Configure timesheet and hour preferences

Last update: February 7, 2025

Topics:
System Setup and Administration

CREATED FOR:

Admin

As an Adobe Workfront administrator, you can specify preferences for timesheets and hours in Workfront in order to define what items the timesheets can pre-populate with and what items users can log time to.

IMPORTANT

In addition to the items that pre-populate a timesheet according to the conditions described in this article, the following items also display on timesheets, by default:

Items for which you logged time during the time frame of the timesheet
Items that are pinned to the timesheet
Items that you search for and manually add to the timesheet. Manually added items are pinned, by default.

For more information, see Log time and Timesheet overview.

Any changes you make to timesheets impact all timesheets that are created in the future.

Access requirements

Expand to view access requirements for the functionality in this article.

You must have the following access to perform the steps in this article:

Adobe Workfront plan

Any

Adobe Workfront license

Current:Plan

New: Standard

Access level configurations

System Administrator

For more detail about the information in this table, see Access requirements in Workfront documentation.

Set timesheet and hour preferences

Click the Main Menu icon in the upper-right corner of Adobe Workfront, or (if available), click the Main Menu icon in the upper-left corner, then click Setup .
Click Timesheet & Hours > Preferences.

The Timesheets and Hours Preferences page displays.
(Optional) In the System Timesheets and Hours Preferences search box, start typing the name of a group, then select it when it displays in the list.

The Timesheet and Hours Preferences page updates with the preferences for the group you selected. System-level preferences must be unlocked to be able to modify group-level preferences. For more information, see the section Unlock timesheet and hour preferences for groups in this article.

In the General preferences section, configure any of the following options:

Log time for future dates	Allows users to log time for future dates throughout the system in: Any projects, tasks, and issues where they have access to log time Their timesheets as General Time This is useful when users plan to be away from the office and want to log that time beforehand. NOTE: You cannot prevent users from logging time on tasks or issues that are closed or canceled. You can only prevent users from logging time on complete or dead projects. We recommend that you use filters in lists of tasks and issues to exclude the ones that have been completed or canceled from being visible to users.
Assign Job Roles to hour entries manually	Allow users to manually select any Job Role assigned in their user profile or assigned to the object. IMPORTANT: If you disable this setting after assigning job roles to hour entries, users must adjust hours logged under various roles on the Hours tab of the project, task, or issue. If the user does not have a job role assigned in their profile and there is a task assigned as the Task Owner in the Advanced Assignments dialog box, that job role appears when the user logs time on the task.
Restrict timesheet editing to owners and administrators	Restrict editing to timesheet owners and Workfront administrators. When this option is disabled, timesheets can also be edited by: Users with administrative access to timesheets and hours in their access level Timesheet approvers if "Can edit hours" is enabled on the timesheet The manager of the timesheet owner
Restrict hour editing to owners and administrators	Restrict editing to the user who input the hours and Workfront administrators. This setting applies to the Hours tab in a project or in an Hours report.

In the Where users can log time section, configure any of the following options:

Directly on projects	Allows users to log time on the project (both on the Updates tab and timesheet). If users do not record time at the project level, this options should remain unchecked.
On projects that are complete	Allows users to record time on a project that has been marked complete. If this option is disabled, users cannot record time for the work they have completed on projects in the Complete status.
On projects that are dead	When this option is enabled, users can log hours on projects with a Dead status.

In the Pre-populate timesheets section, configure any of the following options:

Work that is within <number of weeks> of the timesheet's work range	Defines the number of weeks before and after the date range of the timesheet that contains dates of tasks and issues assigned to the user. The default setting is 1 week, and you can extend this range to 4 weeks. This means that the timesheet is pre-populated with tasks and issues which have dates anywhere between four weeks before the date range of the timesheet up to four weeks after the date range of the timesheet, if you select 4 weeks for your range.
Tasks and issues that have been completed	If multiple resources are typically assigned to a single task, we recommend this setting. This means when one resource records time against the task and marks it as complete, the other resources assigned to the task can still find the task or the issue in their timesheet, to record their hours.
Tasks and issues that have Planned Dates in timesheet's date range	When selected, the timesheet includes tasks and issues that have either a Planned Start Date or Completion Date that falls within the date range of the timesheet.
Tasks that have Projected Dates in timesheet's date range	When selected, the timesheet includes tasks that have either a Projected Start Date or Completion Date that falls within the time frame of the project, even if the planned date of the issue or task falls outside of the timesheet date range.

In the Deleted projects, tasks, and issues section, specify the following:

When deleting projects	Keep logged time already added to timesheets as general time: If this project is restored at a later time, the time remains on the timesheet. Delete any logged time: If this project is later restored, time already logged is restored to the project.
When deleting tasks or issues	Move any logged time to the project where the task or issue resides: If this task or issue is later restored, the time remains on the project. Delete any logged time: If this task or issue is later restored, logged time is restored to the task or issue. For more detailed information about these options, see Configure affect on hours when an object is deleted and restored.

Click Save.

Unlock timesheet and hour preferences for groups

Groups in your organization might need timesheets or hour preferences configured differently for their unique workflows. You can unlock the preferences for all groups throughout the organization so that they can configure it on their own.

When a preference is unlocked and a group administrator modifies it, it affects timesheet owners if the group is their Home Group.

For information about how a group administrator configures timesheet and hour preferences for a group, see Configure timesheet and hour preferences for a group.

NOTE

After a Workfront administrator unlocks a preference at the system level, any group administrator can configure it and then lock it to ensure that everyone in their group and the subgroups below is using the same configuration. This is parallel to the ability that a Workfront administrator has to configure and lock a preference for everyone in the system. For more information, see Lock or unlock a group timesheet and hour preference.

To unlock a project preference so that groups can configure it:

Click the Main Menu icon in the upper-right corner of Adobe Workfront, or (if available), click the Main Menu icon in the upper-left corner, then click Setup .
In the left panel, click Timesheets & Hours, then click Preferences.
Do any of the following:
- If you want group administrators to be able to configure a preference for their groups, click the unlock toggle to unlock it .
- If you want all groups to use your configuration for a preference, make sure that it is the toggle is locked (this is the default).
  
  IMPORTANT
  We recommend that you communicate with the administrators and users in groups throughout the system to ensure that all needs are accounted for in the way you configure a locked preference.
  When you lock it, your configuration for it is inherited by all groups in the system. And if the preference has been unlocked for any period of time, your configuration replaces those that group administrators might have made.
Click Save.