DATABASICS OBS & WBS Data Overview

Summary

DATABASICS’ time and expense management products data structure is made up of different types of data:

• Demographic (Organization)

• Activity (WBS)

Organization Structure

DATABASICS' Organization Structure is comprised of the Operating Unit, Department, Employee, Function, and Location.   Also associated with Organization are other other user reporting group elements, like: Currency, Employee Types, Holidays, Vendors, Time Codes (Pay Codes), and Reporting Validation Rules.

Open

Operating Unit

The Operating Unit is the highest level or "parent" within an organization, it is unique across the entire organization and it will support any type of organizational cost center structure.

It can represent any type of entity or company, and it is required within the hierarchical organizational setup. For example, an Operating Unit could be classified as a company division with various departments or cost centers under the Operating Unit. Using this example, the hierarchy would be as follows:

• Operating Unit A

  • Department A1

  • Department A2

  • Department A3

• Operating Unit B

  • Department B1

  • Department B2

  • Department B3

Department

The Department acts as the administrative unit for an Employee. A Department is the child of its parent Operating Unit. Department ID's can be duplicated across Operating Units. For example, there can be a Department 1234 in each Operating Unit (see example above). Each Employee is assigned to one Department.

Function

Functions are are generally used as a skill classification/cost rate category, but may be used for any purpose.

Each employee can be assigned a default Function that will automatically appear on his timesheet. In addition, Time can be configured to allow employees to change their default Function when charging time to a WBS. That is, employees mainly perform a default Function, but can occasionally perform a different Function.

If skill classification/cost rate category specificity is not required, another grouping of users can be established at this level to support the functional requirement.

Location

The DATABASICS element Location is used to capture specific business sites.  For example, different work/business rules may apply per Location with respect to the length of the workday, week-days v. weekends, etc. 

Each employee is assigned to a default Location, which can be changed during Time Entry on a per line basis.

If physical Location specificity is not required, another grouping of users can be established at this level to support the functional requirement.

Vendor

DATABASCS’s Vendor can identify users in the application for the purposes of reimbursing Vouchers and Invoices, e.g.:

• Expenses for reimbursement (including by employees) as well as external vendors, e.g. as part of a Vendor Payment solution.

• Time reported by contractors, or other members of outside organizations.

Employee

Employee is the lowest level of the Organization Structure and are assigned to one and only Department.  This element is used to identify the actual users of the DATABASICS system. 

The employee profile can be associated with any of the above user reporting group elements, and may be linked with an approval workflow.

Work Break Structure (WBS)

Open

The Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) defines the actual activity for which an employee is recording time and expenses. The WBS allows for 4 levels. The default labels for the WBS are Main WBS, Level 1, Level 2, Level 3, and Level 4; these labels are client configurable under System Options in Admin.

DATABASICS also allow the creation of Types at Levels 1 and 2 of the WBS. For example, if Project is Level 2, the client may wish to have Contract Types, such as Fixed Cost and Time and Materials form part of the data set. It is possible to have a WBS for one module and not the other, for example having a WBS in Timesheet but not in the Expense Report. Having a WBS is not required, if the WBS is enabled, only Level 1 is required.

WBS Level 1 ID's must be unique across the system. The remaining levels only need to be unique within each Level. For example, Client One and Client Two can each be Level 1 ID's. Project One can exist under each Client as a level 2 ID. In addition, Level 3 and Level 4 ID's can be created as global elements, allowing them to be created once and assigned to multiple levels or available for selection by employees during time and expense entry.

All WBS levels have a billable flag. If a Timesheet line's time code and all WBS levels are billable, Timesheet regards the timeline hours as billable. If either the time code or any part of the WBS on a line is not billable, the application regards the line's hours as not billable. It is possible to restrict and assign WBS elements, so that only certain employees will be able to charge time and/or expenses to a particular WBS.

In the section below, we employ the default terms mentioned above. If the labels have been changed during configuration, the new labels will appear in the actual menu.

Due to data dependencies during the initial setup, it will be necessary to setup some data elements prior to others. If WBS is to be used, a recommended method is to set up the WBS in the following order:

• Level 1 Type (optional)

• Level 2 Type (optional, if Level 2 is used)

• Main WBS - Main Work Breakdown Structure (optional)

  • WBS Level 1 (required)

    • WBS Level 2 (optional)

      • WBS Level 3 (optional)

        • WBS Level 4 (optional)

If Functions (see Organization Structure, above) are dependent on WBS, then WBS functions need to be created and assigned to the corresponding WBS. Administrators can create a local function (attached only to one particular WBS) and assign it to a WBS, or make function assignments to more than one WBS from a list of template functions created under Function Setup under Organization (see above). Also, if the local functions are restricted, they may be assigned to employees in the Default Function Assignment window. Additionally, that window is used to establish the default function for particular employees charging to the WBS.

Data Mapping Examples

All fields in the application can be relabeled to meet the customer’s requirements and accommodate for a familiar end-user experience.

The below table highlights common alias facilitated for through labelling in the application for customers.