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Crew Time Entry

Crew entry creates a separate open time entry for each selected employee while preserving who entered the time on the employee's behalf.

Before You Begin

  • Administrator access: Crew Setup requires permission to update Settings in the active business unit.

  • Crew Lead employee: The lead must be an active employee assigned to an active Position marked Crew Lead.

  • Mobile access: The lead must sign in as an eligible FORGE Mobile technician linked to the active employee and technician resource in the selected business unit.

  • Roster: At least one active employee from the same business unit must be assigned to the lead's crew.

  • Online connection: Selecting crew members and saving a multi-employee entry are online-only. Offline time entry remains self-only.

  • Time setup: The applicable Rate category, Labor Activity or job information, and a pay period for the entry date must already exist.

Set Up Crew Entry

Enable Crew Entry

  1. In the desktop application, open Settings, expand Shared Setup, and select General Settings.

  2. In the Time Entry section, mark Allow Crew Entry.
    This turns Crew Setup and eligible Crew Lead controls on for the active business unit. It is off unless enabled. Turning it off later hides those controls but does not delete Position flags or saved crew assignments.

  3. Select Save before continuing. The current Employees screen does not show the Crew Setup tab until this setting is enabled.

Update the Crew Lead Position

  1. Open Settings, expand Administration, and select Positions.

  2. Open the position the lead already uses.

  3. Mark the Crew Lead checkbox.
    Select this checkbox to make active employees in this Position eligible for Crew Setup and online crew time entry when the remaining requirements are met. It is cleared by default on a new Position.

  4. Select Save to store the Position.

Assign the Position to the Employee

  1. Open Settings, expand Administration, and select Employees.

  2. Open the lead's record.

  3. Verify the employee has or add the Position that has Crew Lead enabled.

  4. Select Save before opening Crew Setup.

Build the Crew Roster

  1. On the saved employee record, select the Crew Setup tab. The tab is available only when Allow Crew Entry is enabled and the employee has an active Crew Lead Position.

  2. Use Add → to move highlighted employees into Selected Employees. Use ← Remove to remove highlighted assignments. Each change saves the roster immediately.

    • Available Employees: Select one or more active employees in the current business unit to add. The Crew Lead is excluded and cannot be assigned to themself.

    • Selected Employees: Shows the employees currently assigned to this Crew Lead. A non-empty active roster is required before the lead becomes eligible for crew entry in FORGE Mobile.

  3. Verify the mobile result Have the Crew Lead sign in to FORGE Mobile, select the intended business unit, open Time, and tap New Entry while online. Include Me and Crew employees should appear when all eligibility requirements are satisfied.

If the controls do not appear, confirm the active business unit, Allow Crew Entry, the employee's Active status and Position, the Position's Crew Lead and Active settings, a non-empty active roster, and the employee/resource link used by the signed-in technician.

Create Crew Time in FORGE Mobile

  1. In Forge Mobile, open the Time tab and tap New Entry. Crew selection is shown only for an eligible Crew Lead creating a new manual labor entry while online.

  • Select yourself, one or more crew employees, or both.

  • Complete the following fields:
    At least one recipient is required. Select Include Me or at least one Crew employee before saving.

    • Include Me: Creates an entry for your own employee record. It is selected by default when Crew Entry is available.

    • Crew employees: Selects active employees from your configured roster. Each selected employee receives a separate employee-owned Open entry.

  • Complete the following fields:

    • Activity (Required): Choose General for ordinary time or Job for time charged to a job. General is used when Job Cost is not enabled. Job fields appear only when Job Cost is enabled for the business unit.

    • Service call: Select the related Service Call when the field is available. A selected Appointment can also supply its related Service Call. This field displays when entering time on an appointment.

    • Appointment: Select the related appointment when available. For Job time, the appointment list is limited to the selected Job and signed-in technician.

    • Labor Activity (Required): Select an active Labor Activity for General time when no Service call is assigned. The field is not used for Job time or Service Call-linked time.

    • Job (Required): For Job time, search for and select an active available Job. The lookup requires an online connection.

    • Job Cost Code (Required): For Job time, select an active labor Job Cost Code assigned to the Job. If exactly one eligible code exists, the app selects it automatically.

    • Cost Category: Select a Cost Category when your organization uses one for standard labor entries.

    • Rate category (Required): Select the labor rate category for every recipient's entry.

    • Start (Required): When Use Labor Time Log is enabled, enter the start date and time. A new entry begins near the current local time on a 15-minute slot.

    • End (Required): When Use Labor Time Log is enabled, enter an end later than Start. The app recalculates Duration when the range changes.

    • Date (Required): When Use Labor Time Log is disabled, select the work date instead of Start and End.

    • Duration (hours) (Required): Enter a positive duration. For Date-only labor, the value cannot exceed 24 hours. The up and down controls change the value by 0.25 hours, and another value may be typed when needed.

    • Notes: Enter notes that should be copied to each recipient's entry.

  1. Save the crew entries. The app validates the current setting, Crew Lead Position, active roster, employee eligibility, required fields, time range, and pay period before saving all recipient entries as one operation.

Result: Each selected employee receives an individual Open entry. Crew-member rows show Created by followed by your name, and the Time list groups your entries first and current crew employees alphabetically.

Review and Manage Crew Entries

  1. Review the Entries list
    Open Time and review the employee groups. Select an entry to see its details. Crew-member entries identify who created them.

  1. Edit an eligible entry
    Open an Open crew entry that you created, change supported values, and tap Save changes. You cannot change a crew-member entry created by another person.

  1. Submit eligible time
    For an entry that is not linked to a Service call or Appointment, tap Submit, review the confirmation, and tap Submit again. Appointment-linked Open labor entries are submitted when appointment completion succeeds.

Submitted, Approved, Rejected, and Voided entries open read-only in the mobile Time tab.

  1. Delete an eligible Open entry
    Open an Open crew entry that you created, tap Delete, and confirm. Deletion cannot be undone.

Operational Limits

  • Crew selection is online-only. The PWA never queues crew entry offline; offline entry is limited to the signed-in employee.

  • Eligibility is checked again when saving. A setting, Position, employee, roster, business-unit, or permission change can prevent a save even if the form was already open.

  • Roster membership is business-unit scoped. Only active employees in the current business unit can be newly selected. Inactive employees may remain in historical roster data but are excluded from new mobile crew entry.

  • Entries remain employee-owned. The Crew Lead is recorded as the creator for on-behalf entries but does not become the employee who owns the time.

  • The Crew Lead's authority is limited. The lead may edit, delete, or submit only crew-member entries they originally created and only while the entry and workflow state permit the action.

  • A pay period is required. If the entry date is outside an available pay period, contact the office to create the pay period before saving labor time.