Filling in your timesheet from your Outlook calendar

Your Outlook calendar can help you fill in your timesheet. Illizeo reads your appointments for the day or the week, suggests one line per appointment with the project or customer to charge it to, and you correct it before adding. Nothing enters your timesheet without your action: the calendar helps you enter time; it does not prove time worked. This article explains how to connect your calendar, where the suggestions come from, how to add them, and how to set your charging rules.

Before you start #

• The Attendance module must be enabled. The CRM is not required.
• The calendar only appears in your own timesheet, in the Timesheet tab, and only if an attendance profile is assigned to you. Nobody sees anyone else’s calendar, neither your manager nor HR.
• Permission in the role matrix, “attendance sheet” section: “Enter / Edit time entries”. The Access level is enough to see appointments and suggestions; the Execute level is needed to connect the calendar, add lines and write rules. By default, all employees have both levels.
• To charge time to a CRM account or opportunity, the CRM must be open to you, with “CRM accounts — View”. To record mileage, you need “Submit a mileage expense report” (Expense notes, Execute level).
• The Microsoft connection is set up by Illizeo for the platform. If the bar shows “The Microsoft connection is not set up on the platform yet: the calendar cannot be linked yet.”, contact Illizeo.

Connecting your Outlook calendar #

1. Open your timesheet (Presence tab of your profile) and stay on the Timesheet tab. The Outlook calendar bar appears above the days.
2. Read what will be read: your profile and your Outlook calendar, read-only.
3. Click Connect Outlook. Microsoft opens: sign in and give your consent.
4. You come back to your timesheet with the message “Your Outlook calendar is connected.”. The bar shows “connected” and your account.
5. In Calendar read, keep Default calendar or choose another calendar of your account.

Nothing is copied into Illizeo: your appointments are read when you display them. Only an appointment added to your timesheet is remembered, so that it is not suggested again. This connection is separate from the CRM one (CRM › Microsoft 365): connecting one does not connect the other.

In a workspace that holds demonstration data, someone who has not connected a calendar sees “demonstration: sample appointments, without Microsoft”: three sample appointments per working day, one of them private, to try the feature without a Microsoft account.

Suggesting lines from the calendar #

1. In the bar, click Suggest from the calendar.
2. Choose the period: This day or This week (Monday to Sunday). The day is today when the timesheet shows the current month, otherwise the first day of the month shown.
3. Each appointment not added yet gives one line, with its subject, its date and, if there is one, the source of the suggested charging. Untick Keep to set a line aside.
4. If needed, correct the Start and End (the duration follows), the Project and its task, or, without a project, the Account or opportunity (CRM), and the Note, taken from the subject.
5. Click Add to my timesheet, followed by the number of lines kept.

A message gives the number of lines added to your timesheet, and each line shows its outcome: Added, Already in your timesheet, or Refused followed by the reason. A refused line does not block the others. Added lines go through the same checks as a manual entry and follow the usual circuit: you then submit your month (see Filling in and submitting your timesheet).

Not suggested: appointments already added, and those lasting all day or with no duration. Cancelled appointments and those shown as Free in Outlook are ignored everywhere.

Where the suggestions come from #

For each line, Illizeo looks for a charging target in this order and keeps the first one found. The line’s marker tells where it comes from:

1. Rule: one of your charging rules, then a rule of the space (see below).
2. CRM contact: if the CRM is installed, a participant whose address belongs to a CRM contact. The line targets that contact’s main account, or their opportunity when they have only one open on that account, and only if you can charge time to it.
3. Same series: for a recurring appointment, what you chose the last time you added an appointment of the same series.
4. AI: only if you click Suggest with AI (see below).

Suggest with AI #

The Suggest with AI button asks the AI for a project for the lines still without a charging target. It only reads the subject and the participants’ addresses, never the content of the appointment, and never a private or confidential appointment. It only chooses among the projects you have charged time to in the last 90 days. AI is billed per use: its answer is kept for a few hours for each appointment, and reopening the window does not ask again. Changing the period goes back to suggestions without AI. If AI is not open in your workspace, the window says so: “AI is not available in this workspace: the suggestions come from the rules.”.

The “Appointments of the day” panel #

When you open a day to enter it (··· button, tooltip “Edit”), the Appointments of the day panel shows your appointments for that day. Clicking one fills in the entry: in hourly entry, a work segment with its start, end and the subject as a comment; in duration entry, the duration and the description. Nothing is saved before Save; once saved, the appointment counts as added and is no longer suggested. An appointment already added shows a tick; an all-day appointment cannot be taken.

Private or confidential appointments #

An appointment marked Private or Confidential in Outlook shows as “Busy”, with a padlock: no subject, place, participants or categories. Its note stays empty. Neither the rules, the CRM nor the AI apply to it; only the same series can suggest a charging target. You can still add it to your timesheet, choosing the charging target yourself.

Charging rules #

A rule charges automatically the appointments that carry an Outlook category or a word in their subject. Once your calendar is connected, click Charging rules in the bar. The window shows My rules and Rules of the space.

1. Under My rules, choose the Criterion: Word in the subject or Outlook category.
2. Enter the Value: the word, or the exact name of the category.
3. Choose the Project and its task if needed or, without a project, a CRM account or opportunity.
4. Click Add the rule.

Capitals do not matter: a “Word in the subject” rule applies as soon as the word appears in the subject, an “Outlook category” rule when the appointment carries that category. Your rules come before those of the space, then each list applies in the order the rules were created; the first rule that fits wins. Untick Active to suspend a rule, or delete it with the bin.

The rules of the space apply to everyone. They are set by the roles that hold “Calendar integrations — company settings (what is pushed, OAuth app)” at the Execute level (the Administrator by default); others see them without being able to change them.

Recording the mileage of a trip #

For an appointment with a place, the Record the mileage button opens a new mileage expense report, pre-filled with the date, the place as the destination and the subject. You enter the distance; nothing is submitted without you. The report opens in a new tab: the suggestions window stays open with your corrections, and you come back to it to add your lines.

Disconnecting, and when the connection expires #

The Disconnect button in the bar cuts the connection, after confirmation. Your appointments are no longer suggested; the lines already added to your timesheet remain.

If Microsoft ends the access, for example after a password change, the bar shows “connection expired: reconnect your Microsoft account” and the Reconnect button. You receive a single notification, “Timesheet: your Outlook calendar connection has expired”. It can be turned off in Personal Settings › Notifications, row “Timesheet — Outlook calendar: connection expired”.

Good to know #

• Charging rules are only available once your calendar is connected.
• For a day other than the one the window offers, in particular in a past month, use the “Appointments of the day” panel of that day.
• An appointment in a calendar other than the Calendar read is neither shown nor suggested.
• The attendance log keeps the connection, the disconnection, the number of lines added from the calendar and the use of AI; never the subject of an appointment.

FAQ #

An appointment does not appear in the suggestions. #

It may already be in your timesheet, cancelled, shown as Free, all-day, outside the period chosen, or in a calendar other than the calendar read.

The AI suggests nothing for a line. #

The AI only suggests a project you have charged time to in the last 90 days, and never for a private appointment. Nor does it take a line already charged by a rule, a CRM contact or the same series.