Timesheets Lite Frequently Asked Questions |
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What is Timesheets Lite?
Timesheets Lite is an installable Windows program that provides an easy to use project time tracking system to companies who bill by the hour or need to track employee times spent on projects.
Can Timesheets Lite be used by more than one person in my company?
Timesheets Lite can be installed on one or many computers on your network and share data between these computers. In standard form it uses a database that supports up 20 computers connected to it's database. Optionally you can connect Timesheets Lite to a MS SQL Server database or MySQL database to support more than 20 computers.
Are the reports in Timesheets Lite up-to-date?
All reports in Timesheets Lite are 100% up to date. When an employee enters a time into the system this is instantly updated to the main database.
What platforms does Timesheets Lite run on?
Timesheets Lite runs on all Windows versions from Windows 2000 onwards. It needs the .NET 2.0 runtime or newer to function.
How much does Timesheets Lite cost?
Timesheets Lite must be purchased for every comptuer you want to install it on. Discounts are available if you want multiple licenses. Please see our Online Shop for the latest pricing.
Do I have to pay for every computer I install it on?
Yes.
How do I buy licenses?
Make your purchase from Our Online Shop.
How do I install Timesheets Lite?
Just download the installation file from our website. Then run the file and the software will install itself.
How do I get started once it is installed?
Timesheets Lite adds an entry to your Program Files list under the Timesheets Lite folder. Run it as normal for your operating system. The first time you run the software you'll be taken through a wizard that will help you get up and running as quickly as possible.
Where is my Timesheets Lite data stored?
By default Timesheets Lite stores all of it's data in a Microsoft Access database. When you first install Timesheets Lite this file is called "timesheets.mdb" and is stored in the common program data directory on your computer (most likely to be C:\ProgramData\TimesheetsLiteNET\Database). The file is not password protected and can be opened with MS Access. You DO NOT need MS Accesss to be able to run Timesheets Lite.
Optionally you can purchase advanced database support for Timesheets Lite. This will allow Timesheets Lite to use a SQL Server or MySQL database as a backend data store and allow it to support potentially hundreds of concurrent users.
Where should I put my Timesheets Lite stored data if I'm using the Default Access database?
In a directory on your computer or on your LAN that is backed up. If you put the file on your network on a common mapped drive then other users of Timesheets Lite can also use the file. This will give you a multi user system. To point an installation of Timesheets Lite at a "timesheets.mdb" file stored on your network use the Tools->Options->System Options (System Options Help Topic).
How do I uninstall Timesheets Lite?
Timesheets Lite adds an entry to the "Add/Remove Programs" applet under Windows (which can be found under the control panel on many Windows versions). Just remove it from there.
What are projects?
Projects in Timesheets Lite represent the jobs and tasks that you want the employees in your company to book time against. Employees cannot book time unless they associate it with a project. Projects don't have to be paying projects, you might have some generic internal projects like "Company Meetings", or "Leave", or other such activities. Projects don't have to be projects, they could be customers. Accountants commonly tally up all the billable hours spent on a client in a month regardless of what project their people were working on. So why not use projects that are named after your clients if that is appropriate.
What are Employees?
Employees are users of Timesheets Lite that book time against projects. Commonly you would have an employee per person you want to use the software.
Can I generate reports for invoicing?
Yes. Timesheets Lite has several reports suitable for generating invoices from. The best is the Invoicing Report that gives total time spent per person for one or many projects across a time period. This report coupled with your charge rates allows invoice values to be calculated quickly.
Can I track project activity?
Yes. You can track activity on projects by using several reports showing detailed or broader information.
I want a work breakdown structure for my projects.
Timesheets Lite does not provide a direct means of doing this. It does, however, provide two ways of working around this. Firstly it provides the ability for employees to book time against "Common Activities" that you can define. These common activities could be things like "Administration", or "Project Management", or "Client Meetings" and so on. You can then produce reports showing the amount of time booked against these common activities for each project.
The second way that some users accomplish this is by raising a project for each element of the work breakdown structure of the project. This leads to a lot of projects in the Timesheets Lite system but allows for very accurate tracking.
If you really must have a full WBS in your projects you might like to take a look at Timesheets MTS, another product from Timesheets MTS Software. Timesheets MTS allows for a full task structure to be built up for each project and then for employees to book time directly to tasks.
I want to book time to customers not to projects.
Many of our users ask this question. Rather than using a project structure in their company they simply charge clients for hours spent over a time period. To accomplish this in Timesheets Lite just raise a project for each customer you bill and have your employees book time to the relevant customer project. It's that easy.
I want to track non-billable time.
This can be done in a few ways. The easiest is to use the "non-billable" check box on the Add/Edit Times screen. You can also use the Manage Projects screen to mark an entire project as non-billable. This means that any time booked to that project will by default be non-billable. One other is to use common activities. Have your employees book time to a non-billable common activity and then when time comes for invoicing run the common activity report and discard all of the non-billable common activity times.
There's something I'd like to see added to Timesheets Lite.
Then email Timesheets MTS Software. Much of the on-going development of Timesheets Lite is based on feedback from our users. And don't think you have to be a paying customer either, we want suggestions from all of our users.
I'm getting some other error when I run Timesheets Lite.
Then please email Timesheets MTS Software. We don't let bugs last long, and nearly all of our errors have been fixed in the next release.