Time Ticket Fields

Ticket numbers are used to reference individual time tickets. A ticket number is automatically assigned when you begin entering a new ticket in the Time Tickets window. Ticket numbers increase by one based on the last ticket entered and saved. You cannot assign or alter a ticket number.

When you record activities in the weekly time sheet, a time ticket is created with a unique ticket number for each day that you enter a time. For example, if you enter times in five daily columns for the same activity (the same row in the grid), Sage 50 will create five separate time tickets for each day, each with a unique, sequential ticket number.

If a time ticket displays the flag Has this ticket been applied to an invoice, this indicates that the ticket has already been applied to a customer invoice. You can only apply a time or expense ticket once to customer invoices. After the ticket has been applied to a sales invoice, you cannot apply the ticket again.

If this ticket has been applied to an invoice, this field will display the number of the invoice. Clicking the number will open and display the invoice itself.

There are two types of time tickets: employee time tickets and vendor time tickets. Select either Employee or Vendor to describe who is performing this activity. If you select Employee, this time ticket can be used in payroll entry, when totaling hours worked for the selected payroll period. Both employee and vendor time tickets can be used later in Sales/Invoicing when billing your customers.

Enter or select the employee ID or vendor ID from the lookup list that corresponds to the person performing this activity.

In Time/Expense reports, the Employee/Vendor field is referred to as Recorded by ID.

Here you specify for whom or why this activity is being performed. You have three choices:

• Customer: The activity is being performed for a customer who is not associated with an existing job set up in Job Costing.
• Job: The activity is being performed for a job, phase, or cost code set up in Job Costing.
• Administrative: The activity being performed is not associated with a customer or job. For example, you might record bookkeeping time as an administrative activity. Administrative time tickets are automatically given a non-billable billing status. You can change the billing status. However, since no customer or job can be associated with it, administrative tickets cannot be used in Sales/Invoicing.

If this is an employee time ticket, it can be applied in payroll provided the hourly employee is set up to use the Hourly-Time Ticket Hours payment method.

Specify for whom or why is this activity being performed. Enter or select the customer ID or job ID that corresponds to the customer or job for whom this activity is being performed.

Enter or select an activity item. Activity items are used to indicate how time is spent when performing services for a customer, for a job, or for internal administrative work.

Example

If you want to record time spent on a phone conversation with a client, you might set up a Teleconference activity item in the Maintain Inventory Items window. Then, select the Teleconference activity item from the list in the Time Tickets window. You could next record the time spent during the call as billable or non-billable to the client.

You can enter a short description for the time ticket. You can enter up to 160 characters. Typically, this description is used for billing purposes. When applying time tickets to customer invoices, you can choose to display the ticket description entered here or the Activity-item description set up in Maintain Inventory (provided the applied tickets are not consolidated).

Enter or select a date for the activity. You are permitted to enter dates within the previously closed fiscal year and the two currently open fiscal years.

Common reasons for entering ticket dates for the previously closed fiscal year include recording time-ticket hours last year that you intend to bill a customer this year.

Select Calculate Time and enter a start time, end time, and length of time for a break. Sage 50 will then calculate the total duration.

This field displays the duration, or length of time, of the activity.

• If you selected Enter Time, simply enter a length of time that the activity was performed for. Duration amounts are entered using the HOUR:MINUTES format (for example, 1:30).
• If you selected Calculate Time, you can enter a start time, end time, and break to have Sage 50 calculate the duration. You cannot enter an amount in the Duration field while this option is selected.
• If you selected the Start Timer button to begin timing the activity, time is displayed in the Duration field in second intervals. Selecting the Stop Timer button will stop recording time for the activity. If you select the Start Timer button once again, the clock resumes running in the Duration field.

The duration is converted to a unit duration, which is used to calculate the total billing amount for this activity item (unless the billing status is no-charge).

Enter the time at which the activity began. Enter using the HOUR:MINUTES AM/PM format (for example, 8:30 AM). You can also select the up and down arrows to adjust a time component.

Enter the time at which the activity concluded. Enter using the HOUR:MINUTES AM/PM format (for example, 1:30 PM). You can also select the up and down arrows to adjust a time component.

Enter the amount of time that should not be included when calculating duration. Enter using the HOUR:MINUTES format (for example, 1:30 ). You can also select the up and down arrows to adjust a time component.

Break is typically time spent away from the specific activity. For example, if you take a one-hour lunch break, but worked between 9 A.M. and 5 P.M., Sage 50 will calculate the time-ticket duration as seven hours (eight hours less the one-hour lunch break).

You can time an activity by using the timer. Learn more

Billing type gives you the flexibility of choosing from multiple billing rates. There are four billing types available for time tickets. Each affects the billing rate and billing amount in a different manner. This field is not available when recording administrative tickets.

• Employee Rate: If this is an employee time ticket and this option is selected, then the billing rate set up in Maintain Employees/Sales Reps will be used when calculating the billing amount.
• Activity Rate: The billing rate set up in Maintain Inventory Items for this activity item will be used for this time ticket. Since activity items can have several billing rates, the customer's default pricing level will determine which billing rate to use. You can choose any of the billing rates established if the default pricing level is not what you want.
• Override Rate: This allows you to enter a desired billing rate, overriding the employee's established billing rate or one of the activity item's multiple billing rates set up in inventory. To override billing rates, you must enter a positive amount.
• Flat Fee: If you want to ignore the duration of the time ticket and charge a single fee for the activity performed, choose this option. The billing rate field is not available when selecting this option. Enter the desired amount to charge for this activity in the Billing Amount field. If you choose this option, the duration will still be available for reporting purposes and payroll entry (provided the employee is set up to be paid based on time ticket hours). Billing amounts (flat fees) must be zero or greater before you can save time tickets.

This is the rate used to calculate the billing amount for the activity being performed on this time ticket. Billing rates must be positive amounts.

• If you select Employee Rate,Sage 50 will use the billing rate set up for this employee in Maintain Employees/Sales Reps. You cannot change the employee's hourly billing rate in the Time Tickets window. You must return to the employee's setup in Maintain Employees/Sales Rep window to do so.
• If you select Activity Rate,Sage 50 will use one of billing (sales price) rates set up in inventory for this activity item. Sage 50 first uses the sales price level set up for the customer associated with this ticket. If you selected Job as the time-ticket type and the job has not been set up for a particular customer, then the first billing (sales price) rate set up in Maintain Inventory Items will be selected.

You can select any of the billing rates listed in the Time Ticket window. If you want to change the billing rate to something other than what is listed, you must return to the activity item's setup in the Maintain Inventory Items window and change the billing-rate levels first.

• If you select Override Rate, you must enter a billing rate in this field.
• If you select Flat Fee, the Billing Rate field will not be available.

There are four billing statuses.

Billable: This ticket is available to include on customer invoices.

Non-Billable: This ticket will not be available to apply to customer invoices. This status is automatically applied if this is an administrative ticket.

Hold: This ticket will not be available to apply to customer invoices until the ticket's status is changed to billable.

No Charge: This ticket will be forced to a zero billing amount. This ticket will be available to apply to customer invoices.

This is the Duration converted to decimal format [HOURS.MINUTES]. It is used when calculating the billing amount. You cannot change the unit duration without changing the Duration field itself.

Unit duration minutes are calculated as [MINUTES] divided by 60.

If you selected Employee Rate, Activity Rate, or Override Rate as the billing type, then the billing amount is equal to the billing rate multiplied by the unit duration. If you selected Flat Fee as the billing type, then you can enter an amount in the Billing Amount field. The billing amount is used when applying time tickets to sales invoices.

Billing amounts must be zero or greater before you save time tickets. You cannot create a ticket with a negative billing amount.

If an employee is recording this time ticket, you can select a pay level associated with the employee. Pay levels are set up in Employee Defaults and the rates for individual employees are set up in the Pay Info tab of the Maintain Employees/Sales Reps window. It can be an hourly pay level or salary pay level based on how the employee is set up. If the employee is set up to be paid hourly based on time-ticket hours recorded during the payroll period, the pay level selected here will be used in payroll entry. Pay levels entered here for salaried employees are used for report purposes only.

When the Has this ticket been applied to Payroll check box in the Time Tickets window is selected, it indicates that the time ticket has already been applied to one or more of the employee's paychecks during payroll entry. If the Has this ticket been applied Payroll check box is clear, then this time ticket is available to apply to an employee's paycheck during payroll entry. You can only apply time-ticket hours to an employee paycheck if the employee is set up in Maintain Employees/Sales Reps as using the Hourly - Time Ticket Hours payment method.

If the Has this ticket been applied to Payroll check box is already selected (the ticket was actually used during a previous payroll entry), you can clear this box. Clearing this check box permits the time-ticket hours to be recorded a second time for the employee during payroll entry. However, your Time/Expense reports may display conflicting information.