Timesheet Application

[Guest]

In a small office of 13 professionals, we currently use an Excel spreadsheet
to enter our hours charged to projects, in 2 week increments. At the end of
the period, our Office Manager culls the 13 sheets for summary reporting to
the principals.

Certainly, an Access report would eliminate this work entirely if the data
were entered into Access in the first place.

Although I could do this from scratch, it seems like a very common
application. Is anyone aware of an existing template or inexpensive
application for modest tracking needs?

Thank you.
Sprinks

 

[SirPoonga]

I'm interested too. The stuff I see out there is much more complex
than needed.

I made a simple access app that stores times and tasks to an employee.
Just need an interface now to enter in the data.

Like Sprinks the managers just want to know where time was spent. Our
engineers handle sales overflow and tha tis one statistic the managers
would like to know is what percent of the time they deal with customers
vs product development. So a simple app that just records times, even
at 30 minute resolution, is fine.

I's be interested if something already exists.

 

[Ken Snell [MVP]]

I have developed a timecard type application as part of another application.
It could be extracted and provided as a standalone database without much
expense.

(I have not looked for other similar applications, as I wrote this one for a
project. But there likely are others.)

If interested, contact me privately by email (remove this is not real from
my reply address).

 

[Larry Linson]

There is a time recording template for Access. I thought to use it, once,
but found I did not like it. YMMV.

For that situation, I created a very simple database. It was end-user stuff,
not an application, since I was the only one entering any data. I don't have
it to share, now.

Larry Linson
Microsoft Access MVP

 

[George Nicholson]

FWIW, I remember that Allison Balter's Programming for Access 97 (not sure
of exact title) used a Time-and-Billing project for it's "hands-on" project
(built piece by piece, chapter by chapter). Book included disc with
completed project. Not sure if later versions used the same project....

 

[Dirk Goldgar]

In a small office of 13 professionals, we currently use an Excel
spreadsheet to enter our hours charged to projects, in 2 week
increments. At the end of the period, our Office Manager culls the
13 sheets for summary reporting to the principals.

Certainly, an Access report would eliminate this work entirely if the
data were entered into Access in the first place.

Although I could do this from scratch, it seems like a very common
application. Is anyone aware of an existing template or inexpensive
application for modest tracking needs?

I have a little time-clock application that I put together to let me and
my employees track our time spent on various projects, for various
clients. You basically "click on" and "click off" projects, like a
stopwatch. It's not all that sophisticated, but it does track project
time and produce a time sheet showing both billable and payroll time.
The way it's set up at the moment, each user has his own copy of the
database and generates his own time sheets, but the clock data could
easily be consolidated.

My business manager has been after me to make the app available as a
shareware download from my web site. I'd probably charge something like
$50 for it. If you're interested, contact me at the address you get by
removing NO SPAM from the reply-address of this message.

 

[SirPoonga]

You basically "click on" and "click off" projects, like a
stopwatch.

That's what my current database does. I tie it to the windows login
to.

However it is tough to get people in the habit of starting and stopping
the tasks.
The mangaer thinks it owuld be better to create a timesheet type form
the engineers can fill out at the end of the day.
The toughest part about that is coming up with an easy to use interface
to enter an indefinate amount of tasks.

 

[Ken Snell [MVP]]

My timeclock application has people punch into tasks/jobs; no one has to
punch out per se as you just punch into the next task. It has people punch
into lunch and into "end of day" as well, as those are set up as "tasks" in
the timeclock db. The reports calculate the elapsed time on the jobs based
on the time difference between when the person started a job and then
started the next job.

 

[SirPoonga]

Yep, this is exactly what my current db is doing. I have a FE/BE
relationship. The BE that is storing the times and reports are on a
central server. Employees just need to select a task and click a
button. They can close the app if they want to and come back to it
later. I just check to see if there last task for that person has an
end time, if not it will report they are still on that task when they
restart the app.
If a task is currently active then the user selects another one and
presses the button it will auto log the end time of the last task and
start the current one.

However, like I said, it's getting really hard to get the engineers to
use this. The manager would like a timesheet interface. He just wants
rough estimates on time spent. Sot he toughest part is coming up with
an easy to use/understand interface for the employees. None of them
used Access before so they are confused on subform usage. It's been
fun trying to explain that.

 

[SirPoonga]

Yep, this is exactly what my current db is doing. I have a FE/BE
relationship. The BE that is storing the times and reports are on a
central server. Employees just need to select a task and click a
button. They can close the app if they want to and come back to it
later. I just check to see if there last task for that person has an
end time, if not it will report they are still on that task when they
restart the app.
If a task is currently active then the user selects another one and
presses the button it will auto log the end time of the last task and
start the current one.

However, like I said, it's getting really hard to get the engineers to
use this. The manager would like a timesheet interface. He just wants
rough estimates on time spent. Sot he toughest part is coming up with
an easy to use/understand interface for the employees. None of them
used Access before so they are confused on subform usage. It's been
fun trying to explain that.

 

[Ken Snell [MVP]]

I use a modal form with a combo box for their name, a combo box for the
task, a combo box for the customer's job, and a command button to enter the
time. All else is done behind the scenes in the form -- no subform, no
anything. Just select and click.

 

[SirPoonga]

Right. That's what's going on with mine.

I need to change to a timesheet thing though.
I'm thinking a combo for task (and I have two combos for options for
that task), order number is supplied, then a subform to enter tasks and
time spent on them. but my users are having a tough time understanding
timesheets.
note this system is something the user would enter in at the end of the
day.

With the current stopwatch system people are forgetting to change
tasks. It's become more of a management nightmare to fix those than
what should be.

 

[Dirk Goldgar]

With the current stopwatch system people are forgetting to change
tasks. It's become more of a management nightmare to fix those than
what should be.

While I use a stopwatch-like system, there's a provision for reviewing
and editing the clock data, which we tend to use when we discover we
forgot to turn off the clock -- last night; or when we put in time out
of the office.

 

[Guest]

SirPoonga-

Dont' know if you've been checking back, but I found this helpful.

http://www.microsoft.com/office/com...eb22e2-6e74-4cda-856f-62be29a86744&sloc=en-us

 

[Guest]

aaearhart --
thanks so much for this -- i think it might be really helpful for me. [i am
extreme beginner, but trying to slog through]. any suggestions on how i
should relate this tables? also, in the tblTimesheet, which field should be
the primary key?

any help would be...fabulous.
thanks.

 

[Guest]

primary key? i made the primary key a field called TSheetID and made it an
Autonumber field.

hth

/amelia

aaearhart --
thanks so much for this -- i think it might be really helpful for me. [i am
extreme beginner, but trying to slog through]. any suggestions on how i
should relate this tables? also, in the tblTimesheet, which field should be
the primary key?

any help would be...fabulous.
thanks.

SirPoonga-

Dont' know if you've been checking back, but I found this helpful.

http://www.microsoft.com/office/com...eb22e2-6e74-4cda-856f-62be29a86744&sloc=en-us