The activity editor is used to enter offline activity on past days with information that has not been automatically collected by the tool. For example, adding offline activity times such as meetings, sales visits, and basically any offline activity that takes place outside the PC.
The administrator can enable or disable the activity editor in the Settings > General options panel and check/uncheck the box “Activity editor enabled” located within the "Data editing" section. The administrator can also decide the lock period for data editing, that is, the time the employee has to edit their activity. They can choose not to lock it by enabling the "Do not lock" box, decide to lock it with a one-month deadline by enabling the "From the previous month, starting on day" box, or select specific days by enabling the "After the following number of days" box. For the last two options mentioned, at the end of the boxes the administrator must expand and select the number of days, as appropriate.
By default, the activity editor is always enabled for both the administrator and employees. Once activated for the entire company, you must ensure that the employee has enabled the option to access their data and activate the editor for them. Remember that ONLY permission can be given at the employee level and NOT at the group level.
If you want to limit access to the editor to certain profiles in your organization, you can disable it in employee profiles under Settings > Organizational chart > Employees and check/uncheck the box “Activity editor enabled” within each employee's record.
In the Settings > General options panel, there is an option called "Require authorization for manual data reporting." This allows configuring a maximum editing time after which the employee’s manager who adds that time will have to approve or deny the addition. If the employee makes several activity additions on the same day, the time will accumulate and, when it exceeds the limit, approval from the manager will be required. By default, this option is disabled.
How the activity editor works
Thanks to the activity editor, you can add offline activity and complete the previously collected information.
It is important to note that activity can only be reported within time ranges that do not contain previous activity, as it is not possible to modify activity that has been automatically recorded.
The activity editor works based on the date and employee filter in the top right corner of the software.
- If you are an employee, you only need to select the date range in which you want to add activity using the editor
- If you are an administrator, in addition to the date range, you must choose the employee for whom you want to increase activity
Once a date range and a specific employee have been selected (if you are an employee, the date range alone is sufficient), click on the “Activity Editor” panel in the left menu to access the visual schedule summary.
The current day can be modified as long as no previous activity has been detected and only up to the previous full hour. That is, if activity started being recorded at 13:13, it can only be edited up to 13:00. But if previous activity was detected on the current day, the workday cannot be modified. When changes have been made and new data is being processed, the current day is also locked.
To add activity on previous days, simply click outside the orange area of the day you want to modify and you will see the following window:
Select the type of activity you want to add as well as the start and end times of that activity. Finally, click the “Accept” button. You will be able to edit the current day and add comments if the action requires approval. These comments will be visible in the notification panel of the group manager or supervisor, depending on the account configuration.
When editing a day without activity, by default, the tool marks the expected time for that day.
N ote : The employee can modify the start and end of the workday with the arrows and select an activity and project for each of them.
You will return to the visual schedule screen with the changes you have made highlighted in a red block. You can continue adding additional information for the other days you want to modify. Once you have finished editing the data, press the “Apply changes” button so that the system processes the new information on the server.
Important notes to keep in mind:
- 1. If activity times exceeding those configured by the manager are added, prior approval from the manager will be required. A bright red color means the edit is locked and pending review by the manager, while a lighter red color means it is validated but the tool has not yet processed it.
You will return to the visual schedule screen with the changes you have made highlighted in a red block. You can continue adding additional information for the other days you want to modify. Once you have finished editing the data, press the “Apply changes” button so that the system processes the new information on the server.
To see the process more clearly, let's look at an example:
The employee Enrique Casas wants to report a meeting with a client that took place on February 22, 2021, and since it was offline activity, the tool did not record it. The software automatically collected all the activity of that day with the computer, including his lunch break. Enrique returned to work after his lunch break at 2:45 PM until he had to leave to visit that client from 2:00 PM to 5:32 PM.
Enrique decides to use our activity editor.
To do this, he accesses the tool and selects the “Activity Editor” panel. In the date filter, he selects the day of the meeting (February 22, 2021).
Then he clicks on the gray area of the day and fills in the fields with the information about the business meeting he had and clicks “Accept.”
Now the new information that Enrique just entered about the commercial visit appears highlighted with a red block. Since no more changes are planned, just click the “Apply changes” button to process all the information.
In the "Activity Editor" option, you can also delete a workday to correctly edit the hours worked. In Settings > General Options, you will find a new option to grant editing permission: “Allow employees to delete entire activity days. (The person in charge will have to approve the request)”
If the permission is enabled, deletion will be allowed starting from the previous day; it will not be possible to delete the current day. The manager or administrator will always have to validate it from their Notifications panel. The employee can edit their activity from their profile by going to "Activity Editor," selecting the day, and clicking the icon next to the date to delete it.
You can also add comments to activity edits to help managers or group leaders approve or deny requests.
In the "Allow employee to replace a day's data with offline time" option, you can configure the permission for employees to replace the activity of an entire day from the activity editor.
For example: If an employee is traveling all day and uses the computer at some point but wants to count the whole day as “Travel,” they can edit the entire day's activity and overwrite the automatically recorded activity logs.
