OpenTime User Guide

Launching OpenTime

Standalone version

Launch as any other application on your system. Typically by double clicking on the OpenTime icon.

Eclipse version

Open the OpenTime perspective using the normal procedure for opening Eclipse perspectives.

Upon opening the perspective or the application, you will should have something that ressembles the following:


Localized version

OpenTime is localized and available in French or English. To force OpenTime to use a different locale than the default one for a given workstation, simply create a batch file or shortcut in which you specify the locale.

For example, to launch Eclipse in the French locale, use the following command line:

   eclipse.exe -nl fr

Configuring OpenTime

Before you start using OpenTime, you should perform a minimal level of configuration.

Updating Employer Information

Select the "Organizations" tab at the bottom of the left pane or view. You should see a list of Organizations (after installation, there is only one). Doubleclick on the Organization name (or the default one) that represents your organization and complete the Organization form with the relevant information.

Updating the Employee Profile

To open the Employee profile dialog, select "Edit Employee Profile" from the OpenTime menu.

In the Employee profile dialog, fill-in your names, employee number, employer and contacts.

Editing Preferences

Some of the OpenTime functions require you to set some of the OpenTime preferences. In particular, to send timesheets by EMail, you need to specify the addres the SMTP server.

To open the OpenTime preference dialog show in the screenshot below, select the Window/Prefences menu time.

For starters, simply fill-in the address of your smtp server since changing other values (database settings in particular) can make OpenTime inoperable.

If you ever change values and have problems using OpenTime, simply reset the preferences to the default values.


Managing Customers, Projects and Activity Types

Before capturing timesheet line items, you should create your list of customers, projects and activity types.

Adding/Editing Customers

Simply follow these steps:

  1. Select the Organizations tab in the left view of the OpenTime perspective.
  2. In the Organizations view, open the context menu and select "Add Organization"
  3. Fill-in the organization form making sure you specify a unique number or code value for each new organization.

Adding/Editing Projects

Simply follow these steps:

  1. Select an Organization from the Organizations view
  2. Open the context menu for the selected Organization and select "Add Project"
  3. Fill-in the project form making sure you specify a unique number or code value for each new project.

Adding/Editing Activity Types

Simply follow these steps:

  1. Select the Activities tab in the left view of the OpenTime perspective.
  2. Open the context menu in the Activities view and select "Add top-level Activity"
  3. Fill-in the project form making sure you specify a unique number or code value for each new Activity

Note: To add a sub or child activity type, proceed as above but first make sure you have selected the parent Activity Type and select "Add Child Activity".

Adding Weeks

To add a week, follow these steps:

  1. Select the Timesheets tab of the left view pane.
  2. From the view's context menu, select Add Week
  3. Using the Week dialog, specify the week start date

Entering time data

To enter timesheet data, follow these steps:

  1. Select the Timesheets tab of the left view pane.
  2. In the timesheets view, click on the timesheet for the week of interest. The corresponding timesheet data will appear in the timesheet view to the right of the list window
  3. Use the buttons to add, duplicate, delete line items
  4. Doubleclicking on a line tiem brings up the dialog for that item
  5. Modify the time (hours) data directly in the cells of the table

Generating reports

OpenTime uses a processing engine to transform an XML representation of your timesheet into either an HTML or Plain Text document.

To view your timesheet in either XML, HTML or plain text, follow these steps:

  1. Select a Timesheet in the Timesheets view
  2. Open the context menu on this timesheet and select one of the View As items. You should see something similar to the image below (this is the HTML view).

Closing timesheets

Once you have completed a timesheet, you should close it. Don't worry, you can reopen it later at any time. To close a timesheet, simply click on the Close button for the timesheet view. You will asked to enter a comment and to confirm the closing of the timesheet.

Once a timesheet is closed, you cannot modify it anymore. To modify the timesheet simply click on the Open button to reopen it.

Submitting Timesheets

Depending on the OpenTime version and add-ons that you have. you may have different options for submitting your timesheets to your supervisor.

The basic functionality supported by OpenTime is to click on the EMail button in the browser view when you are looking at either the XML, HTML or Plain text version of a timesheet. OpenTime will use the information you entered in your personal profile and in your preferences to forward a mail containing your timesheet to the address of your choice.


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