invisible weekend data unaccounted for, leading to false totals

[Alex Rousskov]

Time sheet report totals do not include work logged during weekend unless the "Show Weekends" checkbox is selected on the report configuration page. That checkbox should control rendering, not totals, especially since there are no visible clues (that I can see) that the totals are lying. Moreover, the same bug exists in "Month View", where the lack of weekdays or weekends makes the "Show Weekends" checkbox state irrelevant.

To reproduce: Log some weekend work hours and generate a Time sheet report with the "Show Weekends" checkbox checked and unchecked. Observe two different totals in "Month" view. Same for the "Week" view.

Incorrect reported totals lead to wrong billing, so this is a critical bug IMHO.

[Andriy Zhdanov]

Hi Alex,

I can't agree with you. "Correct" totals would not match sum of all rows with 'no weekends' option. Month view, should be consistent with week view also.

Show weekends should be enabled by default. So intention is that if someone disabled it, he or she knows what is doing.

Please let me know if for some reason weekends are not shown, when they should be.

Thank you.

[Alex Rousskov]

Just because an obvious "fix" (show correct totals) is wrong, it does not mean that the bug is not there (which is what your "invalid" verdict implies).

If you insist that "Show Weekends" (a presentation knob) must change totals (reported facts used for billing), especially on Month View where the side effect becomes completely non-obvious, then I would suggest selecting one of the following three solutions (two fixes and one "cover up"):

1. Change "Show Weekends" checkbox into "Show Idle Weekends" checkbox. Always show weekends that have some hours logged. The totals will become correct and users that do not want to see weekends (because nobody works on weekends in their company) will not have to see them, just like today. This is the best solution IMO because it does the right thing without (and regardless of) user involvement.
2. On Month View, change Total row into "Weekday Total", add a "Weekends Total" row, and a true "Total" row. This will make Week and Month View "consistent" while exposing the problem when needed. I like this solution less because it results in identical rows shown when there are no weekend hours. Perhaps these extra rows can be added only when there are weekend hours.
3. Add a comment next to the "Show Weekends" checkbox saying something like "if disabled, hours worked during weekends will not be included in totals, even on Month View". On Month View, below the table, add a paragraph saying that "The above table does not include X weekend hours because your Show Weekends configuration option is not checked".

When re-evaluating your verdict please try to think less about defending your past design decisions and more about users. Why do you think some users may not want to view weekend data? Because (and only because) there is nothing there to see in their environment! The weekend columns are always empty for those users, so there is no point in wasting screen space on showing them. For companies that do work on weekends, the option is not really needed, and its current implementation is seriously flawed. The fixes suggested above work for both kinds of users AFAICT.

Once again, the current design leads to incorrect billing, with absolutely no clues about the problem available to the user that uses Month View. The only reason we noticed this bug is because our internal accounting system that pulls raw data from JIRA worklogs reported a different total. The wrong numbers from your reports have already been used by then.

Finally, your assertion that the default "Show Weekends" state matters is highly questionable in an environment where multiple people may have access to JIRA configuration, where different people may be responsible for configuring reports and billing, and where the side effects of that checkbox are not clearly documented and completely invisible to the Month View report observer.

Please reconsider, but I am not going to bother you again about this issue.

[Andriy Zhdanov]

fix issue#584: force show weekends with work

→ <<cset 22dc653a2f78>>

[Andriy Zhdanov]

Hi Alex,

First of all, thank you for detailed justification, and sorry it take me so long to make this change. Finally version 2.9.0.2 is available, hope you and other people will find it better!

Also, I've finally realized the problem when month view does not include weekends if Show Weekends is off, now it seems like it works as expected. Please let me know if you have any comments though.

Thank you.

[Alex Rousskov]

Thank you for implementing this change!