When you arrange for a contractor to undertake a job, or fulfill a particular role for a client, you are creating what is known as a placement.

A placement defines:

• Who is doing the work.

• Which client the work is being carried out for.

• Which consultant is responsible for the work.

• Who, within the client organisation, is responsible for the placement.

• The rates of pay and charge.

• The types of expense that can be claimed.

You can create new placements, or edit existing ones if you have the corresponding roles.

How do I create a placement?

Note: in order to create a placement you must have an Approval Route set as the default for timesheets, chargeable expenses and non-chargeable expenses.

1. From the Profiles menu, select Placements. The Placement Search screen is displayed.

2. To create a placement, click Create. The Create Placement screen appears.
   Note: If you want to create a placement that is very similar to an existing one, you can clone the existing placement. This saves you having to enter most of the details again. Please see the "How do I find and edit (or clone) an existing placement?" section below.

   
   

Who can create placements?

The following users can create placements?

• Administrators with the Create Placement Role.
• Consultants with the Create Placement Role.

Who can modify placements?

The following users can modify placements

• Administrators with the Write and/or Write-All Placement Roles.
• Consultants with Write Placement can modify their own placements.  Consultants with the Write All Placement role can modify any placement

How do I find and edit (or clone) an existing placement?

1. From the Profiles menu, select Placements. The Placement Search screen is displayed.

2. Click the plus sign below the Create button and select a tab (Main, Financials or Date Ranges), and enter appropriate search criteria for the placement that you want to find.

3. Click Search.The Search Placement Results list appears at the bottom of the screen and contains any placements that match the search criteria that you entered.
   Tip: Only active placements are shown by default.  To see historic placements change the Status to Inactive or All. 

4. If you just want to a summary of a particular placement, click the drop down arrow next to the edit button in in the Actions column. Otherwise, click the Edit button on the placement line to edit the placement.
   The Edit Placement screen is displayed, allowing you to edit the placement’s details.

5. When you have finished, click Save. If you want to create a new placement that is similar to the one that you have selected, click Clone. This will display the Clone Placement screen.

The Create Placement, Clone Placement and Edit Placement screens are identical. Each screen has these tabs:

• General

• Timesheet

• Expenses

• Invoicing

• Financial

• Documents

• Advances

• History

The General Tab

The General tab contains the main details that define the placement. For example, there is information about the consultant, client, consultant and manager:

The fields on this screen are described in the following table:

Rates

Rates define how much contractors will be paid for the work, and how clients will be charged. 

Placements can have between one and ten rates. If you require more than ten rates, please contact the RSM ESL support team, who can increase this value for you. See Requesting Support

The rate at the top of the list is the default rate—when a timesheet is created, this is the rate that is selected by default:

Each rate has the following fields:

The priority determines the order that the rates appear on timesheet entry.

How do I remove a rate from the list?

• Click the red cross in the Remove column.

Monthly Rates Configuration

If you have purchased the Monthly Rates module and you have selected a monthly timesheet period, you will have an extra column, "Charge Monthly". Select the rate that represents the monthly charge a configure appropriately. For more information about configuring monthly rates, click here.

The Financials Tab

The financials tab contains information about the currencies, tax rates, categorisation into sectors, and split commissions.

Currencies

The following settings are available for currencies:

• Charge Currency
  Time and expenses raised on this placement will be billed in the specified currency
• Timesheet Pay Currency
  Time raised on this placement will be billed in this currency
• Expense Pay Currency
  Expenses raised on this placement will be paid in this currency

Other currencies can be configured for clients who have our multi-currency module.  Information about adding new currencies can be found in the Exchange Rates section.

Charge Terms

By default, client invoices raised for items related to this placement will be raised using the  charge terms defined on the client.  This can be overridden on the placement if required:

Expenses

Before a worker can claim expenses, an expense template must be set for the placement. Select an expense template from the Expense Template Group list.

To find out more about setting up expense templates, see Configuring Expenses.

Sectors, Branches and other categories

Each placement can be categorised. This allows you to report on placements in different business areas, and also flows through to the margin reporting.

For example, you could have a location for North and South.  You could then produce a margin report for the North region, one for the South region and an overall report for the whole country:

The values that appear in these drop-downs is configured using Tag Categories.

Split Commissions

You can set up split commission for a placement between up to five consultants. You can choose whether or not to force the total of the splits to be equal to 100%.  The value set here are used in the Margin Report.

Communications

The Advanced tab allows you to enable and disable the sending of communications from InTime to the parties who are connected with a placement (the worker, manager, consultant, and limited company). It also allows you to specify a different sales invoice contact to the default one that has been set up for the placement.

By selecting one or more of these checkboxes, you can disable the sending of emails from InTime to the relevant parties:

• Disable Worker Communications
• Disable Manager Communications
• Disable Consultant Communications
• Disable Ltd Communications

Sales Invoice Contact

The default contact at the client, to whom sales invoices should be sent, is set up when the client is created (on the Create Client page). The Sales Invoice Contact area of the Communications tab allows you to override this default setting for a particular placement.

To override the default sales invoice contact settings, select the Override Default Sales Invoice Contact checkbox. You can then change the details in any of the fields in the rest of the Sales Invoice Contact area. Please note that Street1 and either Town or County must be populated for the ovverride address to appear on invoices, otherwise it will default back to the invoiceing address in the client profile.

The Contracts and Compliance Tab

The Contracts and Compliance tab allows you to:

• View the list of contract documents that apply to a placement.
• Confirm that you have read specific documents and have agreed to any terms and conditions contained within them.
• Upload a new contract document for a particular placement.
• Upload new versions of the contract documents that apply to a placement.
• Assign, to a placement, a document from the supplier pool.
• Assign, to a placement, a document from the client pool.

How do I confirm that I have read, and agree to, a document?

1. Go to the Placement Search and click on the down arrow next to edit then click Documents:
   
   
   
   The Current Documents tab is displayed.
   
   
2. Select, in the Accept column, the document that you want to accept:
   
   
   
   
3. Click Accept. The status of the document will be updated to 'Accepted'.

How do I upload a new contract document for a placement?

1. On the Contract Documents screen, click Add Document:
   
   The Upload a new document to this Placement screen is displayed:
   
   
   
   
2. Complete the fields as described in How do I upload documents on the Client, Placement, Worker and Supplier?, and click Add Document.
   The document will be added to the placement.

How do I upload a new version of a contract document?

1. On the Current Documents tab, click the link to the relevant document in the Reference column:
   
   
   
   The Contract Document Details screen is displayed.
   
   
2. In the Upload a New Version section, enter the version number of the new document, select the document's status, and then browse to and upload the document:
   
   
   
   

How do I assign a document from the supplier or client pools to the placement?

1. On the Contract Documents screen, click Assign From Supplier Pool or Assign From Client Pool:
   
   
   
   The list of contract documents applicable to the selected entity is displayed.
   
   
2. In the Add column, click Assign.
   The Assign Pool Document screen is displayed, with the Document Info tab.
   You cannot change the reference, name or version number of the document. However, you can amend the other details as required (for example, the intended recipient, due date and so on).
3. Click Assign Document to assign this document to the intended recipient.

The Advanced Tab

The Filters sub-menu enables you to add a number of modifiers to the placement. This module is sold separately and may not apply to your installation.  They control and modify various aspects of how timesheet information will be submitted by the worker for the placement.

For example, there is an Exact Value Meal Break filter, which enables you to specify that a contractor's break duration must be a specified number of minutes. For example, if you applied this filter to a placement and specified that the break duration was 60 minutes, then when the contractor enters his/her timesheet information and submits that timesheet, the break duration will automatically be adjusted to 60 minutes, regardless of what the contractor enters in the Break Duration field. For more information click here - Enforcing Lunch Break Values

There are a number of pre-set filters that you can add to a placement. A description of each filter is provided on screen for the respective filter.

How do I add a filter?

1. On the Filters sub menu, click Add Filter.
    
   
   
2. From the list, select the required filter.
3. Enter information into the appropriate fields.
4. Click Save.
5. You can add as many filters as required. You can also click Clone to clone filters that you have already added.

The Tags Sub-Menu

Tags are optional configurable properties that can be used to store additional information against entities. If a tag category has been created in the Settings Cog > Tag Categories page, then you can use that tag to enter information for the placement. 

For example, you might want a method of recording whether a contractor on a placement was recommended by a third party. If this tag category has been set up to be available on placements, then you can add that tag to the placement and record the appropriate information.

How do I add tags to a placement?

1. On the Tags sub-menu, click Add Tab.
2. Select the Category from the list.
3. In the Value field, enter the appropriate value. For example, if the tag was Recommended By, you would add the name of the person who recommended the contractor.
4. The Weight field applies to tags with numerical values. For example, if the tag was set up to specify a particular percentage commission that would go to a party (for example a finder's fee), you would enter the percentage of the contractor's chargeable amount in this field. This is just an example. The way each tag works will vary depending on its purpose and how it has been set up.
5. If the tag has been set up to enable document uploads, you can upload a supporting document by clicking Browse, navigating to the document on your machine, and then clicking Upload.
6. Click Add Tag to save the tag. You can also clone tags by clicking Clone.
   
    

Frequently Asked Questions

• How can I pay a worker for a shift but not invoice the client?
  There are two ways in which this can be done.  You can either create a rate where the pay is the required pay value and the charge rate is zero, or you can create the rate on a pay element that is marked as payable but not chargeable.
• How can I bill a client for a shift but not pay the worker?
  There are two options: You can create a rate where the pay rate is zero and the charge rate is the required value; or you can create the rate on a pay element which is chargeable but not payable.
  Note: In these instances, you would normally mark the rate as "not selectable by worker".  If you do not do this, then workers will be able to view the rate on their timesheets.

• My worker has worked ten hours but I can only bill my client for eight hours.  How can I do this?
  In this instance you would need to split the shift into two.  You would put eight hours on the normal rate and then you would put two hours on a pay-only rate, as described in the question "How can I pay a worker for a shift but not invoice the client?".
• My worker only worked six hours but my contract says I can bill eight hours.  How can I bill the extra hours?
  To accomplish this you should enter the six hours as usual.  Then create a separate shift for the additional hours, as described in the question  "How can I bill a client for a shift but not pay the worker?".

Related topics

• Configuring Expenses
• Online Contracts and Compliance
• Uploading, Assigning and Withdrawing Contract Documents
• Viewing and Accepting Contract Documents