Logging window
A logging window is how far back in time a person may still record or amend their hours. A five working day window lets somebody fill in last Tuesday on Monday, and closes anything older. Entering time inside that window, after the day itself, is called backfill.
The window is the most underrated setting in any time system. It decides what the data is made of.
Set it wide and the month closes late, because somebody is always still filling in a fortnight ago from memory. Those entries are reconstructions. They arrive after decisions have been made on the numbers that were there.
Set it too narrow and honest backfill becomes impossible. Somebody on leave for a week returns to a closed window and has nowhere to put real work. The hours then go in wrongly dated or not at all, and the second option is more common.
Around a working week is the usual compromise: long enough to survive a short absence, short enough that the numbers stop moving while they still mean something. Whatever the width, publish it, because a window people discover by being refused feels arbitrary and produces a support ticket rather than a timesheet.
Where this shows up in PeopleMuster
PeopleMuster makes the logging window a configurable setting rather than a fixed rule. In the live instance it is five working days, and logging inside it sits in the baseline every employee has.
Questions people ask
How wide should a logging window be?
Wide enough to absorb a short absence, narrow enough that figures settle. About a working week suits most teams. The right width depends on how often people are away from a keyboard.
What is backfill?
Entering time for a day that has already passed, inside whatever window is still open. Normal and necessary. It becomes a problem only when it is the usual way time gets logged.
What happens when somebody misses the window?
The entry needs a route that involves somebody else, so the exception is visible. Silently reopening the window for one person removes the meaning of having one.