Workforce Ready Roster Export to Time Entries Task Properties

The following is a description for each of the available properties when using the Workforce Ready Roster Export to Time Entries task type.¹

Important Requirements
All employees must be mapped in both applications. WFR options are Account ID or Employee ID. Options for this application are: Employee ID, External ID, and Payroll ID. These fields are located in the person General tab. If you do not map an employee then time entries for that employee will be blank, and an error will be logged in the activity log. Failure of any record will trigger an "All or None" behavior. Failure of one record within an export will prevent the export of all other records in that export. A subsequent export after resolving all mapping issues will re-attempt all records for that failed export.

Important Requirements

All employees must be mapped in both applications. WFR options are Account ID or Employee ID. Options for this application are: Employee ID, External ID, and Payroll ID. These fields are located in the person General tab. If you do not map an employee then time entries for that employee will be blank, and an error will be logged in the activity log. Failure of any record will trigger an "All or None" behavior. Failure of one record within an export will prevent the export of all other records in that export. A subsequent export after resolving all mapping issues will re-attempt all records for that failed export.

Field	Task Field Descriptions
From*	This required field indicates the starting date of the Roster build or the first day of the target period.
Through*	This required field indicates the ending date of the Roster build or the last day of the target period.
	NOTE: The date can be defined as either a constant date, such as 3/25/2014 or as a Dynamic Date, such as TODAY-1day. A separate file will be sent for each day within a date range.
Payroll Information Only	Select to export roster records for personnel who have a payroll ID defined in this application, and Roster work codes associated with a payroll code in Setup.
Include Request Records	Select to include work code requests from the Roster for the target date or period.
Wait for Shift Start	Select to send roster records until the target shift(s) selected in Shifts have started. Positive values represent minutes AFTER the shift start; for example, type 60 to indicate 60 minutes AFTER the shift starts. Negative values represent minutes BEFORE the shift start; for example, type -60 to indicate 60 minutes BEFORE the start of the shift. A zero value indicates ‘at shift start time’. If the property is left blank, the property is ignored; the task will not wait for the shift(s) start. Example: This setting must correlate with the selected shifts in the Shifts table and the schedule you create must be defined so that the task Run contains the desired shift or shifts. For instance, suppose that you have two shifts: Shift 1 starts at 7AM. Shift 2 starts at 8AM. The task’s schedule is set to run at 6AM daily and 7AM. If... Wait for Shift Start is set to -60 minutes. At 6AM the task will export records for Shift 1 because 7AM minus 1hour is 6AM. At 7AM the task will export records for both Shift 1 and Shift 2. Shift 1 has already started, and Shift 2 meets the 7AM shift start because 8AM minus 1 hour is 7AM. Wait for Shift Start is set to60 minutes. At 6AM the task will export zero records. Shift 1 started at 7AM but Wait for Shift Start is set to plus one hour which is 8AM. At 7AM the task will export zero records because Shift 1 starts at 7AM but we said to wait one hour after the shift start which is 8AM.
Include All Shifts	Select this setting to include all shift assignments on the Roster for the target date. Recommended setting.
	Example: Suppose that on the target date Shift A is running, and a person assigned to work Shift B is working a special assignment during Shift A’s run, causing a person on Shift B to display on Shift A’s roster day. If this check box is selected the task will export the record for the person assigned to a different shift other than the target shift. If the check box is cleared the task will ignore the record.
Export Working Only	Select to only export work code records of type working and regular duty. If this check box is cleared, the task will return working, regular duty, and non-working type work code records.
Shifts	Select the Shifts to be included in the export for the target Roster date. If the check box is cleared the export will include all shifts for the target Roster date. For example, suppose that only Shift A and Shift C were selected. The task runs on a date that Shift B is active. The task will not return Shift B data because Shift B was filtered out. Moreover, suppose that Include All Shifts was selected. Then this task will return Shift A or Shift C personnel records who are working on a Shift B Roster day.
Regions	Select the regions to include in the export. Clear all or select all check boxes to include all regions.
Institutions	Select the institutions to include in the export. Clear all or select all to include all institutions.
Remove Scheduled Records	This property allows you to excluded scheduled records (example RecordType=-1) from inclusion in the export file. WARNING: A scheduled record may still appear in the export file if no other record representing that same person exists AND if Include removed records=True. These removed yet scheduled records indicate that a scheduled person has been removed without an explanation; for example, a Leave code.
Validation Only (No Export)	Select to validate and identify cost centers to be sent that do not exist in Workforce Ready (WFR). You must validate a cost center mapping before the actual export API call is made to avoid failures. Note: For example, suppose that Cost Center 3 contains nine job titles in this application and in WFR. A tenth job title is added to this application, but not referenced in WFR. An exported record from this application using the tenth job title and Cost Center 3 reference value will cause an export failure in WFR.
Retrieve and Consolidate Existing Time Entries	Applicable for Pay By Punch implementations only. When selected, unmapped time-entries are fetched and resent to Workforce Ready. Mapped time-entries are fetched and replaced with current time entries upon send. Available as of application version 7.5.1. See Retrieve and Consolidate Technical Details section below for more information.

Retrieve and Consolidate Existing Time Entries Technical Details

Pay by Punch implementations must select the Retrieve and Consolidate Existing Time Entries property on the Workforce Ready Roster Export to Time Entries task available in this application to keep unmapped time entries that were updated on the Ready time-sheet. At the time of writing this, the Time Entries API does not support Update functionality so when this application exports Roster time entries, any unmapped time-entries that were updated in Ready are removed and replaced with only mapped time-entries. Selecting the Retrieve and Consolidate Existing Time Entries check box enables this application to retrieve all existing unmapped time entries in Ready along with mapped time entries. This application then consolidates the unmapped time entries along with the new set of replaced mapped time-entries and resends to Ready. Resulting in a time-sheet that contains both unmapped and mapped time-entries with the exception of the fields identified below.

Time entry data that exists in the Ready Timecard including data that did not come from TeleStaff is preserved when retrieved and resent except for the following:

These items are automatically generated for a time entry in Ready upon reinsert: Id, is_raw, is_calc, calc_start_time, calc_end_time, calc_total, calc_pay_category, calc_premium_shift. This application does not retrieve these items.
These timesheet items are not available when this application retrieves time entries: Time Entry Notes, Base Rate, Diff. Rate, Rate 1, Rate 2, In Reason Code, and Out Reason Code. This application sends unmapped time entries to Ready as retrieved and any data associated with these Timesheet items will be returned to Ready blank.

Ready Configuration Note:

Allow Time Entries to Overlap must be selected in the Start/End (All Days) section of the Timesheet Information page if you allow time entries to overlap. Otherwise, if unchecked, and an overlapping record is found, the API will fail and trigger: WFR Time Entries Export: Error sending time entries data. External ID... is overlapping...

Additionally, if preserving notes is desired, consider using Time Entry Extra Fields to substitute for Time Entry Notes. ²