Question:
Do
I have to code the Workload Drivers as soon as I become aware they apply, to
get “credit” for the driver during timekeeping?
For example, assume I open Jane
Doe’s case on August 1, but don’t code any workload drivers to her case. I bill
time to Jane Doe's case during the next four weeks, but I don’t get around to coding
the drivers on the case until the end of the August. Will any of the time I entered in
August, before I coded the drivers,
be appropriately weighted?
Answer:
No, time entered before a driver is coded won’t be appropriately “weighted.” Workload Drivers should be
coded before time is billed to the case.
If the Workload Driver isn’t
selected before the time is billed,
that time will not be appropriately weighted in the study. The key concept is
that the drivers help explain the time resources the office is devoting to the
case. If the driver isn’t coded to the case, that association between the workload
driver and the time billed to the case cannot happen.
Before the fall data collection
periods begin, every case should be fully
coded and reviewed for accuracy with all of the workload drivers. As new
cases come in, they should be promptly coded with any immediately-obvious
drivers (i.e., citizenship, remote
detention, remote court, etc.) As drivers change during the life of the case,
those changes should be promptly coded into the workload driver tab. Contemporaneous
coding of drivers will make for accurate explanations of the resources devoted
to the case.
dData has the capacity to “backdate”
drivers – and that backdating is entirely appropriate. There is a small box
with several ellipses next to the individual driver on the Workload Driver tab.
By clicking on the box, you can force enter the effective date of the driver,
and backdate it.
From a practical perspective, however, we'd emphasize that this backdating
process is slow -- there are unavoidable lags in
the dData system every time that backdating box is selected. Multiple that little lag over hundreds of cases and thousands of drivers, and it can really slow the process down if you are backdating every driver on every case.
It is much, much more efficient to
code drivers contemporaneously, as soon as the driver is known.
.
.
