1. Input a timecard and submit
2. Input and save a timecard to complete at a later time.
3. Create a timecard from the previous timecard
4. Create a timecard from a template
5. Correcting a timecard
6. OTL Supervisor
7. Further Guidance
It is a requirement that OTL will be used to submit weekly timecards by all staff that need to allocate their time to projects or activities in the Project Accounting (PA) module (see table below).
All timecards must be submitted within the agreed month end time table which will be published by
STFC Retained Finance.
This Guide mainly covers STFC OTL Timecards which is the Self Service module that allows employees to input and submit their own timecards.
Section 7 covers STFC OTL Supervisor this is a module which allows Line Managers to view, input and amend timecards of staff who report to them in the supervisory hierarchy as well as their own timecards.
OTL Supervisor should be used as a last resort as staff should be responsible for inputting their own timecards (unless they are part of a Group and their timecards are input by a Timekeeper – see Timekeeper Guide).
SPO Staff will record productive time only, when working directly on a task in another department. SPO staff will not record time worked on SPO projects.
FDOD Staff will record all productive and unproductive time to tasks. Total time, excluding overtime, must add back to 37 per week (or to conditioned hours for part-time staff).
FDOD: Technology, Nuclear Physics, PPD, SSTD, CSE, ASTec, e-Science, ISIS,
Photon Science and Science Operations Support.
Staff who record time against DLS projects will use OTL only and stop using their separate recording process – any queries should be addressed to Tim
Eyles.
UK ATC Staff will record all productive and unproductive time to tasks. Total time, excluding overtime, must add back to 37 per week (or to conditioned hours for part-time staff).
Innovations Staff will record all productive and unproductive time to tasks. Total time, excluding overtime, must add back to 37 per week (or to conditioned hours for part-time staff).
Corporate
Services
Staff will only record productive time directly spent on tasks in any department, other than SPO.
Staff who work for Building Projects Group will input their productive time
Page 1 of 8

Finance
Corporate
Affairs against the relevant projects / tasks set up in PA for the purpose.
Staff will only record productive time directly spent on tasks in any department, other than SPO
Staff will only record all productive time directly spent on tasks in any department, other than SPO
Login to the Oracle SSC E-Business Suite .
In Navigator select STFC OTL Timekeeper .
Select: Create Timecard
Period: select appropriate week from drop down box. Note: OTL is set up to allow timecards to be submitted 30 days in advance . Retrospective adjustments can be made up to 30 days in arrears .
Overriding Approval: leave blank.
Template: if using a template that you have created, select template from the drop down box and click on Apply Template (see sections 3 and 4 re templates).
Otherwise leave blank.
Input your time details line by line into the timecard shown on screen.
Time
Productive time (excluding paid overtime but including unpaid overtime)
Unproductive time
[see Appendix 1]
Applies To
Ex FDOD, UK ATC and
Innovations staff must record all their time in OTL. Staff in other departments only book time as and when they work on PA tasks
(but not to tasks managed by
SPO).
Ex FDOD, UK ATC and
Innovations staff must record all unproductive time in OTL.
Detail
Enter against relevant project/tasks and Labour –
(Straight Time) expenditure type.
Paid overtime
OTL Reconciliation
Absence due to time off in lieu
(TOIL) or flexi-leave
[see Appendix 1]
Paid and authorised overtime.
Staff who are required to input all their time on OTL [initially ex
FDOD, UK ATC, Innovations]
To bring the weekly total against expenditure type Labour to 37 hours for full-time workers or to the conditioned hours for parttime staff.
Posted against project
STRA00002 with separate tasks for each directorate broken down by:
- Annual leave & Public /
Privilege Holidays
- Special leave
- Maternity, Paternity & Adoption
Leave
- Sick absence
Post actual hours worked against STFC.Overtime –
(Overtime) expenditure type to the project/tasks incurring the overtime (i.e. excluding any premium)
If weekly time re expenditure type Labour – (Straight Time) exceeds 37 hrs or the conditioned hrs for part-time staff
( i.e. flexi-time generated) , input a negative figure against the designated OTL Reconciliation project/task ( STRA00001 – task
Page 2 of 8

Time Applies To Detail must relate to the organisational area of the employee) to balance to 37 hrs or the conditioned hours. Show the adjustment against Friday.
If weekly time is less than 37 hrs
/ conditioned hrs ( i.e. TOIL / flexi-time taken ) – input the difference as a positive figure to balance (against Friday).
Project: Enter the Project Number for the project/activity (including unproductive time) either directly or using the Search Facility (click on the magnifying glass icon to the right of the input box).
Task: Enter Task Number . When the Project Number has been entered you can click on the search icon next to the task box and Click on Go – this will bring up all the tasks associated with the chosen Project that you can Select from.
Type: Enter the appropriate Expenditure Type i.e. Labour – (Straight Time) or STFC.
Overtime
– (Overtime)
.
Mon – Fri: Input the hours incurred against the relevant day(s). Hours should be entered as a decimal number to 1 decimal place e.g. 1 hour 50 minutes would be entered as 1.8.
If you need to add more lines to the template Click on Add Another Row .
When all required lines have been entered into the timecard Click on Recalculate for column and row totals to be calculated (or updated).
Click on Continue and then Click on Submit . The timecard has now been submitted and you will see a message to that effect. [Submitted timecards are first assigned a Status of Submitted and then automatically the status will change to Approved .]
Note: A warning message will appear on screen if the total weekly hours input against Labour –
(Straight Time) exceeds or is less than 37. This does not prevent submission of the timecard.
Part-time staff required to balance their weekly input hours (excluding paid overtime) to their conditioned hours should take extra care to ensure that they do.
This would apply for example where staff wish to input their time daily and submit the timecard at the end of the week.
Follow the instructions in 1 above but Click on Save instead of Submit . Note that you can Save at any time during the input process but only when all the lines that have been input to date are complete (project, task, expenditure types and some time assigned) and satisfy all relevant business rules.
Click on Cancel to leave the template.
To complete the timecard entry process select Time Entry or Timecard Search within OTL
Timecards .
Page 3 of 8

Select the incomplete timecard by Clicking on the pencil icon in the Update column. Note that the timecard has a Status of Working .
You can now complete or amend the timecard and then Click on Continue and then Submit to complete the process (see 1 ). The timecard entry will not be applied unless and until it has been
Submitted.
Select Create Timecard within Oracle OTL Timecards .
Input the Period for the timecard that you wish to enter.
In the Template drop down box select Last Timecard . Click in the box Overwrite Entry to add a tick. Click on Apply Template .
This will bring up the lines input into the first timecard dated prior to the period of the timecard to be input.
You may now make any amendments to the data and complete the submission process.
Select Templates within Oracle OTL Timecards .
Click on Create Template.
Input the name for the template in Template Name .
Enter lines in the template with projects, tasks, expenditure type and hours as required (complete lines not compulsory) and Click on Apply .
The template is now created and ready for use. You make amend or delete the template anytime by clicking on the pencil or dustbin.
Or
As above but after inputting Template Name you can base your template on a timecard from a previous period by going to the Use Timecard Period drop down box and selecting the required timecard. Click on Populate Template and the template show the details of the timecard selected.
Amend the template and Click on Apply . The template is now created.
Or
You can create a template from a timecard that is being entered. When the timecard is complete and before you Click on Continue, input a name for the template in Template Name and Click on Save as a Template .
The template is now created.
To create a timecard from a template follow the instructions in 3 but in the Template drop down box select the required template from the My Templates list.
The OTL system has been configured to allow staff to make retrospective adjustments to
Submitted timecards 30 days in arrears.
Timecards may be corrected by going into either Time Entry or Timecard Search within Oracle
Timecards .
Select the timecard to be amended by Clicking on the pencil icon in the Adjustment column of the required timecard.
Make the necessary changes and re-submit.
Page 4 of 8

If a correction is required outside of the 30 day window it should be notified to the designated
Super Timekeeper. Only the Super Timekeeper can make adjustments to timecards outside of the window.
OTL Supervisor can be used by Line Managers to input / amend / review timecards of those staff who report to them.
From the Oracle E-Business Suite Select STFC OTL Supervisor . This will take you to the Time
Entry: People in Hierarchy screen.
Click on the + to the left of your name. This will open up the hierarchy of staff reporting to you.
Click on the Action icon against the member of staff whose timecard you wish to review/input/amend.
This will bring up a list of timecards for that member of staff that you can amend (subject to the 30 day window). You also have the functionality to enter or import a new timecard for that member of staff.
Note: A Project Manager could only use OTL Supervisor to review and amend the timecards of staff for whom (s)he is the line manager. However, a Project Manager can review all employee costs that have been posted to his/her projects using standard reporting in Project Accounting.
It is recommended that OTL Supervisor is used as a last resort as employees should be responsible for inputting their own timecards.
Questions regarding the application of OTL should be initially addressed to your local Finance support.
If the issue is a policy matter requiring a decision it should be referred to Paul Blackford (Policy and Planning), Swindon.
Departmental Guidance
Although this document sets out the general principles and procedures for OTL Timecard entry, some aspects are still open to Departmental interpretation. For example, OTL allows accuracy of bookings down to 0.1 hours (or six minutes). Whilst such precision may be appropriate for some programme areas – for example where costs are to be recovered from an external organisation – in other areas it may be deemed to be unnecessary. Individual departments may therefore issue local guidance that is consistent with the general principles (e.g. with respect to the definitions of productive and unproductive time or to the treatment of overtime etc) but will be more appropriate to the business needs of the department.
Overtime, Travelling Time and Allowances
Paid overtime should be entered as the actual overtime hours worked (i.e. excluding any premium) and the overtime costing rate will be picked up. In such cases the total number of hours entered for the week may be greater than 37 – e.g. if 5 hours paid overtime was worked during the week
Page 5 of 8

the total would be 42 hours not 37. Paid overtime must be input into OTL against expenditure type
STFC. Overtime - (Overtime) . Non paid overtime should be input in OTL against expenditure type
Labour – (Straight Time) .
Travelling time will normally be charged to tasks on a project (as part of normal hours or paid overtime). However, if these hours are locally significant, unpaid (i.e. in addition to conditioned hours) and will be detrimental to successfully charging time/pay costs to tasks, departments can decide to instruct its staff to omit these from the timecard.
On call allowance and any similar allowance will be included in the Band average rate.
Non Productive / Non Project Specific Time
The projects and tasks to be used to record absences are detailed in Appendix 1 .
Staff may incur time that is not project related e.g. general training, appraisals. Indirect projects have been set up by departments for the purpose of recording time associated with these general activities. If you are unsure as to which project / task to use, you should consult your local finance support.
Page 6 of 8

Unproductive Time
Project Employees Organisation Task Absence
STRA00002
(Non
Time)
Productive
FDOD –Technology Unit,
Nuclear Physics, PPD,
SSTD, CSE, ASTec, e-
Science, ISIS, Photon
Science and Science
Operations Support.
UK ATC
01.01 Annual Leave and Public/Privilege Holidays
01.02 Special Leave
01.03 Maternity, Paternity and Adoption Leave
01.04 Sick absence
Innovations
Corporate Services
[not to be used at the present time]
02.01 Annual Leave and Public/Privilege Holidays
02.02 Special Leave
02.03 Maternity, Paternity and Adoption Leave
02.04 Sick absence
03.01 Annual Leave and Public/Privilege Holidays
03.02 Special Leave
03.03 Maternity, Paternity and Adoption Leave
03.04 Sick absence
04.01 Annual Leave and Public/Privilege Holidays
04.02 Special Leave
04.03 Maternity, Paternity and Adoption Leave
04.04 Sick absence
OTL Reconciliation
Project Employees Organisation Task Comment
STRA00001
(OTL Reconciliation)
UK ATC
FDOD
Innovations
Corporate Services
Corporate Affairs
Finance Directorate
01.01 All staff in these Business
01.02
Units to use (i.e. staff required to record all time
01.03 on OTL)
01.04 Not to be used at the
01.05 present time.
01.06
Page 7 of 8

Page 8 of 8