Periods. You can reopen or close a period with a single click at any time.

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Yes, via the Timesheet batch update option (More tab). This feature allows you to modify a field (e.g., project, billing rate) across a large number of transactions in a single operation, based on specific criteria. This operation is irreversible: carefully review your criteria before proceeding.

Note that already-invoiced transactions cannot be updated through this option. To modify them, you must first delete the associated invoice so that the transactions become uninvoiced again.

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Yes. OroTimesheet is compatible with OpenID Connect and supports SSO via Microsoft, Google, and Apple. You can configure the allowed authentication methods from More > Configuration > Application configuration > Authentication. You can even require users to log in exclusively through SSO by disabling standard email/password login.

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Yes. OroTimesheet can synchronize with the online version of QuickBooks via More > Synchronize with > QuickBooks. You can sync your customers, projects, and sub-projects, and transfer invoices directly from OroTimesheet to QuickBooks. Synchronization is performed manually, whenever you choose.

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If you are using OroTimesheet (no matter the version you are using), you can simply send us your database file and we will be glad to transfer your data in the online version. This service is entirely free of charge. See below how to proceed according to your version of OroTimesheet.

To know which file you have to send us, please refer to the section below that match the version of OroTimesheet you are currently using. Once you have located or created the file (as the case may be), here is how you can send us your file:

If you want to send us the file by e-mail, please, compress (ZIP) the file before sending it. Indeed, large files may not be accepted by your e-mail server. Just send us the file at support@OroTimesheet.com.

We are providing you with a web page allowing you to send us your file using a simple web browser. Simply access the page at http://upload.orologic.com to upload your file.

If you prefer, you can upload the file in your DropBox, Google Drive, Box, OneDrive or any other account type then send us the url to download it. In such case, just fill in a request then paste the url in the description.

Go physically to the computer (or server) where is located the OroTimesheet 7 database. Indeed, this operation must be performed directly from the computer that holds OroTimesheet 7 data.

From this computer, run OroTimesheet 7 then select the menu Tools | Backup then answer Yes to the confirmation message to start the backup. Once the backup is done, click Ok to close the box telling you that the backup was successfully performed.

Next, check the box Copy the file on a USB key or elsewhere then click button Close. A window to allow you to save the file will be displayed and you will just have to select the location where you want to save the file then click the button Save to save it. Before clicking the button Save, please write down or remember the filename. This filename contains a serie of numbers and ends with the extension .fbk. This is this file you need to send to us.

Run OroTimesheet 6 then select menu Tools | Backup then write down the path as well as the name of the backup file the program is displaying on screen. This filename contains a serie of numbers and ends with the extension .fbk. This is this file you need to send to us. Once the filename written down, click the button Start Backup to start the backup. Once the backup is done, please send us the file.

The file that you have to send us is usually named ot.fdb and is located in the OroTimesheet 5 installation folder (usually C:\Program Files\OroLogic\OroTimesheet5) on the computer or server where are located your OroTimesheet 5 data.

The file that you have to send us is usually named ot4.gdb and is located in the OroTimesheet 4 installation folder (usually C:\Program Files\OroLogic\OroTimesheet4) on the computer or server where are located your OroTimesheet 4 data.

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Several printed form and report models are already included with OroTimesheet. For example, when you print an invoice, OroTimesheet will automatically print on it, the information and your company logo as you have entered it in the Information about your company option. User defined fields that you checked the box Print this user defined field on forms and reports will be printed as well on invoices. However, you cannot customize the layout of these forms and reports.

If you do not want to use the models already included for free with OroTimesheet, we can develop for you a printed form or report specific to your needs. This service starts as low as 225$ CAD per printed form or report and can vary according to the complexity of changes to produce. If you are interested in such service, here is how to proceed:

1. Simply fill-in a request via the option Help and Support and tell us the exact name of the printed form or report that is the most closer to what you need.

2. Provide us a description of customization that you would like to get (for example, adding new fields).

3. If you made a sketch of what you would like to get, send it also to us by e-mail to support@OroTimesheet.com.

Once these information are received, we will send you a quote by e-mail. If some information are missing to proceed with the quote, we will contact you.

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There is no option into OroTimesheet allowing you to import data such as your customer or equipment list.

Data import is a service that we are offering at a fixed cost of 125$ CAD per module. We can import data in the following modules: Customers, Projects, Activity types, Employees and Types of expense.

If you are interested in such service, just send your file(s) to import by e-mail to support@OroTimesheet.com and indicate the module in which you want to import these data. Once your data is verified, if we can import it, we will let you know how to proceed.

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If you are currently renting licenses of OroTimesheet (no matter the version), you can migrate for free to the Web version. To do so, simply fill out a request via the option Help and Support and give us information about your company. Once verifications performed into our records, we will manually adjust the ending date of your subscription at the same ending date of your actual rental licenses plus 3 free months to thank you for being a user of a previous version of OroTimesheet. The number of employees will also be adjusted according to the number of rental licenses of OroTimesheet you currently hold. If your rental licenses do not have all the same expiration date, the ending date of subscription will be prorated. The next renewal will have to be done according to the prices and terms in force of the Web version.

If you purchased licenses of OroTimesheet (no matter the version), and you want to migrate to the Web version, you are also eligible for 3 free months of subscription of the Web version to thank you for being a user of a previous version of OroTimesheet. To take advantage of this offer, you must first subscribe for the Web version. Once your subscription paid and in good standing, simply fill in a request via the option Help and Support giving us information about your company. Once verifications performed into our records, we will add, for free, 3 months to your subscription, regardless of the number of employees of your subscription.

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When you send e-mails via the application (eg when a timesheet was rejected), OroTimesheet can use the e-mail address you indicated in your employee file as the sender address.

In most cases, OroTimesheet.com will be able to send e-mails to your employees on your behalf without any problems. However, in some cases it may happen that the recipient does not receive your e-mail.

Indeed, to avoid fraudulent emails or prevent spam, some mail servers are doing additional verifications and will not accept your e-mails if they are not coming from servers that have been previously authorized.

Usually, the way to allow a server to send e-mails on your behalf is using a record of type SPF in the DNS of your domain name.

Since by default, OroTimesheet.com servers are not allowed to send e-mails on your behalf, in this case, you have to add their names in the DNS for your domain name using an SPF record.

Here is what you need to add in your existing SPF record to allow OroTimesheet.com servers to send emails on your behalf: include:spf-for-apps.orotimesheet.com

Ask your computer technician or the person in charge or your web site or domain name to add it in the SPF record of your DNS domain name. If you do not already have an SPF record into your DNS, just create a new one.

Here is an example of an SPF record entry that you could add into the DNS of your domain name: v=spf1 mx a include:spf-for-apps.orotimesheet.com ~all

In addition to updating your SPF record in your DNS, we also recommend adding the following two CNAME entries in your DNS:

Type : CNAME
Host : orotimesheet-1._domainkey
Points to : orotimesheet-1._domainkey.orotimesheet.com.

Type : CNAME
Host : orotimesheet-2._domainkey
Points to : orotimesheet-2._domainkey.orotimesheet.com.

In fact, to help prevent spam and phishing, our servers comply with the DKIM standard and sign all emails sent. By adding the two CNAME entries above in your DNS, our servers will be able to sign e-mails with your domain name. This will make it even more likely that e-mails sent by our servers on your behalf will arrive in the recipient’s inbox and not in their SPAM folder.

More information about records of type SPF.

More information about DKIM standard.

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OroTimesheet.com is a Web application (Web app) that can be used using a simple Web browser. OroTimesheet.com can therefore be used on a desktop computer, a tablet or a smartphone.

Usually, to access OroTimesheet.com, you just open your Web browser then go to the site OroTimesheet.com. However, if you wish, you can create a shortcut on your home screen that will automatically open OroTimesheet.com with a simple touch.

To create a shortcut, launch your Web browser then go to OroTimesheet.com. Once on the Web site, log in to your account using your e-mail and password. You are now ready to create your shortcut as follows:

The procedure can vary according to the Web browser you are using (Safari, Chrome, Firefox, Opera, Edge, etc.) but it is usually the same principle. Just tap the Menu button which is usually located at the top right corner of the screen and is often represented by 3 dots or 3 horizontal bars. For Opera, this button is usually located at the bottom right. For Safari, tap the Share icon instead, represented by a rectangle with an arrow pointing upward. Once you identified the button, tap it then tap Add to home screen. The browser will suggest a name for the shortcut that you can change then tap Add and a new icon will be added in your home screen.

To test it out, go to the home screen, look for the new icon and tap it to access OroTimesheet.com.

A Web app is, in fact, an app that you do not need to download or install beforehand. Instead, you access a Web app through your Web browser by going to the application’s website such as OroTimesheet.com.

The main benefit of a Web app is that it will work regardless of the type of device you are using, whether it is iOS, Android, Windows, BlackBerry or anything else. In short, a simple Web browser is enough to run a Web app. For further information, visit the Wikipedia Web site at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_application.

Depending on the browser you’re using, if you answered NO to the question asking you if want to share your location with the app.OroTimesheet.com website, the browser will not ask you again.

If you’ve changed your mind and want to share your location so that you can see your current location on the OroTimesheet application’s map, see below for instructions on how to tell your browser to ask you the question again.

Once the browser asks you the question again, answer YES. You can also select the option Always share my location so that the browser does not ask you each time.

Note that you can go back to your web browser’s settings at any time to disable this option.

The explanations below are quite general and may vary according to the platform (desktop computer, tablet, smartphone, etc.), the web browser (Safari, Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Edge, etc.), as well as the version of the browser you are using. However, the principle remains the same. If your platform or browser is not listed below, simply go to your browser settings and look for an option that allows you to change or reset the location settings.

Click the menu button and choose Settings (The menu button is usually displayed at the top right corner and is represented by three horizontal lines). Click Show advanced settings. Click the button Content settings in the Privacy section. From there, scroll down to the section Location then click the button Manage exceptions. From there, select the site app.OroTimesheet.com in the list and then click the X to delete it. Click the Finished button to close the window. Do the same for the other window.

Next, go to the OroTimesheet application site (usually app.OroTimesheet.com), log in to your account and this time, answer Allow to the question about sharing your location.

Go to the OroTimesheet application site (usually app.OroTimesheet.com) and log in to your account. Go to the Tools menu, then select Page Info (If the menu bar is hidden, see how to show it again below). Select the Permissions tab. Change the Share Location settings (This option can have a different name such as Access Your Location) by selecting Allow.

Click the menu button and choose Customize (The menu button is usually displayed at the top right corner and is represented by three horizontal lines). Click the Show/Hide Toolbars dropdown menu at the bottom of the screen and check the option Menu Bar. Click the green Exit Customize button once done.

Click the Settings button and choose Preferences (The Settings button is usually displayed at the top right corner and is represented by a gear). Select the Privacy tab. In the section Limit website access to location services, select the option Prompt for each website one time only. If this option was already selected, select another option and then select that option again so that Safari resets.

Next, go to the OroTimesheet application site (usually app.OroTimesheet.com), log in to your account and, this time, answer Allow to the question about sharing your location. Also check the box Remember my decision and dont ask me again.

Note: After followed this procedure, if Safari still does not ask you to share your location, click once again on the Settings button menu and select the option Reset Safari. From there, uncheck all options except Reset all location warnings then click Reset.

Click the Settings button and choose Internet Options (The Settings button is usually displayed at the top right corner and is represented by a gear). Select the Privacy tab. Be sure that the box Never allow websites to request your physical location is unchecked. Next, click the button Clear Sites then click OK to close this window.

Next, navigate to the OroTimesheet application site (usually app.OroTimesheet.com) and log in to your account. When the browser asks you if you want app.OroTimesheet.com to track your physical location, click the Options for this site button and select Always allow.

Go to Settings, Privacy ,then Location Services and activate Location Services.

If Location Services are already enabled, you should see the name of your web browser listed below. Click the web browser name and select the option While using the App. If your browser is not listed, it is probably because Location Services have not yet been enabled. In such cases, just continue to the next step.

Return to your browser (Safari or other), go to the OroTimesheet application site (usually app.OroTimesheet.com) and log in to your account. The web browser should ask you two questions and you must answer YES to both of them.

The first one is Allow "Browser" to access your location while you use the app? Click on Allow.

Then, the second one is "https://app.OroTimesheet.com" would like to use your current location. Click OK.

Note: If Location Services were already enabled but the web browser does not ask you the question, do the following: Go to Settings, General then Reset. Click on Reset Location & Privacy. Your iPad security code will be required. Enter it then click on Reset.

Click the menu button and choose Settings. (The menu button is usually displayed at the top right corner and is represented by three horizontal dots.) Click Settings, Site settings, then Location. From there, click on https://app.OroTimesheet.com then on Clear & Reset.

Next, go to the OroTimesheet application site (usually app.OroTimesheet.com) and log in to your account. The web browser should now ask you to share your location. Answer YES.

Click the menu button and choose Settings. (The menu button is usually displayed at the top right corner and is represented by three horizontal dots.) Click Settings, Clear Private Data, then check the box Site settings only and click CLEAR DATA.

Next go to the OroTimesheet application site (usually app.OroTimesheet.com) and log in to your account. The web browser should now ask you to share your location. Answer YES.

Simply go to your browser settings and look for an option that allows you to change or reset the location settings. Refer to your device documentation if needed.