How to Enter a Timesheet on an Operator Docket from a Mobile Device

Operators record the hours they worked straight onto the operator docket from their phone, so a day of wet hire is priced from what actually happened on site rather than from a paper docket someone types up later.

Overview

The docket is the operator's own record of the day, and the timesheet is the part that gets paid for. Everything happens on the Operator Jobs screen in the mobile menu, and the whole thing takes about a minute once the machine is running.

You can only add time to a docket that is Open and has you as the operator. Someone else's docket is read only on your phone.
A pre-start checklist has to be completed on the docket before Add Timesheet becomes available.
How you enter the time depends on the Timesheet Input Type setting: either Hours and Minutes, or a Start Time and End Time.
Breaks are recorded separately and are subtracted from the total, so a 7:00 am to 3:30 pm day with a half hour break is 8 hours.
You can add more than one timesheet to a docket. Normal time and overtime on the same machine are two timesheets on the one docket.
The charge rate comes from the rental contract line, not from you, so there is nothing to price on the phone.

Before You Begin

A few things need to be in place before the docket will accept a time.

Requirement	Where to Find It
You are set up as a skilled person	Service › Configuration › Skilled Persons - the docket's Operator is your own skilled person record and cannot be changed on the phone
A rental contract line using Operator Pricing	Rental › Rental Contracts › Options › Add Details, with Operator Pricing as the Pricing Method
A Pre Start Checklist on the equipment model or equipment class	Equipment › Configuration › Equipment Models (or Equipment Classes) - the model's template is used first, and the class is the fallback
Mobile Operator Dockets permission	Security › Configuration › Permission Groups › Rental › Screen
Create Operator Dockets and Complete Operator Dockets permissions	Security › Configuration › Permission Groups › Rental › Option
Create Timesheet permission, plus Timesheet or Mobile Timesheet to read them back	Security › Configuration › Permission Groups › Service › Option and › Screen
Timesheet Input Type setting	Security › Settings › Timesheet

Timesheet Input Type under Security › Settings › Timesheet. It is a system wide choice, so every operator on your site enters time the same way

Timesheet Input Type changes the fields you see, not what gets stored. Start and End asks for the clock times you started and finished; Hours and Minutes asks only for how long you worked. Either way Latner keeps a total, and the customer is charged on that total.

Entering the Time

Step 1 - Open Operator Jobs

Tap the menu and choose Operator Jobs. The list shows the rental contracts you have operator work on, with the customer and the site address on each card. The My Jobs, Today, Tomorrow and Next 7 Days chips narrow it down, and My Jobs plus Today are on by default.

the Operator Jobs list. Tap a chip to turn it off if the job you want isn't showing - a job scheduled for next week won't appear under Today

Step 2 - Pick the machine you were on

Tap the contract to see its operator lines. A contract can have several machines on it, so each line shows the equipment class, the model and the equipment number - match it to the plant you actually operated.

the operator lines on rental contract 27. Only lines priced with Operator Pricing, or lines with an open docket, appear here

Step 3 - Open today's docket, or create it

The line shows every docket raised against it, newest first, with its status, date and operator. If today's docket is already there, tap it and skip to step 4. If it isn't, tap the + button and choose Create Operator Docket.

the dockets already raised on this line, with Create Operator Docket on the + button

The form only asks for two things, and one of them is filled in for you.

Date - the day you worked. Defaults to today, and a docket always covers a single date.
Operator - locked to you. Latner reads it from your skilled person record.

Tap Save. The docket is numbered automatically, opens on status Open, and Latner takes you straight to it.

Create Operator Docket. The rental contract line and the operator are already known, so the date is the only thing to check

Step 4 - Complete the pre-start checklist

On a new docket Add Timesheet is greyed out. That is deliberate: the pre-start has to be done before the day's hours can be recorded.

a new docket. Add Timesheet stays greyed out until a pre-start checklist on this docket has no outstanding tasks

Tap Add Pre-Start Checklist. Latner pulls the checklist from the equipment model, or from the equipment class if the model doesn't have one, and attaches a copy to the docket. Tap Complete Pre Start Checklist, answer every task Pass, Fail or N/A, add notes or photos where they help, then close the drawer. The button changes to Pre Start Checklist Completed with a tick, and Add Timesheet comes to life.

the checklist drawer. The counter at the top tracks how many tasks are left, and a task set up to require a photo won't accept an answer without one

Step 5 - Add the timesheet

Tap Add Timesheet. Start Date is fixed to the docket's date, and the group and sub group are set for you to Operator Docket / Labour, so they are not on the form.

If your system uses Hours and Minutes, enter how long you were on the machine:

Hours - 0 to 23.
Minutes - 0 to 59.
Breaks - tap the + to add a break and enter its length the same way. Add one row per break; the bin icon removes a row.
Rate Type - Normal Time or Overtime Rate.
Description - defaults to Labour. Replace it with something the customer will recognise on their invoice.

8 hours 30 minutes with a 30 minute break, which Latner will total as 8 hours

Rate Type decides which of the contract line's operator rates is charged: Normal Time uses the hourly rate, Overtime Rate uses the overtime rate. Call outs don't apply to operator dockets and aren't offered.

the Rate Type list on an operator docket. Only Normal Time and Overtime Rate are available

If your system uses Start and End instead, you get Start Time and End Time in place of Hours and Minutes, and breaks are entered as a start and an end too. Everything else on the form is the same.

the same form with Timesheet Input Type set to Start and End

Tapping a time field opens the phone's time picker. Scroll to the hour, then the minutes, then AM or PM, and tap OK. Minutes step in fives, so round to the nearest five minutes.

the time picker. Latner won't accept an end time that is before the start time

Step 6 - Save and check the total

Tap Save. The timesheet appears under Timesheets on the docket with its number, its group, its description and the total hours. Check that total before you move on - it is the figure the customer is charged on.

Need a second block of time? Tap Add in the Timesheets section and record it the same way. A day that ran into overtime is one timesheet at Normal Time and another at Overtime Rate.

the saved timesheet. 8 hours 30 minutes less a 30 minute break shows as 08:00 hrs

Step 7 - Correct a time you got wrong

While the docket is still Open, tap the timesheet in the list to reopen it as Update Timesheet, change the hours, the breaks or the rate type, and tap Save. Once the docket has been completed the timesheets are locked and someone in the office has to reopen the docket for you.

Update Timesheet. Note that Description comes back as Labour, so retype it if you had changed it

Step 8 - Get the docket signed

Once there is at least one timesheet on the docket, the signature pad unlocks. Hand the phone to the site contact, tap Tap to Sign, have them sign, then tap Save. The signature is stored on the docket and comes through on the docket PDF.

the signature pad. The X clears a signature you aren't happy with before you save it

Step 9 - Complete the docket

Tap Complete Docket. Latner moves the docket to Pending Approval and takes you back to the job. A docket with no timesheets can't be completed, so this is the check that the day's hours were actually recorded.

the docket on Pending Approval. Complete Docket is now greyed out and Reopen Docket has taken its place

After You Complete the Docket

The docket sits on Pending Approval until someone in the office approves it from Rental › Operator Dockets. Nothing is charged before that.
The timesheet is visible on the desktop docket's Timesheets tab, with the start and end, break hours, total hours, and the rate that came off the contract line.
The same timesheet counts towards your own timesheet totals under Service › Timesheets, sourced as Operator Docket.
Once approved, each timesheet becomes its own line on the customer's next invoice - the total hours as the quantity, the rate as the unit price.
Reopen Docket puts the docket back to Open so times can be fixed, as long as it hasn't been invoiced.

the same docket in the office. The Timesheets tab carries the hours through to invoicing

Once the docket has been invoiced it can't be reopened or cancelled at all. If the hours were wrong and the customer has already been billed, the invoice has to be cancelled or credited first - that puts the docket back to Approved - and only then can it be reopened and the times corrected.

FAQs

Add Timesheet is greyed out. Why?

Three things have to be true: the docket is Open, you are the operator named on it, and a pre-start checklist attached to the docket has no tasks left to answer. The checklist is the usual cause - tap Add Pre-Start Checklist, then Complete Pre Start Checklist, and answer every task.

I tapped Add Pre-Start Checklist and got an error about no checklist being found.

The machine's equipment model has no Pre Start Checklist set, and neither does its equipment class. It's a configuration job rather than something you can fix in the field - ask whoever looks after your equipment setup to add a pre start checklist template to the model or the class.

Can I add time to another operator's docket?

Not from your phone. Everything on a docket that isn't yours is read only, and Complete Docket is disabled too. The same applies to a docket raised against an External Operator, because there is no operator to match you against - those are recorded from the desktop.

Latner won't let me create a second docket for today.

You get one docket per operator, per contract line, per date. If you worked two machines on the same contract that's two lines and two dockets. If you worked normal time and overtime on the same machine, that's one docket with two timesheets.

Where do I set what the customer is charged per hour?

You don't. The rate is read from the rental contract line: the hourly operator rate for Normal Time and the overtime rate for Overtime Rate. Your part is the hours and the rate type. If a rate looks wrong on the invoice, it's the contract line that needs changing, not the timesheet.

How do breaks affect the total?

They come off it. Latner takes the span of the timesheet, subtracts every break, and charges the remainder - so 8 hours 30 minutes with a 30 minute break is 8 hours. On Start and End a break has to sit inside the timesheet's own times, or it will be rejected.

In Hours and Minutes mode the desktop shows my timesheet starting at 12:00 am. Is that wrong?

No. When your system is set to Hours and Minutes you are recording a length of time, not clock times, so Latner stores it as a block starting at midnight on the docket's date. The total hours is the number that matters, and it's the number that gets charged. Switch the Timesheet Input Type setting to Start and End if you need real start and finish times on the record.

The My Jobs chip is greyed out on the Operator Jobs list.

My Jobs filters the list by who has been allocated to the job, so it needs the Operator Allocation permission under Security › Configuration › Permission Groups › Rental › Screen. Without it, use the Today and Next 7 Days chips and find your contract by name.

I completed the docket but I need to change the hours.

Tap Reopen Docket. That puts it back to Open, unlocks the timesheets, and clears any approval details, so you can correct the time and complete it again. You need the Reopen Operator Dockets permission, and it isn't available once the docket has been invoiced.