SHAREWARE FEE REDUCED - A GREAT TIME TO BECOME A REGISTERED USER!
TimeBook’s shareware fee has been reduced to $19.95. Use it for two weeks. If you agree that TimeBook makes your time sheet headaches disappear, send your share.
TimeBook has been rewritten to be faster and more intuative. A considerable number of changes have been made to the TimeBook interface to make it easier to use.
Time Cards have been eliminated. You now edit the Time Book directly.
You now make changes to any entered start time, end time, job number/name, billing category, or comment (if you use them) simply by clicking on the appropriate item on in the TimeBook (ex. clicking on a start time opens a dialog allowing you to edit that start time).
You can delete jobs a line at a time by holding down the option key while clicking on the appropriate line in the TimeBook.
Additionally, you can enter new jobs directly from the TimeBook stack for any day in the current week by clicking below the entered jobs on the TimeBook.
Revising the current day’s TimeBook by clicking in the field below the last entered job has the same net result and works exactly as if you entered time via the TimeClock stack. In fact, if you enter a new job via the TimeBook stack for the current day, then enter a start time, and then cancel when prompted for a stop time, you will find yourself at the TimeClock stack with a job open and a start time enter just as if you entered the job from the TimeClock stack. If you revise an entered job, TimeBook will recalculate your current day’s times. If you’ve selected the ‘Closed Time’ option on the Preferences card, TimeBook will prompt you if you have opened a time gap by revising your current day’s time. If you’ve selected the ‘Auto Update’ option on the Preferences card, TimeBook will enter your revised time in the TimeFile stack.
To revise time for days other than the current, go to the Time Book, then navigate to the appropriate day and revise by clicking on the appropriate item as described above.
If you are like most people, you need to keep a time sheet so you can to bill the time you spend on jobs to clients, and if you’re an hourly employee, so your employer knows what to pay you. If you are like me, you tend to forget to fill out your time sheet or time book regularly. At the end of the week, you find yourself trying to remember just what you did - and for how long - last Monday.
Until now, there has been no easy substitute for the manual time sheet. Most computer programs designed to help you keep your time sheet are simply cumbersome electronic calculators that still require you to enter most of your time information manually. TimeBook is different. TimeBook maintains a list of your clients, billing categories, jobs in progress, and comments. Four simple pop-up menus let you pick a job, ‘punch-in’, ‘punch-out’ and pick a billing category. And you have the option of entering a comment as you finish each job. When you start your next job, TimeBook remembers the stop time of your last job and offers that time as your default start time for your next job. This lets you easily keep track of all your time during each work day.
You punch-in and out from a small stack called TimeClock that you can leave open on your desktop during your work day. TimeClock is like a remote control to the TimeBook application and makes it easy to enter your time no matter how many times you start and stop a job or many jobs you work on during a day.
With TimeBook, time sheet troubles disappear. If you work on your Mac most of the day, filling out your time sheet with TimeBook is incredibly easy. Launch the TimeClock stack at the beginning of each day, and then just punch in and out as you work. Finding job numbers, looking up client codes, remembering billing categories, and all the pains associated with accurate time keeping are no longer. TimeBook uses your Mac’s clock and calendar to assist you in filling out your time sheet. Of course you have complete control over all your time keeping. You can choose TimeBook’s defaults or select your own. Once a job is entered, it is easy to go back and revise any aspect of the record. Of course, the best part comes at the end of each week when, with the push of a button, TimeBook fills out your time sheet completely and accurately.
TimeBook is designed to be simple and safe. It is very difficult to mis-enter jobs, and TimeBook’s error checking assures you an accurate time sheet. TimeBook also offers many user selected options that allow you to customize the application to your specific work environment.
GETTING STARTED
1 Print out a copy of these instructions and go through the tutorial!!!!!!
2 Customize TimeBook for your needs
Rename the TimeFile00 stack to TimeFile(your employee number).
Select ‘Preferences’ from the TimeBook menu. Enter your name and employee
number (2 to 3 digits preferred) and select the preferences appropriate
for your business.
Enter the TimeBook Custom Settings (click the button on the
bottom of the Preferences card) appropriate for your business.
3 Select ‘Fix-It/Reset’ from the TimeBook menu and follow the prompts.
USING TIMEBOOK
Simply launch the TimeClock stack each day when you start working. After TimeBook sets itself up, enter your first job and the start time via the pop-up menus. Enter the stop time when you finish a job and follow the prompts to enter the requested billing information. Repeat the process for each job you work on. Select ‘Do Time Sheet’ at the end of the week to have TimeBook calculate your time sheet.
QUICKSTART and TUTORIAL: For impatient people like me who only learn by doing.
Make sure you are running HyperCard 2.1 or later
(or HyperCard Player 2.1 or later)
Make sure your HyperCard opens with at least 1,200K of
memory (check 'Get Info').
Copy TimeBook, TimeClock, and TimeFile00 to your hard drive.
Double-Click on TimeClock, click 'New Week' and type in your name
(for now, your employee number is 00). Click ‘Erase’ when you are
asked if you wish to erase last week’s comments list.
Be patient while TimeBook sets itself up.
Choose "Preferences" from the TimeBook menu and type your name
into the indicated box. Leave 00 in employee number for now.
Leave all the options selected as is for now.
Click "TimeBook Custom Settings" on the Preferences card.
Read it, but leave everything alone for now. Click 'Done'.
Choose "TimeClock" from the TimeBook menu.
Choose ‘Edit Jobs’ from the TimeBook menu.
You edit jobs from this editor. Click ‘Done’.
Choose ‘Edit Clients’ from the TimeBook menu.
You edit clients from this editor. Click ‘Done’.
Choose ‘Edit Billing Categories’ from the TimeBook menu.
You edit billing categories from this editor. Click ‘Done’.
Choose ‘Edit Comments’ from the TimeBook menu.
You edit billing comments from this editor. Click ‘Done’.
Click on the line next to the word "Job" and hold the mouse
button down. Choose '1002-0001 Test Job' from the pop-up menu.
Click on the line next to the word "Start" and select 'Enter Time'
from the pop-up menu. In the dialog box, enter the time an hour ago
(i.e. if it is 11:45 AM then enter 10:45 AM - be careful to include the
colon and the AM or PM is you are using a 12 hr. clock).
Click on the line next to "Stop" and select the current time
from the pop-up menu.
Click on the box that appears next to the word "Bill" and select
'100 Software Training' from the pop-up menu.
Click on the box that appears next to the word "Com" and select
'(C0) No Comment' from the pop-up menu. Wait for the save.
Choose "TimeBook" from the TimeBook menu. You should see a
time card with the job name "1002-0001 Test Job" with all the
information you entered via "TimeClock".
Select "Do Time Sheet" from the TimeBook menu.
Click 'Save/Print' - wait for the save - and click 'Print' in the dialog box - if
you have a printer.
Congratulations, you just learned how to use TimeBook and printed
your first time sheet!
Now, select "Preferences" again from the TimeBook menu
and customize TimeBook for your environment.
Click on the 'TimeBook Custom Settings' button at the bottom of the
Preferences card and click on the day of the week you start your time sheet,
the number of numerals for both your job numbers and client numbers,
and your minimum reported time interval.
Refer to Help (selected from the TimeBook menu) if you have any questions.
Choose "TimeClock" again from the menu (or click on the TimeClock Clock icon).
Open the job editor by choosing ‘Edit Jobs’ from the TimeBook menu or by
clicking the 'J' button.
Delete jobs by selecting them and clicking the delete button. You can
enter new jobs via this editor by choosing ‘New Job’ from the pop-up menu
that appears when you click on the ‘Job’ line. To see how, select 'New Job'
from the 'Job' pop-up menu.
Customize both your client list and your billing category list
to fit your own business. You can use the editors to enter the
information or you can enter the information directly. To enter job, client,
and billing information directly, choose the editor from the menu
with the option key down or click on the appropriate button with the option
key down. Be sure to enter new clients and categories exactly as
instructed (see below for further details).
Use the program, and/or read the rest of these instructions.
MANUAL
The Menus
The first 3 lines of the TimeBook menu allow you to navigate to the 3 associated TimeBook stacks.
Open Job Calls up your job list and is the menu equivalent of clicking down on the line next to ‘Job’ on the TimeClock stack and selecting a job from the pop-up menu.
Start Clock allows you to enter a start time and is the menu equivalent of clicking down on the line next to ‘Start’ on the TimeClock stack and selecting a start time from the pop-up menu.
Stop Clock allows you to enter a stop time and is the menu equivalent of clicking down on the line next to ‘Stop’ on the TimeClock stack and selecting a stop time from the pop-up menu.
Cancel Job allows you to cancel an already started job and is the menu equivalent of option - clicking on the start line on the TimeClock stack.
Do Time Sheet calculates your weekly time sheet.
Save Time Sheet saves your weekly time sheet to the TimeFile stack. If you have altered any information in the Day Lists or Time Cards, or if you have exited TimeBook since the last calculation, this menu item will be dimmed and unavailable.
The Edit Menu Items
The editors allow you to add or delete from the lists used when you punch-in and punch-out.
Edit Jobs displays the job editor. If you hold down the option key while selecting this menu you can edit the field on the TimeClock stack where this editor’s information is stored directly. Edit Jobs is the menu equivalent of clicking on the 'J' button in the TimeClock stack.
Edit Clients displays the client editor. If you hold down the option key while selecting this menu you can edit the field on the TimeClock stack where this editor’s information is stored directly. Edit Clients is the menu equivalent of clicking on the 'C' button in the TimeClock stack.
Edit Billing Categories displays the billing category editor. If you hold down the option key while selecting this menu you can edit the field on the TimeClock stack where this editor’s information is stored directly. Edit Billing Categories is the menu equivalent of clicking on the 'B' button in the TimeClock stack.
Edit Comments displays the comment editor. Unlike the other editors, when you delete comments, they are altered to read 'Comment deleted' rather than deleted. This allows you to see if any comment you deleted was attached to a job you had already entered during the week. At the start of each week or when you reset TimeBook, you will have the option to clear your comment list or keep your comment list from the previous week.
Preferences takes you to the preferences card. There you are able to alter your TimeBook preferences as well as access TimeBook’s custom setting.
Help takes you here.
Fix It/Reset is your escape valve. It is possible to interrupt TimeBook when it is in the middle of an operation. If that occurs, windows or fields may be left open that prevent TimeBook from operating properly. If this occurs, choose Fix It/Reset and choose the ‘Fix It’ button at the prompt. TimeBook will return all windows and fields to their defaults and you will be up and running again without any loss of information.
If you want to start your time sheet over again, choose ‘Reset’. But be careful. Any information entered for the current week is erased when you reset.
The Stacks
TimeBook is a 3 stack application. All 3 stacks are called during some point during the start/stop/save process and they share resources and scripts. Therefore, you must have all 3 stacks accessible from you Mac to use TimeBook.
The TimeClock Stack
The TimeClock Stack is the primary input stack. If you have enough RAM to devote about 1,200K to HyperCard, TimeClock is the stack that will be open on you desktop most of the day. From TimeClock you enter job numbers, client number, job names, your start and end times, billing categories, and comments. The key to TimeBook is how simple TimeClock makes it to enter information. You simply click on the lines next to the key words, hold your mouse down, and select from the pop-up menus.
Clicking on the line next to ‘Job’ calls the job pop-up menu. You can select a previously entered job, or enter a new one from this menu.
Clicking on the line next to ‘Start’ allows you to enter the start time for a job. If the job you are starting is the first job of the day, you will be given one menu choice - Enter Time. If you have already worked on a job, you will be given the option of picking a start time via Enter Time or choosing the time you last ended a job. By keeping track of you last end time, TimeClock makes it easy to bill all your time in a day.
Clicking next to the ‘Stop’ presents a pop-up menu that allows you to choose the current time, or enter a time.
After you have punched-out, you will be presented with a box next to the ‘Bill’ line that asks you to ‘Click here for billing list.’ Clicking within that box pops-up the billing category list menu.
If you have the ‘Comments’ option chosen on the Preferences card of the TimeBook stack, you will be asked to ‘Click here to enter comment.’ in a box on the last line of the TimeClock stack.
Finally, TimeClock will save your input info to the appropriate places and return control of the stack to you to start a new job.
The TimeBook Stack
TimeBook serves as the repository for time information generated by the TimeClock stack and is the time sheet calculator.
You can examine your weekly time information, enter new comments, revise your time information, and do your time sheet with the TimeBook stack.
New to version 2.0, you can enter times directly from the TimeBook stack.
You can also make changes to any entered start time, end time, job number/name, billing category, or comment (if you use them) simply by clicking on the appropriate item on a Time Card or in the Time Book (ex. clicking on a start time opens a dialog allowing you to edit that start time).
You can delete jobs a line at a time by holding down the option key while clicking on the appropriate line in your Time Book.
Additionally, you can enter new jobs directly in the TimeBook stack for any day in the current week by clicking below the entered jobs in your Time Book.
Revising the current day’s Time Book by clicking in the field below the last entered job has the same net result and works exactly as if you entered time via the TimeClock stack. In fact, if you enter a new job via the TimeBook stack for the current day, then enter a start time, and then cancel when prompted for an end time, you will find yourself at the TimeClock stack with a job open and a start time enter just as if you entered the job from the TimeClock stack. If you revise an entered job, TimeBook will recalculate your current day’s times and refigure Time Book information. If you’ve selected the ‘Closed Time’ option on the Preferences card, TimeBook will prompt you if you have opened a time gap by revising your current day’s time. If you’ve selected the ‘Auto Update’ option on the Preferences card, TimeBook will enter your revised time in the TimeFile stack.
To revise time for days already past, go to the Time Book, then navigate to the appropriate day and revise by clicking on the appropriate item as described above. You may even enter time for days yet to come in the current week. If you are going to be away from your computer any day in the current week, and you know how you are going to be billing your time, you can enter it prior to being away.
The TimeFile Stack
The TimeFile Stack is where time sheets go when you save them. The TimeFile stack saves time information on two separate sets of cards. An exact copy of your calculated time sheet, including comments, is saved to one set of cards in this stack (background "SavedTimeSheets") when you click ‘Save/Print’ on the time sheet card (or choose it from the menu) after you’ve calculated your time sheet. Time sheets from any week may be accessed and reprinted from the TimeFile stack.
TimeBook also saves raw data to a second set of cards in the TimeFile stack (background "TimeSaver") when you save your time sheet. Additionally, if you select the ‘Auto Update’ option on the Preferences card, time information is saved to these cards each time you punch-out. Job numbers, client numbers (if you use them), job names, and billing categories are saved to this second set of cards. Comments are not saved. This second set of cards offers an analyzation function that allows you to search jobs to find out how much time you have spent on them. The search can be a two step process. You can first find all jobs of a certain job number, and then find out how many of those jobs fulfill another condition, like a specific billing category.
Customizing
Preferences Card
TimeBook is highly customizables. You access TimeBook’s customization options from the preferences card. Just choose ‘Preferences’ from the TimeBook menu. Read each, and select the options you wish to use by clicking on the check box next to the name of the option. You may change any of the preferences at any time during the use of this application without negatively affecting the application.
TimeBook Custom Settings
At the bottom of the Preferences card is a button that takes you to TimeBook’s custom settings. Here you enter the day you wish your billing week to begin, your job and client number lengths, and your time sheet round-up interval. TimeBook should be reset if any of these options are changed. If is are more than one user of TimeBook at your business, be sure these options are the same for all users of TimeBook.
Recommendations
It is highly recommend that you use sequential numerical job numbers and client numbers. TimeBook does recognize any letter number combination, assuming it is of the length specified under TimeBook Custom Settings, as valid job and client numbers. TimeBook will also allow you to enter job names without a job number or a client number. But as you know, analyzing numbers is something computers do better than analyzing letters. Some of the stacks being written to analyze information stored in the TimeFile stack may require you to use numeric job numbers rather than alphabetic job numbers or no job numbers.
Shortcuts
TimeSheet Window
Option - Save/Print: Bypasses the save routine and prints only.
TimeClock Stack Shortcuts
If you have a job started and try to cancel the job by clicking on the 'Job' line you will get an error message that says 'You already have a job started. Please end it before starting another job.' To bypass this message…
Option-Click on the Start Line This will cancel the job (same as choosing ‘Cancel Job’ from the TimeBook menu) and you will be able to change the job by clicking on the 'Job' line.
Keyboard equivalents for TimeClock stack
command-N enters and opens a new job.
command-O opens jobs
command-[ starts jobs
command-] ends jobs
Trouble Shooting
Problem: Error boxes appear saying there is a problem with the script or that the stack can’t find a field.
Solution: Quit HyperCard. make sure you have 1,200K of RAM assigned to HyperCard (click once on the HyperCard icon and select ‘Get Info’ from the File menu). Launch TimeClock and see if everything is working. If not, select ‘Fix-It/Reset’ from the TimeBook menu and select ‘Fix/It’ at the dialog.
Problem: Boxes won’t go away on the TimeClock or TimeBook stacks, buttons won’t unhighlight, fields appear in front of time cards or time sheet.
Solution: These are common problems in TimeBook usually caused when a user interrupts the program via a command-period cancel or due to a crash. To fix the problem, choose ‘Fix-It/Reset’ from the TimeBook menu and then choose ‘Fix-It’ at the first dialog or quit HyperCard and relaunch TimeClock or TimeBook.
Problem: I selected ‘Last Week’ from the opening dialog so that I could recalculate and print my time sheet. Now I can’t start a new week.
Solution: Select ‘Fix-It/Reset’ from the TimeBook menu. Select ‘Reset’ at the first dialog. TimeBook will reset for a new week.
Problem: When I try to go to the TimeClock stack, TimeBook says I need to reset my time sheet.
Solution: You haven’t reset your time sheet for a new week after selecting ‘Last Week’ from the opening dialog. Select ‘Fix-It/Reset’ from the menu. Then select ‘Reset’ at the dialog.
Problem: TimeBook says I have a Start/End error or a time gap in excess of x minutes between line x and x… what do I do.
Solution: Start/End errors occur when you have one job ending after the next job begins. Time gap errors occur when you have the ‘Closed Time’ option selected on the Preferences card and have a gap of more than 1 minute between the end of one job and the beginning of the next. You must rectify your time by clicking on the appropriate time and revising it.
Problem: My payroll hours don’t match my billable hours?
Solution: This isn’t a problem, it is just the way TimeBook deals with the rounding-up of time. If you choose 15 minutes as your minimum round-up number (under TimeBook Custom Settings), TimeBook will round-up each job you work on in a day to the next 15 minute interval (i.e. if you work 22 minutes on a job - TimeBook will report 30 minutes on your time sheet). So, if you work 2 jobs for 16 minutes, TimeBook will report 60 minutes as the time worked. However, most employers don’t pay that way. So, TimeBook rounds-up your actual day by subtracting your first start time from your last stop time and then subtracting all time billed to "000" in between. The two 16 minute jobs add up to 32 minutes and, if that was your full work day, TimeBook reports 45 minutes to your employer as your total pay day.
Note to Developers
TimeBook is special because it saves time information in 2 ways. First, it saves a standard copy of the time sheet generated when the user selects ‘Do Time Sheet.’ More interestingly, at the moment a user punches-out, their raw time information can be saved to the TimeFile stack. If a group of users share a fileserver or other shared volume, it is possible to access all the TimeFile stacks of a department or company and process the information. Companies could find out how many hours have been spent on a job at any point in the day.
TimeBook started life as LogicTime and has gone through considerable revision since its initial release in February of 1992.
As TimeBook
Ver 2.0, March 1993
Major interface revision. Elimination of ‘Time Cards’ and simplification of navigation control. Faster set up. Better error checking.
Ver. 1.2, March 1993
Internal release.
Improved interface for updating and revising entered time. Allowed users to click on a start time, stop time, job number/name, billing category, and comment from either a Time Card or in the Time Book and update the clicked item. Quick buttons to navigate through week in Time Book. Cosmetic improvements.
Ver 1.0.8, February 1993
Fixed a fairly serious bug that prevented proper recording to the TimeFile stack and disabled the Find feature of that stack.
Ver 1.0.7s, February 1993
First official shareware release of TimeBook. Update of TimeFile stack to allow recalculation of Time Sheet from the Time File background. Bug fixes.
Ver 1.0
Never released.
Major changes from LogicTime include: combining the Saved Time Sheets and TimeSaverxx stacks into one new stack called TimeFile. Renaming of all stacks. Cosmetic improvements.
As LogicTime
Ver 2.5, December 1992
Never released - became TimeBook 1.0.
Increased flexibility in time reporting: User defined time sheet minimum interval and optional hour and minute or fractional time reporting. Improved and more logical menus. Improved listing of jobs on the Time Cards to show start time, end time, and billing category for each job worked on in the current day. Elimination of graphing functions. Improved interface. Improved look - better buttons. Opening splash screen that actually looks good on B&W monitors. Bug fixes and other coding improvements.
Ver 2.2.2, October 1992
Revised to run on HyperCard Player.
Ver 2.2.1, October 1992
Minor bug fix.
Ver 2.2, September 1992
Added the option of adding comments as you end each job and the ability to attach different comments to the same job. Fixed several significant bugs. Added list editors and help. Improved time sheet reports.
Ver 2.0.1, August 1992
Minor bug fix. Improved menus.
Ver 2.0, August 1992
Significant upgrade. First shareware release. Changed size of stack windows to fit 9" monitors. Improved speed of time sheet calculation. Improved stack aesthetics. Menus made consistent between all associated stacks. Significant increase in stack switching speed. Countless bugs fixed. Code rewritten to be far more robust.
