Copyright: Copyright © West Wind Technologies, 1994
Citation: Copyright © West Wind Technologies, 1994


 Contents

What is Time Trakker Plus	Main Menu

Registering Time Trakker Plus	Utility Menu

Getting Started	Time Trakker Defaults

Punching In	Invoices

Punching Out	How Invoices Work

Manual Time Entry	Deleting Invoices

Sale Items	Time Reports

Client Information	Browse Time Entries

Account Detail

Calendar

Report Menu

Sales Report

Time Trakker Parameters


 Main Menu

Welcome to the Time Trakker Plus Main Menu. This two screen  menu is your starting point for all operations in the program. The menu consists of two screens: The main screen, which contains all of the operational options and the utility menu, which contains information, maintainence and utility options. Here's a quick overview of what each of the menu options do:

Punch In

Punch in lets you start a time entry by issuing a new entry and stamping it with the current time and date. Use Punch Out to stop the time entry.

Punch Out

Punch Out stamps a stop time to an entry punched in with the Punch In option. If any entries are currently open waiting to be punched out a mark a light bulb in Windows, a diamond in DOS show next to this option. The mark disappears as soon as no entries are pending any longer. If more than one entry is open you will be presented with a list of entries to choose from.

Manual Entry

Manual entries are used to enter entries with the same format as Punch In/Out, but without having to actually punch in at the correct time. It is useful for logging time spent away from the computer, or for entries that you simply forgot to punch in and now want to log. This option is a one-stop way to create a time entry.

Sale Items

Sale Items allow you to create non-time related entries. Think of this option as entering line items into an invoice without actually working on an invoice. You can specify a date, price, amount and description to create a line item.

Invoicing

The invoicing module is used to create or review invoices. In general invoices are created in the Time Reports screen using a batch method to collect all pending entries. Once created you can review and edit these invoices using the Invoicing option. You can also create invoices from scratch here for impromptu invoicing for things like walk ins or phone sales.

Reports

The reporting module allows you take the entries you have generated over a given period and create reports on them. Many options are available here to provide different views of your time data . The reporting module is also the place where you create permanent invoices. When creating invoices an editable invoice is created, the result of which can be edited in the Invoicing option. Invoices created here can be edited and re-printed in the Invoicing module.

Browse Entries

This option is a simple maintainence routine that allows you to look at individual time entries and modify them. There are various filter options available that allow you to view just a selected group of records. A Browse menu (TT-Browse) provides various utilities to aid in the Browse process.

Attach to System Menu

Time Trakker can be run both standalone, or be hooked to the FoxPro system menu using the Attach to System Menu option. If you're reading this help topic you're probably running TT standalone. If you attach Time Trakker to the system menu a Time Trakker menu bar will be available to you and your applications at all times as long as the system menu is not cleared. When working within FoxPro this is handy, since this leaves Time Trakker only a mouse click away at any time.


 Time Trakker Defaults

See also: What is Time Trakker Plus, Getting Started

The Time Trakker defaults screen lets you personalize the program to your preferences.

Company Setup

The company information given here will be used to print on all of your Time Trakker reports. Note that there's also an option to print reports on your own letterhead below.

Next Invoice Number

Invoices in Time Trakker are created sequentially in the range from 1-99999999. The number here determines the next invoice number that is generated barring that the invoice number is already in use. If an invoice number in the sequence exists already the number and any others in the sequence that exist are skipped.

Taxrate

You can set up a taxrate here that is used on taxable items of your invoices when calculating totals. The tax total is displayed as part of your invoice and broken out for you in the Invoice Sales Report available on the invoice menu.

Use your own Letterhead

If you prefer you can have Time Trakker print all of your reports on your own letterhead. The letterhead must occupy no more than the top 1.5 inches from the top of the page. This option is only a default - you can override this setting each time you print a report. If you don't use your own letterhead Time Trakker will use the company information given above under Company Setup.

Modem Comm Port

Time Trakker supports dialing a modem for you using client phone numbers. If your computer has a modem attached and you want to use this feature, specify a Comm Port here. Only specify the number from 1-4 or leave it blank for no modem. This feature might not work for all modems/serial ports. If you have problems disable modem use by entering a blank here.

Bill Type Options

This button leads to a list that allows you to add and delete bill types. Bill types are used to 'classify' time entries, which can help you when using the report module. Several default types are set up for your use. You can use these and add to them, or delete them altogether and create your own.

You will be presented with a list of all available bill types. Press Alt-A to add a new bill type, or Alt-D to delete an entry.

Default BillType

The default billtype is used on new clients as they are created. You can attach a bill type to each client if you choose and the default chosen here is simply the default before you make a specific choices.

Hour Rounding

Time Trakker allows you to round your time entries. The methods available are None, Up, Down, and Round. You can also set up a decimal to round to. For example .50 rounds to the nearest half hour, .25 to the nearest quarter of an hour etc. Rounding up always rounds up, down always rounds down, round rounds to the closest rounding point, none turns off rounding and uses the exact time by the minute.

Default Billing Rate

The default billing rate, like the default billtype, is used as a default when creating new clients. Again, once you create new clients this rate comes up as the default and can be overridden if another rate applies.

Maintain Users

Users in Time Trakker are the people that are responsible for Time Trakker entries. Each Time Trakker entry has a user that created the entry. The user list that you create here should contain one entry for each person who will create Time Trakker Entries. You will be presented with a list of all available users. Press Alt-A to add a new user, Alt-D to delete a user on the list. You must enter at least one user in order to be able to exit the Setup screen.


 Registering Time Trakker Plus

See also: What is Time Trakker Plus

This program is distributed as shareware, so you can try it out and see whether it is matches your needs. The software is fully functional except for a 'nag' screen that pops up after more than 50 time entries have been made. The trial period for Time Trakker Plus is 30 days or fifty entries whichever comes first. If at that point you want to continue using Time Trakker Plus you must register your copy of the program.

Registration is easy: Simply GO SWREG on CompuServe and search for registration ID 3967. You can also register by mail/check (see below).

With your registration of Time Trakker Plus you will receive the latest version of the application and the complete FoxPro 2.6 source code. The program is continually upgraded due to requests by users and upgrades through the next full version are available by request to registered users for the price of shipping & handling see below.

FoxPro Standard Registration - $49.00

The FoxPro standard registration fee for Time Trakker Plus is $49.00 plus $3.00 shipping and handling for shipping by US Mail (foreign orders add an additional $3.00), $6.00 for sending Time Trakker Plus via CompuServe E-Mail (500k ZIP file) as soon as your registration is received. This registration requires that you own a copy of FoxPro 2.5 for Windows or higher.

This registration allows you to use Time Trakker Plus and modify its source code for your own use or for inclusion in 'custom', compiled applications delivered to clients as long as significant value is added to the application by you in addition to the functionality of Time Trakker Plus. A 'custom' application in this context is an application distributed to one individual or a single client organization. You may use Time Trakker Plus in this context for as many applications as you see fit.

An unlimited distribution license for inclusion of Time Trakker Plus code in 'vertical' compiled applications is also available. A vertical application in this context is an application designed to sell to a 'general' market rather than a project being completed for a specific client. This license allows you distribute as many copies of Time Trakker Plus as necessary within your compiled application. For the price of this license you will receive one copy of Time Trakker Plus with source code and the right to use Time Trakker Plus in any of your compiled vertical applications. Please contact me for pricing on this option.

Source Code

For either type of registration you may not distribute the source code of any parts of Time Trakker Plus with your  applications. If you need to distribute the source code, it will be necessary to license each copy of Time Trakker Plus individually. Discounts available. Contact me for details at the below address.

All Time Trakker Plus code is © West Wind Technologies, 1994/1995 no matter how many modifications are made to it.

Standalone Site License - $99.00

The standalone Site License registration allows you to run Time Trakker Plus without owning a copy of FoxPro. This method of registration licenses Time Trakker Plus to your organization and allows to run it on any machine within that organization. The standalone site license registration fee for Time Trakker Plus is $99.00 plus $5.00 shipping and handling for shipping by US Mail (2 disks) (foreign orders add $5.00), $10.00 for sending Time Trakker Plus via CompuServe E-Mail (2.5meg ZIP file) as soon as your registration is received.

*** NO CIS REGISTRATION CODE YET***

Upgrades

Registered users of any previous version of Time Trakker Plus can upgrade their copy to 5.x for the $3.00/$6.00 or $5.00/$10.00 shipping and handling charge. Updates of Time Trakker Plus are frequently posted on FoxForum in the Third Party Section 10 and are available free, except for shipping and handling through the next full version.

Time Trakker users of versions 3.x and below, who have registered before December 1st, 1994 can also upgrade for the shipping and handling fee. Upgrades for registrations after December 1st are $20.00 plus shipping and handling.

All upgrades are handled via US Snail mail only at this time (see address below).

Customization available

West Wind Technologies can provide programming services to customize Time Trakker or Time Trakker Plus to your specific needs. Reasonable rates and fast turn around. Why re-invent the wheel? Call Rick at West Wind Technologies (503) 386-2087 or leave E-Mail at 76427,2363@compuserve.com for more information. General FoxPro programming services are also available.

How to register

•	By Check or Money Order: Payments can be made by check in US currency made out to West Wind Technologies. Send to the following address:

West Wind Technologies

400 Morton Road

Hood River, OR 97031

U.S.A.

•	CompuServe ShareWare Registration GO SWREG #3967: You can also register Time Trakker Plus online on CompuServe and charge the registration to the credit card used for CompuServe Billing. At the CIS prompt simply type:

GO SWREG

You can search for Time Trakker Plus or use the registration ID which is 3967. Note that the total charge is $55.00 which includes sending the registered version and Time Trakker Plus source to you via CompuServe mail as soon as your registration is received. If you would like to receive your copy in a different fashion, you must leave E-Mail to Rick Strahl at 76427,2363.

If you could, please include information on the version number you are currently using and where you got this shareware copy of Time Trakker Plus from...

Contact Information

For additional questions, comments etc. you can reach me at:

E-Mail: 	76427,2363@compuserve.com

(or FOXUSER, Section 10 on Compuserve)

Phone: 	(503) 386-2087

Other products available from West Wind Technologies:

WEST WIND E-MAIL

Version 2.x

West Wind E-Mail is a full featured E-Mail system for FoxPro. It can run either standalone or be fully integrated into your  own FoxPro apps and is even smart enough to use your existing user/password file.

Features include split window reply, quoting, forwarding,  printing, binary file attachments, its own login and user management screens, saving messages to save folders, user groups, message encryption (Windows only) and much more.

Send E-Mail under program control! Very easy to use and flexible to integrate. Full FoxPro DOS/Win cross-platform support.

Fully functional shareware

available on FoxUser  Third Party Library as WW_EML.ZIP

$49 with source

WEST WIND TIME CLOCK coming soon

Time Clock is a software Time Clock that can easily integrate into the FoxPro environment and your applications. Employee's  can punch in/out multiple times per day, and managers can have manual access to create entries from scratch or override invalid punch ins. A security system, which is flexible enough to use your existing user/password file is provided to let employee's log in when punching in/out.

Time Clock features overtime calculation, several 'time card' reports, full DOS/Windows cross platform support and easy integration into your apps.


 Utility Menu

The utilities menu contains various options to maintain and configure your Time Trakker installation.

About

The About option shows the current version of Time Trakker and a function overview.

Mark Entries as Billed

This maintainence option can be used to quickly glance at all entries that have not yet been billed. You can tag\untag individual entries. Mainly used to double check and clean up entries that might have been missed.

Pack and Reindex

Pack and reindex is a necessary evil that optimizes the Time Trakker data files. Should be performed once a week along with a backup of your data.

Time Trakker File Maintainence

Incomplete. Implemented only for TIMEBILL.DBF.

Append from backup

Incomplete. Implemented only for TIMEBILL.DBF.

Time Trakker Defaults

This option allows you to set up several options that customize the way Time Trakker works to your preferences.


 Getting Started

See Also: What is Time Trakker Plus, Time Trakker Defaults

I know, I know. Spare me the details and let me get going, right? Alright! Simply copy the distribution files into a directory and start Time Trakker Plus from the FoxPro command box by typing:

 DO TIMETRAK

You'll be prompted for various files to be created. All of them need to be created so go ahead and Ok each one of the options.

Next you're transported to the Time Trakker Defaults setup screen where you can customize some of the options for Time Trakker Plus. See the help file for questions regarding any of the options. You will need to create at least one user name before you are allowed to exit this screen. Users are the people who are going to log time, so your name is a likely canidate as is anybody else who you might want to distinguish from yourself when logging time.

Once you've set up Time Trakker Plus you're ready to get to work and start logging some time.

And you're off to explore on your own! Keep in mind help is available for all screens - just press F1 or click on the help button.


 What is Time Trakker Plus

Welcome and thank you for checking out Time Trakker Plus!

The Time Trakker series of programs is geared towards service oriented business and keeping track of time spent on projects and clients and providing detailed information based on the time and expenses logged in the process as well as providing and printing the billing information you need to invoice your clients.

Here are some of Time Trakker Plus' features:

•	Easy to use! Very visual interface. Standalone or System menu operation for 'always-on' operation within FoxPro. Context sensitive help and popup-menu options.

•	Time tracking using a time clock metaphor allowing you to punch in and out, or using manual time entries to handle time away from the computer.

•	Also track sales and expense items in addition to time entries.

•	Entries have attached billing rates/sale prices to track billing information for you.

•	Attach a free-form description to each entry to describe entries in detail.

•	Support for multiple user definable bill types so you can classify your entries. Time Trakker Plus also supports tracking of multiple users.

•	Flexible query front end and reports allow you to look at your entries in a variety of ways.

•	Reports provided are Time Log, Detail Sales, Invoices, Invoice Sales, Summary Sales, Account Detail and Account Aging.

•	Generate fully editable invoices of your accumulated entries. Invoices support time entries, sales and expense items. Figures out taxes and allows you to attach a payment method.

•	Interactively review and edit the invoices in the Invoice module.

•	Apply account payments to invoices, and view and edit account status either by invoice or customer.

•	Use the Aging report to help you get control of clients who take their sweet time to pay you and get a big picture of what's still coming to you.

•	Printed invoices look like an invoice should, are 'envelope-ready', ready to be mailed. Option to print on your own letterhead or use the default invoice header.

•	Generate sales reports from your invoices. Breaks out your sales for taxes and payment types.

•	Summary sales reports give you a quick look at your how you did over a given period, including displaying of graphs.

•	Flexible client setup for multiple phone numbers including dialer, E-Mail adresses and long, custom addresses. Client record also holds default settings for entries generated by a client.

•	Many utility features: Integrated calendar for all date lookups, phone dialer for customers, print reports on your own letterhead, round time entries.

•	Current version is Windows only with the basic Time Entry/Sales entry modules also provided in DOS, so you can use TT Plus for tracking time in DOS. Full DOS/Win Cross-Platform capabilities will be added later.

•	Full FoxPro Source Code available with registration. There's lots of reusable library code here, so check it out!

Of course there's much more. You have to check it out and see for yourself.

Time Trakker Plus is Shareware

The shareware version of Time Trakker Plus is available on CompuServe's FOXUSER forum in the Third Party Library as TTPLUS.ZIP. The shareware version is fully functional and approximately a 150k byte file. The registration fee for Time Trakker is a low introductory $49.00 through the end of Febuary 1995.


 Invoices

See also: How Invoices Work, Deleting Invoices, Account Detail

The invoice screen allows you to edit existing invoices as well as create new invoices from scratch. In most cases invoices will be created by running a report from the Time Reports option on the main menu. Using this method you pick time, sales and expense entries that are to be part of one or many invoices. As you run the report for these entries, the entries are added to an invoice for eachof the clients included in the query.

The result is an invoice that you can modify, add to and delete using this invoice screen. New invoices can also be created here by pressing the New Invoice button for the ability to create invoices for things like walk ins and phone sales.

Creating Invoices

In most cases invoices are created in batch format by using the Time Reports Invoice option: You enter your time entries individually for the time of your billing period using Punch In/Out, Manual Entry or Sale Items. Then at the end of the period you run an Invoice Report for the selected period, after which you have the option to create permanent, editable invoices. Once created these invoices can be edited on this screen.

Alternately, you can create invoices right here on the invoice screen by pressing the New Invoice button. You will be prompted for a client name and can then proceed to create entries for this invoice right here on the invoice screen.

Invoice Lineitems

The invoice lineitems are made up of individual time, expense or sale item entries. Existing entries in this list can be edited by double clicking or pressing ENTER on the highlighted item. You can add new entries and delete entries using the buttons below the list.

Invoice Totals

The invoice maintains dollar totals for the cumulutive items by re-calculating the balances after editing each entry. The tax total is computed on all taxable line items using the tax rate in the tax rate field on screen. The Tax Rate may be changed in the system defaults screen or individually in the invoice by clicking the mouse on the rate. It can only be accessed via the mouse.

Add Item

This buttons adds a new Sales Item or Expense entry. A sales item is an entry that allows you to specify a dollar amount and a quantity, as well as description and date to describe the transaction. All non-time entries should use this option to create new invoice line items. The screen that pops up is the same as the Sale Items screen from the Main Menu.

New Entry

This button is very similiar to the Add Item option, except that this button is intended to handle time related entries. The screen that pops up here allows you to enter a date, time in, time out, or simply a number of hours, a billing rate and description. The screen presented here is the same as the Manual Time Entry from the Main Menu.

Delete Entry

This option deletes the currently highlighted lineitem from the lineitem list. When a lineitem is deleted all record of the entry is wiped out, even for entries that were created 'standalone' and added to an invoice using the Invoice Report. In other words, the lineitem is no longer available to be queried using any method including a Time Log Report or Detail Report. see How Invoices Work.

Paid by

This popup allows you to select the payment type for your invoice. Payment types are broken out by the Invoice Sales Report using the Reports button below. Payment types available are Cash, Check, Credit Card, Account. Most service type business bill on account, so this is the default.

NOTE: Please use care when working with Account invoices. If you apply payments towards an invoice, and you change the payment type to non-account all payments will be lost.

Account Balance

The balance field displays the current balance of an account invoice. The balance is the difference between the invoice total and any payments made by the client on the invoice. You can click on the balance amount to bring up the account detail window, which allows you to apply and edit payments for this invoice.

VCR Navigation Buttons

The navigation buttons on the lower left of the invoice screen allow you to browse your invoices in a invoice number order. Up buttons go toward the first invoice, the down button moves one closer towards the end. The buttons with the dash above/below them go to the first/last invoice.

Find

The find button lets you select a specific invoice from a list of all invoices. The list is presented in alphabetical order with the last invoice for each client showing first. To find an invoice for a particular client, simply start typing the name of the client and the list will move you to that client using an incremental search of any letters that you typed so far.

New Invoice

Creating a new invoice involves selecting a client to create an invoice for. When pressing this button a list of existing clients will pop up for you to choose a client from, or you may use the new button to create a new client as needed. Once a client has been chosen/created the you are presented with a new empty invoice for you to fill.

Print

Use the Print button to print the current invoice. There are options to allow you to select whether you want to print a detailed invoice, or a summarized invoice, which summarizes all time entries by their respective bill types.

Reports

For now this option should read Report in the singular, since only one report is printed at this time. This report is a sales report of invoice sales over a given date range. You will be prompted for a date range and a report of all invoices including net sales, tax amounts, and breakouts for the different payment methods will be printed for you.

Client Options

The top left of the invoice displays the client name and the first of his phone numbers. Press the Edit button to look at or edit the client's information. If a phone number is displayed you can also dial that number providing you have a modem and have your Comm port set up appropriately in the Time Trakker Defaults screen.

Invoice Date

The invoice date is automatically generated at the time the invoice is originally created. In most cases you'll want to leave that date alone, but if necessary it can be edited to meet your needs.

Sold by, PO #, Ship By

These fields are solely used for display purposes on the printed invoice and provided here as common entries that are made for reference. Use them any way you see fit.

Ok - Save me

Pressing the Ok Button saves all changes made to this invoice without any further prompts. You'll also be prompted to save any changes you made whenever moving to a new invoice or printing a report.

Cancel or I changed my mind

Pressing Cancel aborts all changes made to the invoice, since the last time you saved. Remember that whenever you move to another invoice or print your invoice is saved and can only be undone up to that point.

Delete Invoice

Deleting an invoice can be accomplished using two differrent methods: The invoices can be deleted completely including wiping out all the individual entries, or can be undone, which deletes the invoice but keeps the entries intact by removing the references to this invoice and their billed status. See Deleting Invoices for more detail.


 Punching In

See Also: Punching Out, Client Information

This screen is your starting point for creating new Time Trakker entries. Punching in starts the clock for time entries. The time and date are displayed, in the upper right corner of the screen. The clock keeps on ticking until you punch out using the Punch Out option on menu.

Selecting a client

The first step to punching in is selecting a client to work with. If you're starting Time Trakker for the first time the list of clients is going to be empty. Otherwise all of your existing clients will show in this list.

To select an existing client simply double click or press ENTER on his/her name. Once you select a client you'll notice that the text area below the list gets filled with the selected name and yourcursor is moved on the Punch In button.

Entering a new client

If no clients exist yet, or you need to enter a new client you can do so in the text area below the list box. When you type a new name and move off the field you will be moved to the client screen which allows you to provide more detailed client information like address, phone number and preferences.

User name

The user popup allows you attribute this time entry to a particular user. This is useful to figure out later who did what work. This information is used in the Report module. The user can also be changed in the Punch Out Screen.

Date and Time

Sometimes it might be useful to edit the date and time of punching in on a time entry. Since this is not 'poper' behavior, the date and time values can't be accessed via the normal Tab order. You can however click on either one with the mouse and edit the time and date.

Punch in and Cancel

Finally when you have completed your selections you are ready to commit your entry by pressing the Punch In button. You can only Punch in if a client has been selected. You can also exit the screen without punching in by pressing the Cancel Button.

And now: Happy time logging!


 Punching Out

See Also: Calendar, Manual Entry, Punching In

Punching out will stop the clock on a pending time entry created with the Punch In option. A pending entry is always shown with a special mark next to the Punch Out option on the main menu. In Windows a red light bulb is displayed, while DOS uses a diamond next to the menu option.

This screen lets you customize the pending entry, allowing you both to punch out the entry, or add to the description and keep it running, using the Leave Open button. This can be useful for keeping track of work in progress for longish entries.

Description

The description field is a free form text field that allows you to enter as much information as you need about your time entry. You can zoom the text entry field by clicking the right mouse button or pressing Ctrl-Spacebar. You may also use the zoom button in the upper right corner of the description editing field. The bigger region makes it easier to type long entries.

Bill Type

Choose the bill type that applies to this entry. The bill type allows you to classify your entry. Bill types can be set up in the system defaults screen.

User

The user selection popup allows you to attribute a user to your time entry. User are set up in the defaults screen and help in figuring out who did what when more than one person uses Time Trakker.

Date and Time

While you can edit the date and time here it's considered bad etiquette. Punch In and Punch Out are intended to measure actual time spent. So: No cheating! <g>

In case you need it though, you can change the date and time. Keep in mind that the maximum date/time range is one full day or 23:59 hours. There's only one date field per entry, so if you have entries that span multiple days you must punch in/out at least once within that period. Any time changes made are automatically re-calculated showing a new value for total hours of this entry. If you leave both punch in and out times empty you may also enter a value directly into the total hours field, without specifying actual time values.

In order to clear a date or time press Ctrl-Y, which will also get you out of a rut if you enter an invalid date/time. Press Rightmouse or Ctrl-Spacebar on the date field to bring up the calendar to select a date.

Billing Rate

The billing rate comes up with the default set up for this particular client and can be changed to your preference.

Totals

Both time and dollar totals are calculated and updated automatically as each field is filled out or modified.

Punch Out

Punching out will finalize this time entry and mark it as punched out, meaning it will no longer show up as a marked entry next to the Punch option on the main menu.

Leave Open

As previously discussed you can make changes to the current entries' description and settings and keep the clock running after you exit. Leave open does just that, allowing you to easily write down cumulative descriptions as you are working on an entry.

Copy Last

The copy last checkbox pulls the description and name from the last entry that was previously created. This is useful for entries that are started and stopped alot and allows you to quickly reload the information from the previous entry, most of which would apply to the current entry in that case.


 Calendar

The calendar is available on all date fields within Time Trakker by clicking the left mouse key or Ctrl-Spacebar. You can use the calendar to select a new date and paste it into the original date field that the calendar was called from.

Selecting a date

Once in the calendar module selecting a date is easy. Simply click on the date displayed to select it. You can move around to other months and dates by using the buttons:

M	Changes the month

Y	Changes the year

Today	Changes the date to the current date

Select	Accepts the date change and pastes it into the date field that the calendar was called from.

Cancel	Cancels the date changes and leaves the original date as it was. ESC has the same effect.


Not Implemented Yet


 Manual Time Entry

See Also: Punching In, Punching Out, Client Information

At first look the manual time entry might look like 'cheating'. But, hey, we're all adults around here, right?

The manual time entry allows you create an entry in which you can edit both the start and end times, or one which only contains a number for total hours. As with punching out, the time in and time out values are calculated  for elapsed time and the total charge is computed based on the billing rate.

Selecting a client

The first step to creating a manual entry is selecting a client to work with. If you're starting Time Trakker for the first the list of clients is going to be empty. Otherwise all of your existing clients will show in this list.

To select an existing client simply double click or press ENTER on his/her name. Once you select a client you'll notice that the text area to the right of the list gets filled with the selected name and your cursor is moved onto the Punch Out button.

Entering a new client

If no clients exist yet, or you need to enter a new client you can do so in the text area to the right of the list box. When you type a new name and move off the field you will be moved to the client screen which allows you to provide more detailed client information like address, phone number and preferences.

Bill Type

Choose the bill type that applies to this entry. The bill type allows you to classify your entry. Bill types can be set up in the system defaults screen.

User

The user selection popup allows you to attribute a user to your time entry. User are set up in the defaults screen.

Date and Time

Keep in mind that the maximum date/time range is one full day or 23:59 hours. There's only one date field per entry, so if you have entries that span multiple days you must punch in/out at least once within that period. Any time changes made are automatically re-calculated showing a new value for total hours of this entry. If you leave both punch in and out times entry you may also enter a value into the total hours field directly, without specifying actual time values.

In order to clear a date or time press Ctrl-Y which will also get you out of a rut if you enter an invalid date/time. Press Rightmouse or Ctrl-Spacebar on the date field to bring up the calendar to select a date.

Billing Rate

The billing rate comes up with the default set up for this particular client and can be changed to your preference.

Totals

Both time and dollar totals are calculated and updated automatically as each field is filled out or modified.

Description

The description field is a free form text field that allows you to enter as much information as you need about your time entry. You can zoom the text entry field by clicking the right mouse button or pressing Ctrl-Spacebar. You may also use the zoom button in the upper right corner of the description editing field. The bigger region makes it easier to type long entries.

Ok and Cancel

Once you're all through entering your client and time information your entry is ready to be committed. Press the Ok button to save the changes, Cancel to abort. You can only commit the changes if a client has been picked.


 Client Information

See also: Dialer, Time Trakker Defaults, Punching In, Manual Entry, Sale Items

The client screen contains billing, contact and preference information about each of your clients.

Client Name

The client name is what your client is known by within Time Trakker. This is the name you'll see popping up on the various client listboxes that allow you to select the customer to work with. This name can be up to 30 characters long.

In care of

You can also specific a name to be used as a c/o on invoices. For example the client might be a company and you want to address a specific person, or the accounting department with your invoice. Or it might be the other way around. This field is optional and if blank, will be omitted on your invoices.

Address

The address used on invoices. The address can be up to 3 lines long, 4 if no c/o is used. The remainded of this field can also be used to keep client notes. Just make sure the first 5 lines contain the possible client address information.

Phones

The phone number field supports as many phone numbers as you need to enter. Each phone number should fit on one line and may contain descriptions on the same line as the number. For example:

Office	(503) 386-2087

Home:	(503) 386-xxxx

Fax:	(503) 386-7084

Car:	(503) 387-1121

Phone dialing

If you have a modem installed in your computer you can use it to dial one of the phone numbers entered in the Phones field. To use this feature make sure you have set up a COMM port to use in the System Defaults screen.

While on the Phones field press the Right Mouse button or Ctrl-Spacebar. If only a single number is entered here the dialer will come right up. If more than one number are available a picklist willallow you to select one of the numbers to dial.

E-Mail

The E-Mail text region allows you to enter one or multiple E-Mail addresses for the client, much in the same way as the phone numbers.

Default Bill Type

The default bill type is used when creating new time entries. This value is what comes up originally when you create a new entry. You can always change the value in each entry, of course.

Billing Rate

The default billing rate determines the default value that comes up for new time entries. As with the bill type, this value can be changed in the individual entries, of course.

Ok, Cancel - Delete

Once you've made your adjustments to the client you can press Ok to save the changes or Cancel to abort them.

If you're working on an existing client you can also delete the client. NOTE: Deleting a client will delete all of his related time entries and invoices. You might delete a lot of entries, so please be sure you're doing the right thing <g>.


 Sale Items

See Also: Client Information, Manual Entry, Time Trakker Defaults

The sale items screen allows you to enter non-time entries. You can use them for sales items like hardware, software, fixed sub-contracted jobs for example. It can also be used to keep track of other things like billable expenses such as phone costs, service charges etc.

Selecting a client

The first step to creating a new sales entry is selecting a client to work with. If you're starting Time Trakker for the first the list of clients is going to be empty. Otherwise all of your existing clients will show in this list.

To select an existing client simply double click or press ENTER on his/her name. Once you select a client you'll notice that the text area below the list gets filled with the selected name and yourcursor is moved on the Price field.

Entering a new client

If no clients exist yet, or you need to enter a new client you can do so in the text area below the list box. When you type a new name and move off the field you will be moved to the client screen which allows you to provide more detailed client information like address, phone number and preferences.

Bill Type

Choose the bill type that applies to this entry. The bill type allows you to classify your entry. Bill types can be set up in the system defaults screen.

User

The user selection popup allows you to attribute a user to your time entry. User are set up in the defaults screen.

Price and Quantity

The price field is the dollar amount per unit of the item that you would like to enter, the quantity is the number of items that you are billing for. For example if you sell three copies of SoftwareXYZ for $40.00 each the price is $40.00 and the quantity is 3 for a charge $120.00. If you enter other services or expenses like phone bills etc. you probably enter the entire amount as the price and use a quantity of 1.

Tax

Sales items can also be marked as taxable. The status of this field is picked up when creating invoices. If the item is taxable and the invoice has a sales taxrate set up, the tax will be calculate on the invoice.

You can set up the taxrate using the Time Trakker Defaults screen.

Totals

All entry totals are calculated and updated automatically as each field is filled out or modified.

Description

The description field is a free form text field that allows you to enter as much information as you need about your entry. You can zoom the text entry field by clicking the right mouse button or pressing Ctrl-Spacebar. You may also use the zoom button in the upper right corner of the description editing field. The bigger region makes it easier to type long entries.

Ok and Cancel

Once you're all through entering your client and item information your entry is ready to be committed. Press the Ok button to save the changes, Cancel to abort. You can only commit the changes if a client has been picked.


 How Invoices Work

See also: Invoices, Deleting Invoices

Invoices in Time Trakker Plus are a somewhat abstract topic, and thus warrant their own topic with an overview of how they work.

Invoices consist of two pieces that make up the total invoice: There's an invoice header which consists of the charge totals, payment information, client information, invoice date, etc. And then there are the actual Time or Sale Item entries, which comprise the invoice line items.

Punching Entries

In most cases Time Trakker is used to track time entries on a daily basis, meaning that you'll end up using the Punch In/Out, Manual Entry and Sales Items options from the main menu most of the time to log time and sales of items. As these entries are created they are not part of any invoice yet - they exist on their own in a seperate file.

Reports and Creating Invoices

At the end of the month you undoubtably want to create invoices from the entries that you have painstakingly created throughout the month, so you can inform your clients of what they owe you for your hard work. In order to create invoices from these entries you can use the Time Trakker Reports option from the Main Menu and select Invoices as the report to print.

To create any report in Time Trakker you can make several selections to identify the entries you would like to report on. Creating invoices is no different, except that the process of printing invoices also creates a new invoice record and changes your original entries so that they become part of that invoice. Invoices are abstract objects that contain both invoice information and all the detail records that you select using the Time Report query menu options. Each client in your selection becomes a seperate invoice.

Thus, unlike the other reports on this screen creating invoices always changes your original time entries, by adding an invoice number to it and automatically marking the entry as billed. The idea is thatwhen you invoice somebody, that entry becomes part of the invoice and it is considered, that you have billed your client for the time/items on that invoice.

As part of the invoice you can still use the other reports like the time log and detail report - just keep in mind that all invoiced line items are marked as billed and make sure that included either Billed items or Both in order to catch entries from invoices.

Creating Invoice on the Fly

Time Trakker also allows you to create impromptu invoices, without using a batch method. In most cases the batch method is more convenient, since you don't worry about invoicing until a given period is up. Sometimes however it's useful to create invoices from scratch. For example, somebody may call up and place a phone order, or a support call, or somebody may walk into your office and buy some software from you. In those instances you want to create an invoice immediately. The invoicing module supports full invoice creation facilities for those occasions.

Deleting Invoices

Sometimes things don't work out! You create a bunch of invoices using the Time Trakker Reports screen and you find out that your date range was incorrect, or you didn't include that one old entry that was on hold. What to do?

While the delete option sounds drastic, there are actually two ways to delete an invoice: Delete and Undo. The more drastic of the two is Deletion. It wipes out the invoice record, as well as all the line item entries contained on this invoice. Undo also deletes the invoice record, but instead of deleting the line item entries it simply 'undoes' them from the invoice by removing the invoice reference and the billed status from these entries. Entries undone in this matter can be re-invoiced later for another shot.


 Deleting Invoices

See also: Invoices, How Invoices Work

Since invoices are abstract objects in Time Trakker Plus that are made of multiple pieces, there are two distinct methods of dealing with invoice deletion:

•	Delete - Deleting an invoice will wipe out the record of the invoice, as well as deleting all time and sales entries that make up the invoice regardless how the invoice was created.

•	Undo - Undoing an invoice will also wipeout the record of the actual invoice, but will leave the indivdual time and sales entries intact. Those entries essentially get 'unmarked' from the invoice  by removing the invoice number and their billed status from them. Entries unmarked in this manner can thus be re-invoiced or otherwise be marked as billed using the Time Reports option.

Both Delete and Undo have their place. If you created an invoice standalone from the Invoicing module it is likely that you want to delete the invoice completely including all the detail entries.

On the other hand, you might have created an invoice using the Time Report Invoice option, and when reviewing the invoice realized that there's a major error in what information was included. Rather than having to re-enter all those entries you would want to undo the invoice and re-run your invoice report with the proper query selections.


 Time Reports

See also: Time Trakker Defaults

The Time Reports let you evaluate your accumulated time entries and print reports on them based on various query selections that can be made on this screen.

Clients

You can select either all clients (the default) by selecting the All Clients checkbox, or uncheck it and select one or multiple clients from the list of existing clients. Keep in mind that long lists of individual clients might overload the FoxPro command line. If your the client selection contains too many selections you will be warned of the problem.

Users

The user selection allows you to select the entries from individual users that have created entries. Useful for tracking your performance and efficiency against that of your co-workers.

Bill Types

You can also specifically search on one or multiple bill types. Likewise you can exclude entries. For example, it might be useful to create invoices of all entries, except those that are on 'Hold' for one reason or another.

Date Range

You can specify a date range for the entries that you would like to report on. By default Time Trakker comes up with the earliest unbilled date it can find, and it will remember the last date that you set in the To date within this Time Trakker session. You can bring up the calendar to select a new date using Rightmouse or Ctrl-Spacebar, or simply type in a new date.

Unbilled, Billed or Both

This somewhat cryptic radio button determines whether you want to work with unbilled, billed or either type of entries. The default is unbilled, since in most cases you don't want to look at the entries you have previously billed again. Sometimes it might be useful to look at billed entries by themselves, or a combination of billed and unbilled ones when running checking out past periods or doing review reports.

Mark Entries as Billed

Time Trakker entries are either tagged as Unbilled or Billed. When you create an entry it is unbilled until you either create an invoice that includes this entry or use this function mark selected entries as billed. If you use invoicing, you probably have no need for this feature as entries get automatically billed.

When you decide to Mark entries as billed you can print your report as normal, and once you are done you are prompted to Ok marking the entries that were just printed as Billed.

Copy Records to File

Using this option allows you to print a report as usual, but also output the selected Time Trakker entries to a seperate DBF/FPT file.

Report Selection

There are three different reports that can be run from this screen:

•	Time Log - The Time Log report shows only time related entries. The entries are organized and grouped by client and subgrouped by bill type. This report ignores all sale and expense items.

In most cases you will probably use the client/billtype order to determine how many hours where spent on each client. If you have multiple users of Time Trakker Plus, it's convenient to print in the user/client order to determine how many hours each user has spent total and on each client.

•	Detail Report - The detail report shows all selected entries grouped by client, showing both times and totals for both Time Entries and Sale/Expense items. This report is similiar to invoices, except it's not a page based report and no editable invoices are created.

•	Invoice Report - Unlike the detail report the invoice report can create actual, editable invoices. The output information is very similiar to the results produced by the Detail Report, but in a typical invoice format including a page header and envelope ready addressing area. Choosing this report will create a new invoice, and mark all selected records as billed, and assign them to an invoice number. Once the invoices are printed you have the option of saving the invoices permanently. If saved invoices can be edited using the Invoices option.

Print Report

Once you've made your query selections and you picked your report, you're ready to print the report now. You will be prompted to make sure that your printer is ready and you have the opportunity to choose where your output is going.

•	Printer sends it where you would expect. You can use the Printer Setup option to set up your printer here as well.

•	Print Preview uses the Windows Preview mechanism.

•	Screen lets you preview your report in Text mode

•	To File outputs the report to a Text File

You can also specify whether you would like to print the report on your own letterhead. If you do, Time Trakker will skip printing it's own report header and leave to top 1.5 inches of the page blank.


 Browse Time Entries

See also: Invoices, Manual Time Entry, Sale Items

Browsing Time Entries is designed to let you make modifications to existing Time Trakker Entries. Entries can be edited and adjusted as well as deleted.

Ideally you will use the browse only on non or not-yet invoiced entries. Entries on invoices should be modified only on their respective invoice, or else it is possible to corrupt that invoice's total balance. The option is available here so you can look at all entries in one place; just be aware of the possible results and use it with care. If you do change or delete an invoiced entry so that it's total charge changes make sure to visit its respective invoice to force the change to update the invoice.

The most likely use of this feature is to review or re-edit entries that you have been working on prior to invoicing or marking the entries as billed.

TT-Browse Menu

When the browse comes up on screen a special menu TT-Browse appears on the FoxPro System Menu. A similiar menu is also available by pressing the RightMouse button or Ctrl-Spacebar. This menu has several useful options on it:

Edit Entry

The edit entry selection brings up a full screen editing screen. In the case of Time Entries the screen is identical to the Manual Time Entry screen, with sales items it's the Sale Items screen. The entry can be edited just like a new entry with the updated results posting in the browse.

Filter Screen

The filter screen which is very similiar to the Time Trakker Reports screen allows you to limit the records and set the order for the records you see displayed in the browse list. For example you might want to look only at entries from one client for this month. When done, simply press Browse and you're back in the Browse with the new filter and order.

Calculate Total Hours and total Charges

This option does a quick calculation of all hours worked for all time related entries and a calculation for all total charges for the entries that are currently displayed in the Browse. Any filter in force is respected in this calculation.

Delete Entry

Deleting an entry will remove it permanently from the list of entries.


Report Menu

The report is your gateway to outputting the data you have accumulated. While there are other places where you can print various reports from this is the central option that allows access to all available reports. Several reports are available to chose from:

Time Entry Reports

This option allows you to make various selections in order to select Time, Sale and Expense entries to report on. You can print the following reports:

•	Time Log - Prints a detailed report of time only entries grouped by client and billtype.

•	Detail Report - Prints a report of any entry showing time, expense or sales entries with the times and billing amounts, subtotalled by client.

•	Invoices - Generates and prints invoices. Invoices can be saved as peranent, editable entities for your records or modification.

Invoice Sales Reports

The invoice sales report prints gives you a means to get detailed information about your sales. You can choose date range and print a summarized invoice totals for the range. You can summarize by day or month and also graph the results.

Account Aging Report

The account aging reports shows all open invoices and their balances tabulated into columns for current, 30 days< 60 days< and 90 days since the invoice date. This report shows you all outstanding charges that are payable to you.

Account Detail Report

The account detail report shows you the account activity for a given period. You can choose a daterange and print all charges and payments by client and invoice number.


 Time Trakker Parameters

Time Trakker Plus features a parameter interface that makes it easy to integrate Time Trakker into your own programs. Through the parameters it is possible to access any of the program's options directly, bypassing the menu screens that popup in interactive mode.

Time Trakker's full syntax is:

   DO TIMETRAK.APP WITH <expC1/TT_option>,;

                        <expC2/TT_Popname>,;

                        <expC3/TT_Mkbar>

All parameters are optional! If no parameters are passed Time Trakker Plus runs in standalone menu mode.

TT_option is a keyword which allows access to any of Time Trakker's features directly. TT_Popname and TT_MkBar describe the popup name and menu bar prompt that is to be marked when entries are still pending. This allows you to attach the Time Trakker menu options to your own menu of choice.

The TT_Option Keywords

Following is a list of keywords that access the various functions within Time Trakker Plus. Since they are self explanatory no further descriptions will be given here. For help on individual topics see the respective help entries.

To execute one of these straight simply do:

   DO TIMETRAK WITH "PUNCHIN"

The keywords available are as follows:

Daily Usage:

PUNCHIN

 	PUNCHOUT

MANUAL

   INVOICE

   EXPENSE	-	Sales and Expense Items

   BROWSE

Reports:

TIME REPORTS

 	SALES REPORT

ACCOUNT AGING

Utility Menu Options:

 	ABOUT

 	BILLED

 	MAINTAIN

 	RESTORE

 	REINDEX

 	DEFAULTS

Miscellaneous Routines:

 	SYSMENU	-	Attach to System Menu

 	POPUP	-	Force to run from Popup

MARKBAR	-	Marks the menu bar

 	ISRUNNING	-	Returns .t. if entry is pending

  NOTHING	-	Dummy used to exit


 Sales Report

The sales report lets you review invoice totals for a given period of time. The invoices can either be listed individually one per line or in summary by day or month. Sales are broken out by net sale and taxes taken in, as well as seperating out the different pay types.

The sales report setup screen has several useful options you can pick from:

Date Range

You can specify a date range for which to print the sales report. The date defaults to the beginning of the current month, but you can set these dates to any date. The calendar is available with theRightMouse/Ctrl-Spacebar.

Summary Report

When you print a normal, un-summarized report you'll get each invoice on a seperate line displaying it's invoice number, total, pay type etc.

By summarizing entries report produces one date or month per line, also showing the individual tax and payment totals. The report is then totalled by the summarized totals.

Graph Results

If you print a summarized report you also get the option to graph the data onscreen. Depending on the type of summary report you print the graph will either display a graph of daily or monthly sales.

NOTE: You need to MS-GRAPH installed and _GENGRAPH must point to a valid copy of GENGRAPH.APP and a custom .APP file, GGRAPH.APP. If either one of those files is missing the Graph option will be disabled.


 Account Detail

see also: Invoices, Account Aging Report

Time Trakker Plus provides support for Accounts Receivable features by making it easy to apply payments to account invoices. The account detail screen can be invoked either by the invoice screen, in which case you'll see the current invoice and all payments applied to date, or by client in which case you will see all of the customer's invoices and the payments applied along with a total account balance for this customer.

The detail screen is accessed by clicking on the balance field in the invoice or customer screens.

The Account Detail List

The account detail list contains all relevant account entries. Account entries consist of invoices and payments. The invoice contains the actual invoice amount and a balance of what's still outstanding for the invoice. The invoice amount cannot be changed from here, but it will change whenever the value of the actual invoice changes.

Applying and Editing Payments

To apply payment to an invoice double click or press ENTER on the INVC entry to apply a payment to. The Account Payment screen will let you apply a dollar amount to the invoice. Once you return from the payment, the account list is recalculated showing the updated invoice and overall account balance. Existing payments can be edited or deleted by double clicking on them and bringing up the payment screen.


 Account Aging Report

The account aging report lets you quickly view any outstanding payments your clients owe you. This crosstab report shows all invoices that have open balances, displaying a total for each client, as well as distributing out the amounts by periods for Current, 30+ days, 60+ days or 90+ days.

The grand total value at the bottom is a great way to summarize how much money is still outstanding.