Timesheets Tutorial

Running Timesheets

On starting Timesheets, you will see the Tip Of The Day screen. Click OK to show the main screen. The main screen will look something like this:

Setting up your data

The first step in using Timesheets is to enter your projects into the program. Your data will include information about your employees, clients, projects and tasks. Data is erased and added in the Data Manager screen. Open the Data Manager by choosing View | Data Manager from the main screen menu.



The Data Manager will look something like this:



When you first use the program there should be some sample data. Once you have finished experimenting with this data you should erase it and enter your own data. To delete all the records in the current table choose Records | Delete All Records from the menu.

Entering Employee and Project Data

The first step in using Timesheets is to enter your employees and projects (if any) into the program. First make sure you are in the Detail table of the Data Manager. The Detail tab shows a list of tables on left side. In the radio group to the left, select Employees. This will cause the Employees table data to be displayed in the grid to the right. Enter your employee information in this grid. Repeat this step for your clients, projects and tasks, if any. The Timesheets database contains sample data, so you'll probably want to delete it first. See the section on deleting records to learn how to do this.

Entering Employees

Let us start by adding an employee. To add an employee click on the Employees tab in the Data Manager. The Employees tab will look like this:



If the fields are not blank as in the above picture. Press the add button to add a new record. The add button is the red circular button at the top with the + sign in it. Then type in the employee data into the fields. In the example below, we added the employee named Alfred Newman.



The EmployeeID field must be a unique ID for the employee. The DivisionID field indicates to which division, if any, the employee belongs to. The ShiftID field indicates in which shift the employee works. The Rate field indicates the rate at which this employee is charged out. The Password field indicated the login password for this employee. The Level field indicates the security level of the employee. This field can be A for Administrator, M for Manager or blank for an ordinary employee. The Manager field indicates the manager for this employee. The Type field indicates the type of employee. Employees can be regular (0) or hourly (1). Hourly employees, like consultants, cannot charge for holidays or sick days. The BankedTime field stores the overtime the employee has banked. The Active field indicates whether this employee shows up in the employee pull-down lists.

Entering Project Data

When entering time with Timesheets, the most important field is usually the Project. The Project is what you are billing time to. As well as the Project, you can also optionally add either a Task or a Client. For example, suppose you have a customer called Acme Piping. The project you bill time to Acme Piping is called Hydrostatic pump. In addition, you also break this project up into several different tasks: Planning, Design and Implementation.

Entering Clients

Let us start by adding the client. To add a client click on the Clients tab in the Data Manager. The Clients tab will look like this:



If the fields are not blank as in the above picture. Press the add button to add a new record. The add button is the red circular button at the top with the + sign in it. Then type in the client data into the fields. In the example below, we added the Acme Piping client.



The Client ID field is a unique identifier for the client. Every different client must have it's own ID. The name can be anything you like. It is used to assign a descriptive name to the ID. All other fields are optional. The rate field indicates the rate at which you bill this client. The active field indicates whether the client can have time billed to it. If the active field is not set this client will not show up in any of the client pull-down lists in Timesheets.

Entering Projects

Now let us add the Hydrostatic pump project. Click on the Projects tab. The Projects tab will look like this.



If the fields are not blank as in the above picture. Press the add button to add a new record. The add button is the red circular button at the top with the + sign in it. Then type in the project data into the fields. In the example below, we added the Hydrostatic pump project project.



The Project ID field is a unique identifier for the project. Every different project must have it's own ID. The description can be anything you like. It is used to assign a name to the ID. All other fields are optional. The rate field indicates the rate at which you bill time to this project. The client ID field indicates to which client this project belogs. If a project is assigned to a client, when a new client is selected from the timesheet screen, only the projects that are associated with that client will show up on the Project pull-down list. The active field indicates whether the project can have time billed to it. If the active field is not set this project will not show up in any of the project pull-down lists in Timesheets. The deposit hours field indicates the number of hours this project has been paid for in advance. The deposit hours field would only be used by someone like a lawyer that is paid on retainer.

Entering Tasks

Now let us add the tasks. To add tasks click the tasks tab.



If the fields are not blank as in the above picture. Press the add button to add a new record. The add button is the red circular button at the top with the + sign in it. Then type in the task data into the fields. In the example below, we added the Design task.



The Task ID field is a unique identifier for the project. Every different task must have it's own ID. The description can be anything you like. It is used to assign a name to the ID. All other fields are optional. The rate field indicates the rate at which you bill time to this task. The Project ID field indicates to which project this task belongs. If a task is assigned to a project, when a new project is selected from the main screen, only the tasks that are associated with that project will show up on the Task pull-down list. The active field indicates whether the task can have time billed to it. If the active field is not set this task will not show up in any of the task pull-down lists in Timesheets.

Entering Employee Projects

The Employee Projects tab is used to assign projects to different people. The Employee ID is the user name of the person the project has been assigned to.

Entering Employee Tasks

The Employee Tasks tab is used to assign tasks to different people. The Employee ID is the user name of the person the task has been assigned to.

Entering Other Data

Entering Divisions

The Divisions tab is used to setup your different divisions. For example, your company might consist of several different companies or have offices in several different cities. You can use divisions to split up time data for each different divisions. Each division has separate configurations, separate administrators, separate project lists, separate holidays and separate employees lists.

Entering Holidays

Other Data

The remaining data tabs are used by the software itself and normally will not need to be edited. See the Timesheets Tables section of the help file for detailed information on these and other tables.