User Guide

Welcome to PeopleSoft!

PeopleSoft is a desktop application for calculating the salary for shift-based contractors, optimized for use via a command-line interface (CLI). If you are a HR manager and you can type fast, PeopleSoft can get your payroll tasks done much faster than traditional graphical user interface (GUI) applications.

You can input your employees’ data and the jobs that you want to keep track of. Then, you can assign the employees to the jobs that they are working on. After the job is completed, you can mark the job as paid, and PeopleSoft will calculate how much each employee is to be paid based on their hourly rates. You can also generate a payslip in comma-separated values (CSV) format for you and your employees to refer to.

PeopleSoft simulates a real life workflow:

• The company receives a new job.
• The HR manager adds the job to PeopleSoft, and assigns employees to work on it.
• The employees start working.
• When the employees complete the job, the HR manager marks the job as completed.
• Once it is time to pay the employees, pay out the job and export the payslips for the employees.

How to use this guide

If this is your first time using PeopleSoft, we recommend that you read the user guide in order. If you come across unfamiliar terms used in this user guide, their definitions may be found in the glossary.

If you are searching for information about specific features, you might find the command summary section useful in providing a brief overview of all commands. Alternatively, you may choose to navigate to the relevant sections of the user guide from the table of contents for more detailed explanations of features.

Syntax	Purpose
words in monospace font	Commands to be typed into PeopleSoft
Boxes with a blue background and the icon	Contain relevant tips for using PeopleSoft
Boxes with a yellow background and the icon	Contain important warnings

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• How to use this guide
• Quick start
  • Running PeopleSoft for the first time
  • Processing your first payment using the sample data
    • Create a job
    • Assign employee to a job
    • Find employees who are qualified
    • Complete a job and pay employees
    • Export employee payslips
• Command summary
  • Parameter constraints
• Features
  • Employee-related commands
    • personadd: Add an employee
    • personedit: Edit an employee’s information
    • persondelete: Delete an employee
    • personfind: Find employees by name or tag
    • personlist: List all employees
    • export: Export jobs done by an employee
  • Job-related commands
    • add: Add a job
    • find: Find jobs by name
    • list: List all jobs
    • delete: Delete a job
    • assign: Assign a job to an employee
    • mark: Mark or unmark a job as done
    • pay: Finalize payments for a job
  • Miscellaneous commands
    • clear: Clear all PeopleSoft data
    • exit: Exit PeopleSoft
    • help: Show help page
• FAQ
• Glossary

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Quick start

Running PeopleSoft for the first time

1. Ensure you have Java 11 or above installed on your computer. Follow this guide to do so.

2. Download the latest version of peoplesoft.jar from here.

3. Place the peoplesoft.jar file anywhere on your computer (preferably within a new folder, as the configuration and data files will be stored in the same location).

4. Double-click the file to start PeopleSoft. A window (similar to the one below) should appear shortly.

When PeopleSoft is started for the first time, it will be populated with sample data. You may delete this data with the clear command.

A data folder and some configuration files (with a .json extension) will also be created in the folder that you run peoplesoft.jar from; this is where PeopleSoft data will be stored.

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Processing your first payment using the sample data

The sample data is meant to help users get started with PeopleSoft. This is a tutorial of some basic features of PeopleSoft using the provided sample data. As such, it is not a comprehensive overview of every feature in PeopleSoft. You can refer to the features section for more information about specific features.

To start off, notice that the sample data contains some employees under the list of employees. Here, you can see the details of the employees, including their name, base pay and tags.

Since the sample data does not include any jobs, we will need to create new ones.

Create a job

When your company receives a new job, you can add it to PeopleSoft. To create a job, you can use the add command. You will have to specify a name and duration using the n/ and d/ prefixes respectively. For this tutorial, we will create a two-hour-long aircon repair job.

1. Type add n/Repair aircon d/2 in the command box.

   This command will add a new job with the name “Repair aircon” and a duration of two hours.

   Note: The attributes prefixed by n/ and d/ can be in any order.

2. Hit Enter to run the command.

   

   
   

Assign employee to a job

PeopleSoft allows you to indicate which employees are in-charge of a certain job with the assign command. The assign command requires 1 job index, and at least 1 employee index (each prefixed by i/). These indexes can be found under the # column in both lists.

1. Type assign 1 i/1 in the command box.

   The first number in the command (1) refers to the index of the job. In this case, it refers to the first job in the list of jobs, which is the aircon repair job created earlier.

   The prefix i/ denotes the index of the employee to be assigned to the job. In this case, it references the first employee in the list of employees, which is “Nicole Tan”. Additional employees can also be assigned to this job by adding additional i/ attributes.

2. Hit Enter to run the command.

   A message should appear, indicating that the job “Repair aircon” is assigned to “Nicole Tan”.

   

   
   

Find employees who are qualified

1. Type personfind aircon in the command box.

   This command searches for “aircon” in the names or tags of employees. Search terms are not case-sensitive.

2. Hit Enter to run the command.

   There should be two employees listed: “Nicole Tan”, and “Arjun Khatau”. Notice that the list of employees now only shows employees with the “Aircon” tag.

   

   
   

3. Type assign 1 i/2 in the command box.

   This assigns the second employee in the list (Arjun Khatau) to the first job. Notice that the employee index (2) now refers to the second employee in the current list (Arjun Khatau), instead of in the original list (Kavya Singh).

4. Hit Enter to run the command.

   A message should appear, indicating that the job “Repair aircon” is assigned to “Arjun Khatau”.

Complete a job and pay employees

A key feature of PeopleSoft is tracking the state of job completion and whether its payment has been processed; this can be done with the mark and pay commands, respectively.

1. Type mark 1 in the command box.

   This command marks the first job as completed.

2. Hit Enter to run the command.

   The job “Repair aircon” should be marked as completed, and a checkmark should appear under the Done column.

Marking a job as completed creates pending payments for the job. The amounts pending payment are reflected in the Unpaid column in the employees list.

Now that the “Repair aircon” job has been marked as completed, “Nicole Tan” and “Arjun Khatau” should have non-zero values under the Unpaid column.

This value reflects the amount of money that is pending payment to the employees. It is calculated from the employee’s base rate and the job’s duration.

1. Type pay 1 y/ in the command box.

   The prefix y/ is a safeguard against accidental misuse of this command. This command finalizes payments for the given job, and is irreversible. After the job is finalized, it cannot be further modified, so do make sure that you intend to run this command before running it.

2. Hit Enter to run the command.

   The payments for the job is now finalized, indicating that the employees have been paid for the job. This is also reflected in the checkmark under the Paid column.

   

   
   

Export employee payslips

PeopleSoft also allows users to export a payslip for each employee as a comma-separated values (CSV) spreadsheet.

1. Type export 1 in the command box.

   This command exports the payslip for the first employee (Nicole Tan) to a CSV spreadsheet.

2. Hit Enter to run the command.

   The payslip beginning with the employee’s name is now saved in the PeopleSoft data folder.

This concludes the tutorial on the basic usage of PeopleSoft. You can refer to the features section for more information about specific features. To clear the sample data, run the clear command.

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Command summary

A handy reference for more experienced users who just need to know the format of a command.

Command	Format	Examples
personadd	personadd n/NAME p/PHONE_NUMBER e/EMAIL a/ADDRESS r/RATE [t/TAG]...​	personadd n/Nicole Tan p/99338558 e/nicole@stffhub.org a/1 Tech Drive, S138572 r/37.50 t/Hardware t/Senior
personedit	personedit EMPLOYEE_INDEX [n/NAME] [p/PHONE_NUMBER] [e/EMAIL] [a/ADDRESS] [r/RATE] [t/TAG]...​	personedit 2 n/Nicole Lee t/OS
persondelete	persondelete EMPLOYEE_INDEX	persondelete 3
personfind	personfind KEYWORD [KEYWORD]...​	personfind Nicole Hardware, personfind Aircon
personlist	personlist	NA
export	export EMPLOYEE_INDEX	export 2
clear	clear	NA
add	add n/NAME d/DURATION	add n/Fix HDB Lock d/1
find	find KEYWORD [KEYWORD]...	find Painting Senior, find Painting
list	list	NA
delete	delete JOB_INDEX	delete 3
assign	assign JOB_INDEX i/EMPLOYEE_INDEX [i/EMPLOYEE_INDEX]...​	assign 2 i/1
mark	mark JOB_INDEX	mark 2
pay	pay JOB_INDEX y/	pay 2 y/
exit	exit	NA
help	help	NA

Parameter constraints

A handy reference for the constraints on input parameters for commands.

Parameter	Prefix	Constraints
Name	n/	Contains only alphanumeric characters and spaces. Should not be empty.
Phone number	p/	Contains only numbers. Should be at least three digits long.
Email	e/	Should be of the format name@domain.com where: name contains only alphanumeric characters and the following special characters: +_.-. name should start and end with alphanumeric characters. domain contains only alphanumeric characters and the following special characters: .-. domain should be at least two characters long. domain should start and end with alphanumeric characters. domain should not contain any two consecutive special characters.
Address	a/	Should not be empty.
Rate	r/	Should be a number consisting of only digits 0-9 and an optional decimal point. Should not be negative. Should not have more than two decimal places. Should not be larger than 1000000 (one million).
Tag	t/	Contains only alphanumeric characters. Should not be empty.
Duration	d/	Should be a number consisting of only digits 0-9 and an optional decimal point. Should be positive. Should not be larger than 23.99. Consider splitting the job into multiple smaller jobs if a larger value is desired. Should not be empty.
Employee to assign	i/	Contains only digits 0-9. Should be a valid index of an employee in the employee list. Should not be empty.
JOB_INDEX	N.A.	Contains only digits 0-9. Should be a valid index of a job in the job list. Should not be empty.
EMPLOYEE_INDEX	N.A.	Contains only digits 0-9. Should be a valid index of an employee in the employee list. Should not be empty.

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Features

Employee-related commands

personadd: Add an employee

Adds a new employee to the system with the given attributes.

Rate refers to the hourly pay of the employee.

Format: personadd n/NAME p/PHONE_NUMBER e/EMAIL a/ADDRESS r/RATE [t/TAG]...

Examples:

• personadd n/Nicole Tan p/99338558 e/nicole@stffhub.org a/1 Tech Drive, S138572 r/37.50 t/Hardware t/Senior will create a new employee with name “Nicole Tan”, phone number “99338558”, email “nicole@stffhub.org”, address “1 Tech Drive, S138572”, an hourly rate of $37.50, and with tags “Hardware” and “Senior”.
• personadd n/Jennifer Tan p/88473219 e/jennifer@stffhub.org a/13 Tech Drive, S182562 r/25 will create a new employee with name “Jennifer Tan”, phone number “88473219”, email “jennifer@stffhub.org”, address “13 Tech Drive, S182562”, an hourly rate of $25. No tags will be added since no tag attributes were provided.

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personedit: Edit an employee’s information

Edit the information of an existing employee. Use this in the event that an employee’s details change.

Rate updates will only take effect with jobs that are pending completion; payout amounts for already-completed (i.e. marked with mark) jobs will not change.

Format: personedit EMPLOYEE_INDEX [n/NAME] [p/PHONE_NUMBER] [e/EMAIL] [a/ADDRESS] [r/RATE] [t/TAG]...​

Examples:

• personedit 2 p/62353535 changes the second employee’s phone number to 62353535.
• personedit 3 t/Hardware t/Network changes the third employee’s tags to “Hardware” and “Network” instead of their original tags.

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persondelete: Delete an employee

Deletes the employee referred to by the index. This also removes the deleted employee from all associated jobs.

Format: persondelete EMPLOYEE_INDEX

Example: persondelete 3 deletes the third employee in the list.

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personfind: Find employees by name or tag

Finds all employees that have the given keyword(s) in their names or tags, and lists them in the employee list.

If multiple keywords are entered, only entries that match all keywords are returned.

Keywords are case-insensitive.

Format: personfind KEYWORD [KEYWORDS]...​

Examples:

• personfind Nicole Hardware finds all employees with “Nicole” and “Hardware” in their name and/or tags.
• personfind Nicole finds all employees with “Nicole” in their name and/or tags.
• personfind Nicole Hardware Display finds all employees with “Nicole”, “Hardware”, and “Display” in their name and/or tags.

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personlist: List all employees

Lists all employees added to PeopleSoft.

Format: personlist

Example: personlist shows all employees.

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export: Export jobs done by an employee

Exports a .csv file to the data folder, containing the jobs that the employee was assigned to, including:

• job IDs,
• job descriptions,
• job statuses (incomplete, pending payment, paid),
• effective rate(s) for the employee,
• job durations, and
• the amount paid, or to be paid to the employee.

Format: export EMPLOYEE_INDEX

Example: export 3 exports the third employee in the list.

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Job-related commands

add: Add a job

Adds a new job with the given attributes. DURATION refers to the duration required for the job, in hours.

Format: add n/NAME d/DURATION

Examples:

• add n/Fix HDB Lock d/1 creates a job named “Fix HDB Lock” with a duration of 1 hour.
• add n/Repair aircon d/4 creates a job named “Repair aircon” with a duration of 4 hours.

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find: Find jobs by name

Finds all jobs that have the given keyword(s) in their names, and lists them in the employee list.

If multiple keywords are entered, only entries that match all keywords are returned.

Keywords are case-insensitive.

Format: find KEYWORD [KEYWORD]...

Examples:

• find paint finds all jobs with “paint” in their names.
• find paint istana finds all jobs with “paint” and “istana” in their names.

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list: List all jobs

Lists all jobs added to PeopleSoft.

Format: list

Example: list shows all jobs.

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delete: Delete a job

Deletes the job with the given index.

Format: delete JOB_INDEX

Example: delete 2 deletes the second job.

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assign: Assign a job to an employee

Assigns a job to an employee to indicate that they are to be paid for the job.

Format: assign JOB_INDEX i/EMPLOYEE_INDEX [i/EMPLOYEE_INDEX]...

Examples:

• assign 2 i/3 assigns the second job to the third employee.
• assign 1 i/5 i/7 assigns the first job to the fifth and seventh employees.

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mark: Mark or unmark a job as done

Marks a job as done if it was not already marked as done, or marks a job as undone otherwise.

Marking a job as done indicates that a job has been completed and is pending payment. Unmarking a job causes the pending payment amounts to be subtracted from assigned employees.

Jobs are initially not marked as done when first created, and have to have at least one employee assigned to it before it can be marked.

Format: mark JOB_INDEX

Examples:

• mark 1 marks the first job, assuming it is not already marked as done.
• mark 1 unmarks the first job if it has already been marked as done.

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pay: Finalize payments for a job

Finalizes the payments of a job. A job needs to be marked as done before it can be finalized.

Format: pay JOB_INDEX y/

Example: pay 2 y/ finalizes the payments of the second job

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Miscellaneous commands

clear: Clear all PeopleSoft data

Removes all data stored in PeopleSoft. Useful for removing the sample data created when PeopleSoft is started for the first time.

Format: clear

Example: clear removes all employees and jobs from PeopleSoft.

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exit: Exit PeopleSoft

Exits PeopleSoft immediately.

Format: exit

Example: exit exits PeopleSoft immediately.

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help: Show help page

Opens the help page, which includes a list of commands, command formats, and example usages.

Format: help

Example: help opens up the help page.

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FAQ

Q: I’m using macOS and I can’t double-click on the peoplesoft.jar file to open it. What should I do?

A: Follow the steps here to open your jar file.

Q: What are the addressbook.log.0, config.json, preferences.json files in the same folder as peoplesoft.jar?

A: PeopleSoft uses the settings inside those files to run. For instance, the height and width of PeopleSoft is stored in those files. Do not remove or edit those files.

Q: How do I save my data?

A: PeopleSoft automatically saves application data to the folder that it was started from after every command. There is no need to save manually.

Q: How can I edit PeopleSoft data manually?

A: PeopleSoft data is saved as a JSON file under data/peoplesoft.json in the folder that it was started from. It is possible (although not recommended) to modify application data by editing that file.

Q: Can I get back the initial sample data?

A: Deleting the data/peoplesoft.json file and restarting PeopleSoft will cause the sample data to be reloaded.

Q: How do I transfer my data to another computer?

A: Install PeopleSoft on the other computer and overwrite the data/peoplesoft.json file it creates with your existing data/peoplesoft.json file.

Q: How do I report a bug? How do I suggest a feature?

A: You may report a bug or suggest a new feature on the PeopleSoft issue tracker.

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Glossary

CLI: Command-line interface. A primarily text-based interface, which is typically operated with text commands.

CSV: Comma-separated values. A common file format for storing tabular data, similar to a spreadsheet.

GUI: Graphical user interface. A primarily visual interface, which is typically operated by a pointing device.

Index: The item’s number that is displayed in its respective list, e.g. the second employee in the list has an INDEX of 2.

JAR: Java ARchive. A file format used to collate Java class files and their resources for distribution. Java applications are commonly distributed as .jar files.

JSON: JavaScript Object Notation. A structured file format used to store arbitrary text data. This is the file format used by PeopleSoft to store data and settings.

Keyword: A word to search for in a set of data, e.g. in the list of employees or jobs.

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