HCi’s online timesheet system is hosted by a company called Astute. The overall process works like this:

  1. You log on each day and fill in the hours that you spent on a particular project
  2. At the end of the week you will ‘submit’ the timesheet
  3. A client representative “Approver” will get an email from Astute asking them to approve the timesheet – all they have to do is click on a link to approve the timesheet
  4. You will get an email telling you that the timesheet has been approved

Two-Factor Authentication: Because Astute will collect your tax file number, it needs to use 2FA to secure your logon.  There’s an explanation of what 2FA is and how it works later in this page (“What is 2FA and how does it work?”).

When you first log on: Astute will collect some information from you. If you’re PAYG then it will ask for all of your tax file, banking and super details. You’ll only have to put those in once. If you change banks or other details, just log on to Astute to make the changes.

If you don’t work for a week: If you don’t work on a particular project for a week, check the box on the timesheet that says ‘I did not work for this period’ and submit the timesheet. The approver will not get an email for that timesheet.

If you need help: You’re more than welcome to call us with questions, or you can call Astute directly on 03 9040 4809, or you can use the ‘Live help’ link at the top of the Astute screen.

When your contract is finished: Check the box that says ‘My employment finishes this week’ at the bottom of your last timesheet. If you don’t do this, Astute will keep sending you reminders to fill out a timesheet until it’s turned off by us.

Dealing with breaks: It’s unlikely that you will work solidly from when you get to the client site until you leave; most people will take a break for coffee, lunch, etc.  Make sure you log your (approximate) break time in Astute as well as you start and end times.

Step by step instructions

To log on:

  1. Wait till you get an email from Astute titled ‘Your Account with HCi Professional Services Pty Limited Has Been Activated’
  2. Go to https://hci.astutepayroll.com/hci
  3. Enter the userid and temporary password from your ‘login details’ email
  4. Click on the heading ‘Profile’ at the top of the screen
  5. Look for the red exclamation marks – these are all things that you will need to fill in before you can use Astute
  6. Click on the headings on the left to see other screens

If you are working on multiple HCi jobs simultaneously (whether for one client or more), see the section below headed “Multiple jobs”. Otherwise:

To fill out a timesheet each day:

  1. Timesheets are generated by the system automatically each week
  2. To go to a particular timesheet, click on the ‘Timesheets’ heading at the top of the screen; a drop-down will show the timesheets that are available; select the one you want to edit
  3. Each day, put in your start and end times and breaks and then click ‘Save’; do not click ‘Submit’ until the end of the week!
  4. If you like, you can use the ‘Notes’ controls to enter details of what you did that day: the approver will see these details when you submit the timesheet

At the end of the week:

  1. To go to a particular timesheet, click on the ‘Timesheets’ heading at the top of the screen; a drop-down will show the timesheets that are available; select the one you want to edit
  2. If this is your last timesheet for the job, click on the ‘My employment finishes this week’ box, otherwise Astute will keep nagging you with emails.
  3. Once you are happy that all of the time for the week is shown correctly, click ‘Submit’
  4. Your approver will get an email showing the timesheet details, and will approve your timesheet
  5. Once your timesheet has been approved, you will get an email from Astute
  6. Please make sure that your timesheet is approved before our payroll cut-off (midday Monday); you may need to chase your approver for that to happen

If you need help: You’re more than welcome to call us with questions, or you can call Astute directly on 03 9040 4809, or you can use the ‘Live help’ link at the top of the Astute screen.

Multiple jobs

If you are working on multiple HCi jobs simultaneously:

To fill out a timesheet each day:

  1. Timesheets are generated by the system automatically each week
  2. To go to a particular timesheet, click on the ‘Timesheets’ heading at the top of the screen; a drop-down will show the timesheets that are available; select the one you want to edit
  3. Astute will show one timesheet (ie the times for one job); you can change to another job’s timesheet by clicking on the ‘View Timesheet’ links at the right of the screen
  4. Each day, put in your start and end times and breaks and then click ‘Save’; do not click ‘Submit’ until the end of the week!
  5. If you like, you can use the ‘Notes’ controls to enter details of what you did that day: the approver will see these details when you submit the timesheet

If you prefer, you can click on the link on the right of the screen that says ‘View all jobs on one timesheet’. This will show your total hours for the week. To add time in this view:

  1. Click on the ‘New block’ link on a particular day, then select the job that you want to add.
  2. Fill out the start and end time and break time, and add notes if you wish; the notes will be visible to the approver when you submit your timesheet
  3. Click ‘Save’ to save your changes.

At the end of the week:

  1. To go to a particular timesheet, click on the ‘Timesheets’ heading at the top of the screen; a drop-down will show the timesheets that are available; select the one you want to edit
  2. Once you are happy that all of the time for the week is shown correctly, click ‘Submit’
  3. Repeat for each job
  4. Your approver for each job will get an email showing the timesheet details, and will approve your timesheet
  5. Once your timesheet has been approved, you will get an email from Astute
  6. Please make sure that your timesheet is all approved before our payroll cut-off (midday Monday); you may need to chase your approver(s) for that to happen

If you need help: You’re more than welcome to call us with questions, or you can call Astute directly on 03 9040 4809, or you can use the ‘Live help’ link at the top of the Astute screen.

Expenses

For some clients, you can submit an expense claim through Astute.  There’s some documentaiton on how to submit an expense claim here.  Once you’ve submitted an expense claim, the client will have to authorise it in the same way as they authorise your timesheets.  Once that’s done, we pay you for the expenses.

What is 2FA and how does it work?

Two factor authentication works like this: When you first log in to Astute, it generates a long ‘secret number’ unique to you.  It provides this secret number to you (we’ll discuss how in a minute) and you load it into an ‘authentication app’.  Next time you log on to Astute it will ask for a six-digit number and your authentication app will calculate this from a) the secret number and b) the current time and date.  Astute will do the same calculation and let you log in if the six-digit numbers match.

The advantage of this system is that (other that that first time) your secret number doesn’t get passed over the internet, just the six-digit number each time.  So your secret number remains … secret.

All authentication apps use the same method of calculation, so it doesn’t matter which one you use.  Google Authenticator works fine, but there are others.

When you have installed the app, there is generally a way to load new secret numbers into it, often by just pointing your phone camera at a pattern on your PC screen.  This pattern just codes your secret number, plus the name of the web site it came from.

So before you log on to Astute for the fist time, make sure you’ve downloaded and installed an authenticator app on your phone.  Then the first time you log on, Astute will show a pattern on the screen that you can use to get the secret number into your app.  From then on, you’ll just need to type in the six-digit number from your app (which will of course change with the time and date of your login) into Astute when you log in.  As well as your username and password – because that’s what two-factor means (secret number + password).