Deciding to use our timesheets and expenses functions are a huge time saver. It means that everything will be linked to Mercury, making it easier to manage and report on. The first thing to understand is that in order to take advantage of this area of the system means signing up to use the Candidate Portal, which is an additional cost. There are ways on recording timesheets on Mercury without the portal but it is manual and not recommended.
Set Up
In order to start creating timesheets and expenses the following must have been completed:
1. Timesheet Templates created (within Mercury). Only System Administrators can build these.
2. Expense Templates created (within Mercury). Only System Administrators can build these.
3. The candidate portal and it's benefits have been marketed or communicated to your candidates with instructions or comms on what they need to do and what date it will go live (this is down to your business to strategize, plan and release (our project team will help advise if you are still in project stage). If they are used to completing timesheets or expenses a different way, they will need advice that this will be changing from X date and what to expect.
Applying Timesheet Templates
Timesheets templates determine who will be approving the timesheets, over what period the candidate is being paid and other rules, as follows.
Go to the Placement, click onto the Timesheets & Expenses tab and select 'Yes' in the 'Create timesheets?' field:
Once selecting 'Yes' to creating timesheets on a Placement, a timesheet template must be selected:
Select the appropriate template (this will need to be trained internally). This will update then list the key fields that are used to create the template:
Explanation of the above fields:
Sign Off Process
The three sign off options are:
Approval Only = this timesheet once submitted will go to directly to the client to approver (it will go to whichever approver has been selected by the candidate. See the Approvers section for more detail)
Validation Only = this timesheet only needs to be approved by yourselves internally (agency approved)
Approval and Validation = this is a two-step approval. An email will first go to the client. Once this has been approved, it will remain for the agency to approve
The options here are Approval Only, which means it will only go to the client to approve. Validation Only means it will be improved internally only and Approval and Validation means it will go to the client to approve first and then need a final internal check
Timesheet Frequency
These will not be pre-built in the system. System Administrators will need to create these. This will depend on how frequently candidates will be paid and on what basis. As standard they will be either 'weekly' or 'monthly'.
Day Increment
This is the minimum day increment that the client is happy to pay a candidate for working. For example, they may pay someone for working a half day but not if it is less time that this.
Minute Increment
Select the minimum time in minutes that the client is happy to pay a candidate for working.
Applying Expense Templates
These are exactly the same but is simpler. It excludes time periods, as they are not relevant.
NOTE: Timesheet and expense templates can both be created in bulk in the Mercury Admin app (only System Administrators can access this). Go the Config tab, click onto Templates. Within this menu, you will find both options. As with all other areas of the system, click +New on the toolbar.
Approvers
Once the templates have been selected, the first 'Approver' field becomes mandatory. A minimum of one approver must be selected. The maximum is three and they must be the same people for all timesheets and expenses.
When submitting their timesheet/expense, the candidate will get an option to select one or multiple approvers to send it to. This option is only relevant if there is an approval element in the sign-off process.
Creating Timesheets/Expenses Rows
Once the timesheet and expense templates have been set and saved the final set up stage is to create the timesheet and expense rows. This will action them going through to the Candidate portal.
NOTE: They can only be created once the placement has been validated and finalised. The placement status will have changed from Pending to Awaiting Approval (if you have chosen not to use our approval process, the next status being used). Until this has been actioned, the 'Create Timesheets' and 'Create Expenses' buttons will not be available.
Click on the Create Timesheets Now and Create Expenses Now icons.
Once created, it will create and display every timesheet/expense record for the entire placement period, determined by start and end date of the placement.
These will display in the candidates portal one at a time. Once the first one is submitted, the next one will display.
Deactivating Timesheets
If you're new using Mercury and starting to use this process on a placement that has already begun, you may need to dismiss the first few timesheets.
Simply select from the side and deactivate them:
This will remove them and ensure that the first one on the list is the first one that appears on the candidates portal. If old timesheets are not deactivated, the candidate will not be able to move on without completing them one by one. The same applies to expenses.
Timesheet/Expense Statuses
Blank: this is the initial status for all records.
Draft: this indicates a candidate has partially updated their timesheet/expense.
Submitted: this indicates that the candidate has submitted the timesheet/expense.
Recalled: Until the candidate has been approved/validated, the candidate can click into the submitted timesheet/expense and click on a button labelled Recall. This will move the timesheet/expense from the Submitted Timesheet/Submitted Expense section. back to the Unsubmitted Timesheet/Expense section. The candidate has then edit it and re-submit.
Rejected: this shows that either the client or the agency has rejected the timesheet/expense.
Approved: the client has approved the timesheet/expense.
Validate: the agency has approve the timesheet/expense.
Completed: the timesheet/expense has successfully been through the full approval process.