Learn Oracle Time and Labor (OTL)

In this article you will learn, step by step,

how to setup OTL from scratch for a project layout. These OTL setup steps are
deigned for beginners so even if you have no prior knowledge, you would be able
to configure fully without any problem. This setup can be used for client demo or
any POC or for your internal practice and knowledge. At the end of the course if
you have any question, do visit our Question and Answer forum and post your
questions.
You will also get a dummy BR.100 document that you can keep safely with you to
configure any time in future but to know where is that BR.100 you will need to

read this whole article first

What are OTL Layout Styles?

As I mentioned initially in this article we will do a quick sample setup of OTL for
a Project Layout, its important for us to understand what is a layout and
different types of layouts delivered by oracle.

Below is a typical screenshot of a layout worker will see while entering the time.
Layout is something which employee (including contractor) will see while
entering the time-sheet (time-cards or time entry). The layout will determine
what fields you will see and enter values against them. There are many
predefined layouts delivered by oracle and one of them is Projects Layout.

Table below gives you an idea about the predefined layout styles and the fields
available along with them.

OTL
Layout What they do?
Styles

Using this layout, workers can enter their time against projects,
Projects
tasks, and types. They can click on a Details button to enter
layout
comments against each project, task, and type combination.

Payroll Using this layout workers can enter a start and stop time, or a
Layout number of hours, for each day of the week for the selected
 hours type. This layout is suitable for workers who are
submitting their time to Oracle HR or Payroll.

This layout is similar to the Projects layout except that the list
of values for the Type field comes from the alternate name you
Projects with
have assigned to the worker (using preferences) for the
Payroll
Expenditure Elements alternate name type. So when a worker
Layout
selects a type for a time entry, an element name is also
recorded in the time store.

This layout displays one row where the worker can select an
hours type and cost center, then enter the number of hours for
Exception
each day of the week. Use this layout for workers who only
Layout
need to submit timecards for exception reporting (such as time
absent for sickness or vacation).
Okay, so now which the layout are we going to use? answer to this question
is Projects with Payroll Layout. In this setup steps we will be using the
Projects with Payroll Layout.
These Layout styles are actually combination of several layouts but at this
moment you need not to worry about them. If you are interested to know how to
customize these layouts you can read the white paper Oracle 11i and R12 Time
And Labor (OTL) Timecard Configuration (Doc ID 304340.1)

Prerequisites to setup Oracle Time and Labor (OTL)

To setup OTL for a project layout we assume you are ready with following items

1. You have an oracle instance (this is obvious )

2. You have setup your Business group and Core HR is ready
3. You have few employees with supervisor hierarchy.
4. Your payroll configuration is also completed.
5. You have project modules setup for project creation and resource assigning.

Steps to setup Oracle Time and Labor (OTL)

Finally here are the steps to start your configurations. Although few steps are
optional or not dependent on each other but still do try them one after another
and dont jump the steps.

Step 01 : Create Elements

 Navigation : HRMS Manager Total Compensation Basic Element
Description
You will need to create as many elements as you want the tasks to be appeared for
workers. These elements will be linked with expenditure type later and will also
be given different names. For now create these two elements.

Regular Hours
Overtime Hours

Input
Primary Effective
Element Name Type Value Units
Classifications from
Name

Hours in
iAvinash Regular Decimal 01-JAN-
Earnings Non recurring Hours
Hours format (2 1951
places)

Hours in
iAvinash Holiday Decimal 01-JAN-
Earnings Non recurring Hours
Hours format (2 1951
places)
Step 02 : Create Element Links
Navigation : HRMS Manager Total Compensation Basic Link
Element links need to be created for every element that you want to attach with
employee (basically assignment). This tells the system what all elements are
available for any specific assignment. For our case just create the element link for
both these elements without associating any criteria.

Just select the element, which we created in previous steps and click on save.
Dont forget to do these for both the elements.
Step 03 : Create Element Set
Navigation : HRMS Manager Payroll Elemnt Set
Now create an element set (run set) and add these two elements you created
previously.

Step 04 : Create Custom Responsibility

Navigation : System Administrator Security Responsibility Define
This step is optional if you want to use the seeded responsibility but its good and
suggestible to create your own custom responsibility. Creating responsibility is
the general activity so, I assume you are much aware about the steps you need to
follow.

Create two responsibilities as follows

 Values Responsibility 1 Responsibility 2

Responsibility iAvinash OTL Application iAvinash Self Service Time and

Name Developer Expenses

Application Time and Labor Engine Time and Labor Engine

Responsibility
XXOTL_APP_DEV XXOTL_SSHR
Key

From 01-JAN-1951 01-JAN-1951

Data Group Name Standard Standard

Data Group
Time and Labor Engine Time and Labor Engine
Application

Global OTL Application

Menu Time and Expense Self Service Menu
Developer

Global OTL Reports &

Request Group
Processes

This responsibility is required This responsibility is required for

Purpose
to setup OTL worker to submit timesheet.

Step 05 : Attach profiles to custom responsibility

Navigation : System Administrator Profile System
Now you will need to assign some standard profiles with these responsibilities.
Again this is the general activity so I am not going to explain much here. Just
assign these profile values to both the responsibilities we just created in the
previous step.

Profile HR:User Type HR: Security Profile HR:Business Group

Profile HR with Payroll iAvinash Business iAvinash Business

Values User Group Group
Note : You will need to select your own security profile and business group As per your current Core HR
setup.

Step 06 : Run Generate Flexfield and Mapping Information

Navigation : OTL Application Developer View Request
Now switch your responsibility to newly created responsibility iAvinash OTL
Application Developer for setup and run the program Generate Flexfield and
Mapping Information with following parameters. You will use the element set
created in previous steps.
 Step 07 : Create OTL Time categories
Navigation : OTL Application Developer Time Categories
Time category is used to categories your time and you can use these categories for
reporting purpose or further validation. One time category may contain several
other time categories also. For example, we can define a time category for
absence and within that we can have two other categories called Sickness and
Vacation.

There are many predefined categories delivered by oracle like Premium Hours,
Non-Worked Hours, Billable Hours, Non-Billable Hours, and Total1 through
Total10. Total1, Total2, and Total3 are used by the predefined timecard layouts to
display totals on the timecard summary and approval summary pages. So we will
need to add our two elements in predefined time category Total1 so that the
sum of them are added into the total.

When you are on Time Categories window query for Total1 and add
following two values/elements
Regular Hours
Overtime Hours

Step 08 : Create OTL Time Entry Rules

Navigation : OTL Application Developer Time Entry Rule Define Time
Entry Rules
Validating the time entry submitted by employee is one of the top priority of
every organization specially when clients are charged based on these hours. Time
entry rule helps here to automate the process. For example what would you say if
an employee mistakenly entered 42 hours for any single day. You dont want to
validate such human mistakes manually, rather you would like to have an
automated validation process that will warn employee in such scenarios.

You can enforce when these time entry rules should be applied, either while
entering the time sheet or while submitting for approval.

Although you can write many complex formula to validate your time entry, for
this sample setup we will use a seeded formula that will stop employee entering
more than 24 hours in any single day.

For the same please create following two time entry rules

Formula
Name Description Usage Formula From Global
Input

One Day
01-
Max 24 iAvinash Max 24 Seeded formula for Total1
Save JAN- Yes
hours Save hours Save Period Maximum 241
1951
No

One Day
Max 24 01-
iAvinash Max 24 Submission / Seeded formula for Total1
hours JAN- Yes
hours Submit Resubmission Period Maximum 241
Submit 1951
No
 Step 09 : Create OTL Time Entry Rule Groups
Navigation : OTL Application Developer Time Entry Rule Define Time
Entry Rule Groups
As the name itself suggests you can combine all or as many as rules you created in
the previous steps (time entry rules) under one umbrella and decide what would
be the outcome if these rules are executed. You can assign one of these outcome

Error
Warning
Reason
Business Message
For our example we will use Error when someone enters more than 24 hours in
any day.

Create Time Entry Rule Group as shown in the image below

Step 10 : Define Approval Styles
Navigation : OTL Application Developer Approval Define Approval Styles
Remember OTL still doesnt support AME so all your approval needs to be
customized through workflow. For our example we will keep it auto
approved that means as soon as worker submits the time card it will be auto
approved without any approval required.

So create a approval style as shown in the image below.

Step 11 : Define alternate name
Navigation : OTL Application Developer Alternate Names Alternate Name
Definition
As we mentioned in the beginning the element you created earlier can be given
alternate name in OTL and can also be linked with project Expenditure type. The
alternate name you define here will be appeared as a task in the OTL time card
for workers. By the time you must have run the program Generate Flexfield and
Mapping Information mentioned in the step 06 and completed the same
without any error or warning.
The values you see on OTL Alternate Names DFF will be pulled from project
side. So please make sure Expenditure Type and corresponding System
Linkage Functions are defined properly and you are selecting the right one.
They need not to be exactly same as shown in the image above. You may need to
consult your Project team.

Step 12 : Retrieval Rule

Navigation : OTL Application Developer Deposit / Retrival Process Define
Retrieval Rule
Data (time card) submitted by employees through OTL is available to other
applications also like your HR, Payroll and Project application, they will use these
data for further processing. Using Retrieval Rule you control when the OTL
data will be available to other applications. There are predefined retrieval rules
for Oracle HR, Oracle Payroll, and Oracle Projects, which you can use if you do
not have any specific requirement.
Query Projects as shown in the image below, you should get one record, if not,
just create one retrival rule as given below

Step 13 : Define Retrieval Rule Groups

Navigation : OTL Application Developer Deposit / Retrival Process Define
Retrieval Rule Groups
Retrieval rules are grouped under one retrieval rule group, which you can assign
to groups of people via preferences (later in this article).

(Group) Name Name Retrieval Process

 Projects and Payroll Retrieval Projects and
Projects Retrieval Process
Rule Group Payroll Approved

Payroll and
Projects BEE Retrieval Process
Approved

Projects and Purchasing Retrieval

Projects Projects Retrieval Process
Rule Group

Purchasing Purchasing Retrieval Process

For our case search or create a retrieval rule groups Projects and Payroll
Retrieval Rule Group

Step 14 : Define Preference Hierarchies

Navigation : OTL Application Developer Preferences
This is one of the important step in OTL configuration. These preferences are
actually rules to govern how system will behave when workers submits their time
cards, what are the restriction they will have, what are the fields they going to see
and much more.
 Creating preferences tree or branch is tricky specially if you are doing it for first
time. Below are the steps to create Preferences tree and add preferences to a
branch. First make yourself familiar with these steps.

To create a new branch in the Preferences tree

1. In the Preferences window, right mouse click on Preference Tree node and
select New.
2. Enter the branch name in the Name in Tree field.
3. Save your work.
4. Close the Preference Tree node and reopen to view the new branch.
To add preferences to a branch
1. Select the node to which you want to add preferences, right mouse click, and
select New.
2. In the Name in Tree field, enter a name for the preference.This name can
reflect the value you are going to select. For example, if you are going to select
the value HRMS for the Time Store Application Set preference, you might use
the name HRMS Application Set.
3. Save your work and select your new preference in the tree by selecting the
nodes name.
4. Select a value in the Preference field. The corresponding preference values
flexfield displays.
5. Select the preference value(s) and choose OK.
6. Select the Editable by user option to enable the employee to edit this
preference.
7. Select the Display to user option to enable the user to view this preference
8. Save your work.
9. Repeat steps 1 to 7 to define additional preferences for the branch.
10. Save your work.
Explaining the behavior and functionality of each preference would not be
possible so I am going to attach a word document that will describe all possible
preference you will need to create for this sample configuration.
Step 15 : Define Eligibility Criteria
Navigation : OTL Application Developer Preferences Eligibility Criteria Tab
In this window you link the preferences created in the previous steps to People,
Location, Assignment, Organization, Position etc. That way the preferences
created will be applicable to only specific set of people. You can give Precedence
to each rule so that they are executed in the order.

For our example create only one Eligibility Criteria as per the image given below.
 Step 16 : Create organization
Navigation : HRMS Manager Work Structures Eligibility Criteria Tab
Employee associated with normal organization cannot fill time sheet straight
forward. That organization must have following two classifications.

Project Expenditure/Event Organization

Project Task Owning Organization
You also make sure you have entered required information for these
classification. You may need to take help of you project team to fill following
information.

Project Expenditure/Event Organization Related Organization Give your

operating unit
Project Task Owning Organization Project Type Class Information
Give Yes for all values
 Step 17 : Almost done
At this point of time your OTL setup is completed but make sure you have also
completed following steps before submitting a time card.

1. An employee record exist with all necessary information captured like Job,
Costing, Legal Employer etc.
2. You have assigned correct organization to worker, which has all the
classification mentioned in the previous step.
3. You have assigned a project to this resource.
4. You have created a login information user account and assigned the
responsibility iAvinash Self Service Time and Expenses
5. Make sure you also run the program Security List Maintenance, just in case.
6. Run the program Generate Flexfield and Mapping Information one more
time, just in case.

Create your time card (submit time sheet)

Navigation : iAvinash Self Service Time and Expenses Time Create
Timecard
We have configured OTL successfully for project and now its time to submit our
first time card, excited right!!

Select the period and then start entering your details as follows