Tempo "Grace Hours" and "Date from" and "Date to" - please explain

[William Judd]

Tempo Grace Period dialog has "Grace Hours" and also start and end dates. How do these work, exactly? 

At what time do the grace hours start? As of the configured closing time of the period? Or as of the "Date from" value set in this dialog? Or are the hours configured here ignored when the dates are populated? Or do the dates refer to time periods for the timesheets and the Grace Hours are separate?

Example: Joe Smith asked me today (3/13/2023) to give him more time to enter his hours worked for the week ending 3/4/2023. That timesheet normally closed on 3/8/2023. If I configure a grace period for Joe and enter some numerical value in the Grace Hours field, when does that extension begin and end? If I enter 2 hours, does it mean he now has two hours to complete his entries? Or do I need to enter a value that extends the time from when the timecard was closed (5 days x 24 hours + some more hours)?

Thanks!

[Susanne Götz _Tempo_ · Accepted solution]

Hi @William Judd

The time you enter into the "Grace Hours" fields is the time the user has now to make the required changes. Once this time has elapsed, the Timesheet will be closed again (see also Granting a Grace Period to Team Members 

Please note that for grace periods to work, the Timesheet must be in an open status in teh Approval process (not  in "Waiting for Approval" or "Approved" status) adn the period needs to be open in the Tempo, Period Management (see Closing and opening timesheet periods manually .

Best regards,
Susanne Götz
Tempo team 

[William Judd]

Thanks, Susanne. The information that's missing from the documentation (at least, I couldn't find it anywhere), is the specification about the start time of the grace period. I have read everything available, so I already understand the rest of the configuration details and constraints.

Your statement hints at an answer, "is the time the user has now" - meaning, starting from when I click Save on the Grace Period dialog. Is that the specification? Grace Period 'timer' starts when I click Save?

[Susanne Götz _Tempo_]

@William Judd 

 the timer starts counting from the moment you click the "Add Grace Period" in the dialog.

Best regards,
Susanne

[William Judd]

Thank you much, Susanne!

It would be great to add that to the documentation. I don't think it's clear.

[Edna Kruger]

@William Judd Our team is on it - thanks for bringing up the topic!

[Dave Mathijs]

Hi @William Judd 

If your Tempo administrator has configured the Scheduler to automatically close periods for logging time, you can grant a grace period to a team member who needs additional time to complete or edit their timesheet after the period has closed. The grace period can be granted only to a user whose timesheet is open.

The number of hours entered for the grace period is the amount of time in which the user can add or edit their worklogs following the end period.

[William Judd]

Dave - thanks for trying - question is: when does the grace period start?

[Dave Mathijs]

It's the number of hours defined after 3/8/2023.

So 2 hours after 3/8/2023 should be 4/8/2023 2 AM if I understand correctly.

I would at least add a 12h or 24h grace period.

[Dave Mathijs]

Sorry I got it wrong @William Judd , I just saw @Susanne Götz _Tempo_ 's answer. Now it's clear for me too.

[William Judd]

Now I feel like the guy with two watches - what time is it? :)

Susanne says the grace period starts as soon as I click "Add Grace Period".

This makes sense to me as the default value is "2" and most people are not going to be adding late entries between midnight and 2am.

But you are saying the grace period starts at the end of the period close moment.

This also makes sense to me since it "extends" the time available for entries.

The question seems still open.

[William Judd]

Thanks, Dave. Now I see your latest response. Re-accepting Susanne's answer. Thank you both! I really appreciate this community!

[wouter de wit]

Hi there, 

I dont know for sure if Dave was right, but adding 2 hours as a grace period did do nothing, while adding 40 hours did grant my team member the opportunity to edit his timesheet. 

This suggests that it is the time from closing instead the time from saving the grace period. 

Not sure, because i only tested it with one person, and of course, something else could be responsible for the experienced behavior.