What’s New in Empire SUITE?

In addition to bug fixes and ongoing performance improvements, we’ve added the following new features to the Empire SUITE

•  Enhanced Performance Evaluations functionality

•  Expanded Employee Profile Management functionality

•  Assignment summarization

•  Improved Teams management

•  Best Match improvements

•  International phone numbers and address support

•  Assignment drill downs in Resource and Analytics

•  Future Exception Time events now available in Empire RESOURCE

•  Practice Engine integration

•  Resource and Project Custom View Toggle

•  Include/Exclude Pending PTO Events from Home Page Banner

•  Option to sort and view staff in a resource view alphabetically or by staff level alphabetically

Employee Profile Management

We’ve enhanced our Skills management functionality to include user defined Profile Types. For example, you can add an Industry profile type so you can keep track of staff industry expertise or Certifications profile type to keep track of staff certifications such as CPA, CFE, MBA, etc. From the Profile menu, select Setup Profile Type:

Figure1 – Setup Profile Type

Depending on the Profile Type, the Style can be Skills-based or Performance Evaluation-based:

Figure2 – Staff Profile Type Setup

As with Skills, you can define proficiency levels as your company requires, and depending on the profile type, your staff can indicate whether or not they are ‘interested’ in a particular skill or industry. Interest in a particular skill or industry indicated by staff can be used when creating assignments.

Figure3 – Defining Interest Levels

Managing Profile Types and Interests

If you allow your staff to self-assign their proficiency level in a specific Profile Type, you can now require manager approval for assessments outside of a defined range. For example, an employee may define themself as a native Spanish speaker or an Expert in Mergers & Acquisitions, but you can require a manager to approve the assessment before it is applied to the staffer:

Figure4 – Employee Profile Approval Setup

Staff can define their interest level in a Profile Type from the Profile and Interest Information page:

Figure5 – Profile and Interest Information

Users can define their level interest for all the defined profile types:

Figure6 – Interest Levels

Improved Teams and Portfolio Management

We’ve changed the way users can manage Teams and Portfolios and update Team/Portfolio information. When you’re working with a Team or Portfolio, click the Pencil Icon to either edit the Current View or switch to a Custom View and Edit the selection criteria:

Figure7 – Editing Teams

Mousing over the Red down arrow enables several options:

Figure8 – Teams Management Options

•  The red ‘Down Arrow’ icon launches the Teams management page showing up to three (3) of the most recently used Teams. Click All Teams. . .

Figure9 – All Teams

. . .and select a Team Type to see the available Teams based on the Team attributes:

Figure10 – Team Types

•  The yellow ‘Pencil’ icon launches the Edit Team page:

Figure11 – Edit Team Page

•  The blue ‘Plus’ icon launches the Create a New Team page

Figure12 – Create a New Team

•  The white/blue paint brush option clears all the Team tags.

•  The light blue ‘Pencil and Wrench’ icon launches the Custom Search view which displays search results from the most recent custom search session.

We also added a new permission to allow users to manage global restricted teams when they are not the team owner.

Saved and Named Assignment Requirements

You can now save assignment requirements and name the requirements set so it can be used again without having to redefine the requirements each time.

Figure14 – Saved Assignment Requirements

Improved Best Match Scheduling

Best Match scheduling now includes matching assignment requirements (Staff Levels, Offices, Departments and Skills) with employee interest in the particular requirement. For example, if an Assignment requires Audit Skills. . .

Figure15 – Audit Skills Requirements

. . .you can click the Candidates bar and see which candidates meet the assignment requirements and which candidates are interested in the skills required for the assignment:

Figure16 – Candidates and Interests

You can also launch the Assignment requirements page by mousing over the assignment and clicking the three-bar icon:

Figure17 – Assignment Requirements Link

Best Match automation can also help you find the optimal resource based on several factors:

•  Travel Distance – Office to Employee Home

•  Cost – based on the employee or staff level cost rate

•  Interest – You can prioritize based on Employee Interest in the particular assignment requirements

Please note you can select either prioritize by Cost or by Employee Interest, but not both:

Figure18 – Best Match Priorities

Assignment Drill Downs in Resource Project View Grid Mode

You can drill down on project assignments in Resource grid mode by clicking the Expand icon:

Figure19 – Project View Grid Mode Drill Down

Clicking the expand icon will display all the assigned staffers:

Figure20 – Expanded Project View

Summarize Assignments into a Single Row

You can now view multiple assignments for the same staffer in a single, summarized row in Project view mode in the Analytics page or in the Resource page in Grid mode. In the example below, Alec Berg has several assignments on the Bemis Company Audit in August and September:

Figure21 – Multiple Assignments

However, in Resource Grid mode, you can see them in a single row. . .

Figure22 – Summarized Assignments

. . .or you can see each assignment in a separate row:

Figure23 – Assignments by Row

Practice Engine Integration

We are pleased to announce integration between Practice Engine™ and Empire SUITE. Our integration uses the Practice Engine APIs to populate employees, clients and jobs (projects) in Empire SUITE. Filtering options based on Empire SUITE Teams and Portfolios are available so users can control the downloaded data:

Figure24 – Practice Engine Integration Data Filtering

Users can also control when the integration queries the Practice Engine database to downloaded updated employee, client and jobs data:

Figure25 – Practice Engine Integration Schedule

If your firm uses Practice Engine for practice management, let us show you how integration between the two applications will improve your ability to schedule your employees more effectively for audit, tax compliance and CAS jobs.

Include/Exclude Pending PTO Events

We’ve added the ability to include or exclude Pending PTO Events from the Home Page banner. Click the Funnel icon to open the filter and click the checkbox to include Pending PTO events as appropriate:

Figure26 – Pending PTO Events

Option to sort and view staff in a resource view alphabetically or by staff level alphabetically

We’ve added an option in the Resource Display Options to allow users to view employees either alphabetically or alphabetically by staff level:

Figure27 – Resource Page Staff View Options

Users are now sorted alphabetically, but by staff level:

Figure28 – Alphabetically by Staff Level Mode

Home Page Improvements – Opportunities and Skills/Interests Buttons

We’ve added Skills and Interests and Review Opportunities buttons to the user’s home page when the user is configured in Full Screen mode:

Figure29 – Opportunities and Skills Home Page Buttons

Employee Profile and Custom Fields

The employee profile page now includes Custom Fields:

Figure30 – Employee Profile and Custom Fields

Toggle Between Assignment Requirements and Edit Assignment

You can now toggle between assignment requirements and the assignment. From the Requirements page, click the Edit Assignment link:

Figure31 – Assignment Requirements/Edit Assignment Toggle

To toggle to the Assignment Requirements from the Edit Assignment page, click the Edit link:

Figure32 – Assignment Requirements Toggle

Performance Evaluations Enhancements

We’ve enhanced our Performance Evaluations functionality by adding a user configurable approval process, as well as adding support for importing Performance Evaluations criteria. Users with the appropriate security permission can define the Performance Evaluations approval process based on the evaluation type – annual, disciplinary, etc. – and assign reviewers and due dates:

Figure33 – Creating Performance Evaluations

In addition to bug fixes and ongoing performance improvements, we’ve added the following new features to the Empire SUITE:

•  Make PTO requests from the home page in self-scheduling mode

•  Project and Project Portfolio view on the Resource page

•  Teams/Portfolios management redesign

•  Empire RESOURCE grid view mode

•  Redesigned Best Match

•  New UI for scheduling recurring assignments

•  Multiple resource ‘move assignment’ capability

•  Add/edit Projects from Empire RESOURCE

•  Delete multiple selected assignments with a single menu

•  Added project information to Empire RESOURCE

•  Added the project forecast view to Empire RESOURCE

•  PTO Exception Rules

PTO Requests, Reviews and Statements from the User Home Page

Users can now make PTO requests, review any pending approvals and display their PTO statement from the home page when in self-scheduling mode. Click the down arrow to the right of the Add Schedule button to display the PTO request options:

Figure1 – PTO Requests from My Schedule Page

Project/Project Portfolio View

We’ve added a project portfolio view and portfolio management capability to the Resource page. Click the Project radio button to change the display to a project-oriented view:

Figure2 – Resource Page Project View

You can create approved assignments, tentative assignments and requests in Project mode just as in Resource mode. Click the Add Schedule button in the upper left corner, or as in Resource mode, click and drag in the calendar pane to create a new assignment. You can manage existing assignments in Project mode the same as in Resource mode – simply left-click the assignment to display the menu items and edit, delete or reassign as appropriate:

Figure3 – Project Mode Assignment Menu Options

Add projects, view project and edit project information from the Resource page

Users with the appropriate security permissions can now add new projects and view and edit existing projects without leaving the Resource page. While in Project View mode, click the down arrow to the right of the Add Schedule button:

Figure4 – Adding a Project from the Empire RESOURCE Page

You can also view and edit an existing project from the Resource page while in Project mode by mousing over the project name and clicking the Pencil icon:

Figure5 – Editing a Project from the Resource Page

Redesigned Teams/Portfolio Management

We’ve redesigned the UI for creating and managing Teams and Portfolios. To select an existing Team, click the red down arrow:

Figure6 – Selecting a Team

To edit an existing team, click the yellow pencil icon:

Figure7 – Editing a Team

To add a new Team, click the blue Plus Sign icon:

Figure8 – Adding a New Team

We’ve updated our Best Match capability by changing the assignment selection from all assignments to allow the user to select which assignments to apply Best Match to. Click the Gear Icon to add a Staff Level assignment to Best Match:

Figure9 – Adding a Staff Level Assignment to Best Match

The counter in the Select Assignments button will show the total of selected assignments:

Figure10 – Selected Staff Level Assignments Counter

Click the Selected Assignments button to get started:

Figure11 – Selected Assignment General Options

The Display Selected Assignments option will show the currently selected Assignments:

Figure12 – Display Selected Staff Level Assignments

The Select All Staff Level Assignments option will add any existing Staff Level assignments that haven’t been selected into the group. Staff Level Assignments added by the Select All option will have a check mark indicating they have been added to the group:

Figure14 – Selected Staff Level Assignments

We have also enhanced our Skills functionality so it can be included as a requirement for resource assignments as appropriate.

Recurring Assignments

We’ve added a new UI to support recurring assignments. Recurring assignments can be created in Empire RESOURCE in either employee or project view mode. To create a recurring assignment, create an assignment by either clicking and dragging in the calendar pane or by clicking the Add Schedule button in the upper right corner of the page:

Figure15 – Empire RESOURCE Add Schedule

In this example, we’ve created a one day a week payroll processing assignment:

Figure16 – Weekly Payroll Processing Assignment

Once the assignment is created, click the Gear icon for the assignment, or left-click the assignment and select Add to Selected Assignments:

Figure17 – Add to Selected Assignments

The Selected Assignments counter has been incremented to include the new selected assignment. Click the down arrow at the right of the Selected Assignments to open the menu:

Figure18 – Recurring Assignment Options

In this example, we’ll set up an assignment for every other Tuesday for eight occurrences:

Figure19 – Recurring Assignment Setup

And here is the recurring assignment in the calendar:

Figure20 – Recurring Assignments in the Calendar

You can create recurring assignments using Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly, Semi-Annual and Annual intervals and occurrences. Be sure to have the Calendars, Summary Periods and Approval Periods configured to allow the desired intervals and occurrences.

Enhanced Move Assignment Capability

You can now select and move assignments for multiple resources instead of one resource at a time. Click the Gear icon to select the assignments you want to move...

Figure21 – Select an Assignment to Move

. . .or click the Gear icon by the project name to select all assignments for a project:

Figure22 – Select All Assignments for a Project

This will update the Selected Assignments counter. Click the down arrow to the right of the Select Assignments button to open the menu which includes Move Assignment Options:

Figure23 – Move Assignment Options

In this example, to move all the assignments by 4 weeks, enter 4 in the Move By # of Weeks field and click Save:

Figure24 – Moving the Selected Assignments

You can move by Days, Weeks, Months, Quarters, Semi-Annually or Annual increments. Please make sure your Calendars, Approval Periods and Summary Periods have been configured to support the desired change. Here you can see the selected assignments have been moved out 4 weeks. You can move assignments back by entering a negative number in the Move By Days or Move By Weeks field.

Figure25 – Selected Assignments After Move By

You can also delete assignment by selecting them into the list or remove all the selected assignments from the list using the Delete Selected Assignments and Cancel Selected Assignments options as seen in Figure an above.

Empire RESOURCE Grid View

We’ve added a grid view mode to the Resource page. By clicking the Grid checkbox...

Figure26 – Empire RESOURCE Grid Mode Checkbox

...you can change this view...

Figure27 – Empire RESOURCE Calendar View Mode

...to this view. Please note the totals at the right-hand edge of the page for the displayed date range:

Figure28 – Resource Page in Grid Mode

Multiple Assignment Delete

You can now delete multiple assignments instead of deleting assignments one by one. To delete all assignments for a project, click the Gear icon to select the assignments:

Figure29 – Selecting All Assignments for a Project

Click the down arrow to the right of the Selected Assignments button to open the menu:

Figure30 – Selected Assignments Menu Control

Select Delete All Assignments to delete the selected assignments:

Figure31 – Deleting All Selected Assignments

Project Forecast View in Resource Page

You can now see project forecast information in the Resource page. In Project mode, click the Red down arrow to see a list of Portfolios:

Figure32 – Select a Portfolio

Click the Eye icon next to a Portfolio to see forecast information for all the projects in the Portfolio

Figure33 – Portfolio List

The forecast information includes actual hours recorded, remaining scheduled hours, estimated hours at completion, the estimated hours from the project setup page, and the variance between the Estimated hours at completion and the estimated hours:

Figure34 – Project Estimate Information

PTO Exception Rules

We’ve added a new feature allowing administrators to define PTO request ‘Exception’ rules. These options can be used to require an additional approval when the set limits are exceeded. From the Time Off menu, select Administration \ PTO Policies. Then click the PTO Exception Rules radio button:

Figure35 – PTO Exception Rules Setup

These settings allow you require an extra approval if the amount requested exceeds the defined limits for the total request amount, in a week, in a month, in a calendar, year or across a defined date range. You can also set a limit requiring an additional approval if the request amounts exceed a percentage of the standard hours for the requested period.

Automation and Best Match

We’ve added automation to Best Match capability for unnamed Resource (Staff Level or Position) and named assignments and requests. The Automation process evaluates the assignment requirements and suggests reassignment candidates, one by one or as a user-selectable group.

If you mouse over an assignment, you’ll see a ‘gear’ icon in the lower right corner:

Figure 1 – Assignment Automation Icon

If you want to include an assignment in the Best Match Automation process, click the icon. You’ll see a checkmark on the assignment and the new Best Match counter will be updated:

Figure 2 – Best Match Counter

You can add as many assignments as needed by clicking the icon in the assignment.

If you want to add all assignments for a user to Best Match, click the gear icon in the information pane:

Figure 3 – All Assignments for a User

If you want to add all assignments for a user to Best Match, click the gear icon in the information pane:

Figure 4 – Best Match Select All Assignments Date Range

Best Match Options

If you haven’t selected any named, resource assignments, clicking Best Match allows you to select all Staff Level assignments:

Figure 5 – Select all Staff Level Assignments

If you’ve selected named assignments, specific staff level assignments or a mix of both, the Best Match process gives you several options:

Figure 6 – Best Match Options

Display Selected Assignments

Click Display Selected Assignments to see the list of assignments:

Figure 7 – Selected Assignments

Click the Remove link next to the Employee/Staff Level name to remove an assignment from the Best Match process

Click Cancel Best Match to close the page and return to the Resource calendar view. Cancel Best Match will also remove the selected assignments from the process. You’ll need to reselect the desired assignments to continue with Best Match

Click Start Best Match and Save to begin the matching and reassignment process

Select All Staff Level Assignments

The Select All Staff Level Assignments option will select all Staff Level assignments for automation. Please note if you have named resource selections in the list, the Select All Staff Level Assignments option will remove the named resource assignments from the Best Match queue, and only the Staff Level assignments will be included. To see all the unnamed resource assignments, click the Display Selected Assignments option:

Figure 8 – Best Match Staff Level Assignments

From here, you can remove the appropriate assignments by clicking the Remove link, start the matching process or cancel the best match process.

Cancel Best Match

The Cancel Best Match option will stop the best match process and remove all selected assignments for both named and unnamed user

Using Best Match

When you have the selected the desired assignments, from the Best Match Assignments page, click Start Best Match and Save:

Figure 9 – Start Best Match and Save

If there are available resources that match the assignment requirements, Best Match will make the reassignment:

Figure 10 – Best Match Reassignments

Click Reverse All Assignments to override the Best Match process and restore the previous named and unnamed assignment

Click Reverse to cancel the reassignment and restore the assignment to the previous employee or Staff Level

Click Review Candidates to see other resources who met the assignment requirements:

Figure 11 – Review Candidates

The candidates above shaded in pink met the assignment requirements for Staff Level, Office, Department and Skills, but did not have the necessary availability. However, users can decide to override the reassignment made by Best Match and select another employee by clicking the Select button

In addition to bug fixes and ongoing performance improvements, we’ve added the following new features to the Empire SUITE:

•  Updated Sign In and Sign-Up Pages

•  Improved Employee Profile page

•  New Skills UI and Permissions

•  Improved Empire RESOURCE UI

•  Resource Requirements

•  Resource Assignment Best Match

•  Opportunity Management

Sign In and Sign-Up Pages

We’ve updated the Sign In page...

Figure 1 – Sign In Page

...and the Sign-Up page:

Figure 2 – Sign Up Page

Employee Profile – Displaying Address Fields

We’ve added a database setting to control whether or not users can add home address information.The default setting is enabled, which means the employee address fields are displayed:

Figure 3 – Employee Home Address Information

If you would prefer not to store employee home address information in Empire SUITE, let us know and we will modify the database to hide the address fields. In that case, we will only display the Home Address Zip Code field:

Figure 4 – Employee Home Zip Code

The zip code field is an optional field and does not have to be populated

Employee Profile – Enabling Text Messages

We’ve added an Allow Text Messages checkbox to the Employee Profile page so users without Administration permissions can configure themselves to receive text messages. From the home screen, select Profile\Edit Profile:

Figure 5 – Edit Your Profile

In addition to using text messages for requesting, approving or cancelling time off events, text messages can also be used to offer employees immediate notifications when an assignment opportunity matching the employee’s office, department and staff level (Position) is added.

Figure 6 – Enabling Text Messages

New Skills UI and Permissions

We’ve updated and enhanced the Skills UI when assigning user skills and proficiency levels. The Skills Top Level navigation control allows you to navigate directly into the specific Skills section:

Figure 7 – Skills Top Level

Assigning user skills and proficiency levels is done by simply locating the appropriate skill and proficiency level and clicking the cell:

Figure 8 – Skills Page

Click the Details link for a skill to see any Opportunities for users with the skill:

Figure 9 – Skills Detail Opportunities

You can click the Employees with Skill tab to see other employees with the same skill:

Figure 10 – Employees with the same skill

Click the Level Help tab to see how the proficiency levels are defined for the selected skill:

Figure 11 – Proficiency Level Definitions

We’ve also modified the different Skills-related permissions and moved them to the Resource application group. User roles which include Skills – Modify Definitions can define categories, skills and proficiency levels. Users with Skills – Change Others can modify the skills and proficiency levels assigned to other users. User roles with Skills – Modify Self can update their own assigned skills and proficiency levels

Figure 12 – Skills Permissions

In addition to assigning user skills and proficiency levels through the Employee View page...

Figure 14 – Employee View Skills Setup

...Users can now modify their own skills from a link on the Profile menu, provided the user has the appropriate permissions. Select Define Your Skills to open the Skills page:

Figure 15 – Define Your Skills menu option

We have also enhanced our Skills functionality so it can be included as a requirement for resource assignments as appropriate.

Improved Empire RESOURCE UI

You can resize the panels on the Empire RESOURCE display by moving the ‘bubble’ left or right as needed:

Figure 16 – Empire RESOURCE Page Bubble

You can now resize the New Assignment and Edit Assignment windows to include the left panel. Click the Arrow in the upper left corner...

Figure 17 – Assignment Resize Control

...to include (or hide) the left panel resource list:

Figure 18 – Assignment Window Left Panel

The setting is saved as a user preference and the page will be displayed the same way each time by the user until the user changes the setting.

We’ve added new Display Options to the bottom navigation bar to help you customize your display:

Figure 19 – Empire RESOURCE Navigation Bar Display Options

Click the Display icon to open the Options menu to set the General Options, Assignment Height, Split Assignment rules, etc.

Click the Palette icon to define your Assignment color scheme by Project Class, Approval State or Priority:

Figure 20 – Color Settings

Click the Staff Level toggle to include or hide Staff Levels in the display

Please note the Color and Staff Level options have been removed from the Settings UI.

Empire RESOURCE UI Now Includes Employee Skills

The left panel of the Empire RESOURCE page has been enhanced to show employee skills:

Figure 21 – Empire RESOURCE Employee Skills

Additionally, clicking a skill...

Figure 22 – Display Employee Skills

...will show you other employees with the same skill and their proficiency level in that skill:

Figure 23 – Employees with the Same Skills

Empire RESOURCE Assignment Requirements

You can now add requirements to any assignment to ensure your schedulers select the best resource for the project – properly skilled and located. From the Edit Assignment or Add New Assignment page, click the Requirements button...

Figure 24 – Assignment Requirements Control

Assignment Requirements can be for any combination of:

•  Staff Level or Position

•  Office

•  Department

•  Skills

Figure 25 – Assignment Requirements

Click the arrow next to any of the Requirements to select the desired elements. For example, the Assignment Requirements are for either an Associate or a Sr. Associate:

Figure 26 – Assignment Requirements by Staff Level or Position

In the example Assignment above, the scheduler is looking for a Sr Associate, but an Associate would be acceptable as well. These requirements will be noted in Opportunities on the Requests page:

Figure 27 – Opportunity Assignment Requirements

You can click the link to see the Requirements:

Figure 28 – Opportunity Assignment Requirements Details

Resource Assignment Best Match

We’ve added Best Match capability for Staff Level or Position – Unnamed Resources – assignments and requests. If there are no defined assignment requirements, we’ll show the scheduler the best match by using the staff level and then sort by available hours descending. If Assignment requirements have been defined, we will match using the requirements.

Figure 29 – Best Match

Click the Best Match link to see which resources are best matched by staff level or assignment requirements:

Figure 30 – Best Match Details

The Robert Cobb match above is shaded in red because Robert has no availability and would be overscheduled if he is assigned to the project.

Opportunities

We’ve added a status option for reviewing Opportunities:

Figure 31 – Opportunity Status Options

Users with the appropriate security permissions can approve multiple assignment requests and tentative assignments with a single click. On the Requests page, select the desired Status (Requests, Tentatives, Requests and Tentatives), the Team and Filter:

Figure 32 – Request Approval Selection Options

Click the appropriate Select All check boxes, then click Save Approvals:

Figure 33 – Multiple Assignment Approval

Users with the appropriate security permission and a valid phone number can ask to be notified with a text message when a new opportunity matching the User’s filters is added. Add the Review Opportunities permission to the user’s Resource application role:

Figure 34 – Review Opportunities Permission

Add a valid phone to the user profile:

Figure 35 – Allow Text Messages Profile Information

Check the Send me a text when there is a new opportunity box

Figure 36 – Allow Opportunity Text Messages

At least one filter must be applied in order for the user to receive a text message. In the above screenshot, the user has selected four different positions and eight different offices to use as filters. Departments can also be used as filters. Any opportunity matching any of the selected attributes will trigger a text message to user:

Figure 37 – Opportunity Text Message

The user can apply for the opportunity by simply tapping the link:

Figure 38 – Applying for an Opportunity Using Text Messaging

In addition to bug fixes and ongoing performance improvements, we’ve added the following new features to the Empire SUITE

•  Empire RESOURCE Analytics page project view

•  Enhanced Empire RESOURCE and Analytics Employee Profile view

•  Employee profile page address information

•  Resource Assignment Excel-based Import

•  Improved and reformatted Empire RESOURCE Excel exports

•  New “Assignment – Employee Upcoming Schedule with Comments” Email

•  Employee and Project/Employee specific rates

•  New Company General Settings menu option

•  New Approve Assignment permission

•  New Review Opportunities permission

•  Timesheet Status extract now includes timesheet status information from Terminated employees

Empire RESOURCE Analytics Page Project View

Users can now view and add assignments by project in addition to the existing assignment view by resource. From the Analytics page, click the Project Type radio button to toggle the display from Employee-based to Project-based:

Figure 1 – Project View Toggle

The Project view supports user-defined project Portfolios which use similar type controls as the Teams feature in the Resource view. You can use the Custom Search button to search for projects by client, project name or code, office, department, status, or custom fields. You can save and edit your project Portfolio as you would a resource Team with any combination of the same Global, Criteria and Restricted attributes:

Figure 2 – Project Portfolio

In the screenshot above, we’ve created a ‘Holmes’ portfolio using the client ‘Holmes Fans’ as the criteria basis of the portfolio – that is, any project created for the client Holmes Fans will be automatically included in the Portfolio.

Figure 3 – Project View Analytics Page

A few things to note on the Analytics page Project View:

1.  You can select from a variety of different chart types

a.  None

b.  Line

c.  Bar

d.  Doughnut

e.  Pie

f.  Radar

g.  Map

2.  You can display the results based on different Assignment Status selections

a.  All

b.  Approved

c.  Tentative

d.  Request

3.  You can include Actuals as a Secondary Value in the display. If there are timesheet actuals for the projects in the portfolio, you’ll see them in the chart in a      different color

4.  Click the Add link to open the Add New Assignment page

5.  Click the Edit link to open the Edit Assignment page

6.  Click the plus/minus link to expand or collapse the display to summarize the assignments or display the assignment details

Enhanced Empire RESOURCE and Analytics Employee Profile View

To see extensive details about a resource, click the resource picture in the Resource page...

Figure 4 – Resource Profile

...and a complete Employee Profile page will launch to display basic information such as Office, Department and Staff Level information, as well as Skills and Custom Field information:

Figure 5 – Expanded Resource Profile Page

Employee Profile Page Address Information

We’ve added fields for employee address and phone information in the Employee Profile page. Click Edit Profile from the Profile option in the Main menu bar:

Figure 6 – Employee Address Information

Resource Assignment Excel-based Imports

If you are moving from another scheduling tool into Empire RESOURCE or have been using Excel to manage staff scheduling, you can use the Excel-based import to load assignments into Empire RESOURCE. From the Administration menu, select Loads/Integration, then select either Resource Assignment FTE load or Resource Assignment Hours Load as appropriate:

Figure 7 – Resource Assignment Load Options

As with the other imports, you can select a file from your library or download a template file from the Import page.

Improved and Reformatted Empire RESOURCE Excel Exports

We’ve added additional columns and reformatted the Excel Exports available from the Analytics page. Click the Export icon to launch the export:

Figure 8 – Analytics Page Excel Export

The export results now include schedule and actuals information, as well as Task List/Task or Category/Sub-Category/Service code details:

Figure 9 – Excel Export Details

New “Assignment – Employee Upcoming Schedule with Comments” Email

We’ve added a new email type for our customers who want staffers and managers to see comments about upcoming assignments.The Assignment – Employee Upcoming Schedule with Comments email will include comments from Managers, Requesters or Employees on an upcoming assignment.

Email setup is in under the Administration menu in Company \ Email Setup

Employee and Project/Employee Specific Rates

Employee Specific Rates

To define a rate for an employee to use on all projects, select Employee \ Employee Rates from the Administration menu:

Figure 10 – Employee Rates Menu Option

Project/Employee Specific Rates

To define a rate for a specific employee on a specific project, select the desired project, then select Define Rates from the Project menu:

Figure 11 – Project Employee Specific Rates Menu Option

Select the appropriate employee from the drop-down list...

Figure 12 – Project Employee Specific Rate configuration

...and add the Effective Date, Expiration Date, Type and amounts as desired. A few notes about Rate Types and configuring Employee and Project/Employee rates are found below in the Rate Types section.

Rate Types

Hourly rates are the default rate type. A few other things to note about configuring Employee and Project/Employee Rates:

Figure 14 – Employee Rate Configuration

While the screenshot above is for Employee Rate setup, the same rules apply for Project/Employee rates:

1.  Use the Last name starts with option to find the desired staffer, or use the drop-down list to pick from the list of employees

2.  Use the drop-down list to select either Revenue or Cost rates

3.  Enter a date or use the date control to select the rate effective date. Please note rates must start on the first day of a timesheet approval period, and if you      select a date other than the first day of an approval period, the effective date will change automatically to the first day of the approval period which includes the      selected date. In other words, if your timesheet approval periods start on Sunday and you select a Tuesday as the rate effective date, the application will      change the rate to start on Sunday automatically

4.  You can enter an expiration date, or leave the expiration date field empty if you would like the rate to be applied indefinitely. As with effective dates, if you enter      an expiration date, the selected date must be the last day of an approval period or the application will change the date automatically to be the last day of an      approval period

5.  If applicable, enter a Non-Billable hourly rate

6.  If applicable, enter an hourly Overtime rate

7.  If applicable, enter an hourly Regular Time rate

8.  If applicable, select the desired Rate Type. In addition to Hourly rates, you can also define rates by day, week and month.Please note Rate Types such as      Daily Amount, Daily Minimum, etc., apply only to Revenue rates. Only the Hourly Rate type is available for Cost rates. In all cases, differences      between the Amount specified and an extended amount based on the hours worked for the selected period and the regular time hourly rate will be captured as      an Unplanned adjustment. To illustrate what mean by Daily Amount, Daily Minimum and Daily Maximum, consider the following example where the hourly      revenue rate for a resource is $150 per hour and the defined value for each daily type is $1,000:

a.  Amount – Regardless of the hours recorded for the selected period, the total revenue or cost for the period will be the defined amount. If the resource
     worked 8 hours, the revenue for the day will be $1,000 and $200 will be written off as an unplanned adjustment. If the resource worked 6 hours,
     an additional $100 write up will be applied so the daily amount is $1,000

b.  Minimum - Approved time of any amount will generate $1,000 in revenue for the day

c.  Maximum – Irrespective of the total hours approved, the maximum amount of revenue recorded for the day will be $1,000

New Company Menu Item – General Options

The options associated with the Tenant Owner – Time and Expense Approvals, Time and Expense Corrections, Rate Types and Self Schedule Default Status – have been moved to a separate menu option, available from Administration \ Company \ General Options:

Figure 15 – General Options

Here’s a screenshot of the General Options page:

Figure 16 – General Options Controls

New Approve All Resource Assignments Permission

We’ve added a new permission called ‘Approve All Resource Assignments’ to address instances where firms want to allow self scheduling and manager created requests and tentative assignments, but want to reserve the ability to approve assignments to an administrator or a scheduling manager.

This new permission works in concert with the existing Add, Modify and Delete assignment permissions for self-scheduling, named and unnamed resources.

Additional information on the new permission and how it interacts with other permissions, the resource options defaults shown in the General Options Controls screenshot above and other system features is provided below:

Add New Assignment/Edit Assignment Page

If a user’s Security Role is configured as below...

Figure 17 – Resource Security Permissions

...and the Resource Options default status is set as below...

Figure 18 – General Options Resource Assignment Defaults

...the available assignment statues in the Add New Assignment and Edit Assignment pages will be limited to Tentative only:

Figure 19 – Add New Assignment Limits

For this user, the same rules apply to creating assignments for unnamed resources – the user would be limited to creating Tentative assignments.

Users with the Approve All Resource Assignments permission...

Figure 20 – Approve All Resource Assignments Permission

...can create Approved or Tentative assignments, as well as requests:

Figure 21 – Add New Assignment – All statuses

A couple of other items to note:

•  When dragging or extending an assignment for either named or unnamed users, users without the Approve All Resource Assignments permission will     have the assignment saved in the status set by the default self-scheduling permission setup in General Options. If they have the approval permission     then we will leave the assignment status as is.

New Review Opportunities Permission

We’ve added a new Review Opportunities permission in conjunction with the new Approve All Resource Assignments permission to give users more options for viewing and managing requests and opportunities.

Figure 22 – Requests Menu Option

The Requests menu item is associated with two permissions:

•  Review Opportunities

•  Add/Modify/Delete Tentative Assignments and Resource Requests for Named Users

If the user has either one of the above two permissions in their Resource security role, the Requests menu option is enabled.

Requests Page Behavior Changes

We have also modified the Requests page behavior to better conform with the new Approve All Resource Assignments and Review Opportunities permissions.

•  If the administrator has set the General Options page Resource Options for Named/Unnamed resources to ‘All Statuses Available’ or if the user has     the ‘Approve All Resource Assignments’ permission, then the user will be able to use any of the status radio buttons. The user can select any     assignment, request or opportunity, regardless of status. The user will be able to approve, change an assignment to Tentative or Request status, as     well as reject modifications made by another user. The ‘Select All’ button will also be available as well which will allow the user to approve all selected     items in a single save.

•  Users with the Add/Modify/Delete Tentative Assignments and Resource Requests for Named Users permission alone also gives them the ability to      manage the opportunity view

•  Users with the following configuration will be able to launch the Requests page, but will be limited to Opportunities only. These users can set their     filters (staff levels, offices, etc. ) and can Apply or Unapply for the displayed assignments, but will not be able to drill down into Best Matches or see     other users who have applied for the same assignment:

♦   Review Opportunities permission enabled

♦   Add/Modify/Delete Tentative Assignments and Resource Requests for Named Users permission disabled

♦   The Resource Option in the General Option page for ‘Named/Unnamed Default for users without the Approve All Resource Assignments permission is
     not set to us is not ‘All Statuses’ but they do have the ‘Review Opportunities’ permission they will have access to an opportunity only view.

If you have questions about your specific requirements and how the various options should be configured to best match your needs, please contact your WSG Support resource.

Timesheet Status Extract Now Includes Missing Timesheets from Terminated Employees

The Timesheet Status Extract, available in Administration \ Loads/Integrations, provides an Excel-based spreadsheet with Timesheet status results based on user-selectable criteria for:

•  Timesheet Status

♦   Not Yet Active

♦   Active

♦   Submitted

♦   Approved

♦   Rejected

•  Employee Type

•  Approval Period Range

The extract now includes timesheets from all employees, regardless of employee status, during the selected approval period range.

In addition to bug fixes and ongoing performance improvements, we’ve added the following new features to the Empire SUITE

•  Saved Criteria Searches in Empire RESOURCE

•  Employee Status and Skills are now Custom Search attributes

•  Microsoft Teams Empire SUITE Bot for time off management

•  Excel-based imports for updating employee status and Reports To managers

•  Team names can be edited in the All Teams page

•  New ‘View Others’ permission for the My Schedule portal

•  Current Period v Last Unfinished Period Timesheet entry option

•  Future Exception Time events now available in Empire RESOURCE

•  Updated Tenant Owner page

•  Requests and Opportunities View

•  Post Time from the Resource Page

Empire RESOURCE Saved Teams with Saved Criteria Searches

Users with the appropriate security permission can now create and save Teams while using either the Resource or Analytics views, and can also save teams using saved criteria searches. For example, you can create an ‘Active Chicago Tax’ team using the ‘Active’ employee, ‘Chicago’ office and ‘Tax’ department filters:

Figure 1 – Saving Teams from Resource View

When you have the desired search criteria selected, click the Save as Team button

Figure 2 – Saving Team

When saving a team from the Custom Search feature, you have a few options to select from:

•  Global Team – if you enable Global Team, any user with the View Global Team permission can select the team into the Resource or Analytics page view

•  Save as Criteria – If Save as Criteria is enabled, any new active resource assigned to the Chicago Tax department will be automatically added to the    team. This eliminates the need to repeat the same search to ensure new team members are included in the view

•  Restricted - You can also set the results returned from a Saved Criteria search to be ‘Restricted’ – this will prevent anyone except the owner from    modifying the saved criteria used in the search

As configured above, other users can view the Active Chicago Tax team in Resource or Analytics...

Figure 3 – Restricted Teams

...but other users cannot make any changes to the team. Note the user can click the Edit Team button...

Figure 4 – Restricted Team View

...but other users cannot make any changes to the team as all of the available controls are locked:

Figure 5 – Editing Restricted Teams

Employee Status and Skills are now Empire RESOURCE Custom Search attributes

In addition to employee name, office, department and staff level, you can now add Employee Status to the searchable attributes in the Empire RESOURCE Custom Search field. Simply add ‘Active’ to your list to limit the search results to only Active employees:

Figure 6 – Custom Search Employee Status

You can search for resources by Skills also. For example, if you need a list of resources who have defined skills in preparing 1040 or 1120 tax returns, you can search for them by skill category (Tax Preparation) or specific skill set (1040 or 1120):

Figure 7 – Custom Search by Skills

Microsoft Teams Empire SUITE Bot

We’ve added a Microsoft Teams bot to give resources and managers yet another way to request and manage time off. In addition to a PTO request form, the Microsoft Teams Empire SUITE bot recognizes time off related short phrases such as ‘I want to take vacation next week’ or ‘I need to take a day off tomorrow’ added as chat messages.

Figure 8 – Empire SUITE Bot Chat Messages

Please contact WSG for more information about the Microsoft Teams Empire SUITE bot. We’d be happy to work with you to install the bot in your account.

Excel Imports for Employee Status and Reports To Manager Updates

We’ve added two new imports to make managing your employees and other resources easier: you can now update multiple employees’ status and reports to manager using Excel imports. We’ve added security permissions for the imports. From the Administration\Company\Edit Permissions menu, click Administration and Imports to add the permissions to the appropriate Security Group:

Figure 9 – Employee Status and Reports To Manager Security Permissions

As a reminder, you’ll need to log out and log back in for the permissions to be added to the user profile.

The imports are located in the Administration\Loads/Integration menu:

Figure 10 – Employee Status and Reports To Options

As with the other imports, you can select a file from your library or download a template file from the Import page.

Three fields are required for the Employee Status Update:

Figure 11 – Employee Status Update Fields

Three fields are required for the Employee Reports To manager update:

Figure 12 – Reports to Manager Update

Editing Team Names in All Teams View

We have removed the Teams option from the menu bar. Creating and managing Teams is now done in either the Resource page or the Analytics page, and you can edit team names in the All Teams page. From the Resource page, click Teams, then click Display All Teams:

Figure 14 – Display All Teams

Select the appropriate team from the page...

Figure 15 – All Teams View

...and click Edit Team

Figure 16 – Edit Team

Users with the appropriate security permissions can edit the Team information. Click Save changes to update the team information:

Figure 17 – Editing Team Information

My Schedule Portal View Others Permission

We’ve added a new permission which will allow administrators to control whether or not employees can see other employee schedules from the My Schedule page. Previously, any My Schedule user could see any other user’s schedule by clicking the Change Employee link. That link is gone, unless the user has the My Schedule Portal – View Others Permission:

Figure 18 – My Schedule Portal – View Others Permission

Users without the My Schedule Portal – View Others permission will now see this view...

Figure 19 – My Schedule Portal without Change Employee link

...while users with the My Schedule Portal – View Others permission will see this view:

Figure 20 – My Schedule Portal with Change Employee link

Current Period v Last Unfinished Period Timesheet Option

You can now decide whether you want your timesheet to open to your last unfinished period or to the current period. From the timesheet, click the gear icon to open the Timesheet Setup page. Select the preferred option:

Figure 21 – Current Period or Last Unfinished Period Option

Please note if you switch from Last Unfinished to Current period, we will refresh the timesheet to the current period when you save the change and close the page.

Exception Time Entries in Future Periods

Administrators can now decide whether or not to include future time off ‘Exception’ items in the resource schedule. For example, if a user has approved intermittent FMLA, the user’s future scheduled events can be included in the resource schedule display. Previously, exception time entries were only added to timesheets.

We will be adding a UI in an upcoming version to allow your administrators to set the time periods for each Time Off type. In the interim, please contact WSG and we’ll work with you to update your account to cover the desired time periods.

Updated Tenant Owner Page

We’ve added a couple of options related to Empire RESOURCE to the tenant owner page. For our clients who allow their users to create their own resource assignments, the tenant owner can set the default status for an assignment, or allow the user to make a request or create a tentative assignment.

We’ve also added an option to set the Resource display for users to full screen on the home page:

Figure 22 – Updated Tenant Owner Page

Please note the Display Resource in Full Screen on the home page option works when resource scheduling is the only application used in your account. If you use time and expense entry or time off, users will see their available portals on the home page rather than the full screen resource display

Requests and Opportunities Page

An emerging trend for professional services firms is ‘self scheduling’ by employees, that is, employees can see a list of opportunities and schedule themselves on selected assignments, or employees who have been scheduled on an assignment can ‘reject’ the assignment. To support this process, we’ve added a new page where resources can schedule themselves against available assignment requests, or reject a planned assignment.

The Requests menu option is associated with the Add/Modify/Delete Named Resources permission. Users with this permission will see Requests in the menu bar

Figure 23 – Requests Menu Option Permission

Resource Requests and Tentative Assignments are user selectable by Team. Recently used Teams are displayed in the left panel of the page.

There are several radio buttons in the upper right corner of the Requests page. These radio buttons determine whether the page displays Requests or Opportunities:

Figure 24 – Requests Page

Requests

There are three different statuses for resource assignments

•  Approved

•  Tentative

•  Request

The Requests page includes only tentative resource assignments and resource requests. From the radio buttons above, you can display tentative assignments, assignment requests or both. (Please note Opportunities will be discussed in the Opportunities section)

Below is an example screenshot displaying requests and tentative assignments for named resources belonging to the All Active team:

Figure 25 – Resource Requests

Click the arrow icon next to a resource name to see the request and conflict details. For Lou Filerman below, we can see he has a tentative assignment with a conflict, and a two-week assignment request with one of the weeks generating a conflict:

Figure 26 – Request and Tentative Details

Users with the appropriate permissions can create an approved assignments from the request, change the status of the request to a Tentative assignment or reject the request entirely. If the Select All checkbox is enabled, the user can apply the desired action to all of the Requests and Tentative assignments for the selected user.

A quick note about ‘Rejecting’ an assignment: If a user has the ability to get to the Requests page the user can see the assignments they’ve been assigned to tentatively or requested to work on. If the user also has the Web – Edit Assignment Self permissions, the user can Reject the request or tentative assignment:

Figure 27 – Rejecting a Tentative Assignment or Request

Rejected assignments will disappear from the user’s list

Another use of the Reject feature is for a resource or project manager to restore an assignment back to the original hours after it has been modified by the resource. For example, Mickey Abbott was originally assigned 8 hours per day on the Shell Oil/Executive Returns project, but he has informed his manager he can only spare a couple of hours per day:

Figure 28 – Restoring a Modified Assignment

The resource or project manager can approve the request, set the request to tentative or reject the change made by the user to restore the assignment to its original hours by clicking Approve, Tentative or Reject as appropriate.

Opportunities

Opportunities are outstanding requests for unnamed resources, or Staff Levels. Click the Opportunities radio button to see a list:

Figure 29 – Opportunities

You can filter Opportunities by Staff Level, Office and Department. Users with the appropriate permissions can apply for the assignment by clicking the Apply button.

Resource managers can expand a request to see who the system generated best matches are, along with users who have applied for the assignment:

Figure 30 – Opportunity Matches

The Best Matches are based on the requested staff level, office, department and availability.

The GREEN line above each match indicates the user’s availability for the assignment. As you can see, both Brian and Emelia are 100% available for the 80 hours, but Lou has another assignment so he is only 50% available.

The Auto Rotation link will flip the card to show you the resource’s skills, as well as the resource’s capacity, scheduled and available hours. You can click the View Profile link to see detailed employee information, and the Schedule, Email and Text links will save the selected user to the assignment, open an email window so you can send the resource an email about the assignment or send the user a text message if the user is configured to accept text messages:

Figure 31 – Card View Auto Rotation

The Card check box on the right side changes the view from the card view as shown above to a grid view:

Figure 32 – Opportunity Grid View

Clicking the disc icon will save the assignment for the selected resource and close the grid view.

The i icon will display detailed user information:

Figure 33 – Grid View Employee Information

You can also see the employee profile information from the card view by mousing over the Auto Rotation link below the resource availability

The mail icon will open an email window so you can send an email about the assignment to the selected resource

The A A icon will open the profile page to the Text Message tab so you can send a text message to the selected resource about the assignment, if the resource is configured to accept text messages:

Figure 34 – Opportunity Match Text Message

Resource Assignment In Cell Editing

We’ve added the ability to modify an assignment’s duration using in cell editing. From the Resource page, click the Edit Mode Resource radio button:

Figure 35 – Resource Edit Mode

Note the 8.00 hours in the above assignments are open for editing. Users with the appropriate security permissions – Web – Edit Assignment Self – can modify the hours value:

Figure 36 – Editing a Resource Assignment

Click Save Resource to save the changes

Add Time from the My Schedule Page

Users with the appropriate security permissions can now add time to their timesheets directly from the My Schedule page. Click the Edit Mode Time Entry radio button:

Figure 37 – My Schedule Time Entry

You can accept the scheduled time by mousing over the value, or you can make a change to the scheduled hours as appropriate. Click the Post Time link to move the time into the timesheet.

Figure 38 – Adding Time from the My Schedule Page

Please note time entry is only allowed when the My Schedule page view mode is set to Daily mode.

In addition to bug fixes and ongoing performance improvements, we’ve added the following new features to the Empire SUITE

•  Redesigned Empire RESOURCE UI

•  Additional Security Permissions for Empire SUITE administrative functions and Empire RESOURCE assignments

•  New system generated assignment emails

•  Empire TIME OFF added features

•  Teams for Email Setup

Redesigned Empire RESOURCE UI

The Empire RESOURCE page has been refreshed and several new features have been added.

Better Search and Save Options

The Filter Bar has been replaced with improved search, sort and save options. You can now include multiple search criteria – Employee, Office, Department, Staff Level, Skill and Custom fields – to better refine your search and even save your search results as a Team:

Figure 1 – Search and Save as Team

Redesigned Resource User Interface

We’ve designed and refreshed the Empire RESOURCE user interface with several new features and controls.

Resizing

Use the double arrows to display or hide a list of resources on the left-hand side of the page or to show the resource wall chart view:

Figure 2 – Resizing

List View Options

Several new options are available when viewing Resource in list view:

Figure 3 – List View Options

1.  Click the employee picture to see the employee’s profile information

Figure 4 – Employee Profile

2.  Click the arrow to display or hide the resource’s assignments

Figure 5 – Assignment List

3.  Toggle between the Resource View and the Workflow View

In the screenshot above, the assignments are shown in Resource View. If workflow is used when scheduling, unchecking the Resource View checkbox updates the display with detailed workflow and work step information

Figure 6 – Workflow View

4.  Click the circle ‘I’ icon to see the project main details page

Figure 7 – Project Information

5.  The slider lets you determine the width of the List contents and the wall chart. You can disable the wall chart view by moving the slider all the way to the right for a 100% List view

Figure 8 – Slider Control

Display Setup Options

The Setup options link lets you control how the content is displayed – whether or not weekends are included, and whether assignments are displayed as continuous or intermittent depending on the number of consecutive non-work days in the assignment

Figure 9 – Display Setup Options

Assignment History

We’ve added an assignment history view when editing assignments:

Figure 10 – Assignment History

New Administrative Security Permissions

Several new security permissions were added to secure the ability of users to modify administrative settings, and for creating, modifying and deleting assignments. Below is a list of the newly added administrative permissions and what they do:

Figure 11 – New Administrative Security Permissions

New Resource Scheduling Permissions

Several new permissions were added to give users and schedulers flexibility and control when self-scheduling is allowed:

Figure 12 – New Resource Scheduling Permissions

New System Generated Assignment Emails

We’ve added two new system generated emails related to assignments:

•  Upcoming Assignments

•  Availability

Upcoming Assignments

The Upcoming Assignments email displays assignment information for the upcoming three weeks

Figure 14 – Upcoming Assignments

Availability

The Availability email displays day by day availability for the upcoming week, and then summary availability numbers for the next three weeks, with a total for all four weeks:

Figure 15 – Availability Email

New Empire TIME OFF Features

We’ve added several new features to Empire TIME OFF to improve information for managers and administrators when evaluating time off requests, and to give managers and administrators better control of time off availability for users.

Overlaps

We’ve redesigned time off Overlaps to include user configurable definitions of Overlaps, and allow users to define the maximum number of overlaps for a given organizational node and/or by manager. The resource manager can be ignored, or you can define an overlap for the immediate Reports To Manager, or the Reports To Manager plus one level up:

Figure 16 – Overlap Definitions

Overlaps can be determined at the organization level also – by the employee cost center, and by office and department.If your account is configured with more than one level in either office or department hierarchies, the overlap can be defined at any level of your organizational hierarchy.

You can define a maximum number of allowable overlaps based on your definition. For example, assume you’ve set your Overlap policies as this. . .

Figure 17 – Overlap Definition Example

. . .and your Maximum Allowable Overlaps as this:

Figure 18 – Maximum Allowable Overlaps

In this example, no more than two or no more than 25% of a direct manager’s Reports To employees in their office and department can be on vacation at the same time. For example, if the manager’s department has 10 employees and two are already scheduled, a third request will require a special approval

Black Out Dates

We also added the ability to require special approvals for time off requests made during user defined ‘black out’ dates. For example, accounting firms are often very busy during tax season, and may want to limit the ability of staff to request and take time off during busy season. In the example below, requests for time off falling during these periods will require a special approval:

Figure 19 – Black Out Dates

Email Subject List Setup Using Teams

You can now use your Global Teams to define subject lists for system generated emails. Email Setup is available from the Administration \ Company menu. Select an email message type from the drop-down list and click Add New to launch the setup page. In the email setup page, click the Lists combo box to see the list of available Global Teams to select from when configuring the email message:

Figure 20 – Email Subject List Teams Setup

In addition to bug fixes and ongoing performance improvements, we’ve added the following new features to the Empire SUITE

•  All new Empire RESOURCE Analytics Page

•  New Empire RESOURCE Billable/Non-Billable Project permissions

•  Excel-based Time Imports by User

•  Setup Input Fields

•  Timesheet Copy Forward

•  Role-based Time Off Approvals

Empire RESOURCE Analytics

Users can now display a grid-based view of scheduled assignments, scheduling metrics and more, including a new feature which allows schedulers to assign multiple resources to a project at one time. Empire RESOURCE Analytics extends the power and flexibility of Empire SUITE Teams into the Resourcing area for a better, faster and more intuitive solution for your firm’s scheduling requirements. From the menu, click the Analytics link to launch the Empire RESOURCE Analytics page:

Figure 1 – Analytics Menu Option

The Analytics page, like the Resource wall chart page, displays scheduling information, but with additional details such as scheduled hours by Team, and an easy visual comparison between scheduled hours and actual hours:

Figure 2 – Analytics Page

Click the Search ‘eye’ icon next to the team name to see the details on the Team staff members:

Figure 3 – Analytics Team Details

If you click the checkbox next to the employee name, the Add New Assignment option is enabled and you can add multiple employees to an assignment at the same time:

Figure 4 – Add New Assignment

In addition to assigning a single staff member to a project, you can now assign multiple staffers to the same project, as well as make an assignment to a Staff Level. Click the Add link (or a plus sign if the user already has assignments):

Figure 5 – Adding an Assignment

This will launch the new Analytics Assignment page. Use Type Ahead in the employee name field to select the staff members you’d like to schedule:

Figure 6 – Adding Multiple Employees

To make a Staff Level assignment, click the Toggle and use the Type Ahead to select the appropriate staff level:

Figure 7 – Adding a Staff Level Assignment

Once you have the desired staff members and staff levels selected, use the Project Type ahead to select the project, set the dates, and the schedule details:

Figure 8 – Completing the Assignment

The Analytics page also includes Team assignment totals as a percentage of capacity over the selected date range:

Figure 9 – Analytics Teams

To learn more about Teams and how to create them, click Team in the toolbar to get started:

Figure 10 – Team Link

See the What’s New in Empire SUITE November 2019 for additional information on creating and managing Teams

You can also toggle between different chart types by clicking the Chart Types link in the page:

Figure 11 – Chart Types

New Empire RESOURCE Billable/Non-Billable Project permissions

We’ve added new permissions for users when scheduling themselves on projects. From the Administration menu, go to Company \ Edit Permissions and select the Resource application:

Figure 12 – New Self Schedule Permissions

The new permissions allow administrators finer control over the type of projects user can self-schedule to: either billable or non-billable projects or both; and whether users are allowed to edit assignments they have created for themselves. It’s important to note that these permissions override the existing Add/Modify/Delete Assignment – Self permission. That is, if a user doesn’t have the Add/Modify/Delete Assignment – Self permission, the user will be allowed to self-schedule if the user has either or both of the billable or non-billable My Schedule – Create Assignment Self permissions.

Excel-based Time Import by User

Users can now import their time using Excel spreadsheets. From the timesheet, select Import from the Print/Import option:

Figure 14 – Time Import Option

This will launch the Import page, which includes a list of required and optional columns to include in the import spreadsheet:

Figure 15 – Time Import Option

The import will use either *.xls or *.xlsx spreadsheets. Use the Choose File button to select the upload file. A few things to note:

•  The Employee Code in the spreadsheet must match the employee code of the user. In other words, the import doesn’t work for other users than the    logged in user. You cannot import time for other users from your timesheet.

•  The Dates in the spreadsheet must be within the approval period dates. For example, if the selected Approval Period is 9/13/2020 through 9/19/2020,    then all of the rows in the spreadsheet must have dates within that range

•  The timesheet Approval Period must be Active. You cannot import rows against a Submitted or Approved timesheet

In addition to the above, the import will also validate the Project Code, Task List and Task information against what is stored in the system, and will alert you if there are errors in the file preventing the import.

Setup Input Fields

Users with Administration permissions can now define which fields to configure when setting up the Empire SUITE. From the Administration \ Company menu, select Setup Input Fields to determine which attributes will be configured in Resource, Time and Expense. For example, in the screenshot below, Resource Users can add Task List and Task information when creating assignments, but elements such as the Location and Type of Work will be hidden:

Figure 16 – Resource Setup Options

Similar pages are available for time and expense. In the Time tab, administrators can define which fields will be available for user input in the timesheet:

Figure 17 – Setup Fields for Time Entry

Administrators can also define which fields are available in the Expense sheet:

Figure 18 – Setup Fields for Expense Entry

Timesheet Copy Forward

We’ve added user defined options for copying timesheet information from one approval period to the next. While some users may want to copy all timesheet details – client, project, task list, tasks and general comments – from one period to the next, other users may want to limit which details are copied forward. To set the options, click the Copy Forward link in the Timesheet toolbar:

Figure 19 – Copy Forward Menu Option

Set the toggles to copy the desired timesheet details from one period to the next:

Figure 20 – Setup Fields for Expense Entry

When the In the Future toggle is on, the copy options are selected automatically and the user won’t be prompted to review the options when moving from one timesheet approval period to the next. In the off position, the Automatic Copy Options page will pop up when moving from one period to the next. The user can

•  Accept the options as defined by clicking Save Options; or

•  Update the options and save them by clicking Copy and Save. The saved selections will be copied to the next timesheet period.

•  Click Cancel to return to the timesheet without moving to the next period or copying any of the timesheet details to the next period.

Role-based Time Off Approvals

We’ve expanded the number of approvers for time off events to include project managers and other user definable approver types. For example, you can add an extra set of approvers to cover time off requests that are made outside of a defined date range ‘window’ or for requests that exceed an employee’s available balance.

Figure 21 – Time Off Approval Roles

The additional approver roles and role types are defined in the Time Off \ Administration \ Role Setup and Role Assignment pages. You define the Role in the Role Setup page and select which data elements the approval role applies to. For example, the Outside of Date Range role applies to offices and departments:

Figure 22 – Time Off Role Setup

Staffers are assigned to the appropriate Approval Role in the Role Assignment page:

Figure 23 – Time Off Role Assignment

In addition to bug fixes and ongoing performance improvements, we’ve added the following new features to the Empire SUITE

•  Split View Resource Display

•  Updated Web Resource Display

•  Recalculate Resource Rates

•  Home Page Time Off Today List

Split View Home Page Resource Portal

Users can now see a split screen view of their assignments in both calendar and list modes.From the Home page My Schedule portal, click Full Screen:

Figure 1 – My Schedule Full Screen

The top of the screen gives you options to control the assignments listed in the left-hand side of the display – use the slider to determine how far back to go, and how far forward:

Figure 2 – My Schedule Split Screen

The bottom of the left-hand side of the display gives users additional options for controlling the display and for content:

Figure 3 – Split Screen Display Options

Use the above controls to:

•  Set the width of the split screen

•  Set the assignment height (Small, Medium or Large)

•  Toggle between Full Screen, which shows assignments in a calendar view, same as the display in the My Schedule portal on the home page, and     Split Screen

•  Change the display to a different employee

•  Use the Exit Full Screen button to return to the Home Page

Updated Web Resource Display

We’ve added a new option to the Web Resource Main Page Filter Bar which allows a user to select the Display size:

Figure 4 – Resource Display Size Options

This option allows the user to shrink or expand the visible amount of assignment detail in the Resource main page.For example, here’s the display in Medium mode:

Figure 5 – Medium Mode

Tentative assignments are now displayed with a white background using the same border color as configured in Resource Setup.For example,Billable assignments are displayed with a blue background and white lettering.Tentative Billable assignments are displayed with a white background and a blue border:

Figure 6 – Tentative Assignments

Recalculate Resource Rates

We have given users an easier way to recalculate the revenue and cost aspects of an assignment when the underlying rates have changed.The resource rate recalculation feature, available from the Administration \ Company menu, allows a user to trigger a recalculation when rates have changed without modifying the existing assignments:

Figure 7 – Recalculate Resource Rates

Rate Change as Of Date – This date is used to define which rate period will be used when recalculating

Recalculate for all Projects or Select Projects List – The rate recalculation can be done for all projects or for a subset by using project search

Restrict to assignments starting between – You can set a specific date range for the recalculation by defining the start and end dates

Home Page Time Off Today

We’ve added a Home Page list of Who’s Out of the Office today. When you log into the Empire SUITE, you’ll see a list of staffers who are out of the office today and why:

Figure 8 – Time Off Today

In addition to bug fixes and ongoing performance improvements, we’ve added the following new features to the Empire SUITE

•  Teams – you can now define Teams for use when staffing projects and workflows

•  Text Message Support for PTO Requests, Reviews and Approvals

•  The Task List and Tasks feature has been re-engineered and new functionality has been added

•  PTO Overlaps – you can now define how PTO ‘Overlap’ are determined. A PTO ‘Overlap’ occurs when two staffers from the same office, department    or

•  Office and Department Management, including new Office fields

•  Resource Copy and Reassign Enhancements

Teams

You can now create Teams of staffers to make resource and workflow assignments easier. Click Team in the toolbar to get started:

Figure 1 – Teams

Define your Team name and click Save:

Figure 2 – Creating Teams

Next, add the desired Team members by clicking the checkbox next to the employee photo:

Figure 3 – Adding Staff to a Team

Click the Selected Employees tab to see your team members:

Figure 4 – Selected Team Members

We’ve added a Team option to the Empire RESOURCE Filter Bar:

Figure 5 – Empire RESOURCE Team View

One quick note about the Team option in the Filter Bar: if you select a team and then click any of the other filter options, the display will change to the selected Filter option. That is, the Filter selections are not additive. If you’ve selected Individual Tax Returns – Intake as a team and then select the New York office as a filter, the display will change to show all of the staff in the New York office, not just Individual Tax Returns – Intake team members in the New York office

Text Message Support for PTO Requests, Approvals and Rejections

You can send and receive text messages and emails when viewing time off requests, approvals, rejections and final approvals. Text messages are also supported when timesheets are rejected and when reviewing receipts in Approve Others.

To use text messages, employees need to add appropriate phone information and allow their phone to receive text messages:

Figure 6 – Telephone Number Set Up

To add telephone information, click the telephone icon in the View Employees page, or you can add telephone information from the View Profile page.

To send a text message, click the List tab in the Time Off page. If the employee has a phone number and text messages enabled, you’ll see the Text Message icon in the upper right corner of the display:

Figure 7 – Sending a Text Message from Time Off

Enter the desired text and click Send Text Message:

Figure 8 – Sending the Text Message

The text message will come from the logged in user sending the message:

Figure 9 – Text Message

You can send text messages for any time off request, approved time off event, rejected time off event or on a time off event which has final approval

You can also send text messages when there is a question about an attached expense receipt. From the Approve Others tab, open the desired timesheet and click the Comment icon:

Figure 10 – Approve Others Expense Comment

The text message will come from the logged in user sending the message:

Figure 11 – Approve Others Receipt Text Message

Rejecting a timesheet will also trigger a text message. Click the Reject icon and that will launch the Rejected Comment field. Click Reject to reject the submitted timesheet and send a text message to the staffer:

Figure 12 – Rejected Timesheet Text Message

Task List and Task Functionality Has Been Improved and Enhanced

We’ve added new features to make it easier to manage task lists and tasks. You can now copy and paste tasks between projects and filter tasks by status or search for specific tasks by task name.

Figure 14 – Task Copy and Paste

To copy tasks from one project to another

1.  Select your source project from the Project Dashboard and click Copy Tasks From Project

2.  Click Clear in the Dashboard toolbar

3.  Select the desired project

4.  Click Paste Tasks From Source Project

You can also filter tasks by status or search for tasks by Task Name. Click the Filter icon to launch the search options:

Figure 15 – Task Search by Status

Click Clear Search to clear the search fields.

We’ve made it easier to select and manage project tasks by adding additional options. Click the triangle next to the task name to:

•  Select all tasks in the list as project tasks

•  Manage tasks and task lists

•  Copy Tasks

•  Paste Tasks

Figure 16 – Managing Tasks and Task Lists

Time Off Overlaps

A Time Off Overlap is when two staffers have time off scheduled at the same time, or when there is an overlap between time off periods. For example, if staffer A has vacation scheduled from Monday, the 18th through Friday the 22nd, and staffer B has a long weekend planned and will be out on Friday, the 15th and Monday, the 18th.

We’ve added the ability for users with the appropriate permissions to define the conditions that trigger an overlap:

•  The staffer’s manager or manager(s)

•  Cost Center

•  Office and/or Department

From the Time off menu, select Administration, then click Overlap Definition:

Figure 17 – Time Off Overlaps

Managing Offices and Departments

We’ve added specific menu options for managing offices and departments. From the Administration menu, select Company, then click Manage Offices:

Figure 18 – Managing Offices

We’ve also added new fields to the Office configuration. These can be found when using the Edit User page. Click the pencil icon to modify an existing office or the plus icon to add a new office:

Figure 19 – New Office Fields

Resource Copy and Reassign Enhancements

We’ve made it easier to create new assignments by adding a Copy Assignment option. Click any assignment and then select Copy Assignment from the menu:

Figure 20 – Copy Assignment

You can copy the exact schedule or you can modify the assignment as required using the Hours, Available and Full-Time options.

Reassigning an assignment is also simpler. Click the assignment then select Reassign:

Figure 21 – Assignment Reassign

Both Copy and Reassign support either named resources or Staff Level assignments.

We have redesigned several pages to make the UI more responsive and easier to use. Specifically:

• We've added Slider Menus to improve performance and enhance the user experience when using mobile devices

• We've added Filter Bars to the Administration, Project and Resource pages to give users single-click options to manage the page content display

• We've redesigned the Project Main Details page, using a more responsive white space design and more visible icons, including a new edit project   button located on right side of the new project view

Home Page

Self Scheduling

Users with the appropriate security permissions can now make changes to their assignments using the Home page My Schedule portal. Click the assignment to launch the resource scheduling menu...

Figure 1 – Self Scheduling from the Home Page My Schedule Portal

... and click Edit Assignment to launch the Edit Assignment page:

Figure 2 – Self Schedule Edit Assignment

A couple of other things to note:

1.  In order to self schedule, users need the following permissions in their Resource application role:

a.  Add/Modify/Delete Assignment – Self

b.  Enable Web Scheduling

c.  Execute Empire RESOURCE

d.  View My Schedule Portal

2.  There are database settings that enable Self-Scheduling and determine what Self Schedulers can do with an assignment. We do not have a UI for this feature      at the present, but will be adding one in a subsequent release. Please contact WSG and we will work with you to configure the correct database settings:

a.  Allow/Do Not Allow Self-Scheduling

b.  Set the number of days forward self-schedulers are allowed to use. That is, how far in advance of today will you allow users to modify their own schedule. The default is 30 days, but this is easily changed.

c.  Allow/Do Not Allow self-schedulers to reduce the hours assigned

Team View

We've also added support for a Team View from the My Schedule portal. Click the assignment link, then click Team to see other team members assigned to the same project:

Figure 3 – Team View

It's important to note we've added granularity links to the Team View. In the upper left corner of the frame you'll see links to change the display presentation:

Figure 4 – Team View Granularity Links

•  D will change the presentation to Daily

•  W will change the presentation to Weekly

•  M will change the presentation to Monthly

•  T will snap the display to the current day

Administration

Added a Filter Bar to the Manage Users Page

We've expanded our use of Filter Bars and added one to the Administration page. The Advanced Search is still available for more detailed searches using multiple search criteria, but the Filter Bar makes it easy to find employees by status, office or department. For example, if you want to see Active, Los Angeles-based Tax department employees, click the All link to set the desired options:

Figure 5 – Manage Users Page Filter Bar

The Employee Search has been upgraded also, giving you single click options to find employees based on the logged in user:

Figure 6 – MManage Users Filter Bar Employee Search

Slider Menu

In addition to the Filter Bar, we've changed the entire menu structure in the different modules by adding a Slider Menu structure. The Slider Menu makes it easier to navigate the application using mobile devices. Click the Slider Menu icon in the upper left corner shown in both Figure 5 and Figure 6 above to slide the Administration Menu into the display:

Figure 7 – Administration Page Slider Menu

Click the X in the upper right corner to slide the menu out of the display

Improved and Expanded Employee View Page

We've improved and expanded the Employee View page to include more information, including phone numbers. We've removed the Card view display option and also re-engineered the UI to make it faster and more responsive:

Figure 8 – Expanded Employee View

To add user phone numbers and emergency contact information, click the handset icon in the Phone column:

Figure 9 – Phone Information

We've also added an Advanced option to the phone information page to allow you to add additional contact numbers, as well as flag those contact numbers for Text Messages:

Figure 10 – Phone Information Advanced Page

You can also add phone information from the Profile page:

Figure 11 – Profile Page Phone Information

Employee Profile Photos

Administrative users with the Upload Employee Profile Photo permission can upload employee photos from the View Employees page. Add the permission to the appropriate role from the Administration \ Company \ Edit Permissions menu. Be sure to save your changes:

Figure 12 – Upload Employee Photo Profile Permission

You'll need to log out and log back in for the permission to be applied to the user role. Then go to Employee \ View Employees and click the Photo icon for the employee:

Figure 14 – Employee Photo Link

We'll add the photo to the Employee View.

Figure 15 – Photo Upload

Project

Added a Filter Bar to the Project Page

The Project page Filter Bar gives users single-click options for displaying and filtering the project page contents by common attributes without requiring the user to open the Advanced Search page. For example, if you want your Project Dashboard to include only the projects you manage, click the 'Projects I Manage' option:

Figure 16 – Manage Users Page Filter Bar

The Filter Bar remembers your last settings and restricts projects based on the filter settings when you leave and return to the Project Dashboard.

Dashboard Selection Option

By adding a Dashboard Selection option, which allows uses to include or exclude the available graphs and charts, we've made it easier for tablet users to manage their clients and projects on the go.

Slider Menu

In addition to the Filter Bar, we've changed the entire menu structure in the project module by adding a Slider Menu structure. The Slider Menu makes it easier to navigate the application using mobile devices. Click the Slider Menu icon in the upper left corner shown in Figure 16 above to slide the Project Menu into the display:

Figure 17 – Project Page Slider Menu

Click the X in the upper right corner to close the Slider Menu.

Updated Project Pages

We've updated and rewritten the project pages with a 'white space' design to support a cleaner, more responsive UI and to add support for mobile devices. Here's the new Project Dashboard:

Figure 18 – Project Dashboard

Here's the new project main details page. Note the Edit Project icon is enlarged and easier to see:

Figure 19 – Project Main Details

Click the Dropdown menu icon next to the Edit button to add an activity to a project, attach a document and more:

Figure 20 – Dropdown Menu Icon

Add or Change Project Managers from the Project Main Details Page

You can now add or change a project manager in the Project Main Details page without having to go to a separate page. Simply click the link next to the picture to add a new manager or change the existing manager:

Figure 21 – Project Managers

You can also search for a manager by clicking the Search For Managers button.

Resource

Added a Filter Bar to the Resource Calendar Page

The Resource page Filter Bar options are different from the Project page version, but the functionality is much the same: instead of launching the Advanced Search feature to find employees by Status, Office, Department or Reports To, the Filter Bar makes it easy to display your desired content:

Figure 22 – Resource Filter Bar

The Resource page Filter Bar remembers your last settings and will display Resource Calendar page content based on your last settings.

New Resource Calendar Page Sorting Options

We've added Sorting capability to the Resource Calendar page. Click the Sort button to display the Resource Calendar page content in order by:

•  Employee Last Name

•  Office

•  Staff Level

Two New Options for Creating Assignments

You can still click and drag across the calendar to add an assignment, but now you can also launch the Create Assignment page with a single click in the calendar grid...

Figure 23 – Single Click New Assignment

...or by mousing anywhere over the employee information on the left-hand side of the Resource Calendar Page and clicking the plus sign:

Figure 24 – Employee Information Assignment Create Option

New Menu Options for Editing, Viewing and Deleting Existing Assignments

Clicking an existing assignment will launch a menu with options for editing, viewing and deleting an assignment:

Figure 25 – Resource Assignment Menu

•  Edit Assignment launches the Resource Assignment page

•  Team will display the other resources assigned to the same project

•  Delete Assignment will delete the assignment

•  Close will close the menu and return you to the Resource Calendar page

Improved Resource Assignment Page

We've modified the Resource Assignment page to make it more intuitive and added new features:

Figure 26 – Resource Assignment Page

1.  The default term for the assignment is now full time

2.  You can toggle between displaying and hiding the schedule

3.  You can add Employee, Manager or Requestor comments to the Assignment

One Click Tentative to Approved Assignment

Users with the Approve assignment permission can now change an assignment's status to Approved from Tentative without having to open the assignment:

Figure 27 – Approve Assignment

Resource Team View

We've added the ability to see the other members of a resource team without leaving the Resource Calendar Page. Click any existing assignment and click Team to see other staffers assigned to the same project:

Figure 28 – Existing Assignment Team Option

We'll show the other members on the team in a split screen at the bottom of the display:

Figure 29 – Team View

Resource Project View

You can now see the other projects a staffer has been assigned to from the Resource Calendar Page. Mouse over the Employee details at the left side of the screen. Click the File icon to launch the split screen showing you all the projects the staffer is assigned to:

Figure 30 – Resource Project View Launch

As with the Team View, we show you the staffer's project assignments in a split screen at the bottom of the display:

Figure 31 – Resource Project View

Copy Resource Schedules Between Projects

We've added the ability to copy either the actuals or existing resource schedule from one project to another. The Copy Resource option is available from the Project Main Details page. Pick your source project, then click the Slider Menu icon to launch the Project menu, and select Copy Resource:

Figure 32 – Copy Resource Menu Option

The Copy Resource Information page:

Figure 33 – Copy Resource Information

1.  Click the 'Use this project as a source project and select a target project' radio button

2.  Use the Project Search link to locate your target project

3.  Select either Scheduled or Actuals as the basis for copying from your source project to the target project

4.  Pick the appropriate date range for either Scheduled or Actuals

5.  Set the minimum scheduled or actuals hours per day to include in the copy process

6.  Set a multiplier as appropriate to use when copying either scheduled or actual time

7.  Shift the copy process by the desired number of days or weeks. The default value is 364 days

8.  Determine how you want to handle Terminated employees in the copy process. You can select one of the following options:

a.  Do Not Copy

b.  Copy the Employee

c.  Copy as Staff Level

9.  Determine how you want to handle Active Employees. You can select either:

a.  Copy Employee

b.  Copy as Staff Level

10.  Use the checkbox to either include or exclude Tentative assignments if your copy process is using Scheduled

11.  Determine how you want to handle the assignment status. Select one of the following options:

a.  Copy as Approved

b.  Copy as Tentative

c.  Copy As Is

When you've got your settings as desired, click Copy Data to copy the Scheduled or Actuals from the Source project to the Target project

We’ve completely reworked the Empire SUITE sign up page and we now allow you to configure your environment as Empire EXPENSE or Empire TIME OFF only. We’ve also added an option to include sample data to help you learn how to use the applications.

Add your information and click the Start Free Trial Now button:

Figure 1 – Sign Up Page

The Start Free Trial Now button will take you to a new page where you can pick which Empire SUITE application you’d like to use:

Figure 2 – Empire SUITE Application Sign-Up

You can select from any of the available applications and of course you can add more later as your business grows or your needs change. You also have the option of using Sample Data to help get you started with your trial.

Completely Revamped Empire TIME OFF

The user interface has been redone and new functionality, such as multiple approvals, instant notifications and conflicts/overlaps information, has been added. It’s important to note Empire TIME OFF has been rebuilt with a responsive design allowing you to run the application across mobile, tablet, laptop and desktop computers with the same user experience.

PTO Request\Review Page

The PTO Request\Review page has been completely updated

Figure 3 – PTO Request\Review

We’ve also added two tabs to let users control how the details are displayed. Figure 3 above is Grid mode, which is the default view when seeing this page on a desktop computer, laptop computer or a tablet. List Mode, shown below, is the same information but in a list format:

Figure 4 – PTO Review List Mode

List mode is the default display when viewing the page on a mobile device or smaller tablet, or if the browser window is reduced in size to where Grid mode will not display properly.

Time Off Administration

We’ve moved all of the Time Off Administrative options under a single icon, located at the left side of the Time Off toolbar:

Figure 5 – PTO Administration

Click the grid icon to see the different Personal Time Off Administration controls:

Figure 6 – PTO Administration Menu Options

Time Off Type Setup

We’ve completely updated the Time Off Type Setup feature to include support for multiple approvals and notifications for all interested and affected parties. Click Type Setup, then select the desired PTO Type. (Note: Vacation and Sick Time are included for your convenience. Other types can be added as required by your company). Below is a screenshot of the updated Vacation type setup page:

Figure 7 – PTO Type Setup Page

1.  Accruals\Usage Information – administrators can decide which details are included in system generated PTO Emails:

a.  Accrual Details and Usage Totals

b.  Accrual Totals and Usage Details

c.  Details – Accruals Only

d.  Accrual Details and Usage Totals

e.  Accrual Totals and Usage Details

f.  Details – Accruals Only

g.  Totals – Accruals Only

h.  Totals – Usage Details Only

i.  Totals – Both

2.  Period – Administrators can determine the period associated with the PTO Type:

a.  Calendar Year

b.  Current Date +/- 12 Months

c.  Request Date +/- 12 Months

3.  Minimum Increment – Administrators can determine the minimum amount of time allowed for requests by PTO Type:

a.  Half Time

b.  Full Time

c.  Part Time

4.  Download to Calendar – Administrators can determine by status whether or not a request is downloaded to an Employee Calendar:

a.  Approved and Tentative

b.  Approved Only

c.  None

5.  Approval Requirements/Instant PTO Notifications – Administrators can configure different approval rules for different PTO Types. For example, you can     configure Sick Time as immediate approved while a Vacation request may require multiple approvals. Approval emails and instant notifications can be     configured for:

a.  Employee ‘Reports To’ Manager

b.  Project Manager for any projects the employee is assigned to

c.  A designated approver

d.  Another designated user by email

e.  Other employees assigned to the same projects as the requesting employee

6.  Notifications – These settings determine which users receive instant notifications during the request and approval process:

a.  Request – An email with the request details

b.  In Process – As the request is routed for approvals, the In Process email includes information about the request’s approval status and whether or
     not the required approvers have approved the request or whether the request is still pending

c.  Final – The Final notification is sent when the last approval is in place or if an approver has rejected the request

d.  Exception – The Exception email is triggered if there is a change to an approved time off request

Time Off Request\Review Page Filters

We’ve updated the Time Off Request view filters with new one-click controls:

Figure 8 – PTO Request Type Filters

Users can search for PTO Requests by:

•  Employee

•  PTO Type

•  Status

•  Date Range

•  Office

•  Department

•  Earned

And the filters have one-click All capability as well as user defined searches to refine the desired criteria

Time Off Request

We’ve completely reworked the Time Off Request page. From the PTO Request\Review page, click Add:

Figure 9 – Request Time Off

Sick time offers one-click requests for Yesterday and Today. We’ve also completely updated the PTO Request page. Click Request to add a request for any type of configured time off and select the appropriate date range

Figure 10 – Request Time Off Detail

Lastly, we’ve updated the Exception Time page. Click Add from the Request Time Off page to launch the Exception Time page. (Note: Exception time events are for recording unscheduled PTO events, such as historical sick time or updates to scheduled and approved vacation time already in a timesheet)

Click the tab to select either Exception Time by Employee. . .

Figure 11 – Exception Time by Employee

. . . or Exception Time by Type

Figure 12 – Exception Time by Type

Both Exception Time by Employee and Exception Time by Type have a Full-Time toggle on/off option. When Full-Time is selected, simply click the appropriate radio button for the day, employee and type to add the entry. When Full-Time is Off, you can enter the appropriate hours for the desired day, employee and type.

You can use Exception Time by Type to add a time off event to a group of employees without typing or clicking in a cell for each individual employee. For example, if your company gave everyone a Snow Day, simply click the day in the column header to add the entry for all employees:

Figure 14 – Exception Time by Type for All Employees

PTO History, Conflicts and Overlaps

Another new feature in Empire TIME OFF are tabs with detailed information for time off request history, conflicts between the employee’s time off request and any project assignments during the same period, and overlapping time off requests or approved events from other employees with the same Reports To manager. To see the complete history of a time off request, click the Employee Name in the PTO Review grid and click the History tab:

Figure 15 – Time Off Request History

To see if the request has any conflicts with the employee’s project assignments, click the Conflicts tab:

Figure 16 – Time Off Request Conflicts

Finally, to see if the request is overlapping with other time off activity for employees with the same 'Reports To' manager during the requested time off, click the Overlaps tab:

Figure 17 – Time Off Request Overlaps

Time Off Setup

We’ve added a Time Off Setup option. Click the Gear icon in the upper right corner of the page:

Figure 18 – Time Off Setup

The Time Off setup page allows you to

•  Display/hide employee profile photos

•  Set your date format

•  Set your currency format

•  Display/hide project codes

Empire RESOURCE Enhancements

We’ve added several new enhancements to Empire RESOURCE which can be configured through the Empire RESOURCE setup page. Click the gear icon in the upper right corner of the page to open the Setup Options:

Figure 19 – Empire RESOURCE Setup Page Icon

Assignments by Staff Level

You can now make assignments for unnamed resources using Staff Level scheduling. Click the Show Staff Levels checkbox to include Staff Levels in the display:

Figure 20 – Adding Staff Levels

When Staff Levels are included in the display, you can make assignments just as you would with named resources:

Figure 21 – Staff Level Assignments

You can also reassign a Staff Level assignment to a named resource by dragging and dropping the assignment from the Staff Level onto the appropriate employees, just as you would do a reassignment from one employee to another.

FTE View

For those firms that schedule using a Full Time Equivalent (FTE) model, Empire RESOURCE now supports that method. For example, if your standard calendar is 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, then scheduling a resource for 40 hours in a week would be one (1.0) FTE, 20 hours scheduled in a 40-hour week would be 0.5 FTE and so on. Click the Show FTE View checkbox to include FTE information in the view:

Figure 22 – Show FTE View

This setting changes the displayed assignment information so the assignment’s FTE value is displayed:

Figure 23 – FTE View

Organization Selection

The Org Selector fields allow you to filter the display for Staff Level Assignments by office and/or department. For example, below is a screenshot of all Staff Level Assignments for the weeks of February 10th and February 17th:

Figure 24 – All Staff Level Assignments

If we set the Org Selector value to the New York office as below:

Figure 25 – Org Selector

The display will now change to show only those New York based projects with Staff Level Assignments:

Figure 26 – Wall View with Organization Selected

New Empire RESOURCE Assignment Status Options

Empire RESOURCE users now have the option to make Tentative resource assignments in addition to Approved assignments. Additionally, users have the option to Request a resource or a staff level instead of making an assignment. Click the ‘A’ in the New or Edit Assignment page and select the desired status:

Figure 27 – Approved, Tentative and Requests

Color Code Assignments by Approval Status

You can also color code assignments by approval state (Approved, Request or Tentative). From the Resource page click the Gear icon to launch the Setup page. In the Color Assignments by section, click the Approval State radio button. Please note you can select one, multiple or all approval state options at once.

Figure 28 – Resource Setup Approval State

Click the dropdown to choose designated colors for each approval state. You may select the same color for more than one option. Click Save to capture your changes.

Figure 29 – Color by Approval State

You’ll note in Figures 24 and 26 above, some of the assignments are green and others are orange. Approved assignments have been color-coded green, while requests have been set to orange.

Client User Interface Improvements

We’ve added new features to the client user interface. From the Client Main Details page, click Edit Client:

Figure 30 – Client Main Details

In addition to updating the existing display, we’ve added the Client History, along with hours and expense totals for all projects for the client:

Figure 31 – Edit Client Page

Additionally, we now allow you to delete a client as long as there are no approved timesheets or invoices associated with projects for that client.

Client Info (1)

The Client Info frame displays the total hours, hours budgeted and total expenses for all projects for the client.

Client History (2)

The Client History frame displays information regarding when the client was created, who created the client and when the client status was modified

Upgraded Project User Interface

We’ve improved the Edit Project user interface and added new features. From the Project Main Details page, click Edit Project:

Figure 32 – Project Main Details

In addition to updating the existing display, we’ve added Project Info and Project History frames

Figure 33 – Edit Project

We also now allow you to delete a project as long as there are no approved timesheets or invoices against the project.

Project Info (1)

The Project Info frame shows the total hours to date, the project’s budgeted hours and the total expenses to date.

Project History (2)

The Project History frame shows the chronology of the project – when the project was created, when it was activated, when it was closed – and identifies the users who modified the project along the way.

Project Menu Options and Security Permissions

We’ve also linked the available project related permissions to the user’s project permissions. Here’s a screenshot of an Administrative user with all the available project permissions:

Figure 34 – Administrator Permissions

And here’s a screenshot from a Project Manager with a more limited set of permissions:

Figure 35 – Project Manager Permissions

Permissions and roles are defined in the Administration \ Company \ Edit Permissions pages.

Resume Upload Support

We’ve removed the Edit Profile option from the Profile menu, and added a Show Resume link in the View Employee page if an employee or consultant has uploaded a resume. To upload a resume, click Upload Resume from the Profile menu:

Figure 36 – Upload Your Resume

Employees or consultants with uploaded resumes will have a link in the View Employee page:

Figure 37 – View Employee Resume Link

Empire SUITE users can now keep track of changes in employee information and see a timeline with historical details. To enable Employee Effective Dates for your employee transactions, go to Administration \ Employee \ Data Entry Requirements for Employees and select Yes for Enable Employee Effective Dates. Be sure to click Save to save the setting:

Figure 1 – Data Entry Requirements for Employees

Next, click View Employees and select the appropriate employee from the list or the Card View. Click the Add New Effective Date link:

Figure 2 – Data Entry Requirements for Employees

Use the pop-up Calendar to select the Effective Date. Please note any change related to rate schedules must be applied on the first day of timesheet approval period. For example, if you are changing an employee’s office from Los Angeles to New York, the effective date must be the first day of an approval period. You can change an employee’s status on any day. In the example below, we’re going to change the employee’s office from Los Angeles to New York as of Sunday, April 29th because the timesheet approval periods are configured to use a Sunday to Saturday date range:

Figure 3 – Adding Effective Dated Employee Information

Be sure to click Save when you’re finished with your changes to return to the Edit User page. Note we’ve now added a Summary of Change frame to indicate an Effective Dated transaction has been added:

Figure 4 – Summary of Change Details

Click Select to see the transaction details.

Also, we’ve updated the Employee Extract to include the Effective Dated transactions when the feature is enabled. Each effective date will be displayed as a separate row in the extract.

Contractor Vendor Name and Code

For Empire SUITE customers who use contractors and want to associate a contractor with a contracting company, we’ve added a Vendor field to the Edit User page. To capture Vendor information, edit an Employee Type to require vendor information. In the Edit User page, click the Employee Type field Pencil icon to open the Employee Type Setup page:

Figure 5 – Editing Employee Types

To require a Vendor for an employee type, click Vendor Required checkbox:

Figure 6 – Modify Employee Type Setup

Click Save to capture your changes. The Add/Edit Vendor field will be enabled in the Edit User page and you can click the Green Plus icon to add a Vendor and Code, or click the Pencil Icon to edit an existing Vendor and Code:

Figure 7 – Adding a Vendor

Add your vendor name and code and a discount percentage if applicable:

Figure 8 – Vendor Details

Expense Locations

Users can now be required to add a location when entering expense information. To set up Expense Locations, go to Administration \ Job Role/Location and select Location. Use the checkboxes in the Expense column to designate valid expense locations:

Figure 9 – Configuring Locations

Next, use either Company Data Entry Requirements or Project Data Entry Requirements to require a location when entering expenses. Below is a screenshot of Project Data Entry Requirements configured with a standard location entry required:

Figure 10 – Locations Required

When expense locations are required, users will not be able to submit or approve an expense sheet without the required detail.

Staff Levels Management UI

Staff Levels are roughly equivalent to Job Titles and are useful for classifying employees and assigning revenue and cost rates across employees assigned to a staff level. From the Edit User page in Administration \ Employee, click the green plus sign to add a new staff level, or click the pencil icon to edit an existing staff level:

Figure 11 – Adding a Staff Level

Either will launch the Modify Staff Level page. Enter a description, code and expected hours value (code and expected hours value are optional) and click Save:

Figure 12 – Modify Staff Levels

Staff Level Group support

Staff Level Groups can be used to aggregate different staff levels into one group for reporting purposes. For example, accounting firms often have 1st Year, 2nd Year and 3rd Year Tax or Audit Associate Staff Levels and may find it useful to group all of the Tax Associates into a Tax Associates Staff Level Group. From the Edit User page in Administration \ Employee, click the green plus icon or the pencil icon to launch the Modify Staff Level page as shown in Figure n above. In the Modify Staff Level page, click either the green plus icon or the pencil icon to add or edit a staff level group:

Figure 14 – Adding a Staff Level Group

Here is a screenshot of a Staff Level associated with a Staff Level Group:

Figure 15 – Staff Level and Staff Level Group

Employee Import Changes

We’ve added several new features to the employee import to make it more flexible and useful.

Figure 16 – Employee Import Changes

Employee Calendars

Our clients who configure different calendars for different employee types or offices can now include the Calendar name when using the Employee Import to add new employees or update information for existing employees. The Calendar must already be configured, and the name should match or the imported employee record will not include calendar information.

Create Missing Information

The Employee Import will now add Office, Department, Staff Level and Employee Type information if the load file detects new entries not already in the database. For example, if you want to add employees or move employees to your Detroit office, you don’t need to set up the Detroit office before you do the import – the import will add the office for you.
A quick note about the Create Missing Information checkbox: If your tenant has more than one level for offices or departments, the checkbox is disabled.

Replace any existing effective dated transactions

If you’ve enabled effective dated employee transactions, this option will delete any existing transactions and replace them with the transaction in the load file. For example, assume you have an employee configured as a Tax Associate 2nd Year as of May 1st. If the ‘Replace’ option is checked and your load file includes a row for the same employee to be loaded as a Tax Associate 3rd year as of April 17th, the process will delete the existing May 1st row and replace the entry with the April 17th information.

Empire MOBILE now supports ProSystem fx mileage entries

Empire MOBILE users with CCH ProSystem fx integration enabled were not able to use Empire MOBILE’s native Mileage feature when entering reimbursable mileage transactions. We’ve enhanced our CCH ProSystem fx integration to support using Empire MOBILE’s mileage feature which means users can now take advantage of MOBILE’s automatic distance calculation between locations as well as our one tap ‘Round Trip’ feature.

User Defined Web Resource View Date Range

Empire RESOURCE Web users can now define a date range when scheduling or viewing resource schedules. From the Resource page, click the gear icon in the upper right corner of the page:

Figure 17 – Resource Setup

Click the Schedule View: Date Range links to set the desired date range:

Figure 18 – Resource Date Range

Empire RESOURCE customers now have the option to download assignments automatically into user Microsoft Outlook calendars. The automation is available for Exchange 2010 and later, as well as Office 365 environments. Please contact WSG if you are interested in adding this capability to your toolkit.

Copy Resource

We’ve added the ability to copy a project’s resource schedule from one period to another. Select Copy Resource from the Project Dashboard page:

Figure 1 – Copy Resource Project Dashboard

You can also select Copy Resource from the Project Main Details page:

Figure 2 – Copy Resource Project Main Details

Use the Copy Resource Information page to select the project or projects and to define how the assignments should be copied:

Figure 3 – Copy Resource Information

•   Search – Use the Search option to select the desired projects using your standard project search attributes such as status, name, office, department and      Additional Information (Custom) fields:

Figure 4 – Project Search

•   Copy From – Use these settings to define what and how you want to use the Copy feature

♦   You can copy the resource plan using either scheduled hours or actual time by selecting either Actuals or Scheduled

♦   Use the FromFrom and to calendar controls to set the desired copy range. Your copy range can be as small as a single day or can be multiple years if desired.

♦   Use the Minimum Hours Per Day field to ignore either actual or scheduled amounts below your desired threshold. This can be useful if you’re using Actuals and
     don’t want to copy small amounts of time from random resources you would prefer not to include in the proposed schedule.

♦   The Multiply Hours control can be used to modify the amount of either actual or scheduled hours copied.

♦   The Shift control determines how far in advance the selected range is copied in either Weeks or Days. Please note the Shift can be a negative number.

♦   The Employees Terminated As Of Current Date combo box let you decide how to treat actuals or scheduled hours for terminated employees.
     You can select any of the following options:

• Do Not Copy

• Copy Employee

• Copy as Staff Level

♦   The Active Employees combo box lets you decide how to treat actuals or scheduled hours for your active employees.
     You can select either of the following options:

• Do Employee

• Copy as Staff Level

♦   If you are copying Scheduled hours, use the Include Tentative Assignments for Schedule checkbox to include or exclude any tentative assignments
     occurring during your selected From and To date range

♦   Finally, use the Copy radio buttons to determine the created assignment status:

• Tentative

• Approved

• As Is, meaning Tentative assignments will be created as Tentative and Approved assignments will be created as Approved

When the desired settings are configured, click Copy Data to copy the resource schedule. Click Close when finished to return to either the Project Dashboard or Project Main Details page.

New Reporting Permissions and BI Reporting Functionality

We’ve made some changes to how Empire REPORTS are accessed and we’ve added some additional reporting functionality.

Security Permissions by Report

Along with adding a new Reports permission group to the Edit Permissions page, we’ve added a separate security permission for each report. Go to Administration \ Company \ Edit Permissions:

Figure 5 – Reports Permissions

When you click the Reports link in the tool bar, you’ll launch the standard Empire REPORTS page, with links to all of the standard reports enabled for your user based on the permissions defined for your role:

Figure 6 – Standard Empire Reports

Access to BI Reports

If your tenant has been configured to allow access to our new Business Intelligence based reporting capability, you’ll have an Access to BI Reports permission included in the Reports permission group. If you’d like to enable this feature, please contact WSG so we can make the necessary database updates for your tenant.

If you don’t have the BI Reports database setting enabled for your tenant, you won’t see the Access to BI Reports permission in the Reports permission group.

Changes in Reports Behavior with BI Reporting Enabled

When BI Reporting is enabled for your tenant, users with the Access to BI Reports permission will see a different page when they launch Empire REPORTS:

Figure 7 – BI Reports Enabled

Click the Standard Reports link to view the standard Empire REPORTS.

BI Reporting

WSG has incorporated business intelligence (BI) reporting tools into our reporting solution. The tools are seamlessly integrated and embedded in our cloud version and allows WSG to produce custom ad hoc reports and dashboards, as well as data analytics using drag and drop.

Use Report Search to find a report using a keyword such as Time or Expense. For example, if you click Report Search and use Time as a search variable, note the list of reports and the report count changes to only those reports with Time in the report title:

Figure 8 – Report Search

The Recently Used link will display a list of the last 10 BI Reports you’ve run:

Figure 9 – Recently Used

The New link displays a list of recently added reports and views:

Figure 10 – New Reports

The Time and Expense link displays a list of time and expense reports ranging from lists of users entering reports to compliance reports, including graphics:

Figure 11 – Time and Expense Reports

The Project link displays a list project-based reports:

Figure 12 – Project Reports

The Employee link displays a list of employee-based reports:

Figure 14 – Employee Reports

How the BI Reports Work

Depending on the type of report, each BI report will use up to three (3) different reporting elements to determine the report content. For example, if you select the Time Extract – project search, employee search and date range report from the Time and Expense group, you’ll see the following links to customize the report content by project, employee and date range:

Figure 15 – Report Content Selection

The report will display based on your client/project, employee and date range selections:

Figure 16 – Sample Report Results

Once the report results are returned, you’ll see fields with additional filtering options to further refine and customize the report results.

Figure 17 – Report Results Unfiltered

Note here you can add or remove clients, projects and employees from the results by clicking individual entries, or using shift-click to select multiple items:

Figure 18 – Report Filters

And here are the updated report results based on the selected filtering items:

Figure 19 – Report Results Filtered

Please contact WSG for more information about our BI Reporting capabilities and how they can be implemented for your tenant.

Date: September 2017

Summary:

Employee Types
Office/Department Hierarchies
View Employees
Holiday Lists Management
Timers
Activity based Web scheduling
Instant Personal Time Off notifications

Employee Types

Date: April 2017

Summary:

Employee Extract
Employee Summary Report
Offices and Departments
Empire RESOURCE Enhancements
Administrative Permissions
Client Page and Dashboard
Project Page Dashboard
Automatic Session Time Out
External Collaborators

Employee Extract

Date: December 2016

Summary:

View Disabled Employees
Edit Employee Start Date
Security Permissions
View Organization Chart
View Usage Information

View Disabled Employees