Courseware:IT Plus - Working App

Everything you need to know about the working app

Why use the Working App?

Tracking working hours can be a hassle.

Maybe you are used to updating a spreadsheet or taking notes with pen and paper. This isn’t the focus of your work, and it often feels like a tedious, unnecessary task.

However, due to an EU ruling, all companies based in the EU are required to record their employees’ working hours. This obligation was reinforced by the European Court of Justice in 2019, which means that companies must use a reliable and transparent system to track time.

That's where the Working App comes in. It is designed to make your life as easy as possible, so you can focus on the tasks that really matter.

The Working App is an easy-to-use tool for companies that provides benefits for different user groups:

• User:
• Accessible from any device running myApps
• Location-independent time tracking (usable in home office, on business trips, etc.)
• Manual adjustments of times possible before submission
• Automatic warnings (e.g., if breaks are too short or maximum working hours are exceeded)
• Reminders to start time tracking at the beginning of work
• Time tracking remains private until submitted
• Automatic start/stop based on myApps status
• Clear overview of personal working hours

• Employer or HR department:
• Time recording in compliance with legal requirements
• Comprehensive overview of working times for all employees
• Export of working hours as CSV files
• Audit compliance
• Working hours can be assigned to working types or projects
• Customizable reasons for absences
• Vacation requests can be approved or rejected

• Admins:
• Simple installation process
• Easy distribution to users
• Fully embedded in the myApps ecosystem (no additional user management required)

Although the Working App has been optimized for German legislation, it can be used in any country. You don’t even need an existing innovaphone PBX, as the app works standalone with just a Working App license. Please note, however, that an innovaphone PBX is automatically set up during installation. This ensures that additional innovaphone products can be added later without requiring a replacement.

In this book, we will explore the features, technical implementation, and usability of the Working App. This book is not intended as a legal guide, since laws regarding the tracking of working hours vary from country to country. Furthermore, the target audience of this book is system engineers, not legal departments.

Preparation

If you don't have an AP running on the SSD of your IP411LEFT, please set up an Application Platform as described in the book. So don't proceed if you don't have an AP running on your IP411LEFT.

As we start we need a new start configuration for you. Therefore, please load a new configuration onto your devices:

Upload new configuration to your Devices

This book also has a start configuration for your AP as well. So don't forget to click on the  Load initial lesson configuration to your Application Platform button once it appears. This may take a while, so bear with us and keep trying

Once finished, use the following address to access myApps:: https://hq-dvl-ckl2.training.innovaphone.com

The start configuration will add four users to your device: your own account, Jean Dupont, Lisa Svensson, and Mario Rossi. Jean, Lisa, and Mario have avatar images that were downloaded from  www.freepik.com.

To start the lesson, log in to myApps, use the username ckl and the password ip411.

Record working hours

Before we go into detail, let's try out the most important step right away: your first time recording.

Open the Working User App and click the  green Play button.

Congratulations! Your Working App has started recording your working time. To stop recording, click  the orange Pause button.

As time goes by, the clock will automatically increase your recorded hours.  The calendar overview will show the current amount of worked minutes/hours, and the monthly statistics will update accordingly.

 The balance at the bottom left shows how many hours the employee has worked more or less than they should have. If you already opened the Working Manager app, the balance might show a random minus number. we will correct this in the next chapter.

Adjust working hours

You can also adjust your working hours. For example, maybe you forgot to track your time yesterday?

To do this, click on the previous day in the calendar or use the left arrow button next to the date, then click +Add time. Enter a working time from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM.

You will immediately  receive a warning that your break is too short, as required by law. At this point, you cannot submit your working hours if you click Submit all, because  they don't meet the legal requirements.

 Click on the warning, you will see an option to add break, which splits the working hours in half and adds a 30-minute break.

All working times can be adjusted by the user before they are submitted to the Working Manager App. After submission, the user can no longer modify the working times without the consent of the employer.

Before we take a brief look at the Manager App, please submit yesterday's working hours  by clicking Submit all.

Start of work date and Rights

Now start the  Working Manager App in your myApps client.

When you open the app, you will see  three columns:

• To Check: Displays absence requests from employees that you need to approve or reject. Additionally, this list shows users who submitted working hours that were not legally permitted.
• All Users: Displays all users. You can search for a specific user by entering their name in the search field. If you click on a user, you can adjust their personal settings.
• Times Missing: Displays all users who have not yet submitted their working times.

Now search for your own user in the All Users list so we can correct the balance of your user. This step is necessary because every employee has a default start date of January 1st, 2020, so the Working App cannot yet calculate the balance correctly.

• Click on Christoph Künkel
• Select  Change working hours
• Set the  Start of Work Date to one week before today

Rights

 The Rights section of the user allows you to adjust the rules for submitting working hours. By default, a user cannot submit their working hours if one of the depicted rules apply (e.g., if the employee's breaks are too short or if the maximum daily working time of 10 hours is exceeded). In addition, warnings can be hidden, or the user’s balance can be hidden completely.

For example, if you allow working on Sundays, the user can record times for a Sunday but cannot submit them. If Sunday work is allowed, the recorded times can be submitted, but the user will still receive a warning because this does not meet the legal requirements. This warning can be hidden by enabling the Hide Warning option.

Try repeating the exercise from the last chapter on another day within your new contractual working time. This time enable the option Allow if break times are too short and also enable Hide Warning for this option. Please note that you have to close and restart the Working User App for the rights option to become effective.

You can now  submit the working times even if no break has been taken.

General settings

If you are unhappy with the minimum break times, open the burger menu of the Working Manager App and adjust the settings for Minimum break time after 6 hours or Minimum break time after 9 hours

Times missing

Of course, the manager needs to see whether a user has submitted their working times or not. This is where the Times missing list comes into play.  This list shows all users who have not submitted their working hours on time.

You may wonder what "on time" means and whether it can be adjusted to your company's needs.

In the burger menu of the Working Manager app you  have the following options.

• Timeout to submit entries (days): Defines after how many days a user must submit their working hours before receiving a reminder. At the same time, the manager will see a Times Missing indication.
• Submit times at the end of the week: If enabled, employees must submit their working hours at the end of each week.
• Submit times at the end of the month: If enabled, employees must submit their working hours at the end of each month.

So let's try it

• Open your Working User App and  enter working hours for every day of your contractual working time, but do not submit them.
• In the Working Manager App, enable  the checkbox Submit times at the end of the week

 Your user will now appear in the Times missing list, because users are required to submit their times weekly.

The appearance in the Times Missing list also depends on the number of days configured in Timeout to submit entries (days).

• Set Timeout to submit entries (days) to 1
• Open your user in the Working Manager App. In the section Times Missing, all unsubmitted working days are listed.
• Now close and restart the Working user app.

 A reminder will be displayed at the top, encouraging you to submit your working times. As long as times are not submitted, they can still be adjusted. Once submitted, they are locked.

• Now submit all working hours.
• Open your user again in the Working Manager App. You will see that your  recorded times are now in order.

Although submitted times are final for the user, the manager still has the option to allow editing of a workday. To do this, the manager clicks on the respective day and  then on Allow editing

Settings of the user

Sometimes people forget to start recording their working hours or to take a break on time. To help users avoid this, the burger menu of the Working User App provides  four general settings:

• Automatic start/stop of working time:

If enabled, recording of your work hours will automatically start when you launch myApps and stop when you close myApps.

• Notifications to start working:

If enabled, you will receive a pop-up notification reminding you to start recording your working hours.

• Notifications to take a break:

If enabled, you will be notified to take a mandatory break once you have worked more than 6 hours.

• Notifications to stop working (10 hours):

If enabled, you will be notified if you work for more than 10 hours.

Working types

Sometimes a user's working time needs to be allocated to a specific project or absence type. For this purpose, you can create Working Types.

Let's go through a practical example:

•  Open the burger menu of the Working Manager App and select Config Working Types.

 A new window will appear that allows you to add or delete working types.

• Enter the word Doctor and press the checkmark icon.

 You can delete the working type by clicking the X icon.

• Now open and close the Working User app.
• You will now find the word Doctor  in the drop down menu next to your recorded working hours.

This means that HR will know you spent this time at the doctor when your working hours are evaluated.

Of course, multiple working types can be added. All defined working types configured here apply globally throughout the company, and every employee can allocate their working hours to these working types.

Another example of using working times is when hours need to be allocated to a project and billed to an end customer. All employees working on the project would assign their hours accordingly. When the working times of all employees are exported as a CSV file, the allocated hours can then be aggregated.

Config groups

You can also create user groups inside the Working App, allowing you to assign user rights and a supervisor to a specific department or project team.

In other words, you can:

• Define working types that are only visible to this group.
• Assign rights at the group level instead of configuring them for each individual user.
• Assign a manager to the group who is allowed to check missing times and approve or reject absence requests.

To configure it we will:

• Open  the burger menu in the Working Manager App
• Select Config groups
•  Click + Create new group
•  Enter a name for the group, e.g. sales departmemt
• Configure the rights:
• Enable Allow to submit working hours that do not respect the daily rest period
• Enable Hide balance for employee
• Enable Check times through Manager
• Add Mario Rossi and Lisa Svensson as Employee
• Add Jean Dupont as Manager
• (Optional) Add another working type

Note: There is no OK button. The group is created on the fly.

Manager View/ HR View

Now open a different browser and enter hq-dvl-ckl2.training.innovaphone.com and use jdu as username and ip411 as password to log in.

• Open the Working Manager app of Jean Dupont.

You will notice that Jean has no burger menu and cannot see all users of your installation (you will not find yourself in the All Users list). The reason for this is that Jean has the Manager View of the Working Manager App, while your user has the Human Resources View.

The Working Manager App can run in two different modes:

• Manager View: Only members of the associated group can be seen.
• HR Mode: All employees and the burger menu can be viewed.

When you uploaded the start configuration, we already prepared this setup for you. Let me explain what we did:

• We assigned  different Config Templates to your user and to Jean.
• Jean received the Config Moderator template.
• You received the Config Admin template.

Config Templates are used to distribute the appropriate apps to the right users. During the Install, three templates are created automatically:

• Config User
• Config Admin
• Config Moderator

Additionally, we assigned the Config Templates to the different modes of the Working Manager App. When you open the Working plugin in the Settings App and then the Working Manager App,  you can assign Config Templates to the respective mode:

• The first row of this view determines which users are able to find and open the Working Manager App.
• The second row of this view defines the special Human Resources View. Each user that should be able to access this view must inherit from a Config Template enabled in the second row.

Users that inherit apps only from a Config Template enabled in the first row will only have the Manager View of the Working Manager App.

Vacation settings and other absences

The Working App also offers the option of tracking employees' holiday and other absence days.

Go back to your Working Manager App,  open the burger menu, and then select Vacation and Absences.

 At the top of this window, you will find two options:Vacation settings or Other absences.

Vacation settings

Here you can specify how many vacation days your employees receive per year. You can either set a fixed value or define it based on the number of working days. For example, if an employee only works 4 days per week, it may be necessary to limit their vacation entitlement to 24 days.

If an employee does not take their vacation in time (by the end of the year),  you can define how many days can be carried over into the next year and set an expiration date for the carried-over vacation days within the following year.

Press Save after changing the configuration.

The Vacation settings that you configured here are applied globally (for all users). You can also set the  vacation settings for each user individually.

Other absences

In the Other Absences section, you can configure special leave types. By default, absence requests can only be created for Sick days or Vacation days. However, it may be necessary to create additional types such as Moving day or Bereavement leave. In fact, you can create as many special leave types as required.

These absence types can be customized. For each, you can define whether the absence counts as a half day or a full day, and you can configure the following options:

• Approval required: If enabled, a manager must approve the request.
• Subtract from vacation balance: If enabled, the selected absence (full or half day) will reduce the employee’s vacation entitlement.
• Recurring per year: If enabled, you can set a recurring vacation request(e.g., December 24th for Christmas leave).

 Let's try it

• Go to Other absences in the Vacation and absences section.
• Enter a descriptive name, such as moving
• Set it to Full day
• Enable Approval required
• Click save

Create Absence requests

So let's create absence requests for cases where you want vacation, sick days, or other absences approved.

• Open the Working User App.
• Click on Absence  located just above your calendar.

You'll receive an overview of all your vacation days from this year and last year, as well as all recorded sick days.

• Click +Request absence
• Select the start and end dates of your absence.
• Choose Vacation  as the type of your absence request.

Note that by selecting Other absences, you can choose from the custom absence types we defined in the previous chapter using a drop-down menu.

The menu will also show how many vacation days you still have available for your vacation.

• Then click on Continue

If you request more vacation days than you are entitled to, you will receive an error message when you click Continue.

If everything is in order,  you will be asked to confirm that your request contains the correct information. In other words, it checks if your the time frame and reason for your absence is correct.

• If this is correct, click Request now

 The menu will then confirm that your absence request was successfully submitted and it will display your new amount of vacation days.

The overview of all your absences will now show  a pending absence request.

Approve/reject Absence requests

As previously stated, a manager or a member of the Human Resources department must approve your vacation days.

To do this, follow these steps:

• Open your Working Manager App.

The Absence requests section will now display a red dot, indicating that  a new absence request has been submitted.

• Click on Absence requests

The app will display a list of all absence requests created by users. If the Working Manager app is started in the manager view, only the users in their assigned group will be shown. The list includes details such as the user's name, the requested time frame, and the reason for the absence.

 To view more details, click the caret icon. This allows you to add a comment or view additional information, such as:

• How many vacation days the request accounts for
• Whether other members of the group are on vacation at the same time
• Which manager is responsible for approving the request

 To approve an absence request, click the checkmark icon.

To reject a vacation request, click the x icon.

• Approve the absence request
•  Confirm your acceptance

Once you approve the absence request, the vacation days will automatically be added  to the user's calendar.

Cancel Absence request

Once a vacation has been approved, it can still be canceled in case of last-minute changes to the vacation plans. To do this, the user must:

• Open the Working User App
•  Select Absences

This section provides an overview of your vacation days, sick days, and balance. Below that, you will find a list of all absence requests. If you want to cancel an absence request,  open the respective entry in the list and click Request cancellation.

The manager must approve the cancellation in the same way they approved the original absence request.

Public holidays

Public holidays are not the same in every country, or even in every federal state. Furthermore, an HR employee wants to manually add each holiday to every employee's calendar.

To make this easier, we've automated much of the process.

Let's assign the correct public holidays to all employees at our headquarters in Sindelfingen.

• Open the Working Manager App
•  In the burger menu, select Public holidays.
• Click +Create new area
•  Give the holiday zone a descriptive name: HQ-Sindelfingen
• Select the Country DE (Germany)
• Select the Federal State BW (Baden-Württemberg)
• Don't forget to click Save

If you want to add additional holidays, enter a date on the left and click Add date. To remove a holiday, use the Delete button.

If your company has multiple locations, create a separate holiday zone for each one.

 To apply the holiday zone to your user you have to do:

• Go to All Users in the Working Manager App
• Search for User Christoph Künkel
• Open Change working hours
• In the dropdown menu, select HQ-Sindelfingen

If you now close and reopen the Working User App, you will see the  past and upcoming public holidays for that user.

Working time models

Not every employee has the same working hours. Each one may have their own contractually agreed working hours. Therefore, the target working time must be configured individually for each employee.

Currently, all users share the same default working hours. These Default working hours are defined in the burger menu of the Working Manager App. By default,  Monday to Friday are set to 8 hours each, while Saturday and Sunday are set to 0 hours.

Now let's change the contractual working hours for your user:

• Open the Working Manager App.
• Search Christoph Künkel in the list of all user.
• Click on Change working hours

 Inside the Contractual working hours dialog, you can click Change working hours again to schedule upcoming changes to the employee's working hours.

•  Click the Pencil icon on the right

 This allows you to modify the current contractual working hours. You can add a note explaining why the change was made.

• Set working hours to 30 hours per week, 6 hours per day (Mo-Fr).
• When finished, click the checkmark icon to save your changes.

Archive user

If an employee leaves the company and you no longer need to track their working hours, you can archive the user. By clicking the Archive User button  in the user's profile, the user will be removed from the active view in the Working Manager App, unless you specifically search for archived users.

If you want to review the working hours of an archived user, you can enable the Show Archive  option in the burger menu of the Working Manager App. When this option is enabled, the app view changes to display only archived users.

Export/Import

Export

For further processing or backup purposes, user configurations, recorded working hours, and absence requests of all employees can be exported as a CSV file.

To do this:

• Open the Working Manager App
• Open the Burger Menu
• Go to the  section Export/Import

In this section, you have the option to export the following data:

• User Config: Exports each user's contractual working hours.

• Export absences: For exporting absences, you must define a time frame. You will receive all absence requests of all users within this period.

• Export times: For exporting working hours, you must define a time frame. You will receive all recorded working hours of all employees within this period.

• Export times and absences: Combines the export of working hours and absence times within the defined time frame.

Most columns are self-explanatory, but here are a few that might require clarification:

• The &p_number column column represents the employee number, which can be defined for each user in the user configuration.

• The &label column in the times CSV file indicates the working type assigned to the working hours. This allows you to group and analyze working hours of different employees per project, for example using Excel.

• The &label column in the absence CSV file file corresponds to the type of absence, such as vacation, sick days, or other absences.

Import

CSV files can also be imported, using the same syntax as the exported versions, except for the combined CSV file. Such a file must be split into two separate files: one for working hours and one for absences.

Install Working from the app store

The Working App is not installed by default during the initial setup. The start configuration used in this book has already taken care of the basic setup. However, there is also a way to install apps after the Install process has been completed.

To install the Working App, proceed as follows:

• Open the Settings App.
• Open the AP - App Installer plugin.
• Search for the app Working.
• Install the newest version.
• Accept innovaphone's terms and conditions.
• Close and reopen the Settings app.

You will now see  a new plugin called Working

As the next step, we will create the required app objects.

Create app objects

If you click on  +Add an app you can create an app object. Let's discuss the difference between  those 5 choices.

• Working User: This app allows users to record their working hours, holidays and vacation days.
• Working Manager: Allows managers to view employees’ working times and absence requests. This app can run in two modes:
• Manager View: Only members of the associated group can be seen.
• HR Mode: All employees and a burger menu for administration purposes can be seen.
• Working API: Not visible to users. It allows the communication of notifications and automatic start/stop between myApps client and the working app service.
• Working Client API: Only needed if an external tool or device (e.g., an attendance recorder) should be allowed to start and stop employee working hours.
• PublicHolidaysAPI: Only needed if an external tool needs access to public holiday data.

When creating an app object, you need to provide a Name and a SIP ID:

• Name: This names will be used to display the app to end users. The name of the app has to be unique in the system. This means you cannot give the same name to two objects.
• SIP: This is an ID for the app. It must also be unique and should be chosen carefully, since changing it later is not easy. Do not use spaces. Valid characters are: A–Z, a–z, 0–9, . (dot), and - (dash). The SIP ID must not begin with a dot.

Fortunately, the plugin already provides predefined names, so you can simply select a Config Template and click OK. Config Templates are used to distribute the appropriate apps to the right users.

Configuration

There is also  a configuration section in the Working Settings plugin. This section contains only one configuration parameter: PBX Name. As mentioned in the first chapter of this book, a PBX is installed in the background for user management. To ensure that the users from the PBX database are replicated to the Working App, the app must know the PBX name.