Digital Extra Work Approval & Work Time Act Compliance

Client Background

ESB Networks is Ireland's national electricity distribution system operator, responsible for building, operating, and maintaining the electricity distribution network that delivers power to over 2.4 million homes and businesses across the Republic of Ireland.

With thousands of network technicians working across urban and rural locations—from installing electrical posts in city centers to maintaining infrastructure on remote mountain sites—ESB Networks manages complex field operations that require precise coordination, cost control, and regulatory compliance.

At the time of engagement, ESB Networks was operating with paper-based processes for managing extra work approvals, creating significant operational and compliance challenges across their distributed workforce.

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The Challenge

ESB Networks faced critical operational and regulatory risks stemming from their manual extra work management process:

Compliance Risk:

• Manual tracking made it nearly impossible to ensure compliance with Ireland's Work Time Act, which strictly regulates maximum working hours per week, month, and year
• No systematic way to monitor cumulative hours across multiple projects
• Limited visibility into whether technicians were approaching or exceeding legal working hour limits
• Potential liability exposure for both the company and individual employees

Process Inefficiencies:

• Entirely paper-based approval workflow for extra work assignments
• No centralized system to track work estimates versus actual costs and hours
• Managers and technicians lacked real-time visibility into project status
• Approval bottlenecks caused delays in work authorization and payment processing

Financial & Operational Gaps:

• No standardized process for estimating work requirements across diverse project types
• Cost overruns and budget variances discovered only after work completion
• Inability to forecast resource needs or analyze historical project data
• HR and Finance teams operating without clear visibility into extra work hours and associated costs

Data & Reporting Limitations:

• No aggregated data for senior management reporting
• Impossible to generate projections or identify trends
• GDPR compliance concerns around paper-based personal work records
• No audit trail for approval decisions and work authorization

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Goals

ESB Networks required a digital solution that would achieve multiple interconnected objectives:

Regulatory Compliance:

• Ensure 100% compliance with Ireland's Work Time Act across all network technicians
• Implement systematic tracking of working hours across weekly, monthly, and yearly timeframes
• Create automatic safeguards preventing employees from exceeding legal hour limits
• Establish clear audit trails for all extra work approvals and assignments

Process Digitization:

• Replace paper-based workflows with a fully digital approval system
• Create transparent, auditable processes from work request through payment
• Enable real-time visibility for all stakeholders at appropriate permission levels
• Reduce approval cycle times and eliminate manual handoffs

Financial Controls:

• Implement estimate-versus-actual tracking for all extra work projects
• Create automated variance alerts for projects exceeding budget thresholds (±10%)
• Enable proactive cost management rather than reactive discovery
• Streamline payment processing with validated work records

Business Intelligence:

• Generate comprehensive reporting for senior management
• Enable data-driven forecasting and resource planning
• Provide area managers with visibility into their region's extra work activities
• Create foundation for continuous process improvement

User Empowerment:

• Develop a solution simple enough for the business unit to maintain independently
• Ensure network technicians could easily access and update their work records
• Respect GDPR requirements by limiting visibility to authorized personnel only

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Strategy & Approach

Our strategy prioritized simplicity and sustainability over technical complexity, recognizing that the business needed to own and maintain this solution long-term:

Design Philosophy: SharePoint-Native Architecture

Rather than building complex Power Apps (Canvas or Model-Driven), we architected a pure SharePoint solution using:

• SharePoint Lists as the data foundation
• SharePoint permissions for granular access control
• SharePoint views to create role-based interfaces
• Power Automate for workflow automation
• Power BI for executive reporting

This approach ensured the business unit could manage and modify the system without requiring specialized technical resources.

Four-Stage Process Design

We mapped the entire extra work lifecycle into four distinct stages, each with its own SharePoint list and permission model:

1. Enrollment & Disclaimer: Ensuring legal protection and opt-in consent
2. Work Estimation & Approval: Collaborative planning between technicians and managers
3. Work Execution & Tracking: Real-time recording of actual hours and costs
4. Payment Authorization: Multi-level approval and processing for compensation

Permission Architecture

We designed a sophisticated yet maintainable permission structure that:

• Gave each technician visibility only to their own work items
• Provided managers with area-specific oversight
• Enabled senior management with company-wide reporting access
• Maintained GDPR compliance through role-based data segregation
• Automatically progressed permissions as items moved through workflow stages

Automation Strategy

Power Automate flows handled all critical handoffs:

• Automatic permission grants upon enrollment
• Item progression between workflow stages
• Variance threshold alerts (±10% from estimate)
• Multi-level approval routing based on project characteristics
• Notification triggers to keep all parties informed

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Execution

Duration: 2-year engagement covering design, development, testing, training, and optimization

‍Core Deliverables:

1. Digital Enrollment System (List 1: Disclaimer & Registration)

• Online disclaimer and terms acceptance for Work Time Act compliance
• Automated permission provisioning via Power Automate
• Employee consent records with full audit trail
• One-time enrollment process granting access to subsequent stages

2. Work Estimation & Planning System (List 2: Project Initiation)

• Digital work request forms capturing:
  • Project description and location details
  • Estimated hours and material costs
  • Complexity factors (urban vs. rural, accessibility, etc.)
• Dual-approval workflow requiring agreement from both:
  • Network technician (validating feasibility and estimates)
  • Area manager (authorizing resource allocation)
• Automated progression to execution phase upon dual approval

3. Work Execution & Tracking System (List 3: Active Projects)

• Real-time hour logging against Work Time Act limits
• Actual cost tracking (labor and materials)
• Estimate-vs-actual variance monitoring with automatic 10% threshold alerts
• Multi-tier approval routing:
  • Standard approval: Area manager review
  • Variance approval: Additional senior management review for ±10% deviations
• Documentation of variance explanations for audit purposes

4. Payment Processing System (List 4: Financial Authorization)

• HR verification of recorded hours and compliance
• Finance team approval for payment processing
• Complete documentation trail from work request through payment
• Integration readiness for payroll systems

5. Management Reporting & Analytics

• Power BI dashboards providing:
  • Work Time Act compliance monitoring
  • Project cost analysis (estimated vs. actual)
  • Resource utilization across areas and time periods
  • Historical trend analysis for forecasting
• Role-based report access (area managers see their region, executives see company-wide)

6. Training & Documentation

• Comprehensive user acceptance testing (UAT) with network technicians and managers
• Role-specific training materials for:
  • Network technicians (work request and tracking)
  • Area managers (approval and oversight)
  • HR and Finance teams (payment processing)
  • Senior management (reporting and analytics)
• Business unit admin training for ongoing system maintenance
• Process documentation and standard operating procedures

Technical Architecture:

• SharePoint Online Lists (4 lists representing workflow stages)
• SharePoint unique permissions (granular, role-based access control)
• SharePoint views (customized interfaces per role)
• Power Automate flows (workflow automation and notifications)
• Power BI (executive reporting and analytics)
• Microsoft 365 ecosystem (authentication, security, mobile access)

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Results & Outcomes

Regulatory Compliance:

• 100% Work Time Act Compliance: Systematic tracking eliminated risk of technicians exceeding legal hour limits
• Complete Audit Trail: Every extra work assignment documented from request through payment
• Proactive Risk Management: Automated alerts prevented compliance violations before they occurred
• Legal Liability Protection: Formal disclaimer process and consent records protected both company and employees

Operational Efficiency:

• Eliminated Paper-Based Processes: Fully digital workflow from end to end
• Faster Approval Cycles: Real-time notifications and digital approvals eliminated manual handoff delays
• Streamlined Payment Processing: HR and Finance teams gained clear, validated work records reducing payment processing time
• Mobile Accessibility: Network technicians could log hours and access project details from any location

Financial Controls:

• Proactive Cost Management: 10% variance threshold alerts enabled early intervention on budget overruns
• Estimate Accuracy Improvement: Historical data enabled better project estimation over time
• Budget Visibility: Managers could monitor project costs in real-time rather than discovering variances post-completion
• Financial Forecasting: Aggregated data enabled accurate projections for extra work budgets

Data & Reporting:

• Executive Dashboards: Senior management gained real-time visibility into extra work across the organization
• Area-Level Analytics: Regional managers could analyze patterns and optimize resource allocation
• Historical Intelligence: 2+ years of clean, structured data enabled trend analysis and predictive modeling
• GDPR Compliance: Permission-based architecture ensured personal work records remained private

Business Empowerment:

• Self-Service Management: Business unit maintained and adapted system without IT dependency
• User Adoption: Simple SharePoint-based interface achieved high adoption rates across diverse user base
• Scalability: Architecture supported growth in users and project volume without performance degradation
• Sustainability: Native SharePoint approach eliminated complex technical debt

Measurable Impact:

• Reduced approval cycle time from days (paper-based) to hours (digital)
• Eliminated manual data entry for HR and Finance teams
• Created foundation for data-driven workforce planning and cost optimization
• Achieved 100% visibility into extra work activities across 2.4 million customer service territory

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Key Takeaways

Simplicity Scales Better Than Sophistication‍

By choosing a SharePoint-native architecture over more complex Power Apps solutions, we created a system the business could own, maintain, and evolve independently. The most sustainable solution is one that doesn't require specialized expertise to manage.

Permissions Are a Product Feature‍

Thoughtful permission architecture doesn't just secure data—it creates the user experience. By controlling what each role could see and when, we transformed a single set of lists into role-appropriate interfaces without building separate applications.

Compliance Requires Prevention, Not Detection‍

Manual compliance tracking means you discover violations after they happen. Automated monitoring and proactive alerts transformed Work Time Act compliance from a reactive audit risk into a proactive safeguard.

Workflow Drives Adoption‍

Users don't adopt tools—they adopt better ways of working. By mapping the digital solution precisely to how work actually flows (from estimation through payment), we eliminated the friction that kills adoption. The system worked with people's natural processes, not against them.

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