Time and Labor
The Worker Time Entry Profile
The profile that decides what a time card looks like and who may create, review, edit and submit it — and the overlap rule that stops one group having two entry profiles at once.
Learning objectives
- 1.Explain what a time entry profile links and which four actions it governs
- 2.Distinguish a time entry profile from a time processing profile
- 3.Explain the group assignment overlap restriction and why it is directional
- 4.Explain what leaving the days-before and days-after values unset actually permits
Why this matters
A time card is the first place a Time and Labor problem becomes visible, and the fields on it were chosen by somebody. The layout set attached to the worker time entry profile decides which fields exist at all, so a field a worker never sees is not a reporting problem to diagnose later — it is a configuration decision made before they opened the card.
If you skip this: A time entry profile that groups the wrong population produces cards nobody can correct, because the profile also decides who is allowed to edit them.
What it is, why it exists, what breaks
What it is
A time entry profile specifies how workers, their line managers and their time and labor managers create, review, edit and submit time cards. It does that by linking a layout set, an HCM group and, optionally, an attestation set.
Why it exists
Entry is the only stage of the chain where a person types the value rather than the system deriving it. Concentrating the field list and the permissions for that typing in one object is what makes it reviewable before the first card exists.
What breaks without it
When the same group sits in two time entry profiles for the same period, the rule Oracle states is that group assignments must not overlap — so one of the two profiles is simply wrong for that population, and no priority number resolves it the way it resolves processing profiles.
Source: OTL-ENTRYPROFILE-020, OTL-ENTRYPROFILE-022
What a Worker Time Entry Profile links
These are separate links from one profile, not a nesting: the profile points at each of them independently. Listed in order: Worker Time Entry Profile, then Layout set, then HCM group, then Attestation set (optional), then Statuses and edit windows.
A Worker Time Entry Profile is the object that decides how a population of workers has their time cards entered and submitted. It links three things. A layout set supplies the fields that appear on the time card, so the profile decides what a worker is even able to record. An HCM group identifies which workers the profile applies to, bounded by from and to dates. Optionally an attestation set supplies the attestations a worker must give. The profile governs four actions across three roles: workers create and submit, line managers review, and time and labor managers edit. A group may be assigned to more than one time entry profile, but a single group cannot be assigned to more than one time entry profile for the same period: group assignments must not overlap. The time card statuses named on the page are Entered, Saved and Submitted. Where the days-before and days-after values are left unset, people can always perform the enabled action on cards in the enabled statuses, which means the edit window is open-ended by default rather than deliberately bounded.
What to take from this: The profile holds two different kinds of decision that are easy to conflate: what the card contains, which is the layout set, and who may act on it, which is the group plus the enabled statuses. An unset days-before or days-after value belongs to the second kind, and it makes the second decision permissive rather than bounded.
Source: OTL-ENTRYPROFILE-020, OTL-ENTRYPROFILE-024
The edit window nobody set, left open forever
An implementation creates a time entry profile for a population of salaried staff and enables the time and labor manager edit action on the Submitted status. The days-before and days-after values are left at their default, because the specification did not say they were required.
- 1.The profile saves. Nothing reports that the edit window is unbounded.
- 2.Workers submit time and corrections are made by managers as normal, for months.
- 3.A payroll period closes and an edit is made to an already-transferred card.
- 4.The edit is possible, and there is no window anywhere that would have refused it.
Takeaway: Leaving the days-before and days-after values unset does not mean "no restriction was configured" — it means people can always perform the enabled action on cards with the enabled statuses. The permissive default looks like an absence of configuration and behaves like a decision.
Source: OTL-ENTRYPROFILE-024
Configuration model
Navigation paths
My Client Groups > Time Management > Tasks panel > Worker Time Entry ProfileOTL-ENTRYPROFILE-021
Objects
Layout set
Supplies the fields that appear on the time card, and so decides what can be recorded at all.
Risk if wrong: A field that should have been captured is never captured, and the gap surfaces downstream as a missing value rather than as a configuration error.
HCM group
Identifies the workers in scope, bounded by from and to dates.
Risk if wrong: The profile applies to the wrong population or to nobody, and the overlap restriction means fixing it may require removing a group from another profile first.
Attestation set
Optionally supplies the attestations a worker must give when recording time.
Risk if wrong: An attestation the policy requires is not collected, and its absence is not visible in the time data itself.
Constraints
- You can assign more than one group to a single time entry profile, but you cannot assign a single group to more than one time entry profile for the period; the group assignments must not overlap.
- The time card statuses named for this configuration are Entered, Saved and Submitted.
- Leaving the days-before and days-after values unset means people can always perform the enabled action on cards with the enabled statuses.
Source: OTL-ENTRYPROFILE-020, OTL-ENTRYPROFILE-021, OTL-ENTRYPROFILE-022, OTL-ENTRYPROFILE-024
Common mistakes
Wrong: Assuming a time entry profile and a worker time processing profile are the same object with two names.
Symptom: The processing side is configured correctly and time cards are still wrong, or vice versa, and both objects point at the same group.
Fix: Entry governs how the card is filled in and who may act on it; processing governs what happens to reported time. They are configured and reviewed separately.
Wrong: Reading "more than one group per profile" as also permitting overlap in the other direction.
Symptom: A second profile is created for the same group, saved without complaint, and one of the two is silently not in force.
Fix: One group may join many profiles, but a single group cannot be assigned to more than one time entry profile for the period. The assignments must not overlap.
Wrong: Leaving the days-before and days-after values unset and reading that as no restriction.
Symptom: A manager can edit a card long after the payroll period it fed has closed.
Fix: Unset means the action stays available on cards with the enabled statuses. Set the values deliberately, or record that an open-ended window is the intended policy.
Diagnosing it
Symptom: A worker sees a different set of fields from a colleague on the same team.
Category: configuration
- 1.
Are both workers inside HCM groups assigned to the same time entry profile?
If no: The difference is group membership, not the profile. Check which groups each worker is in.
Evidence to capture: Group membership for the dates in question, for both workers
- 2.
Does the profile the worker should be on link a different layout set?
If no: Two profiles in different groups may legitimately carry different layout sets, which makes the difference a design decision rather than a fault.
Evidence to capture: The layout set attached to each of the two profiles
- 3.
Has the group assignment been effective-dated to cover the date the card was opened?
If no: The profile is correctly not applying. Effective dating, not configuration, is the cause.
Evidence to capture: From and to dates on the group assignment
Confirm: Compare the fields available to both workers against the layout set on the profile each of their groups resolves to.
Recall
Name the three things a time entry profile links, state which four actions it governs and who performs each, and say what happens when a group is assigned to two entry profiles for the same period.
Answer shape: It links a layout set, an HCM group and optionally an attestation set. It governs create, review, edit and submit across three roles: workers create and submit, line managers review, and time and labor managers edit. A group cannot be assigned to more than one time entry profile for the period; the assignments must not overlap.
Memory hook: Layout says what, Group says who, Attestation says what is sworn. One group, one profile, one period.
Source evidence
The linked objects, the configuration path, the group overlap restriction and the status names were read from the Create a Worker Time Entry Profile page on 2026-10-05, and the days-before and days-after behaviour is from the illustrative paragraph on that page about edit windows.
Release scope: FA Latest
Recorded gaps
- The page does not enumerate the fields a layout set contains, so this lesson describes what the layout set decides and not what any particular one holds.
- The days-before and days-after values are described on the page in an illustrative paragraph about edit windows rather than as a formal field contract, so that claim is recorded at lower confidence.
- Whether an attestation set is enforced at submission or only presented at entry is not stated on the page read, and this lesson does not claim it is.
Related concepts
- Worker Time Processing Profilecontrasts
The processing profile governs what happens to reported time; the entry profile governs how the card is filled in and who may act on it. Same population, opposite half of the chain.
- HCM groupdepends on
Groups are what connect a profile to workers, and the non-overlap restriction is a constraint on how groups may be assigned.
- Repeating time periodreferenced by
The repeating time period on the processing side decides the time card period the entry profile is filling in.
Self-check
An auto-graded assessment is attached to this lesson: assessment-otl-time-entry-profiles
Lesson progress
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