One of the first questions we were ever asked about TimeControl features way back in version 1, some 30 years ago was “What do I do if a user is absent?”  It’s a simple question and our answer was to ask some more questions.  Were we referring to an end user?  That was simple.  TimeControl could already allow anyone in the release path to enter a timesheet on their behalf.  This strategy led to several deployments where an administrative assistant would be entered into the release path before the end-user who would normally do their timesheet.  Given the clerk was in the release path, they could create a timesheet on behalf of the other user.  But that was the easiest.

“What about if it’s a supervisor who approves timesheets?” we were asked.  This quickly led us to creating one of the least talked about but most used TimeControl features, The Alternate User.

An Alternate User is a user who has been given permission to enter TimeControl as though someone else.  If you are logging in to TimeControl and you have been defined as an alternate user by another user or users, you’ll get an extra login screen question asking who you’d like to log in as.

If you select to login as someone else, then at the top of the screen you’ll see the username of who you’ve logged in as and your own username in brackets. Here, Joseph Gardner has logged in as Chris Peters.
You will have all the views, data access, features and other privileges of the user who you’ve logged in as.  But, as always, TimeControl is keeping track of who actually made changes.  So, if you release a timesheet for approval as an alternate.  The visible record will say that it was the alternate user but in the background, for auditing purposes, TimeControl also has your own username identified as who actually did the action.

You can easily create your own Alternate user in the Alternate User tab of MyAccount accessible at the top right of the screen.  When you do, you can also enter the date the alternate user’s permissions will expire.  Plus, you can have numerous alternate users and even send them email notifications if they have logged in as you.

If you are an organization that uses this feature a lot, then when you click on your username at the top of the screen, you can instantly revert back to your own user account or to any of the alternate users who have authorized you to be an alternate who are presented in the list.

Alternate users has been around TimeControl for a very long time but it remains one of the most used features.