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The following text is a complete documentation of the integration between Tempo and Business Central. It consists of three main parts: settings and a detailed description of how to download your worklogs, either manually or automatically.
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Settings
To integrate with Tempo, it is necessary to set up the Tempo Integration Settings table, where you will have to enter the integration keys and URLs that will allow Jira and Tempo to connect to Business Central.
To ensure that the integration works properly, you must set up the job project journal templates, the resource setup and the corresponding number series.
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General RecommendationsTo simplify the entire setup process, we recommend using our Tempo Integration Setup Wizard, which can be found in the Assisted Setup section accessible through the search bar. Once all the connection credentials are filled in, our wizard assistant will test if the connection is established correctly and if you have all the required permissions. Complete documentation for the Tempo Integration assisted setup can be found under this link. Since the integration requires only one Jira account and one user to connect to, we recommend that the person responsible for setting up the integration be a technical user or an administrator, ideally with access to all projects, issues and worklogs. In addition to the wizard, you can also use the tooltips, which provide an example of what the system expects you to enter. |
Tempo Integration Settings
The integration settings can be found by typing Tempo Integration Settings in the search bar. The settings are divided into several sections.
API Section
This section is already pre-populated with the credentials that you entered into the wizard when setting up the integration. You can skip it and move on to the next section.
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Job Queue Section
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The following settings can be customized according to the customer's needs:
Download Updated From
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When downloading your worklogs automatically using job queue, this field is automatically populated with the date and time of the last successful job queue start and this value does not need to be further adjusted. |
If it is necessary to manually bulk download worklogs for a particular period, you can enter a specific date in this field from which the worklogs should be downloaded.
If the field is left blank, all historical worklogs will be downloaded, which can slow down your system depending on the amount of worklogs you have stored in Jira and TempoBefore you start installing the integration, make sure that all users who will use the integration have the permissions to these tables: |
Object Type | Object ID | Object Name |
Table Data | 156 | Resource |
Table Data | 169 | Job Ledger Entry |
Table Data | 203 | Res. Ledger Entry |
Table Data | 205 | Resource Unit of Measure |
Table Data | 210 | Job Journal Line |
Table Data | 237 | Job Journal Batch |
Table Data | 240 | Resource Register |
Table Data | 241 | Job Register |
Table Data | 71231910 | Jira Project Key ONP |
Table Data | 71231911 | Tempo Settings ONP |
Table Data | 71231912 | Tempo Worklog Archive ONP |
Table Data | 71231913 | Worklog Period ONP |
Tempo Integration Settings
The integration settings can be found by typing Tempo Integration Settings in the search bar. The settings are divided into several sections.
API Section
This section is already pre-populated with the credentials that you entered into the wizard when setting up the integration. You can skip it and move on to the next section.
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Job Queue Section
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The following settings can be customized according to the customer's needs:
Download Updated From
When downloading your worklogs automatically using job queue, this field is automatically populated with the date and time of the last successful job queue start and this value does not need to be further adjusted.
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The value in this field is not the date on which the worklog was created, but the date it was last modified. The purpose of this functionality is to optimize the download process and avoid downloading worklogs that are already in the system and download only those that have been updated since the last download. |
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Even if you need to manually download worklogs for a certain period of time, for example because of additional changes in Tempo, we recommend not to change the last download date filled in automatically. When you run the manual worklog download feature, it will download all worklogs you have updated in Tempo since the last download date for the period you have filled in on the feature page. TIP! We also recommend doing this manual catching up of all updated worklogs at the end of each month, before posting the worklogs from the project journal to the system. This way you can be absolutely sure that your worklogs will be up to date, even if there have been any changes to them after they have been downloaded to Business Central. |
The only time it is appropriate to leave the field blank is when creating a new project or adding a new Jira project key to an existing project in Business Central. Once you run the manual download function, this will download all the worklogs for that project for the period you have filled in on the function page.
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If you need to manually download a large number of worklogs over a long period of time, you should expect the process to take longer. |
For more information about automatic and manual downloading of worklogs, see the corresponding documentation section.
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Using the example in the screenshot above, the February worklogs can be downloaded until March 5th, but if the system downloads the worklogs after that date, only the March records will be downloaded to your Business Central.
Automatically Load For All
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Project Tasks
If enabled, all worklogs for all tasks in the job project are automatically downloaded when the job queue is started.
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If the button is turned off in the settings, the user can specify whether or not to automatically download each job project task on the corresponding job project card. |
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On the other hand, if this field is enabled in the settings, the user will not see the option to select whether or not to automatically download the worklogs for a particular task on job project cards. |
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Project Journal Creation Section
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Project Journal Template
You can define exactly one template for the job project journal. See the job project journal template settings section for more information.
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Project Journal Editable
When this button is enabled, it indicates that all users will be able to edit job project journal lines without restriction.
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Project Journal Editable for Project Manager
When enabled, this button specifies that only users who are set as the project managers on the job project card can edit job project journal lines.
Another way how to restrict undesired changes in the whole integration setup is to allow editing of this table only to selected users via appropriate permissions.
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If neither of the options for editing job project lines is enabled, users will still be able to delete entire lines or update resource prices in the journals using the action Update Amounts available in the Home tab. |
Automatically Create Resources
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To make the entries that are created by posting worklogs in job project journals more transparentclear, it is possible to reduce the number of project or resource entries or project planning lines by merging them.
You can use this field to specify a default rule for projects that have no rule defined on their job project card. You can choose from the following options:
Do not merge - When entering worklogs into the system, each line of the job project journal will correspond to to exactly one job project entry after it's posted.
Merge by resources - When this rule is applied, the posted job project journal lines are merged according to each resource loaded into the job project journal.
Merge to one G/L account - When this rule is applied, the posted job project journal lines are merged into a selected financial account.
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Deafult Values for Manual Download
This setting specifies the default settings for the fields on the Load Tempo Worklogs page, which can be used for manual downloading of worklogs. For more information on manual downloading, see this section of the documentation.
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Include Not Automatically LoadedThis toggle button can only be enabled if the Automatically Load for All Job Project Tasks button in the Job Queue section is not enabled (if it is, this toggle button is enabled automatically as well). This way you can be sure that the worklogs for all tasks in the given job project are actually downloaded, even if you download them manually. |
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Project Journal Posting Checks Section
The last section of settings allows you to customize which parameters of your worklogs should be checked when posting them in the job project journal.
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Check Worklog Status
Checks if the worklog status is set to approved when posting job project journal lines.
Check Unit Cost
Checks if the unit cost is other than 0 when posting job project journal lines.
Check Unit Price
Checks if the unit price is other than 0 when posting job project journal lines.
Check Different Doc. No.
Checks if the document number of all lines is the same when posting job project journal lines. The document number series is defined in the format YYYYMM.
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Checks for duplicate postings by document and job project number in job project entries when posting job project journal lines.
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Project Journal Template Settings
For correct functionality, it is necessary to set up a job project journal template and enter it in the corresponding field in the Tempo Integration Settings table.
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It is not necessary to manually create the individual job project journal batches. The system will create them automatically the first time you download the worklogs or the first time you manually open the job project journal from the job project card. The name of the journal project batch is derived from the name of the project itself.
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The assigned number series should have the manual numbering option enabled, and we recommend filling the resource number (primary key) field on a given resource card with the name of the resource rather than a number. This value will then be displayed in the job project journal lines and any related entries/reports. |
If the resources in Business Central will be created only through the integration with Tempo, it is not necessary to set up a manual number series for your resources and assign this number series in the Resources Setup table.
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Project Card Settings
On the card of each job project for which you want to download worklogs, you should always fill in the following fields in the job project header fieldsection.
Jira Project Keys
Corresponds to the Project Key field in Jira, it is possible to fill in any number of project keys.
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If you’re not sure where to find your Jira Project Keys, refer to this part of the documentation. |
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After clicking in the grey box, a table will appear where you can add new Jira Project Keys either via the +New action or by typing in a new empty line.
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And additionally, in the tasks of each job project it is necessary to fill in the following fields.
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If you’re not sure where to find your Tempo Account key, refer to this part of the documentation. |
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Note that this value must be filled in exactly according to the value in Tempo, therefore including the distinction between upper and lower case letters. Without following this rule, the system will not be able to download your worklogs correctly. When creating new accounts in Tempo, we recommend not to use @, & and # characters for Account Name and Account Key fields, which are supported by our side, but due to Jira's features it can take more time to search and download worklogs. |
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Project Journal Line Type
The Job Project Journal Line Type determines whether the data created at posting will be only budget-related (cost side), billing-related (sales side) or if both sides of the process will be created at once.
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We added this field to the Job Project Tasks to allow users to summarize cost and sales entries by different Tempo Accounts. In case they need to make additional analysis, lines with the same totalling group will be summarized in reports.
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For newly created job project tasks, the field is automatically populated with the job project name. The user can then change the value according to their needs. |
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A great example of using the Totalling Group field is to set it as a basic summary filter in Power BI reports if you want to monitor some Tempo Accounts as a single unityou want to monitor some Tempo Accounts as a single unit. We developed a comprehensive Power BI report specifically for the needs of our integration. You can get it for free if you choose the corresponding subscription. |
Worklogs Merging
Optionally, on each jobproject's card, you can specify whether work logs worklogs should be merged according to pre-defined rules when they are posted.
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Do not merge - When entering worklogs into the system, each line of the job project journal will correspond to to exactly one job project entry after it's posted.
Merge by resources - When this rule is applied, the posted job project journal lines are merged according to each resource loaded into the job project journal.
Merge to one G/L account -When this rule is applied, the posted job project journal lines are merged into a selected financial account.
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If no merging option is selected on the job project card, the system follows the default rule defined in Tempo Integration Settings. |
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No. - Unique resource ID in Business Central. In this case, it should be filled in with the resource name as mentioned in the corresponding section of the documentation.
Jira Resource Name - Corresponds to the resource name in Jira.
Jira Account ID - Unique resource ID in Jira.
Base Unit of Measure - This value should always be set to Hour as our integration only works with hourly rates.
Gen. Product Posting Group - This value can be set to any posting group according to your system needs, e.g. Resource.
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If you create a resource in Business Central with a unique name exists in both Business Central and Jira (resource number in Business Central and name in Jira), the system will automatically add the Jira Resource Name and Jira Account ID when manually creating the resource (diacritics must be preserved)that already exists in Jira under the same name, the system recognizes it and automatically adds the Jira resource name and Jira Account ID even when manually creating the resource, but the diacritics must be preserved. Just fill in the Resource No. and then click in the line for the Jira Resource Name, the rest of the information above will be filled in for you. |
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If there are multiple resources with the same name, the system will not be able to automatically assign the Jira Resource Name and Jira Account ID. If a resource exists in Business Central but does not have a Jira Account ID entered, the system will not recognize it and will create a new resource with a numeric suffix. Similarly, resources with the same Jira Resource Name will be created. |
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The Resource No. in this case corresponds to the resource name in Jira. Both, Base Unit of Measure and General Product Posting Group fields have to be set up in the Tempo Integration Settings, as mentioned in the corresponding section of the documentation. |
Price of the Resource
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If a resource has different unit prices according to the projects it is allocated to, it is possible to set this unit price for individual projects using standard Business Central functionality available on job project cards.
On the given job project card, locate the Prices & Discounts tab and click on the Resource page.
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Each new job queue is set to On Hold. You can start the job queue directly from its entry cardby setting its status to Readyto On Hold. You can start the job queue directly from its entry cardby setting its status to Ready. |
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If you want to be notified in case your job queue stops running for any reason, we recommend that you install the Job Queue Notifications extension. For more details, see our Marketplace offer. |
User Permissions Settings
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Viewing Downloaded Worklogs
Automatically All downloaded worklogs are displayed to the user in the corresponding Job Project Journal. The Job Project Journal can be opened directly from the Job Project Card in Tasks using the Job Project drop-down menu and Open Job Project Journal action.
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Job Project journal lines are automatically filtered by the job project number from which the user opened the job project journal, and also by the month for which the worklogs were downloaded (Posting Date). To view all currently downloaded worklogs in the corresponding job project journal, simply remove the filter on the posting date. |
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The posting date filter is linked to the date you set in the Job Queue section in the Tempo Integration settings as the Next Period Starts date. If the Business Central work date has already exceeded the start date of the next period, then the posting date filter in the job project journal displays only current month. If the work date has not yet exceeded the next period start date, the posting date filter in the job project journal is set to the previous month. Model situation:
Posting Date filter in the corresponding job project journal is set to 011023..311023. If the work date was for example 6/11/2023, the posting date filter would be se to 011123..061123. |
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Project Journal
The job project journal contains detailed information about each downloaded worklog. One line of the job project journal corresponds to one downloaded worklog.
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In order to maintain data consistency between the two systems, the single source of truth rule must be followed. In practice, this means that once the worklogs are downloaded to the appropriate project log in Business Central, the information that comes from Tempo ( resource number, quantity of hours worked, etc.) should no longer change. The only value that can be safely changed is the line description field, or possibly the line discount or dimensions. If you need to make any changes to a given worklog, the best practice is to delete the line in Business Central, make the modification in Tempo, and then manually download the worklog back into Business Central. If you want to edit a worklog in the project journal before it is posted, just delete the corresponding line, make the change on the Tempo side and manually download the updated line using the Load Tempo Worklogs action. You can learn more about manual downloading here. If you need to edit a worklog that has already been posted, you need to reverse the corresponding entry in the project ledger entries, post the line with the opposite value created in the project journal, and then again make the change on the Tempo side and manually download the updated line using the Load Tempo Worklogs action. More information about reversing project entries can be found here. |
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Line Type - determines whether the expense is billable or not. It can be set automatically on the Job Project Card in Job Project Tasks according to the user's needs, more details can be found in Job Project Card Settings section.
Posting Date - corresponds to the date the worklog was created in Tempo and, at the same time, to the date it will be posted and entered in Business Central.
Worklog Status - determines the current status of the worklog in Tempo.
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Document No. - specifies the number series under which the worklogs will be entered into the job project entries in the system. The number series is defined in the format YYYYMM.
Type - specifies the type of account under which the worklog will be entered in the job project entries, e.g. resource.
No. - corresponds to the number of the specified account type, e.g. resource number.
Description - corresponds to the name of the number, e.g. the name of the resource.
Description 2 - corresponds to the worklog description in Tempo.
Unit of Measure Code
Quantity
Unit Cost - corresponds to the unit cost of the resource or item set on the relevant card.
Unit Cost (LCY) - corresponds to the unit cost of the resource or item converted into local currency.
Total Cost - this value is calculated from the field Unit Cost multiplied by Quantity.
Total Cost (LCY) - this value is calculated from the field Unit Cost (LCY) multiplied by Quantity.
Unit Price - corresponds to the unit price of the resource or item set on the relevant card.
Line Amount - this value is calculated from the field Unit Price multiplied by Quantity.
Line Discount Amount - specifies the amount of discount applied to the entry on the given line.
Line Discount % - corresponds to the ratio between the logged billable/non-billable time of the resource on the given task in Tempo.
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Other optional fields are dimensions which are inherited from the project card.
Entering lines from the
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project journal into the system
Ideally, worklogs should be entered into the system on a monthly basis for a full previous month after the approval process has been completed in Tempo.
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If the unit cost or unit price is not filled in for any of the job project journal lines, the system automatically highlights those lines and fields in red. |
The user will then need to enter the missing prices for the resource in question directly on the resource card. Once the resource card has been updated, it is possible to add these prices to the already created lines of the job project journal using the Update Amounts action in the Home tab.
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If you have defined one of the rules for merging worklogs during posting when setting up the integration, either in the Tempo Integration Settings or directly on the individual job project cards, you will find a detailed description of how each of the three rules works below.
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For more information on general Tempo Integration settings or Job Project Card settings, see the corresponding sections of the documentation.
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When this rule is applied, the posted job project journal lines are merged according to each resource loaded into the job project journal. The user will be prompted to enter the posting date.
In the example below, we can see that there are currently nine worklogs in the job project journal for three four different resources with a posting date interval from 4th to 6th March 2023, and a total of 7 hours in the project journal.
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for August 2024.
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After selecting the Preview Posting or Post action, the user is prompted to select a single posting date for all nine worklogs.
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The date selected affects the month in which the resource costs will be posted to the job project entries and therefore the subsequent analysis. At the same time, the selected posting date will be used as the date of the exchange rate used for conversion to the local currency. We recommend using the Preview Posting to understand how the merging rules work. |
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When this rule is applied, the posted job project journal lines are merged into a selected G/L account. The user will be prompted to enter a posting date and a financial account.
There are currently four nineteen worklogs in the job project journal for various resources with a billing date of 1st February 2024 and a total of 3 hours.
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posting date interval for August 2024.
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After selecting the Preview Posting or Post action, the user is prompted to select a single posting date and G/L account for all four worklogs.
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The date selected affects the month in which the resource costs will be posted to the job project entries and therefore the subsequent analysis. At the same time, the selected posting date will be used as the date of the exchange rate used for conversion to the local currency. We recommend using the Preview Posting to understand how the merging rules work. |
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If you need to split the worklogs into multiple G/L accounts, you can use filters in the job project journal and sequentially post the filtered worklogs gradually. |
Do not merge
When applying this rule, the lines of the job project journal are not merged after posting, and one line of the job project journal will correspond to exactly one job project entry.
There are currently five thirteen worklogs in the job journal for various resources with a billing date of 7th March and a total of 7,5 hours 2024.
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project journal.
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In the screenshot below, you can see the corresponding project ledger entries created after the project journal is posted.
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The value in the Merged Line ID column is also clickable too, when you click on it, you will be taken , and clicking it takes you back to the corresponding line in the project ledger entries.
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If you decide not to merge the worklogs, you can find all the information you need directly in the project ledger entries. In this case the value in the Line ID column will be 0 and it won’t be possible to use it to access the archive. |
Posting Checks in
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Project Journal
The following checks can take place before the worklogs in the job project journal are entered into the system using the Post action. The user is always alerted about the information they should focus on, and can then decide if they want to post the journal lines despite the alert. Therefore, all warnings below are non-blocking.
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The checks that the system performs before posting can be specified in the Integration Tempo Settings. |
Worklogs status check
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The worklog is not in the Approved status, which means that the approval process in Tempo has not been completed. |
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The posted lines of the job project journal have a different document number. Since the document number is always created automatically according to the month and year for which the worklogs are currently being downloaded, this check alerts the user that they are about to post worklogs from two or more different months. |
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This check keeps track of duplicate postings. It will alert you if it detects that a line with the same document and project number has already been posted in the past. |
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If the downloaded job project journal line type is empty, the following message is displayed, indicating that after the job project journal line is posted, no job project planning lines will be created, instead the job project and resource ledger entries will be posted directly. Specific use cases for each type of job project journal line are described in this part of the documentation. |
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Viewing data for posted worklogs
After posting/entering the job project journal lines into the system, the costs associated with the resource will be displayed on the given job project card, in the Tasks section, in the Actual (Total Cost) column.
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Clicking the value of the Actual (Total Cost) field displays a list of all job project ledger entries (posted worklogs for the project) that make up the value in the Actual (Total Cost) field.
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Another way to view the job project ledger entries for a specific job project task is to go to the Line tab in the Tasks section, select the History drop down menu and click Job Project Ledger Entries, with the line for that task selected in the tasks lines.
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If you want to see all entries for the entire project and all its tasks, you can go to the Project tab on the given project card and select the Ledger Entries action.
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Project Ledger Entries Cancellation
If some worklogs (job project journal lines) have been entered into the system incorrectly, it is possible to cancel them by reverse entry (cancellation) through the journal of the respective project. This can be done by using the Reverse function in the job journal project ledger entries.
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This function automatically converts the selected job project ledger entries lines entry line into the corresponding job project journal with a negative quantity. It is also possible to cancel lines in bulk by selecting multiple lines using Ctrl + click on a line. The newly created lines must then be posted to in the job project journal again so that they are recorded in the corresponding job project ledger entries and the resulting cost amount is reduced by the cancelled line. The whole process is described in detail below. |
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When using the Reverse function, the system displays a message to the user that they have created the corresponding lines in the job project journal.
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To post the reversed lines, the corresponding job project journal can be opened directly from the job project ledger entries using the action Open Job Project Journal.
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You need to unselect the lines to access this action. If more than one line is selected, the action is greyed out. |
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The cancelled line is then displayed in the job project journal with a negative quantity and the user records it into the system using the Post action.
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After posting, the cancelled lines are then reflected again in the ledger entries of the given jobproject, and after summing them with the original entry, the resulting value is zero (assuming that the user does not change the values of the cancelled lines in the job project journal).
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The posting of the cancelled line is reflected on the job project card in the tasks in the Actual (Total Cost) column by lowering the initial value. |
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Manual
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Download
It is possible that while using this integration, you may need to download some of the worklogs in one-time sessions session outside of the preconfigured job queue entry that provides automatic downloads. This might occur especially after additional changes to the worklogs in Tempo, after they have already been automatically downloaded.
Bulk Manual
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Download
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Bulk manual download of worklogs can be done from the Tempo Integration Settings table through the drop-down Actions and selecting Run Job Queue Function. When you run the function, all updated worklogs according to the selected parameters are downloaded to the corresponding job project journals. |
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During the download process you will be informed about the details for each project by the window below. Once the download is complete, this window will show a summary of the results of the entire process.
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The download of worklogs also depends on the settings of the Tempo Integration Settings table, specifically the Job Queue section, where it is possible to limit e.g. the period for which worklogs should be downloaded and also whether all worklogs should be downloaded for all tasks of the project. For more information see see the Tempo Integration Settings section of this documentation.
Manual download
Worklogs can be manually downloaded directly on the job project card from the Tasks section. Go to the Line tab, select the Job Project drop-down menu and click Load Tempo Worklogs.
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The From, To and Updated From fields are pre-populated with the dates corresponding to the last date of the automated download. The user can delete the values and set the filter on the From and To date according to their own needs. More details on the Updated From field updated from can be found here.
The other fields represent the worklog status type for which the user wants to download the worklogs.
If the user will be downloading worklogs for multiple job project tasks at the same time, it is recommended to have the Save After Each Job Project Task field active.
The last filter allows the user to restrict the download of worklogs for a specific jobproject and a specific job project task.
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If the job project task number or job project number is blank in this window, the user will download the worklogs for all jobs projects and tasks that are in the system. If the user would need to manually download worklogs for multiple projects at once, for example, because of a phased download of historical data, it is possible to enter multiple values separated by a vertical bar | in the project number filter. This is a standard Business Central filter. |
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The user should manually download only worklogs for those projects they manage themselves. |
To download worklogs according to the parameters defined by the user, select the Ok option at the bottom of the window.
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Downloaded worklogs will appear in the journal of the respective job project similarly to the automated download and again you will be informed about the results of the download.
The Load Tempo Worklogs action is also available directly in the Job Project Journal under the Home tab.
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The window with the filtering parameters request page with filters and options is the same as for the manual download from the job project card. Other operations related to posting and cancelling job project journal lines are the same as for the automated download. |