The Customizable Data Export allows you to download all timesheet data in a time period, and to choose which fields you'd like to include in your file. This can be useful for building your own reports based on ClickTime data, reviewing time entries on a large scale, and more. This guide is a quick introduction to the basic concepts of generating a file using the Customizable Data Export (which will also be referred to as the "CDE") function.
For further details on using Data Linking (also known as Excel Linking) with the results of a Customizable Data Export, refer to then Data Linking guides. If you have any specific questions about the tool, fields, or anything else, please contact ClickTime Support. We'll be happy to assist with your inquiries.
Accessing the Customizable Data Export
Creating a Customizable Data Export
Date Created Field
Saving a Customizable Data Export
Viewing a Customizable Data Export
Video - Using Pivot Tables with the Customizable Data Export
Accessing the Customizable Data Export
You can find the Customizable Data Export on the Company --> Reports page. It's located at the bottom-right of the screen:
You can also find it under the "Miscellaneous" section of the page:
Creating a Customizable Data Export
When you navigate to the Customizable Data Export page within the platform, you will see a variety of options that you can utilize for your specific needs:
On the left-hand side of the screen, you'll find filtering options. These options let you set specific criteria for your report, allowing you to filter out unnecessary data and focus on the most relevant information.
Below, we've provided detailed explanations for each filter option. These explanations are intended to help you understand the functionality of each filter, enabling you to use them more effectively in generating your reports.
Export as: One of the key features of this report is the variety of formats in which it can be exported. Whether you need a CSV (comma-separated-values) file, an Excel file, Text (tab-delimited), or XML file, we've got you covered. Simply select the format that serves your purpose best.
Specific Dates: This filter allows you to define a specific date range for the data you want to download. Whether you're looking at a week, a month, a quarter, or a custom period, setting this range ensures that your report includes only the most relevant data.
Please Note: All date fields export dates in ISO format.
Sort By: You can determine the default sort order for your report. Whether you prefer to see data sorted by date, project, employee, or any other field, you can set that here. And don't worry, you can always change the sort order once you've opened the file in another program.
Include: With the CDE, you have the flexibility to export different types of time entries. You can choose to export "all worked and time off" entries, or narrow down to "only worked time" or "only time off" entries, depending on your analysis needs.
Filter by Approval Status: This filter gives you control over the approval status of the timesheet data you want to download. You can decide to download "all" timesheet data, "only approved or locked" time entries, or only the "not locked / not approved" time entries. This can be especially useful when reviewing timesheet compliance or processing payroll.
Filter by Billable Status: : If your organization tracks billable vs. non-billable time, this filter will be particularly useful. You can choose to download "all" timesheet data, or specify if you are only interested in "billable" or "non-billable" time. You can set up the rules for determining billable or non-billable time from the Company --> Preferences page (more details here).
Mark exported entries as: If you plan on regularly running the same CDE report, but want to only get newly entered time entries, you can use the ClickTime labels function to "label" the time entries you download now. This can be a great way to track changes over time or to avoid duplicating data in your analysis. More information on how to use Labels is available in our help video.
Don't include entries already marked as: This is where you can decide if you want to exclude any time entries you've applied a "label" to in a previous export. This can be useful if you're looking to compare new data against a historical baseline. Of course, if you want a comprehensive view, you can get all time entries by selecting "(none chosen; export all entries)".
Below this is the "Save" option, which will be covered in the Saving a Customizable Data Export section below.
Beyond the standard criteria you can set for your report, the Customizable Data Export (CDE) feature gives you the added capability of specifically choosing the data fields you wish to download with your report.
The specific data fields can be selected under two categories - "Simple" and "Advanced". The "Simple" option provides a list of commonly used fields for easy selection, while the "Advanced" option offers a more comprehensive list of data fields for detailed analysis.
Simple: The "Simple" data fields are the most commonly used options. If you are doing basic reporting or just want to review time entries, these options will probably be sufficient.
Advanced: The "Advanced" data fields include all of the "Simple" fields as well as much more. They are organized by the aspect of ClickTime they refer to. One of the biggest differences here is that we include data on the timesheet itself, so you can use this information to see details on the current/previous status of the timesheet, as well as when it was changed, and who by. The "Timesheet ID" field can also be used to group the same timesheet(s) together in pivot tables/etc.
Another component of the "Advanced" data fields is that it will allow you to get details regarding the Status and internal IDs for all the data fields.
ClickTime will display a preview of time entries from the last 10 days below the criteria section to give you an idea of how your report will look:
After you've set the basic criteria and selected the fields you are interested, you can now use the "Run Report" option to generate a file. Before you do so, there is one other aspect of this report you may want to be aware of, which is to save your criteria for future use.
Notes for Specific Advanced Fields:
- Timesheet Status Changed On: This field will display time in PST.
ClickTime added a new column to the "Advanced" section of the Customizable Data Export in June 2020.
The column is called "Date Created" and it will show the day and time that the entry was originally saved to ClickTime.
Please note the following:
- The timestamp will display entries in UTC time.
- This timestamp is simply when the entry was first added. If the entry was created, and then updated, the timestamp will show you the initial creation day/time and not the edits.
Saving a Customizable Data Export
If you expect to regularly want to generate a report with the same data fields (and other settings) you can use the Save these report settings as a favorite report titled field. Type the name you'd like to assign this report for future reference before running, and then click the "Run Report" option:
If you give your report a name, you'll see that Report is easily accessible from the Company --> Reports page in the Customizable Data Export section of the page going forward:
If you determine you no longer need to use these settings anymore, you can open up the report and click "Delete this saved report" to remove it from the list of saved Customizable Data Exports:
Viewing a Customizable Data Export
After running the Customizable Data Export, you'll be brought to a new page where you can use the "download_export" link to save the report to your computer. We recommend saving the report to your computer instead of trying to open it directly in the program of your choice. The report will be in the format you have specified.
Once you have saved the report, you can then open up the program of your choice and choose to load the report from there.
In addition to the downloadable file, all Corporate and Enterprise accounts will also see the "Excel Linking" section of the page, which contains the data link that can be used to populate an external system such as Microsoft Excel, Google Sheets, Power BI, SQL databases and much more, with ClickTime Data.
These features are outlined in more detail in the following guides:
Using Pivot Tables with the Customizable Data Export
Once you've opened your Customizable Data Export in Excel, you can use the data to create reports in several methods. One of the features that can be very useful to analyze data in Excel is the "Pivot Tables" option, which allow you to aggregate and format your results in a variety of different ways.
This video provides an introduction to Pivot Tables using the Customizable Data Export as the source data, so we hope this is a helpful resource:
Comments
0 comments
Article is closed for comments.