Exports are a necessary part of your payroll process. They are used to gain information about who worked, when, how long, and where. While all of Connecteam's Timesheets Exports options are amazing, especially the Auto reports, you may want your export to contain only certain information or for that information to be ordered in a certain way. Our Custom Exports capability allows you to do just that.
This article will go over:
Now, let's get started on building our custom export.
Where to find the Custom Export Capability
Like all the export capabilities, Custom Exports is located in the Time Clock feature. Simply access the relevant time clock, enter the timesheets tab, select exports, and “create a new template.” Then, choose the type of report you would like to create: Timesheets or Shift Reports.
The Types of Custom Exports
As mentioned above, when building your custom report, you can create two types of reports: Timesheets or Shift Reports. Below, we will go over both of these options and when to use which one.
Timesheets: The timesheet report breaks down your employees' hours on a day-to-day basis. In other words, on any given day you can see their hours worked. This export is great for companies that want an overview of what is going on for each workday.
Shift Report: The shift report resembles our timesheets, but the main difference is that it breaks up the hours per shift, and each shift will have its own row. This export is more suitable for companies with employees who work overnight shifts and do not want the hours split across two rows.
Customizing Your Export
In the custom export, you can build your timesheet or shift report to include all the information you want. This is done by setting all your Report Columns and Settings. Let's take a look at how to do this below.
Report Columns
These contain all the information that will be in your custom report. Whether it is the standard information that comes in most timesheet reports such as Name, Job, Total Shift hours, Total paid hours, or extra information such Geolocation stamps, Shift attachments, overtime, Custom Field from the user profile, or data layers from the schedule, it calls all be added to the custom report.
To activate information in your custom report, ensure it is toggled on in the report column section. Only these report columns will appear in the custom report.
In the example below you can see that I have toggled on the columns such as first name, weekly total hours, work hours, and more. I have also toggled off columns I don't want to include in the report such as phone number or email.
If you want to add a Custom Field or a Shift Layer as a column in your report, simply click on the + Add button and select the ones you want to add.
In the example below, I added the "Position" field to my column; however, in your case, it can be any user field you created in the user's profile.
Please note: If you add shift layers to the report, all existing shift layers across multiple job schedules will be displayed and available for you to include. Those layers with the same name in multiple job schedulers will be merged into one column. For example, a shift layer called "iPad" exists in two different schedulers, as illustrated below.
Since they have identical names, the two shift layers will merge into one column, so the option to select the shift layer titled "iPad" will only appear once when customizing the shift report.
The final export will merge it into one and look like this:
Renaming and Customizing the Report Columns
Now that you toggled on the Report Column you wanted, let's talk about some more exciting customization capabilities the custom report has. Did you know that you can rename the report columns and change the format they are displayed in or reorder them to be in any order you would like? This takes report customization to the next level!
To rename a column, hover over it, click the settings icon, rename the category, and select the desired format.
For columns containing non-numerical data such as first name, last name, job, etc., the format can be set to none, uppercase, lowercase, or no space
For columns with numerical data such as work hours, total paid hours, total paid absence hours, etc., the format can be set according to your time clock settings or to a time or decimal format.
To reorder the report columns, simply drag and drop the column in the order you want it to appear.
Report Settings
The report settings allow you to select various criteria before exporting your Custom Report. To access the custom report settings, click on the options tab at the bottom right corner of the custom report.
Now, let's go over all the options you'll find:
File type: You can set the file to either a CSV or an Excel file
Sort by Column: The columns you have toggled on can be sorted by any Custom Field in the user's profile.
Sort by type: Here, you have the option to sort the column either by A-Z or Z-A.
Report type: Since what you are reporting is a Custom Report from the Time Clock feature, the report type will always be set to date.
There is the option to exclude users with no entries, meaning they will not be included in the Custom Report, or to include the user's name on every row and to make this report visible for users on the mobile and dashboard.
Saving Your Custom Report as a Template
Did you create the perfect Custom Report? That's great! Now, rather than creating it each time, simply save it as a template. This will save you tons of time.
To save a Custom Report as a Template, simply select save as a template after creating your desired layout.
Now, automate the process by easily accessing your Custom Report Template whenever needed. To access a Custom Report template, simply enter the time clock and timesheets, click on exports, and your previously created Custom Report Templates will be listed there. Simply click on it, and voila! You have exported your custom report.
How will my Report Look When Exported?
Every change you make while customizing your report will always appear in the export preview directly to the right of your report columns, meaning there are no surprises! You can see the exact format of custom reports before exporting them.
Once exported, your report can be opened in Excel or imported to your company's desired Payroll Software. Take a look at the finished Custom Report below.
Timesheets Custom Report
Shift Report Custom Report
*The ability to export a custom report is available from the Advanced Operations plan & the ability to save custom report templates is available from the Expert Operations plan*
Want a Pro to help you set up Custom Export? 🤓 Click here to learn more.
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