We are working on a project to increase the utilization of Epicor. Right now we have several disconnected systems that have come into place over the years.
One of the challenges that I’m trying to work through time entry piece.
Right now, most of our sites are using a web based software, called Dovico, to capture time. Because of the way we manage the business today, this system is completely separated from Epicor and the two systems are merged through reporting when it comes to billing our customers.
A key piece of this Epicor project is to use the Project Management module, which will also rely on us entering our time into Epicor through the time entry screen.
This will create some pain during the change because people are leery about whether or not Epicor will have the same functionality that they are used to.
I am confident that I can customize the time entry screen in Epicor to add the features needed but at the end of the day, it will not be a web based solution. I do know that EWA exists but that would not be a viable solution.
My question is, does Epicor have either a native or 3rd party partner software that adds a web interface to capture time into Epicor and that maybe extends the functionality of time entry?
For example, we will be capturing time against jobs as well as projects. One key feature is being able to see and overview of time enter so far and time spent working on projects from the same screen as the time entry.
JOE ROJAS
Epicor Applications Manager
VENTION MEDICAL + DESIGN & DEVELOPMENT
Advancing Your Innovations For Health
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We were in a really similar boat. We ended up using Web Services to integrate the Epicor Project/Job/Asm/Op sequences into our timekeeper program. We sync them every hour, then once a week we run two separate processes. First we roll up the time and push into Epicor Payroll. Once Payroll is complete we push into the Time and Expense Entry Program. It’s on our books for the near future to add the ability so people can see hours logged against a project when clocking in.
Be glad to discuss this with you more if you want, not sure if this is something along the lines of what you are looking for or not.
Joe,
There are several methods, one which Bobby mentioned using web services. You could also compile the data for import with the Data Management Tool (DMT), or even use Epicor Service Connect. Not only do you have the mobile app capability, but you to have Epicor Web access, which allows you to enter in timesheets also.
I think that is all the methods I can think of.
Funnily I am just about to look at grabbing time data from Jira and putting it into E9, so I will keep people posted.
We are on 905.702A. When a user goes to clock out they get this screen, which basically filters down on Project information and Job/assm/operation information. It definitely took some time to setup, but has been working really well for us. It is very heavily customized on the PHP side. I know PHP isn’t the best for math, but we do a bunch of math to correct issues that occur when you push into time entry. For example, when you have salaried employees, their hours get put into time entry, if they work more than 40 hours, it continues to use the same labor rate, which will artificially inflate the labor costs against your project. So we have calculations to adjust the labor rate based on how many hours the employee worked that week, as a result we only push time into epicor once a week, so our epicor data lags behind a week. We have real time reported for hours only in our web applications:
Epicor Service Connect may be useful in using your existing time entry system, to import the data into Epicor. If you integrate two systems, keep in mind where the authoritative data will live; if it’s edited in one system it should probably be changed in the other when that happens as well as an initial import of new records. ESC would work through Epicor’s object methods to return errors when they exist, and it can also respond to those errors with a smart workflow if you can program for them.
Thanks all for the feedback.
I was initially tempted to get rid of the current time entry system and move it all to Epicor and customized as needed. I’m starting to second guess that approach because so much is invested in the current time system, both from a setup stand point and user bias towards it.
JOE ROJAS
Epicor Applications Manager
VENTION MEDICAL + DESIGN & DEVELOPMENT
DIRECT: 508.597.1392 x1625 | MOBILE: 774.826.9245
Update on our progress here. We are using a Jira plugin created by one of the guys here to automate the generation of a csv that is picked up by ESC. Based on our initial testing it is working (not in production yet). I was trying to bite off a bit too much initially and wanted to create my own assembly to access the Jira REST API and grab the data using a scheduled input channel, but decided to go with this as a first cut.
For us we have some generic phases and operations that time will go against so trying to synch project data is not an issue, but I am pretty sure that we could do that using the Jira REST.
Since you’re not on version 10 I’m adding this info for others viewing the thread.
There is a solution available on version 10 that is not very difficult to implement. You can co-opt the Mattec MES integration features for your own purposes to import job time entries. You can also use this to reschedule jobs etc.
Look for the MattecMES_DataImportExport_82.pdf on epicweb.
