Timesheets Lite: February 2013 Archives

I've spent the last couple of days working on Timesheets Lite focussing on improving performance in some key areas and adding some tweaks that have been suggested by users of the software. The result is version 3.4.7 of our employee timesheet software. Here's a list of the changes in detail:

• The time task checkbox has been removed from the Add/Edit time screen and replaced with a time task button.
• The icons for the Start / Stop timer buttons on the main timesheet have been changed.
• The login screen now only displays active employees.
• Added the "No Employee Posting" setting to the Project Information screen. When set the project cannot have times posted to it by Normal employees. Project managers and super users can still post times to the project.
• When setting the common activity of a time the description of the activity will automatically be added to the time description if there's no existing description.
• A couple of tweaks made to configuration file handling to speed up access for non-existent configuration settings/values.
• Complete re-write of the way various lists are populated. Those with very long project/employee/activity lists should see a decent speed improvement in screen loading time.
• Fix to monthly timesheet total when editing a timesheet for an employee other than the current logged in employee.
• Fixed the title on the Employee Timesheet report.

Pyramid Displays in Queensland, Australia are specialist exhibition and tradeshow booth designers, suppliers and manufacturers. They also happen to use our employee timesheet software, Timesheets Lite to track all of their project work. David Van Gent, the project manager at Pyramid Displays was kind enough to spend 30 minutes with me earlier this week taking me through how his company uses TImesheets Lite. David did this via phone hookup also shared his computer desktop with me so I could actually see Timesheets Lite in action.

Key things to come out David's presentation were:

• Pyramid Displays makes heavy use of the background color features of both projects and common activities. They use the colors to categorize projects and activities and match activities with particular project types.
• Timesheets Lite was the best match they could find to the way they did business. They had considered several (much) more expensive timesheet products but they were simply too complex and the cost could not be justified.
• They enter projects into Timesheets Lite while still in the quote phase and would love a feature to prevent employees from booking time to a project while it is still in a quote stage.
• Employees make use of the calendar based timesheet to drag and drop times between days. This speeds up the process of creating a timesheet for a new day.
• The volume of projects they put into TImesheets Lite is large and they'd love a way of archiving projects.
• Having a common activity list accessible to all projects is great but from time to time they'd like to be able to restrict the activities that are available to certain projects.

I'd like to thank David for the time he took with me and would heartily recommend contacting Pyramid Displays if you're looking for trade show or exhibition booth design or equipment hire on the Gold Coast in Australia!