Crew Portal Login and Approver


This article explan everything you need to know about the Crew Portal.


Introduction

The Crew Portal or Onboard portal is a part of the Personnel Portal application that is used onboard. It is accessible only on the Vessels Local Cloud, and if the Employee is assigned to a confirmed sea-service activity.

See more about the different components of Personnel Portal application:

Crew Portal Login

Accessing Crew Portal

To access the Crew Portal, you need to:

  • Be Employed;

  • Have current sea-service activity on the corresponding vessel (linked to position).

How to login

To login:

  1. Open the Crew Portal link in the browser.

  2. Input his credentials:
    - Use your PIN as a login.
    - The default password for a user is his pin+year of birth (please input consequently without any spaces or other delimiters), e.g.: 3331979

     

  3. Click Login.

  4. If this your first-time login - the system will inform you on that & suggest to re-input your new credentials. After successful login you can start working with the system.

How to change password

You can change your default password to any other.

To change the password:

  1. When logged in, click on your name that appears in the upper-right corner of the screen:

     

  2. You will be asked to re-input the current password, then to input & confirm the new one.
    Only numeric input is available, no other symbols are allowed.

  3. Click Save.

Crew Portal Approver

Time & Attendance

The Time and Attendance module provides you with the most efficient way to track time and attendance of crew members and stay in compliance with the MLC regulations pertaining to work and rest hours.

Overview

Once logged in, please go to the Time and Attendance module.

The Time & Attendance module is used for working with crew member's time registrations: checking, editing, filling in data, generating reports with certain parameters, etc.

The module consists of several submodules available to users in accordance with the rights granted by an administrator:

My Timesheets are used by a crew member for creating and managing time registrations.

Co-Workers Timesheets are intended for all crew members setup as part of your team in the chain of approval and designed for creating and managing time registrations.

Usually available only for team leaders or administrators responsible for a certain group of subordinates who have access only to their own time registrations.

Messages allow you to send messages to one or several of your colleagues. This message will appear on their screen right after login.

If a person logs in using TimeClock, the message will be shown before starting to work with time registration.

Batch Input Time Registrations allow setting up the time registration for a group of subordinates.

Usually available only for team leaders or administrators responsible for a certain group of subordinates.

Chain of Approval

The basic principle for the documents workflow is the setup of subordinates.
The APP admins can setup a department with its own team leader who is responsible for his subordinate team-mates.
The chain of approval contains the following levels:

Subordinate is a person responsible for managing his/her own timesheets in accordance with the actual time spent as well as sending them for approval. A subordinate is under the command of a superior and, thus, takes the lowest level in the chain of approval with very limited rights.

Coordinator has a higher level of control comparing to a subordinate. Each Coordinator has at least one Subordinate whose timesheets are received from the team-mates. The timesheets are required to be verified and approved. If a timesheet does not contain all the necessary information or is not up-to-date, it can be rejected back to an originator (Subordinate) for modifications or Cancelled. A Coordinator can also be a subordinate managing his/her personal timesheets and sending them for approval to a Coordinator of a higher level (or to an Approver).

Approver is a person responsible for approving timesheets and has the highest level of control for any department. Only approved timesheets are then sent to the Payroll module for further processing and payment. An approver can also be a Coordinator but cannot be a Subordinate.

For more information on how to set up the Chain of Approval, see

Documents Workflow

A timesheet document can be moved up and down the chain any number of times unless it is Cancelled (no more valid) or Approved (passed to payroll calculations). Therefore, a timesheet may belong to one of 6 states: Created = 0, Submitted = 1, Approved = 2, Rejected = 3, Processed = 4, Reversed = 5, Cancelled = 6.
Below you can find the meaning of the states:

Created is a state for saved but not submitted timesheet documents. Such documents may be edited and sent to a coordinator/approver.

Submitted/Waiting for Approval is a state for created and sent for approval timesheet documents.

Approved is a state for timesheet documents approved by a person with a higher level of control (an approver or a coordinator). Once a document is approved, it is then sent to the Payroll module for further processing and payment.

Rejected is a state for timesheet documents rejected by a person with a higher level of control (an approver or a coordinator). In this case, a subordinate will have to make corrections in accordance with approver's notes/comments before submitting a timesheet document again.

Processed is a state for timesheet documents submitted, approved and confirmed for payment in APM.

Reversed is a state for timesheet documents submitted, approved but rejected for payment in APM. Once rejected, it comes back to a coordinator/approver and then to a crew with the Rejected state.

Cancelled is a state for created/saved timesheet documents cancelled by a subordinate. A subordinate can cancel his/her document only if it has not been submitted yet.

Various menus display timesheets with certain states only, and only certain valid actions can be performed for each state on each level of the Chain of Approval.
For more information on how to Setup User Rights, see This Chapter.

Co-workers Timesheets

To start working with registrations of your team, go to sub-module:

Day to Day View

Time Lists menu is created to check and edit time registrations of team members who are below the Chain of Approval for current user.
Depending on your needs you may select to filter registrations for a certain date, by timesheets or timecards line.

Register Drill. When a drill takes place onboard, there is no time for a crew member to swipe his card to change activity type. Crew portal offers functionality to register drills via web interface.

Add Sick is the team-leader functionality to control possible lack of work time that a user may experience due to sick.

See more information in the following sections.

 

Nonconforming events

This menu is to control violations of work and rest hours according to the pre-defined rules.

See more information in the following sections.

 

Me Team

Here you can review your team (subordinates) details, watch keepers.

On this screen you can also define your reliever during absence. This person will have access rights to T&A module > Co-Workers Timesheets during the period of your absence, see Crew Portal Login and Approver#_Reliever_During_Absence

 

Documents Workflow

You can select different views which list timesheet documents in accordance with the selected condition:

-According to the document state (Waiting for Approval, Rejected, Approved, Processed)

-At Processed by user view you can find and review those documents that were at your level but currently not (e.g. you reviewed document and rejected it and it's on subordinate level now);

-Time Clock subordinates – here time registrations of crew who has no access to Crew Portal (TimeClock user Only option on) and register their time only via panel PC.

In this case as they can not edit their registrations, so, their team leader can review/edit and approve.

And only certain valid actions (approve, edit, reject, review) can be performed on each separate view.

 

Reports

From here you can generate various Time& Attendance reports depending on set rights.


Messages

You can compose and send notification/informational message to any of your team members.





Non-Conforming Work&Rest


This menu is to control violations of work & rest hours according to pre-defined MLC rules.



Rule



Description

A

'At least 10 hours of rest'

A crew member must have not less than 10 hours registered as Rest worktype for 24-hours period.

B

'Not less 10 hours for 2 rest periods'

2 separate periods of Rest must make a total of 10 hours or more.

C

'One rest period lasting 6 hours'

At least one of registered Rest periods must be longer or equal to 6 hours.

D

'77 rest hours per week'

The total of registered Rest periods from selected date to 7 days earlier (back) must be not less than 77 hours.
E.g. if reported date is May 19, the period to check is May 13 - 19.


Exceptions:

  1. All existing violations are not reported if a person signs on the defined date.
    Because we don't control the exact time of boarding, thus a person that signs on at 8:00 pm and can't have enough rest hours to cover mentioned conditions.

  2. Violation of 77 hours rule is not reported if a person spent less than 7 days onboard.


Under Nonconforming Events, we can review crew's violations by Date and by Period (from….to….):

 



Let's review, as an example, the first one:

  1. You should select a date to check for possible violations.

  2. The system will select all subordinates whose registrations create at least one violation of 4 MLC rules.

    -If no violations are found - the system will show an empty grid.

    In the grid we can see violator's Pin, Name, Position.

    A, B, C, D section corresponds to MLC rules.
    If you see red box, then the violation of rule took place (in our case, it is rule B 'Not less 10 hours for 2 rest periods' is violated).
    Next, after rules section, we can see that 24 hours is divided into periods (boxes) for 0,30 min (48 periods).

    They differ in colour:

    - work;

    - rest;

    - violation

    We can see when exactly the violation has happened.
    In our case, violation for pin 333 was from 7:00 am -7:30 am, meaning that if the crew member had a rest this time, violation would not take place.

  3. By clicking 7 Days back, you can check details why the violation happened (reviewing seven days back in time).

    So, the system checks if there exists any violation regarding MLC rules every half an hour.
    It counts this 0,30 min and 24 hours back (47 periods back; let's name it 'check period').

    If the system indicates any of 4 violations in the 'check period', the box that starting this 'violated' check period is marked with



    In our example, the 'violated' period is from 07:30 am 02/09 to 07:30 am 01/09 back (we mark it with red box

    )
    We can easily see/check that during this period rule B was violated, meaning that 2 separate periods of Rest do not have a total of 10 hours or more (8 h + 1,5h = only 9 h 30 min)

  4. You can as a team leader approve the violation by linking it to some emergency work.
    For this, set the Emergency check-box and leave your comments.

    Then these comments will be indicated in Non-Conforming Work&Rest report with approved violation status.





Notification Bell


You can use the Notification Bell functionality.
The system checks in advance all possible up-coming violations for your team and notifies you by displaying a ringing bell:

Click the bell to see details:


Then you know that crew needs to have a rest to avoid violations.
Please note that the function msut be enabled in the Administrator Portal. On logging into the Administrator Portal, go to Configurations > Time and Attendance Settings > Custom Settings:

In the Nonconfirming work and rest section, do the following setup:

  1. Set the Calculate nonconfirming violations in advance option.

  2. Specify how many minutes in advance the system must check violations and notify you.

  3. Set the minutes to be rounded to 30 or 15 minutes by setting an appropriate radio button.

  4. Click Update to save the changes.

 

Manage Relievers


There can appear situations, that the approver (manager) needs to go ashore for a period of time.
During this period, the vessel will sail without a person in the position of the approver.
The problem is that documents need to be approved during his absence.

For this purpose, the manager can assign the reliever (regardless of position/rank and level in the chain of approval).
This reviewer will have access to the Time & Attendance module for checking/approving timesheets during the absence of original approver.

Manager's access rights are used.
So, if the reliever has access only to My Timesheets, and the manager has access to Co-Workers, the reliever will inherit access to Co-Workers.
If the manager has no access to Day To Day menu, for example, the reliever will not have it either. 

On return, once the original approver comes back on board (has current onboard activity) his reliever is automatically 'disabled' (loses his temporary rights).

Go to My Team menu > Relievers:

 

Reliever drop-down list shows persons that currently onboard and are not active relievers.
List excludes current manager/approver.
Select a reliever, set Active option.
If reliever is active (Active option is ON), he is reserved for current manager and other managers can't set him as a reliever. Once the original approver comes back on board, it's not necessary to set option OFF, reliever becomes 'passive' automatically (loses his temporary approver rights), other managers can intercept him.


When day comes, after login into Crew Portal, the reliever can use special switcher to select in what status currently to work:

 

Once Reliever is selected, it's possible to see whom he is temporally relieving:

 

Batch Input Time Registrations

Instead of crew members registering their hours using the time clock or crew portal, it is possible to have dedicated persons onboard registering the hours for a team of crew members on a daily basis. To do it is possible to activate the Batch Input.  

To work with the batch input you need to define the teams and assign the role who will be registering the hours.  See houskeeping section below 

 

Housekeeping


Before getting started, you need to perform the initial one-time setup. To do this, log into the Administrator Portal and proceed as described below:

  1. Select a vessel for which you want to register time and attendance of crew members. For more information, see Set Vessel.

  2. Grant access rights to chains and teams as well as to the Batch Input Time Registration section. For more information, see Set Roles.

  3. Register a team and define a data entry operator (an approver) for a team. For more information, see Define Chains and Teams.



Set Vessel


To define a vessel for which you want to perform the setup, first log into the Administrator Portal. When logged in, navigate to Configurations > General Settings:


Now, select an organization unit on the left-hand side pane of the General settings window by:

  • Using a scroll bar to search through the list.

  • Entering a text in the search field to filter records.

Define Chains and Teams


You can set up various departments in which a team leader will manage time registration for a group of people based on the defined chain of approval levels. For more information on the chain of approval levels, see the Chain of Approval section in Overview.
To get started, navigate to Chain of Approval > Levels and create a hierarchical tree-structure in the Hours Registration section:

First, you need to create a department. To do this:

  1. Right-click Hours Registration and select New Chain in the menu. The following dialog will appear:

  2. In the Chain dialog, enter the name of a new department.

     

    Selecting Is Passive makes the created department unavailable in the tree-view chain of approval. The option is primarily used to avoid deleting levels in use. Otherwise, all linked documents will be lost and unavailable for submitting or editing.


  3. Click Save to proceed.



As a result, a new department will become available under the Hours Registration section:


Now, specify an approver for the created department. To do this, follow the steps below:

  1. Under the Hours Registration section, right-click the newly created department and select New Approver in the menu. The Approver dialog then appears on the screen:

  2. From the Position drop-down, select the position you want to assign to the department. Besides, you can provide an approver with the possibility to modify documents by selecting the Can modify document if approver/coordinator option.

     

    Selecting Is Passive makes the level unavailable in the tree-view chain of approval. The option is primarily used to avoid deleting levels in use. Otherwise, all linked documents will be lost and unavailable for submitting or editing.


  3. Click Save to proceed.



As a result, an approver level is added to the tree-view structure of the chain levels:


To complete composing the chain of approval, define a team and add subordinates to it.

To create a team:

  1. Right-click a newly added approver and select New Team from the menu. You will then see the Team dialog where you can specify the name of a new team:

  2. Click Save to proceed.



As a result, a team level is added to the tree-view structure of the chain levels:



To add a subordinate to the team:

  1. Right-click an approver and select Add below > New Subordinate from the menu. You will then see the Member dialog:

  2. From the Position drop-down, select the position you want to be part of the team. On selecting a position, you can enable the options as below:

    Is Passive makes a position unavailable in the list of subordinates. The option is primarily used to avoid deleting levels in use. Otherwise, all linked documents will be lost.
    Is Coordinator sets the coordinator level in the chain of approval. Selecting the option enables the Can modify document if approver/coordinator option.
    Subordinate creating and submitting the document gives a subordinate the permission to create and submit time registrations.
    Is Time clock only user specifies that a subordinate uses Time clock for time registrations.
    Can modify document if approver/coordinator (active only if the Is Coordinator option is enabled) provides a coordinator with the permission to modify time registrations.

  3. Click Save to proceed.



As a result, the subordinate level is added to the tree-view structure of the chain levels

Set Roles


You can define different roles as well as set permission levels for each role. To do this, in the Adonis Administrator Portal, navigate to Access Control > Roles:

To define user roles:

  1. Click Add to make the Add/Edit Role dialog appear where you can define a role name:

  2. Click Save to confirm the changes and add a new role.


On selecting a user role, you can set the permission levels. Within the Set Roles dialog, proceed as described below:

  1. From the drop-down menu, select the user role for which you want to set permissions.

  2. Click Time and Attendance to expand the list of submodules.

  3. Next to Batch Input Time Registrations, select the permission level to be provided: Grant Access or Read Only.

Define User Groups


On defining the roles, you can now collect them into groups as well as assign crew members' positions to certain roles. To do this, first navigate to Access Control > User Groups:


To create a user group:

  1. Click Add located next to the User group drop-down menu:

  2. Enter a user group name.

  3. Click Save to proceed.

As a result, a new user group appears in the User group drop-down menu.


Now, specify the roles which you want to link to the created group. To do this:

  1. Select a role from the Roles for usergroup drop-down list:



    You can link one or more user roles to a single user group.

  2. Click Save.

As a result, the roles list will be updated for the Team Leader user group.



Now, in the Positions list, link the positions to the defined roles. To do this:

  1. Select the position(s) which you want to link to the roles:

  2. Click Save at the top of the Positions list.

As a result, the list of positions will be updated.



Assign Batch Entry Access


On configuring the departments and teams (see Define Chains and Teams), you must now appoint a responsible person (team leader) with the access rights to the batch registration for the created department(s) and/or team(s). To do this, navigate to Chain of Approval > Assign Batch Entry Access:


Within the Assign Batch Entry Access page, proceed as described below:

  1. In the Positions on vessel drop-down, select the vessel for which you want to set the batch access.

  2. In the Batch Entry Positions list, select the position of a person responsible for batch registrations.

  3. Specify the department(s) and/or team(s) to which you want to assign the batch entry access.

  4. Click Save to update the access to batch registrations.


For example, select Master in the Batch Entry Positions list and set access to all the available departments and teams by selecting all of them:


Under such configuration, a master is appointed as a responsible person for managing time registrations through all the departments and teams.





Functionality


As an appointed responsible person/team leader (see Assign Batch Entry Access), you can access the Batch Input Registrations feature. To do this, log into the APP Crew Portal and use of the following tips:

Select Time and Attendance > Batch Input Time Registrations:

or

Click the Time and Attendance button > Batch Input Time Registrations.

As a result, you can see the Batch Input Time Registrations page where you can start managing time registrations:

Get Started


On starting the module, make sure the following points are satisfied:

  1. Set the date for which you want to create time registration:

    You can either pick a date from the calender or use the Previous or Next button to move forward and back by a time period.

     

    Creating time registrations for future dates is not possible.


  2. Specify a department and a team for which you want to create time registration. To do this:

    Select a department from the Chain of Approval drop-down menu.
    Select a team from the Team drop-down menu:

     

    For easy handling, you can group team members by teams. For more information, see Crew Portal Login and Approver#_Manage_Team_Members.


  3. Set Calculate MLC violations if you want the system to alert you every time the violation is about to happen:


    According to MLC (Maritime Labour Convention, 2006), a crew member should have at least 10 hours of rest within 24 hours. The rest time should be splitted into several time blocks. A crew member must have 77 hours of rest with 7 days. 


Set Registrations


Time registration assumes that a team leader sets time slots for crew members belonging to a certain department and/or team.

There are three ways for setting time slots:

  • Selecting time slots. For more information, see Create from Scratch.

  • Copying time slots from the previous dates. For more information, see Copy Registrations.

  • Using a standard template which includes time registration per day. For more information, see Set Templates.





Create from Scratch


To select a time slot, on the Batch Input Time Registrations page, first choose an activity type you want to assign by clicking Work, Rest, Drill or Break/Meal:


This opens the Time Registration dialog where you can set time registrations for a batch of members:

Within the Time Registration dialog, proceed as described below:

  1. Specify the time range for a slot by entering the Start and End values.

  2. Specify an activity type by selecting it from the drop-down box:

  3. From the available list of members, select those to whom you want to assign the specified activity with the time range. Click Select All to cover the whole list or select members one by one. Besides, you can remove or invert the selections by clicking Clear or Invert Selection, respectively.

  4. On completing, click Register.



As a result, you can view the time registrations added for the selected members:

Depending on the applied activity type, the time registrations time slots may be of different colors. To learn about the colors specific for each activity type, click Legend:

Copy Registrations


Creating registrations is a time-consuming process. Instead, you can copy time registrations set for a certain date. For this, click Copy Previous Day on the Batch Time Registrations page:


Clicking the button opens the dialog where you can specify the date from which you want to copy registrations:

By default, the system copies registrations for the whole list of affected persons. If you want to modify the list, select/deselect persons based on your needs. On completing, click Copy.



Set Templates


You can create time registration templates and use them as patterns for standard day-to-day registrations. To create a template, on the Batch Input Time Registrations page, click Template > Maintain:

Selecting the Maintain option opens the Time Registration – Template Maintain dialog where you can create a template for time registrations. To get started, first name your template:

  1. Click New to view the page as below:

  2. In the Name field, enter the name for a new template and click Save to proceed. A newly created template template appears in the grid:



Now, you can define the time rigistration for a newly created template. To do this, click on the right-pointing arrow > New:

  1. Set the Start and End time.

  2. Select an activity type in the Worktype field.

  3. Click Save to confirm the changes.



As a result, a new template with time registration is ready to used:

Both the template name and time registration are subject to modifications and deletions by clicking Edit or Delete, accordingly. To create another template or/and time registration, click New.



Apply Templates


After creating a number of templates for different activity types, you can apply them by creating time registrations for a number of people. For this, click Template > Use on the Batch Input Time Registrations page:

This opens the Time Registration – Template dialog where you can apply a template to a number of crew members at a time. To do this:

  1. Select a template from the Use Template drop-down list. On selecting, the values in the Hours grid will automatically populate based on the preset time registration.

  2. Select crew members for whom you want to generate/update time registrations. Click Select All to cover the whole list or select members one by one. Besides, you can remove or invert the selections by clicking Clear or Invert Selection, respectively.

  3. On completing, click Generate.





Manage Team Members


As a team leader, you have the possibility to manage all the team members at a time or to group them by teams for easier handling.

To access your team members, navigate to Time And Attendance > Co-Workers Timesheets. Within the displayed page, click My Team and select Overview:

Grouping by teams is specifically useful if you manage time registration for a number of people.


To get started, go to Time And Attendance > Co-Workers Timesheets. Within the displayed page, click My Team and select Teams from the drop-down list:

Selecting the Teams option opens the list of all your team members:


Now, follow the steps below:

  1. From the Teams drop-down list, select the team to which you want to assign team members.

  2. On the Team members grid, select the team members whom you want to assign to the selected team.

  3. Click Update team list to confirm the changes.


On completing, the Team members grid is updated with the team name in the Team column:

Approving Timesheets


After checking all needed timesheet details (overtime/violations, etc.) you need as a team-leader approve the document if everything is correct.
After approving, it moves to APM with Approved status, where it can be processed to payroll for paying out (see below section).

All submitted timesheet documents are located under Document Workflow > Waiting For Approval:

  1. You can review timesheet details by clicking Details

  2. If you see that document is not correct, miss some data or needs modifications, you can edit it yourself or Reject
    If document is rejected it returns to its owner (subordinator) for corrections. 
    While rejecting you can leave comments for your team member why it's rejected and what needs to be done. 
    After it's corrected your crew member needs to submit the document again for approving.

  3. If doc looks fine you can approve it by clicking Approve, leave comments if needed.





Processing Timesheets to Payroll


If the timesheet document is approved by a team leader (approver), it moves to APM > Timesheets datagroup:

There is a separate datagroup where approved and processed timesheets per person are located.
Here we can review previous records (that have been processed - transferred to payroll and payed out) and approved (verified/approved in APP but not yet transferred to payroll).



Let's review an example screen:

  1. The Processed tab shows all Timesheet records that have already been processed into Payroll.
    Here we can only review record details.

    The Approved tab will show all Timesheet records that have been approved by APP manager but not yet processed into Payroll.
    The grid shows all possible details: activity code, date from/to, comment from approver, totals for every work type, etc.
    Here you can expand the record to see Hours Worked and Overtime for every day.
    In its turn, expand a day record to see more detailed information: Time In/Out and Total hrs for every registered work type (work, rest, meal, drill, etc.).

    Please note that all values considering hours are shown as decimal, e.g. 1 h 30 min are shown & stored as 1.5

  2. You can choose how you would like to see records details:

    Plain - when expanding a day record, you see information in such way: Time In/Out and Total hrs for every registered work type (work, rest, meal, drill, etc.).
    By Work Type - when expanding a day record, you see information in such way: work type/code, hours.

  3. From here we can transfer record to payroll or reject it

    If everything is found to be in order, you can transfer the Timesheet to Payroll by selecting it and clicking Transfer to Payroll button. Please add date of Processing in the Comments field.
    The record will change status to Processed and appear at Processed view.
    As a result, corresponding entry code(s) (set up on the payscale by your payroll admin) will be generated and added to person's payroll entries for further processing- calculation/paying out.

    If you find that the timesheet record contains any errors/needs correction, you can reject it by clicking Reject button.
    Please add in Comments reason for rejection.
    The document is now sent back to the approver in APP with Reversed status, who can either make changes and approve or also reject to have it sent back to the originator (employee).


To call Find Panel, click Find button.
To dock datagroup, use Dock command (for details see here).



Batch Processing


Approved timesheet records for several crew members can be seen and transferred to payroll under Payroll > Process > Time Sheets:



The Process Timesheets window opens:

Select needed vessel in Vessel drop-down.
All approved records for persons who linked to defined vessel will be displayed here in the grid.
Here we can see main information: pin, name, position, period, payscale table/code, approver's comments, total hours for every registered work type.
Expand the record to see hours worked and overtime in total for each day:

When expanding any day line, we can see total hours for every registered work type (work, rest, meal, drill, etc.).



Before closing a month, these records can be tagged and transferred to payroll by clicking Transfer to Payroll button. 
As a result, corresponding Entry Codes (set up on the payscale > Transactions) will be generated and added to person's payroll entries. Then they can be calculated and paid out.



If you find that the record contains any error(s)/needs correction, you can reject it by selecting and clicking Reject button.
Then it is sent back to approver in APP with Reversed status, who can either make changes and approve it again or also reject to have it sent back to the originator (employee).