Logging Time
Use a time entry to record Desk Time or Travel Time. If the work has an internal cost, allocate it to the Budget Item that should receive that cost.
An Allocated time entry has a Budget Item and can update its Actual Cost Ledger. Whether that cost can be invoiced is decided separately by the concrete Service Revenue Budget's settlement settings.
Before You Start
The related project's Project Blueprint decides whether cost allocation for each time type is unavailable, optional, or required:
| Project Blueprint setting | What happens on the time entry |
|---|---|
| No cost allocation | Budget, Budget Item, day rate, and fee are not used. |
| Optional cost allocation | You can save the entry without a Budget Item or allocate it when the work has a cost. |
| Required cost allocation | You must select a Budget and Budget Item. |
A Service Revenue Budget settled by External invoicing + Actual Costs always requires a Budget Item when selected. This prevents an invoiceable cost from losing its source allocation.
Create A Time Entry
- Open Timesheets -> Dashboard.
- Click Create New Timesheet.
- Select Desk Time or Travel Time.
- Select the Person, Date, and number of Hours.
- Select the Related Project.
- If cost allocation is available, select the Budget and Budget Item that should receive the cost.
- Select an Applied Dayrate or enter the fee allowed by your setup.
- Select a Category and enter a clear Description.
- Add attachments if needed, then click Save.
The fee is normally calculated as a proportion of an eight-hour workday. For example, four hours at a day rate of EUR 800 produces a fee of EUR 400.
Understand The Main Fields
| Field | What it controls |
|---|---|
| Type | Whether the entry is Desk Time or Travel Time. The Project Blueprint can apply a different allocation policy to each type. |
| Related Project | The project that performed the work and supplies the effective allocation policy. |
| Budget | The project budget that contains the target Budget Item. |
| Budget Item | The exact line whose Actual Cost Ledger receives the fee. Selecting it makes the entry Allocated. |
| Applied Dayrate | The project-specific rate used for the selected time type. |
| Fee | The monetary value of the work. An allocated fee can become a ledger entry. |
| Category and Description | The business context shown in time reporting and source details. |
Changing the Related Project clears incompatible Budget selections. Changing the Budget clears the Budget Item. Select the fields again after either change.
What Happens After Saving
- An entry without a Budget Item is Unallocated. It does not write to an Actual Cost Ledger.
- An allocated entry with a fee writes the fee to the selected Budget Item's ledger.
- If that item belongs to a Service Revenue Budget configured for External invoicing + Actual Costs, Compass also creates or updates an open Invoice Position.
- If allocation is optional, fee-bearing unallocated work can still be selected deliberately in the manual invoice workflow. Compass prevents the same work from being invoiced twice.
The old technical Billable value now represents whether a cost allocation exists. In the user interface, use Allocated and Unallocated. Customer billability is controlled later by the Budget settlement and, for actual-cost settlement, the Invoice Position.
Edit Or Delete An Entry
Click an entry to open its detail drawer. Use the available action to edit the source information or delete the entry.
An open Invoice Position follows an edited source amount. If the position is already reserved by a draft invoice or invoiced, Compass protects that billing history and may block the source change. Voiding or cancelling billing records does not remove the internal Actual Cost Ledger history.
Common Problems
Problem: Budget fields do not appear.
Fix: The Project Blueprint may use No cost allocation for that time type.
Problem: Compass requires a Budget Item although the Project Blueprint says allocation is optional.
Fix: The selected Service Revenue Budget uses External invoicing + Actual Costs, which requires a traceable Budget Item.
Problem: No day rate is available.
Fix: Check the project's Desk Time or Travel Time day-rate setup. If your configuration permits it, enter the fee manually.
Problem: The entry is in the ledger but not in Billing.
Fix: Check that the concrete Budget is Service Revenue, uses External invoicing + Actual Costs, and has a Billing Profile. CapEx, OpEx, Internal-only, and Budgeted Amounts budgets do not create Invoice Positions from the entry.