Install Steps

Guide to install quickly, up and running for use in just a minute or two

Home > Outlook Add-ins > Timesheet > Installation Guide – Team Edition (SharePoint)

It typically takes not more than 2 minutes to perform an administrative install, and just less than a minute to make a simple Client install to each member’s system.

Team TimeSheet consists of two separate installs – Admin and Client. The Admin install is for project managers and administrators who would setup and configure projects and activities, and maintain drop down lists, templates, reporting settings etc. Whereas, the Client install is meant for normal users who would be preparing timesheets in Outlook before reporting and submitting to the company’s SharePoint.

(Note that, if the administrator needs to publish timesheets from Outlook to SharePoint, the client tool also needs to be installed, apart from the managerial portion).

There are two different setup types:

For ‘Per User Installation’ (ideal for standalone single user/workstation)
TeamTimeSheetSPSetups_x86.zip (for 32-bit Outlook)
TeamTimeSheetSPSetups_x64.zip (for 64-bit Outlook)

For ‘Per Machine Installation’ (ideal for installing on Citrix and Terminal Servers)
TeamTimeSheetSPSetups_x86_Citrix.zip (for 32-bit Outlook)
TeamTimeSheetSPSetups_x86_Citrix.zip (for 64-bit Outlook)

The downloaded zip file contains 3 files: TeamTimeSheetManagerSPSetup_xXX.exe, TeamTimeSheetClientSPSetup_xXX.exe and
VersionInfo.txt where ‘xXX’ can be either x86 (32bit Outlook) or x64 (64bit Outlook)

Extract these file contents to a file folder. It is recommended that you place the setup files on a shared network folder, such that all users can have access to it, and ease the installation and upgrade process.

Per User Installation and Per Machine Installation

In Per User Installation, both the Admin and Client installs are performed 100% on the local system and nothing is installed on your Exchange or Windows Server. Further, this install is intended to serve only the current logged on user of the system/workstation and will be installed under the user’s application data folder (instead of Programs Files folder) and no elevated permission is required (This is known as per user installation). So, there won’t be a prompt from UAC to allow this install unless you change the install directory to say, Programs Files which will warrant an elevated permission/UAC prompt. If the same system is used by multiple technicians, each user needs to install timesheet add-in on their profile with the default installation folder location.

Per Machine Installation: If you have the need to have a single install that serves all users of the system (i.e., per machine installation, which technically means the files will be installed under Program files folder and the add-in will be registered under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE registry hive rather than HKEY_CURRENT_USER), download the Citrix/Terminal Server version of the setups to perform a per machine installation.

Part I: Admin add-in     Part II: Client Add-in

Part-I: Admin Installation and Configuration

This has to be performed by the administrator/manager before the Client tool is installed on every user’s system. There are 2 sections in administrative installation:

a) Files Installation
b) Project Data Source Configuration
c) Fields Mapping between Outlook and SharePoint

The Admin setup is of two different types – one each for 32-bit Outlook and 64-bit Outlook

For Per User Installation:
TeamTimeSheetManagerSPSetup_x86.exe (for 32-bit Outlook)
TeamTimeSheetManagerSPSetup_x64.exe (for 64-bit Outlook)

For Per Machine Installation:
TeamTimeSheetManagerSPSetup_x86_Citrix.exe (for 32-bit Outlook)
TeamTimeSheetManagerSPSetup_x64_Citrix.exe (for 64-bit Outlook)

Step 1. Run the TeamTimeSheetManagerSPSetup_xXX.exe to start the installation. Click ‘Next’ to Continue. If Outlook 2010 or later is not installed, the setup wizard will not be able to proceed. Please also ensure Outlook is shutdown (if already running or active in the task manager) as the setup has to install an Outlook add-in.

Step 2. Select the appropriate destination folder where the application files will be installed. If you change the default folder path, please make sure you have appropriate permission. (Note: by default, it will be installed under your application data folder).

Step 3. Click ‘Next’ to continue with the file’s extraction. It just takes a few minutes to complete the whole copying process.

Step 4. Click ‘Finish’. This ends the files installation process in your system. Now start Microsoft Outlook.

b) Project Data Source Configuration

The next step is to choose a SharePoint site, under which, a new list titled ‘TeamTimeSheetSettings’ would be created, to store the project metadata such as such as project/activity lists, notification options, email templates, members list, reporting settings etc. as performed by the administrator.

Why store the project metadata settings in a special SharePoint list?
Because your users can be scattered in different geographical locations and might not have access to the company’s local network remotely, using a network database or shared folder won’t be feasible. Instead, in Team TimeSheet system, the project configuration and settings data are stored in a special SharePoint list (having the name ‘TeamTimeSheetSettings’) which is accessible to all users, on the local network, WAN or via the WWW.

In short, these are global settings that streamline the behavior on how all members work, track and publish their timesheets in Outlook. If you have just installed the Team TimeSheet Managerial tool, you will get to see this ‘Project Data Source’ Settings dialog when you start Outlook.

You can get to this from Outlook > the backstage File > Team TimeSheet Manager (SP) > Project Data Source

To specify a SharePoint site, click the ‘Browse…’ button.

This would allow you to enter the URL of the SharePoint. When entering the URL, always use the parent site URL in the format http://mySharePointsite. And click ‘Retrieve’ to show all available sub-sites and lists.

Select the particular site to which the Settings list would be created, and then click ‘Confirm’. Very Important! Your permission to the SharePoint site: Make sure that you have ‘Full Control’ permission over the SharePoint site so that Team TimeSheet Manager add-in can create the ‘TeamTimeSheetSettings’ list automatically.

And then select the particular site under which the project settings would be stored. You can also choose to create a new sub-site on the fly by clicking the ‘New Site…’ button and select it. When you click ‘Confirm’, Issue Tracker Add-in will automatically create and configure a new SharePoint list titled ‘TeamTimeSettings’ under the site. And then any settings/drop down lists you defined from TimeSheet Manager add-in in Outlook would be saved in this repository.

If the SharePoint site uses the NTLM or windows authentication, the add-in will use the default credential to connect to the SharePoint. However, for form based or claimed based authentication (for example, Office 365 SharePoint online), it may prompt you (and others) to enter their credential.

In the username, exclude any domain information. For instance, do not enter in the format DOMAIN\UserName. Only enter UserName. Check ‘Remember’ so that Issue Tracker add-in can use the same credential to logon to the SharePoint site in subsequent connection. You can also specify the authentication mode that is used by your SharePoint to allow connection to it. For instance, if your SharePoint is configured for Windows authentication, choose ‘NTLM’. If it used a form-based authentication, then choose ‘Forms’ whereas if it used a claimed based authentication (for Office 365 SharePoint Online), choose ‘Office 365’.

Once you click ‘Save’, this Project settings list will be automatically created in the chosen SharePoint site, when the manager configures the admin tool the first time. And then any project settings/drop down lists you defined from Team TimeSheet Manager add-in in Outlook would be saved in this repository.

Next, install the Team TimeSheet Client add-in to the systems of your other staffs. You can install the Team TimeSheet Manager add-in on other systems as well if the particular user has the need to perform administrative tasks.

Make sure that you have provided the chosen SharePoint site URL (e.g., http://company.sharepoint.com/ in the above example) to all users who have or will install the Client tool. This is required because as when user starts Outlook the Team TimeSheet Client add-in will prompt the user to specify the SharePoint site where the ‘TeamTimeSheetSettings’ list is located. And only then the add-in would automatically connect to the admin specified SharePoint site and would retrieve the project logic and timesheet settings data to the local system.

What SharePoint permissions are required for other users?
All users should have at least ‘Contribute’ permission the SharePoint list ‘TeamTimeSheetSettings’ as well as to all other SharePoint lists that are chosen as the timesheet repositories.

C) Fields Mapping between Outlook and SharePoint

There are two types of Outlook items that can be reported or published to an administrator specified SharePoint list, namely Appointment or Task items. As an administrator, you can choose which Outlook fields and other custom fields get published on the SharePoint list, when individual team member reports their timesheet from Outlook to SharePoint. All you need to do is map the Outlook fields with a relevant field of the SharePoint list.

Team TimeSheet supports publishing almost all of the predefined fields of the Outlook appointment or task, plus project, activity and other custom fields. The following fields are available for publishing to a SharePoint calendar or list.

Predefined Appointment Fields
All Day Event, Billing Information, Busy Status, Categories, Companies, Creation Time, Duration, End Date, Entry ID, Importance, IS Recurring, Last Modification Time, Location, Meeting Status, Mileage, No Aging, Optional Attendees, Organizer, Recurrence State, Reply Time, Required Attendees, Resources, Response Requested, Response Status, Sensitivity, Start Date, Net meeting Organizer Alias, Subject, Body, HTML Body

Predefined Task Fields
Actual Work, Billing Information, Categories, Companies, Contact Names, Creation Time, Date Completed, Delegation State, Delegator, Due Date, Entry ID, Importance, Is Recurring, Last Modification Time, Mileage, No Aging, Ordinal, Owner, Ownership, Role, Schedule Priority, Sensitivity, Start Date, Status, Status on Completion Recipients, Status Update Recipients, Subject, Team Task, Total Work, Body, HTML Body

TimeSheet specific Fields
Project, Activity, Reported Date, Reported By, Total Cost, BillableHours and any custom fields (that you had defined).

To start mapping the fields, go to Team TimeSheet Manager SP > Appointments Fields Mapping/ Tasks Fields Mapping.

This will allow you to choose a destination SharePoint list where the timesheets published from Outlook (by users) will be stored. You can choose any existing SharePoint list, Calendar or task lists or a bare bone custom list in which case, you would need to add the required columns.

In the mapping dialog box (above), the first column lists all predefined Outlook fields as well as TimeSheet specific fields and custom fields. In the third column, there is a drop-down list on each row, consisting of all available SharePoint fields. Just simply choose a SharePoint field from the drop down to map it to the corresponding Outlook field.

For example, in the screenshot above, Outlook Appointment field ‘Subject’ is mapped to SharePoint field ‘Title’ or Outlook appointment field ‘Start Date’ to SharePoint field ‘Start Time’ etc.

Create New SharePoint Field – on the fly:
In the drop-down list of the SharePoint field, you will also notice that there is an item ‘[NEW LIST FIELD]’. You can select this item to create a new field in the particular SharePoint list, directly from this mapping tool, so that you can map the specific Outlook field to this new SharePoint field, without requiring you to create it in your SharePoint site.

Specify a field name that you would like to appear in the SharePoint list. Only input valid characters and avoid using special characters such as symbols.

The new SharePoint field will have the same data type as that of the corresponding Outlook field.

Mandatory Fields for Mapping: Note that the following Outlook fields are mandatory when you perform mapping:
Subject, Reported By, Project, Activity, Total Cost.
If any of these mandatory field(s) are not mapped, you will get a ‘mandatory fields not mapped’ warning message and the settings won’t be saved.

Mapping multiple Outlook fields to the same SharePoint Field: You can map multiple Outlook fields to the same SharePoint field having a ‘Note’ data type.
For example, in the above screenshot of appointment fields mapping to SharePoint calendar list, you can see that the Outlook fields ‘Mileage’, ‘Organizer’, ‘Recurrence State’ and ‘Body’ are all mapped to the single SharePoint field ‘Description’ (which is a note field).

When multiple Outlook fields are mapped to the same single SharePoint field, that value of the Outlook fields will be appended in next line.

One limitation of using a single SharePoint field to store multiple Outlook fields is the absence of these Outlook fields in reports and OLAP statistics.

NOTE: There are other administrative configurations that you would need to undertake. These options are available in the ‘Team TimeSheet Manager SP’ menu in Outlook. For more references and helps on performing these administrative configurations, refer to the PDF Help Manual, which can be invoke from the Team TimeSheet Manager SP > Help Topics.

You can also download the full PDF help manual directly from this link.

Part-II: Client Installation and Configuration

This install is meant for normal users who would be preparing timesheets in Outlook before reporting and submitting to admin specified SharePoint lists. Before you install the Client tool, make sure your administrator has already configured the Project Data Source settings on a SharePoint site with the Team TimeSheet Manager tool. And take note of the SharePoint parent site URL which you will need to feed to the Team TimeSheet Client Add-in once it is installed. This is required because you will be asked to specify the SharePoint site URL once you start Outlook (for the purpose of linking up the Client tool with the ‘TeamTimeSheetSettings’ SharePoint list).

The Team TimeSheet Client setup is of two different types – one each for 32-bit Outlook and 64-bit Outlook:

For ‘Per User Installation’ (ideal for standalone single user/workstation)
TeamTimeSheetClientSPSetup_x86.exe (for 32-bit Outlook)
TeamTimeSheetClientSPSetup_x64.exe (for 64-bit Outlook)

For ‘Per Machine Installation’ (ideal for installing on Citrix and Terminal Servers)
TeamTimeSheetClientSPSetup_x86_Citrix.exe (for 32-bit Outlook)
TeamTimeSheetClientSPSetup_x64_Citrix.exe (for 64-bit Outlook)

The Client installation has to be performed by each member of the team before they can start reporting timesheets and other project deliverables from Outlook to the database.

There are two sections in Client installation:
a) Files Installation, b) SharePoint Connection

(Note: if the administrator/manager needs to prepare timesheets and report to the database from Outlook, the Client tool also needs to be installed, apart from the admin portion. It is perfectly normal to have both Admin and Client add-ins installed on the same machine. However, for normal users, just the Client add-in is enough).

a) Files Installation

Step 1. Run TeamTimeSheetClientSPSetup_xXX.exe to start the installation. Click ‘Next’ to Continue. If Outlook 2010 or later is not installed, the setup wizard will not be able to proceed.

Step 2. Select the appropriate destination folder where the application files will be installed. If you change the default folder path, please make sure you have appropriate permission. (Note: by default, it will be installed under your application data folder).

Step 3. It may take a few minutes to complete the whole copying and registration process.

Step 4. Click ‘Finish’ to end the installation wizard. Now start Microsoft Outlook.

b) SharePoint Connection

Once you have just installed the Team TimeSheet client tool, you will get to see this ‘My Project Data Source’ panel when you start Outlook.

Alternatively, if you are on Outlook 2010 and above, you can get to this from Outlook > backstage File > Team TimeSheet Client SP > My Project Data Source

So, what is the Project Data Source?
The project data source is nothing but a simple SharePoint list (with the name ‘TeamTimeSheetSettings’) that your administrator had created and configured under your company’s SharePoint site with the Team TimeSheet Manager tool. This list stores the projects and activities, email templates, notification and reporting settings. In short, these are global settings that streamline the behavior on how all members work, track and publish their timesheets in Outlook.

Click ‘Browse…’ to specify the SharePoint site where the ‘TeamTimeSheetSettings‘ list is located.

Enter the SharePoint URL site to show all available sub-sites and lists. If your administrator had already configured the Project Data Source with the Team TimeSheet Manager tool earlier, there would be a list ‘TeamTimeSheetSettings‘ that stores the project metadata and other configurations including destination timesheet SharePoint lists and their corresponding mapping settings. Select that list to maintain a permanent link between the Team TimeSheet Client add-in and the SharePoint Project data source on your system.

In the screenshot above, the root ‘Team Site’ has the ‘TeamTimeSheetSettings’ list, and that is what you need to select to continue. If this list is not available in the root or sub-sites, then contact your administrator for the correct SharePoint site URL.

Now, click the Save button, to confirm the connection. Team TimeSheet Client add-in is now ready to connect to the Project Data Source to synchronize projects and other settings metadata from SharePoint to your system

Additional Steps that might be required.

i) Your permission to the SharePoint site – Make sure that you have at least ‘Contribute’ (or ‘Full Control’) permission over the SharePoint list ‘TeamTimeSheetSettings’ as well as to all other SharePoint lists that are chosen as the timesheet repositories.

ii) Login Credential – When you run Outlook after installing the Team TimeSheet Client tool, it may prompt you to enter your credential to connect to the SharePoint site.

If the SharePoint site uses the NTLM or windows authentication, the add-in will use the default credential to connect to the SharePoint. However, for form based or claimed based authentication (for example, Office 365 SharePoint online), it may prompt you (and others) to enter their credential.

In the username, exclude any domain information. For instance, do not enter in the format DOMAIN\UserName. Only enter UserName. Check ‘Remember’ so that Team TimeSheet add-in can use the same credential to logon to the SharePoint site in subsequent connection.

You can also specify the authentication mode that is used by your SharePoint to allow connection to it. For instance, if your SharePoint is configured for Windows authentication, choose ‘NTLM’. If your SharePoint site is secured with ADFS, you can also specify the STS site URL under the ADFS server to get the authorization token. If the site uses a form-based authentication, then choose ‘Forms’ whereas if it uses a claimed based authentication (for Office 365 SharePoint Online), choose ‘Office 365’.

NOTE: For more references and help with preparing timesheets in Outlook, refer to the PDF Help Manual, which can be invoked from Outlook > Team TimeSheet Client SP > Help Topics.

You can also download the full PDF help manual directly from this link.