All about SmartBeats

SmartBeats are updates on task progress recorded by resources for their project manager. They're sometimes simply referred to as 'beats'.

They are typically sent daily, to help the project manager stay up to date on the task’s status, so managers know right away when project schedules begin to slip, allowing them to quickly intervene.

You can think of a SmartBeat as a slightly more structured way for a team lead to tell their manager something like this:

"The task is going well. Since we last talked I got 20 hours of work done, and think there are 10 more to go. I should have it done by the 14th."

SmartBeats are also a method of automatically populating timesheets; work hours the resource includes in their beat are added to their timesheet. This makes completing timesheets easier – and more accurate, since beats are submitted immediately after work was performed.

Refer to Completing and submitting a SmartBeat for more information about using SmartBeats.

Fields included in SmartBeats

SmartBeats are structured feedback, and include fields for:

Hours the resource worked that day
The resource’s best estimate of the work remaining for the task
Their best estimate of when they’ll complete the task
Any comments they have on their progress

Benefits of using SmartBeats

Help ensure project managers are always up to date on the status of their projects
Allow project managers to intervene early if projects are going off track
Make the resource’s job easier, since they only have to remember what they did today
Promote accuracy, since resources don’t have time to forget what they worked on
Save resources from having to complete timesheets after the fact
Help ensure project completion estimates are being regularly reviewed and updated, as work progresses
Promote resource accountability

SmartBeats workflow

Project manager sets up a project and a task, and assigns a project resource as the task’s owner.
Resource views each current task they’re assigned in the Tasks section of the My Work > Overview page.
Each work day, the resource completes and submits a beat for the task; work hours and estimates from the beat automatically populate the resource’s timesheet.

Alternatively, the resource can record work hours and estimates for the current day directly in their timesheet. Those hours will be copied to the beat entry form for that day, if they access it.

The resource can update beat data throughout the current day, as desired. However, they can only update work hours for past days, not future.

Project manager views beats for tasks they manage via the SmartBeats page.

If a resource owns multiple tasks, they’ll submit a daily beat for each one they work on.

Setting up resources to use SmartBeats

Resources must be assigned the following settings before they can submit beats:

Project resource permissions
A Time Distribution Grid timesheet - we recommend that you enable auto-submit in the timesheet template, so resources submitting beats don’t need to touch their timesheet

And, the resource must be assigned as the resource of the tasks they’ll be submitting beats for.

FAQs

What happens if we miss a day?

Beats are most accurate and most useful if they apply only to the current day's work, therefore resources can only submit a beat for the current day -- via the Tasks section of the My Work > Overview page or via the Polaris desktop app.

So, if you miss completing a beat, you can't make it up; however, you can't update work hours for any day in an open timesheet, and any hours modified for a past day are factored in to beat calculations for the current day.

Can a resource submit beats at the project level, rather than against a task?

No. Resources can only submit beats for tasks, not for the project as a whole.

Are beats validated at all?

Project managers can view and validate beat data in timesheets before approving them. If you need daily validation of beats, you can use our time entry submission workflow.

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