Sonia: Timesheets

This article examines the timesheet module, focusing on the student timesheet. However, note that Supervisors can also keep timesheets.
NOTE: “Actual duration” refers to the number of approved hours.
This article uses default Sonia terminology. To see what term is used in your environment, look in School Options > Terminology.

This feature is all about collecting and approving timesheet entries for students on placement.  A timesheet entry is simply a way of recording a date, duration, and what happened.

Over the course of a placement, a student may have to record every day they were on site and have this approved/confirmed by their mentor or supervisor each week.  Or, perhaps students only have to report when they couldn’t attend placement because of sickness, holiday, or other reason.
The update of a student’s actual placement duration can occur as soon as the timesheet is approved, or it can be batch-processed using a wizard on the placement group window’s Search tab.

1.  

Timesheets can go through several stages before they become “official records”.

1. Timesheet entry is added.  The student (or someone) adds one or more entries against their placement.
2. Timesheet approval.  An authorised person reviews the timesheet and may approve, not approve, or request clarification/review (“resubmit”). This can trigger an instant update of the student’s actual duration, OR…
3. Timesheet wizard is used to apply approved timesheets to student placement durations.

1.  

There are two approaches to how you can use Timesheets in your discipline. 

1. Accumulate model
   1. You expect students (or someone) to add entries for attendance on the placement. 
   2. You have two options with this model:
      1. The duration starts from 0 hours/days and counts UP as timesheet entries are added. The entries record each time they attended their placement. The goal would be to total at least the placement group’s “expected duration”, if indicated.
      2. The duration starts with the placement group’s expected duration and counts DOWN as timesheet entries are added. This tells the student how many hours they have left.
   3. The accumulate model can record absences, but if the student was absent, we DON’T want that day added to the student’s actual duration. You can configure this accordingly.
2. Exception model
   1. In this model, you assume all students are attending for the placement group’s “Expected duration”; i.e., they are on placement for a specific number of hours per week for a defined period.  You may ask students to record timesheet entries for the skills they have practiced, or the days they have been on placement.  But you may ask them to only record absences.  
   2. In this case, “attendance timesheet entries” do not change the student’s actual duration (defaults to the placement’s expected duration), but you can set absences to decrease the actual duration.
   3. You may also consider a timesheet entry type of “make up” or “overtime”.  This type of entry would Add to the student’s placement duration – perhaps making up for days of absence.

1.  

The screen below is a student’s view of the timesheet for a placement.

1. shows the name of the site and dates of placement
2. shows the “Add new attendance” button a student clicks to add a new entry
3. This is a new timesheet entry (red carets at the top left of the cell indicate the data is not yet saved).  Note that the data is entered as a date, start time, break duration (e.g., lunch), finish time
4. A completed, approved entry
5. Total hours for timesheets

 

1.  

A timesheet entry can be used to record an Activity along with attendance.  Activity is not a required field (though, it can be); however, it can be a handy tool for everyone to see how the student’s time is being spent.
With each timesheet entry, students can select an Activity that broadly describes that timesheet entry. For example, they may enter 4 hours with an Activity of “Training”.
Here are a few Activities we have seen/suggested to help you think about what would work for your program:

• Onboarding/introduction
• Observation
• Professional development
• Direct/indirect patient/client contact
• Case notes
• Preparing lessons
• Teaching

Each of these Activities are defined by you under School Options > Lists > Activity.
Activity items may be linked to a Course, though this is not required.  This means that only students with the corresponding Course could select that Activity.
Sonia tracks and accumulates the time spent on each Activity at the bottom of their Timesheet.

1.  

The student can select a sub-activity to further define the Activity they selected.
You can associate a sub-activity with a specific Activity or allow it to be available regardless of the Activity that is selected.

See example on next page.

There are a number of settings in Sonia that control how timesheets appear for students, mentors, and supervisors.

1.  

Making timesheets available in Sonia Online

To make timesheets available for students in Sonia Online, go to School Options > Online > scroll down to "Show students" > tick "Attendance".

The first step is to define the types of timesheet entries you would like to record.  This is done at School Options > Lists > Attendance status.
You can create as many status options as you like, but you must set a bias for each one. The bias symbol indicates the impact the timesheet entry should have on the student’s actual placement duration.  The Actual Duration for a placement is how long a student was on placement.

In the example below, being “present” and doing “make up or overtime” are positive biases, and absence is a neutral bias (doesn’t impact duration).  This is an example of a school that is using the accumulate model (counting UP from 0) for timesheets.
If the hours needed to count DOWN from the placement group expected duration, the bias for Present and Makeup would be negative.

The example below is an example of the exception model.  Attendance will not be added to the student’s duration, but absence will decrease their placement duration.