Time Card Management

  • Release version: Yokohama
  • Updated January 30, 2025
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Time Card Management

    The Time Card Management feature in ServiceNow enables users assigned to tasks to accurately report and track the time they spend on various task types such as projects, incidents, problems, and change requests. It integrates with the Task table and facilitates efficient time recording, submission, and approval workflows. This feature requires activation of the Time Card Management plugin and may also involve the Project Management feature for full functionality.

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    Key Features

    • Time Recording and Submission: Users can log time through time cards and time sheets, and submit them for approval.
    • Approval Workflow: Time cards and sheets are routed for approval based on user-specific policies, with roles for time card approvers including managers who can also log and submit time for their resources.
    • Approver Capabilities: Approvers can review, approve, reject, or recall time sheets, delegate approval responsibilities (with some restrictions), and monitor time card exceptions via dashboards.
    • Time Card Administration: Admins manage time sheet policies, approve or reject by exception, and can edit or create time cards in Pending or Rejected states.
    • Domain Separation Compliance: Data isolation is maintained through domain separation at the Data only level, ensuring secure and segregated data access.
    • Time Sheet Policies and Project Time Categories: Admins or project managers define policies and create project-specific subcategories to categorize activities for detailed time reporting.
    • Rate Types: Custom rate types can be created to support cost management related to labor.
    • Time Sheet Portal: Provides users a consolidated weekly view of assigned tasks to record and submit time efficiently.
    • Cost Management Integration: When enabled, time cards contribute to labor cost tracking within the Cost Management application.
    • Analytics and Dashboards: Dedicated dashboards provide project managers and user managers with insights into time card exceptions and category-wise time reporting, enhancing oversight and decision-making.
    • Mobile Accessibility: Time sheets can be accessed and managed on mobile devices via the ServiceNow Mobile Timesheets app, supporting iOS and Android platforms for convenience and flexibility.

    Activation and Licensing

    Administrators must activate the Time Card Management plugin (com.snc.timecard) to enable this functionality. The plugin also activates Performance Analytics dashboards, which require a separate Performance Analytics license for use.

    Practical Benefits

    ServiceNow customers can leverage Time Card Management to streamline time tracking, improve accuracy in labor reporting, enforce consistent approval processes, and gain valuable insights through analytics. Its integration with project and cost management features supports comprehensive workforce and financial oversight. Mobile access further enables users and managers to stay productive on the go.

    The Time Card Management feature enables time card users such as task assignees to report and track their time for the assigned tasks.

    Watch this three-minute video to learn about setup of the time tracking feature, entering time and approvals.

    Time Card Management works with the Task table to record time worked on various task types, such as projects, incidents, problems, and change requests.

    With the Time Card Management feature:

    • The time card users can record the time worked on a task using time cards and time sheets. They can submit their time cards and time sheets for approval.
    • Time cards and time sheets are routed for approval based on the Non-project time approver and Project time approver fields in the user time sheet policy. User managers with time card approver role can also log time and submit the time sheet of their resources
    • The time card approvers can perform the following tasks:
      • Review and approve or reject the time cards in a submitted time sheet.
      • Recall the approved time sheets or time cards to return them to the users for corrections.
      • Use dashboards to view reports of time card and time sheet exceptions, and categorize time reported by the users.
      • Delegate another time card approver to process time sheets from your resources when you might not have time or will be unavailable. Note the following points for delegation:
        • You cannot delegate approval only for an individual resource.
        • The delegated time card approver cannot further delegate your time sheet approvals.

      The project_manager and the resource_manager roles contain the timecard_approver role in the base system. However, the timecard_approver role can also be used independently without these roles.

    • The time card admin can create and manage time sheet policies, and can also approve or reject by exception and process the time sheets. Time card admin can also create or edit time cards of any users if the time cards are in Pending or Rejected state.
    Note:
    The Time Card Management plugin is required to use time cards. Some of the procedures require the project management feature, which activates time cards automatically. For more information, see Project Management (com.snc.financial_planning_pmo).

    Domain separation in Time Card Management

    Domain separation provides complete data isolation for domain-specific users. Time card Management is domain separation compliant at the Data only level.