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-
-
- TimeStax (TM)
-
- The Personal Timecard Manager
-
-
-
-
- User's Manual
-
-
-
-
- Version 2.6a
-
- January 11, 1993
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- _______
- ____|__ | (tm)
- --| | |-------------------
- | ____|__ | Association of
- | | |_| Shareware
- |__| o | Professionals
- -----| | |---------------------
- |___|___| MEMBER
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- Copyright 1988-1993
- All rights reserved.
-
-
- Johnson Technologies
- 10564 N. Blaney Avenue
- Cupertino, CA. 95014
-
- Phone: (408) 255-4213
- T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S
-
- 1 INTRODUCTION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
-
- 2 INSTALLATION AND SETUP. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
- 2.1 Installation for Local Area Network. . . . . . . . . 2
- 2.2 Installation for Single PC with hard disk. . . . . . 2
-
- 3 GETTING STARTED . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
-
- 4 SIGNING ON WITH PASSWORD SECURITY . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
-
- 5 TIMECARD VIEW WINDOW. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
- 5.1 View Window - Appearance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
- 5.2 View Window - Cursor movement keys . . . . . . . . . 5
- 5.3 View Window - Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
-
- 6 TIMECARD ADD WINDOW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
- 6.1 Add Window - Appearance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
- 6.2 Add Window - Commands. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
- 6.3 Add Window - Data entry instructions . . . . . . . . 8
-
- 7 TIMECARD CHANGE WINDOW. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
-
- 8 GENERATING REPORTS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
- 8.1 Report Options Window - Appearance . . . . . . . . 10
- 8.2 Report Options Window - Cursor movement keys . . . 11
- 8.3 Report Options Window - Commands . . . . . . . . . 11
- 8.4 Report Options Window - Options. . . . . . . . . . 12
- 8.5 Report Selection Window. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
- 8.6 Displaying and printing your report. . . . . . . . 15
-
- 9 REPORT SAMPLES. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
- 9.1 General Instructions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
- 9.2 Sample Report 1 - Grand Total only . . . . . . . . 16
- 9.3 Sample Report 2 - One Subtotal Field . . . . . . . 17
- 9.4 Sample Report 3 - 2 Subtotal fields. . . . . . . . 18
- 9.5 Sample Report 4 - 2 Subtotal fields plus Notes . . 18
-
- 10 SYSTEM UTILITIES. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
- 10.1 Utility Window - Appearance. . . . . . . . . . . . 19
- 10.2 INFO Utility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
- DUMP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
- FILES. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
- PEOPLE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
- QUIT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
- 10.3 DISK Utility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
- PACK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
- 10.4 SETUP Utility. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
- 10.4.1 Assigning Activity SubLists. . . . . . . 21
- 10.4.2 Naming Activity Lists. . . . . . . . . . 21
- 10.4.3 Password Security ON/OFF . . . . . . . . 21
- 10.4.4 Sorting Activity Lists . . . . . . . . . 22
- 10.4.5 Updating Activity Lists. . . . . . . . . 22
- 11 PASSWORD SECURITY FEATURES. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
- 11.1 Signing On . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
- 11.2 Password Administration. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
- 11.3 Timecard Viewing/Changing Security . . . . . . . . 24
- 11.4 Timecard Listing Security. . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
- 11.5 Timecard Reporting Security. . . . . . . . . . . . 24
-
- 12 HOW & WHEN TO EXPORT AND IMPORT . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
- 12.1 Overview of EXPORT and IMPORT. . . . . . . . . . . 25
- 12.2 How to EXPORT timecards. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
- 12.3 How to IMPORT timecards. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
-
- 13 HOW & WHEN TO ARCHIVE AND UN-ARCHIVE. . . . . . . . . . 29
- 13.1 Overview of ARCHIVE and UNARCHIVE. . . . . . . . . 29
- 13.2 How to ARCHIVE timecards . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
- 13.3 How to UNARCHIVE timecards . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
-
- 14 HOW & WHEN TO BACKUP AND RESTORE. . . . . . . . . . . . 31
- 14.1 Overview of BACKUP and RESTORE . . . . . . . . . . 31
- 14.2 How to BACKUP your database . . . . . . . . . . . 32
- 14.3 How to RESTORE your database . . . . . . . . . . . 32
-
- APPENDIX A. LAN CONFIGURATION FOR THE LAN ADMINISTRATOR. . . 33
- The TIMESTAX.INI Configuration File . . . . . . . . . . 33
- The MASTER Timecard Database. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
-
- APPENDIX B. TECHNICAL NOTES. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
-
- APPENDIX C. A Word About Shareware . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
- PAGE 1
- 1 INTRODUCTION
-
- Whether you are a private consultant with 100 clients, a manager
- working with 3 other departments, or just a busy office worker who
- works on several projects at once, you're probably concerned with
- how efficiently you spend your work day.
-
- TIMESTAX is a simple time management program for anyone who needs
- to monitor his or her work habits. With a minimum of effort (10-20
- minutes per week) you can capture important information about which
- clients and projects you worked on and what specific activities you
- performed. Then in about 5 seconds you can summarize the weeks or
- months of work you put in and see just where the time went.
-
- You say you work in a big company and don't need to account for
- every minute of your time? But when you're overdue on that 3-
- month project the boss is yelling about, wouldn't it be nice to
- have the hard evidence that you spent exactly 34% of your time in
- useless status meetings with him? Or 16% of your time on those
- "one-time-only reports"? Or 11% playing telephone tag? Or 3%
- actually getting some work done?
-
- If you want more than the "feeling" you should have gotten more
- done this month then start tracking your time now with TIMESTAX -
- the Personal Timecard Manager.
-
- TIMESTAX provides the following features:
-
- o "Stacks" of timecards that record time spent in any
- Activity, classified by Employee, Date, Client,
- Project, and Task
-
- o An optional 8-line Note for each timecard
-
- o Summary reporting with up to 5 levels of subtotals
-
- o Utilities to backup and archive the databases
-
- o Utilities to export/import subsets of timecards
- between Employee databases and a master database
-
- o An automatic clock to time any activity
-
- o Up to 999 employees per database
-
- o Single-PC or LAN (not multi-user) configuration
-
- o Password Security features
-
- PAGE 2
- The documentation which follows covers the topics of installation,
- use, and administration of the databases used by individual
- timekeepers. Appendices discuss the use of TimeStax on a Local
- Area Network and cover some technical aspects of the system.
-
-
- 2 INSTALLATION AND SETUP
-
- The installation method depends on whether the system is being
- configured for use on a standalone PC or on a Local Area Network
- (LAN). Use the installation disk which accompanies this manual.
-
- 2.1 Installation for Local Area Network
-
- A designated LAN Administrator is responsible for setting up all
- application programs on the LAN. Please refer to Appendix A for
- details.
-
- 2.2 Installation for Single PC with hard disk
-
- With the installation disk in drive A:, type
-
- A:TSUNPACK C:\TIMESTAX
-
- This will "unpack" all the TimeStax files into your C:\TIMESTAX
- directory. TSUNPACK will automatically create the directory if it
- does not already exist.
-
- DOS NOTE: You must set "FILES=20" in the CONFIG.SYS file in the
- root directory of your boot disk.
- PAGE 3
- 3 GETTING STARTED
-
- The best way to get familiar with TIMESTAX is to run the program as
- you read along in this manual. There is not much you can do wrong,
- and nothing you can't undo if you follow these instructions.
-
- To run the program, change to your C:\TIMESTAX directory and type
- "TIMESTAX". You may want to set up a batch file called "TS.BAT" on
- your root directory which will place you in the C:\TIMESTAX
- directory automatically and then start the program.
-
- If you have not set up the Activity Code Tables, TIMESTAX will
- prompt you to do so now. You may change these entries at any time
- using the SETUP Utility described in Section 10.4. For now, use
- the ADD function to add new Employees, Clients, Projects, and Tasks
- to the empty lists. If you are running on a LAN your Administrator
- is responsible for assigning the Employee ID codes for you. The
- codes for the other 3 lists are automatically assigned by the
- system.
-
- If this is the first time you have ever run TIMESTAX you will next
- be informed that there is no timecard database. Press "Y" for "Yes"
- when asked if it is okay to create a new database.
-
- The next window you will see is the TIMESTAX MAIN MENU (see Figure
- 1). This window shows the date, a running time clock at the top
- right, and the five available options:
-
- TIMECARDS - go to the timecard View window
-
- REPORTS - go to the Report Options window
-
- UTILITIES - go to the Utilities window
-
- HELP - show a Help window for reference
-
- QUIT - exit the timecard system completely
-
- To select an option press the first letter of its name, for example
- press "T" to invoke the TIMECARDS option.
-
- 4 SIGNING ON WITH PASSWORD SECURITY
-
- If the Password Security feature is ON you must first sign on to
- the TimeStax system. See Section 11 for details.
-
- Note that for a new TimeStax installation, Password Security is
- OFF. You may turn it on in the Utilities/Setup menu with the
- Password option (see Section 10.4.3).
- PAGE 4
- 5TIMECARD VIEW WINDOW
-
- Each person is given one "stack" of timecards in the database. The
- View window lets you look at one particular person's stack and move
- forward and backward within that stack.
-
- Press "T" from the main menu to get to the TimeCard View window.
-
- 5.1 View Window - Appearance
-
- If this is the first time you have ever run TIMESTAX there will not
- be any timecards on file. A message-box will indicate this in the
- window.
-
- If timecards do exist, the last 15 timecards on file will be
- displayed in the window. A reverse-video "highlight bar" will
- highlight the last timecard (red on a color monitor). See Figure
- 2.
-
- There are several features of the View Window to notice right away:
-
- o The date and time are shown at the top right
-
- o The last 15 timecards on file are shown, 1 per line
-
- o The message "CARD# nnn OF nnn" shows how many
- timecards are on file for the current Employee,
- and also indicates which one the highlight bar is
- currently on.
-
- o A list of COMMANDS is shown at the bottom of the
- window, and the CHANGE command is highlighted.
-
- o 'N' at the left of a timecard means a Note is attached
-
- o '*' at the left of a timecard means it is "Erased" (marked
- for deletion, as described below
- PAGE 5
- 5.2 View Window - Cursor movement keys
-
- Several keys are used to make your way around the View window.
- Experiment with them to see what effect they have:
-
- UP/DOWN ARROW KEYS: Scroll the highlight bar up or down
- through the stack of timecards.
-
- PAGE-UP/DOWN KEYS: Move one entire page up or down
- through the stack of timecards.
-
- HOME KEY: Move the highlight bar to the very
- first timecard on file for this Employee.
-
- END KEY: Move the highlight bar to the very
- last timecard on file for this Employee.
-
- LEFT/RIGHT ARROW Move the COMMAND highlight bar left
- KEYS: and right at the bottom of the window
-
- ESC KEY: Return to the main menu window.
-
- ENTER KEY: Execute the currently highlighted COMMAND
-
-
- 5.3 View Window - Commands
-
- The commands at the bottom of the VIEW window are executed by one
- of two methods:
-
- 1. Use the LEFT/RIGHT arrow keys to highlight the desired
- command, then press the ENTER key.
- or 2. Press the bold-faced letter of the desired command.
-
- Here is a brief description of each command:
-
- ADD: Pop up a new Timecard window to add timecard(s)
-
- CHANGE: Go to the EDIT data entry window to modify the
- timecard that is currently highlighted on the VIEW
- window
-
- ERASE: Mark (or unmark) the currently highlighted timecard for
- deletion (or un-deletion). This does not physically
- remove the timecard from the database, it simply marks
- it with an "*" in the window. You must perform a PACK
- operation (see UTILITIES) to remove the timecards
- marked for deletion.
- PAGE 6
- View Window - Commands (cont.)
-
-
- HELP: Show a help window for reference.
-
- JUMP: Jump to the first timecard with a specific date. This is
- only allowed if the timecards are currently sorted by
- Date (the default sequence).
-
- NAME: Allow the user to switch to a different employee's stack
- of timecards. Press ENTER to choose the highlighted Name
- on the popup list. If Password Security is ON you will
- also be prompted for a password. To change an existing
- password press the F3 key on this popup window, but only
- after the current password is entered.
-
- REPORTS: Go to the Reports system. This is exactly the same as
- selecting REPORTS from the main menu.
-
- SORT: Allow the user to rearrange the timecards by sorting on
- a specific category (Date, Tasks, Client, Project). The
- currently selected Sort category is highlighted. The new
- category is selected by either typing the bold-faced
- letter, or by using the LEFT/RIGHT arrow keys and then
- pressing the ENTER key. Note that for the 3 non-Date
- categories, sorting is done based on an internal CODE
- number, not the text shown in the window. This means the
- text may not appear in "alphabetic" order in the window.
- To re-sort the list alphabetically, use the
- Utilities/Setup/Sort utility (see Section 10.4.4).
-
- TIMER: Turn the built-in timer on or off for the currently
- highlighted timecard. TIMESTAX will automatically keep
- track of the time spent on this Activity until you turn
- the timer off, even when you exit TIMESTAX. A running
- clock time is shown at the right of the active timecard.
- See Figure 3.
-
- NOTE: Only 1 timecard at a time may have the timer on. No
- Utility programs or Reports may be run until the timer is
- turned off.
-
- UTIL: Go to the Utilities system. This is exactly the same as
- selecting UTILITIES from the main menu.
-
- QUIT: Return to the main menu (same as pressing the ESC key).
- PAGE 7
- 6 TIMECARD ADD WINDOW
-
- The same Add window is used both for adding a new timecard and for
- changing the timecard currently highlighted on the View window.
-
- 6.1 Add Window - Appearance
-
- Press "A" from the TIMESTAX View window to invoke the ADD command.
- As shown in Figure 4, a set of windows is displayed where the
- information for a single timecard will be entered.
-
- Notice these features of the Add Window:
-
- o The date and time are shown at the top right
-
- o The message "CARD# nnn OF nnn" is shown at the top right,
- and is set to be 1 more than the last timecard
- for the currently active Employee.
-
- o The named boxes across the window are the same as on the
- View window - for example, DATE, Client, Project, Task, and
- TIME. This is where you enter the information for one
- timecard.
-
- o The center of the window shows a large area which
- displays data-entry instructions. These instructions change
- as you move from one entry field to the next.
-
- o A list of FUNCTION-KEY COMMANDS is shown at the bottom of
- the window.
-
-
- 6.2 Add Window - Commands
-
- F1-HELP: Show a help window for reference
-
- F2-SAVE: Save the timecard information just entered. If invalid
- data was entered you will be prompted to correct it here. When you
- save the timecard, another blank timecard is presented. The Date,
- Client, and Project fields are held over from the last timecard for
- convenience.
-
- ESC-Cancel: Return to the VIEW Window without saving the timecard
- information just entered.
- PAGE 8
- 6.3 Add Window - Data entry instructions
-
- The Add window lets you enter information about one timecard at a
- time. You may use the LEFT/RIGHT, TAB and SHIFT-TAB keys to move
- the highlight bar right and left through the 6 timecard fields.
-
- DATE: Defaults to the date of the currently highlighted
- timecard (or today's date if there are no timecards on
- file). The date-field format is "MM/DD/YY". See the
- instructions in the center window. You may enter just
- the month and day (like "8/1" or "9/13") and the system
- will append the current year. You may also type a "T" to
- tell the system to use Today's date, or "Y" for
- Yesterday's date. Finally, you can type in a day-of-week
- code, like "MON" for Monday or "TUE" for Tuesday, to get
- that day's date in the current week. "-MON" and "-TUE"
- gives you Monday or Tuesday's date from last week.
-
- Client,
- Project,
- and Tasks:
- Note that the names of these fields are defined in the
- Utilities/SETUP/NAME utility (see UTILITIES below). The
- rules of data entry are the same for all 3 fields. The
- center window contains a list of the allowed selections
- and their code numbers. There are 2 ways to make a
- selection:
-
- 1. Type the code number and press ENTER - the text is
- automatically inserted in the field box.
-
- 2. Use the cursor movement keys to move the item's
- highlight bar to the desired choice and press
- ENTER. Valid keys are UP/DOWN arrows, PGUP, PGDN,
- HOME, and END.
-
- If a particular list has only 1 entry, that entry is
- automatically selected and you are TABBED to the next
- list.
-
- Once a Client is selected you will be shown only those
- Projects and Tasks for that Client. These can be
- assigned using the method described in Section 10.4.1.
-
- PAGE 9
- TIME: There are several formats you can use to enter the time
- associated with this timecard, as shown in the center
- window. You can also enter a Start and Stop time by
- first entering a starting time preceded with the "@"
- character. TimeStax will automatically prompt you for
- the Stop time and calculate the difference between the
- two. You can enter the times in the normal format (for
- example 8:00 or just 8) or with a PM designator (4:30p),
- or as military time (16:30). Note that 12 noon is
- entered as either 12 or 12p or 12:00p or 12:00, whereas
- 12 midnight is entered as 12a or 12:00a or 0:00. The
- start and stop times themselves are not stored in the
- database.
-
- Whichever format you choose, the system redisplays the
- time you enter in terms of hours and minutes (e.g., 90
- becomes 1:30). The database stores all times as minutes
- to simplify arithmetic operations required for reports.
-
- NOTE:You may optionally enter up to 8 lines of free-format
- Notes which will be associated with this timecard. In
- addition to the standard cursor movement keys the
- following functions are provided:
-
- ALT-C - Clear the entire Note window to blanks
- ALT-D - Delete the entire line with the cursor
- ALT-E - Erase from the cursor to the end of the line
- ALT-I - Insert a new line below the current line
-
-
- 7 TIMECARD CHANGE WINDOW
-
- Press "C" from the TIMESTAX View window to invoke the CHANGE
- command. As shown in Figure 5 this window looks just like the ADD
- window, except that the cursor is initially placed in the TimeCard
- Note area. The fields have been filled in with the timecard which
- was highlighted on the View Window, so it can now be modified.
-
- The operation of this window is almost identical to the operation
- of the ADD window. The only difference is that once you press the
- F2 function key to save the changes you are automatically returned
- to the View Window.
- PAGE 10
- 8 GENERATING REPORTS
-
- TIMESTAX can generate a variety of summary reports to help you
- understand where you spend your time. The Report Generator allows
- you to:
-
- o report on timecards between any 2 dates
- o report on any or all Employees, Clients, Projects, and
- Tasks
- o show only a Grand total, or up to 5 levels of subtotals
- o show the subtotals as a percentage of the Grand total
- o include the text of every timecard Note in the report
-
-
- 8.1 Report Options Window - Appearance
-
- The REPORT system may be invoked in one of 2 ways:
-
- 1. Press "R" from the Main Menu
- or 2. Press "R" from the View Window
-
- You will be presented with the window shown in Figure 6.
-
- It again shows the date and time at the top right, a large window
- in the center for data entry, and several FUNCTION-KEY COMMANDS at
- the bottom of the window.
-
- In general you will indicate the Reporting Options you want,
- optionally use the F3 function to limit which Activities are to be
- reported on, then press the F2 function key to start selecting and
- sorting the timecards. You are then given the option of sending
- the report to the Window, the Printer, or a Disk file on your PC.
-
- Section 9 gives details on how to generate several sample reports.
-
- PAGE 11
- 8.2 Report Options Window - Cursor movement keys
-
- Use the following keys to make your way around the Report window:
-
- UP/DOWN ARROW KEYS, Move up and down the data-entry fields.
- TAB/SHIFT-TAB:
-
- LEFT/RIGHT ARROW Select an item from the "SUBTOTAL ON" list
- KEYS: for which you want subtotals.
-
- PAGE-UP/DOWN KEYS, Jump to the top or bottom of the window.
- HOME/END KEYS:
-
- ENTER KEY: Accept the data for the current field, and
- move to the next field in sequence.
-
-
- 8.3 Report Options Window - Commands
-
-
- F1-HELP: Show a Help window for reference.
-
- F2-PROCEED: Using the options you typed in so far, proceed to
- the Select/Sort step. Once you proceed you may press
- the ESC key to abort this step if you feel you made a
- mistake.
-
- F3-SELECT: Go to the Report Selection window (see Section 8.5).
-
- ESC-Return: Return to the previous menu.
-
- PAGE 12
- 8.4 Report Options Window - Options
-
- The Report Selection window controls several options in 3 main
- areas of the window. These options will tell the system how to
- collect and arrange the information in your report.
-
- FROM DATE, You can tell the system what date-range of
- TO DATE: timecards you want to report on. If the FROM-DATE
- is left blank the system starts with the 1st
- timecard on file. If the TO-DATE is left blank the
- system stops at the last timecard on file.
-
- The date format is the standard MM/DD/YY. You may
- enter just the month and day (like "8/1" or "9/13")
- and the system will append the current year. You
- may also type a "T" to tell the system to use
- Today's date, or "Y" for Yesterday's date.
- Finally, you can type in a day-of-week code, like
- "MON" for Monday or "TUE" for Tuesday, to get that
- day's date in the current week. "-MON" and "-TUE"
- gives you Monday or Tuesday's date from last week.
-
-
-
- SUBTOTALS: You may specify up to 5 subtotal fields (or none)
- in any order. For example, choosing "EMPLOYEE and
- CLIENT" means your timecards will be subtotaled
- first by EMPLOYEE, then within a given EMPLOYEE by
- CLIENT.
-
- The 5 subtotal field choices are shown in a small
- window to the right of the highlighted area. You
- may select a field in one of 2 ways:
-
- 1. Press the bold-faced letter of the subtotal
- field you want, for example press "D" to
- select "DATE".
-
- 2. Use the LEFT/RIGHT arrow keys to move the
- highlight bar to the correct field name, then
- press the ENTER key.
-
- Note that the system won't prevent you from
- entering the same Subtotal field twice, for example
- "CLIENT and CLIENT". It doesn't make much sense,
- but it won't hurt anything.
- PAGE 13
- Report Options (cont.)
-
- VIEW OPTIONS:
- These options control the way the timecard report is
- actually displayed. The various choices for these
- options are shown to the right of each field. For
- example, the VIEWING FORMAT can be hours & minutes
- (hh:mm), hours & fractions-of-hours (hh.dd), or just
- minutes (mins).
-
- You may select a particular setting again in one of 2
- ways:
-
- 1. Press the bold-faced letter of the setting you
- want, for example press "M" for "Minutes" or
- "Y" for "Yes".
-
- 2. Use the LEFT/RIGHT arrow keys to move the
- highlight bar to the correct setting, then
- press the ENTER key.
-
- VIEWING FORMAT: [ HH:MM, HH.DD, or MINS ]
- Controls the format in which all times are
- displayed in the report
-
- SHOW PERCENTS: [ Yes, No ]
- Show the percent-of-total for each subtotal
-
- SHOW NOTES: [ Yes, No ]
- Show each timecard Note, if any.
-
- PAGE 14
- 8.5 Report Selection Window
-
- Press the F3 key from the Report Window. You will see a window
- like the one shown in Figure 7, which presents you with
- the lists of Employees, Clients, Projects, and Tasks currently
- defined in your system. Initially, all the entries on each list
- are marked as Selected. Only one list is "active" at a time, and
- that is the one shown with a BLACK background. You may select
- items on any of the 4 lists by using the cursor keys, the SPACEBAR,
- and the Function keys as follows:
-
- UP/DOWN ARROW KEYS, Move the highlight bar up and down within
- PAGE UP/DOWN, the "active" list
- HOME, END KEYS:
-
- LEFT/RIGHT ARROW Move left and right between the lists, making
- KEYS: each list "active" in turn
-
- SPACEBAR: Select or Unselect the current entry. Selected
- entries are marked with a ">" symbol.
-
- F2: Proceed with the report, using the lists as
- marked. Only timecards that refer to Selected
- entries will be included in the report.
-
- F3: Select ALL the entries in the active list
-
- F4: Unselect ALL the entries in the active list
-
- ESC: Cancel your selections, return to Report
- Window
-
-
- Note that if Password Security is ON, only the Administrator may
- select and unselect Employees. All other users are restricted to
- generating reports on their own timecards only.
- PAGE 15
- 8.6 Displaying and printing your report
-
-
- After the system selects and sorts the timecards you requested, you
- will see the Output Destination window, shown in Figure 8. Simply
- type the first letter of the destination of your report:
-
- S - sends the report to the screen, pausing after each
- screenful of data.
-
- P - sends the report to the printer.
-
- D - sends the report to a disk file for later printing or
- enhancement with a word processor. The system will
- prompt you to type in the name of the file.
-
- After the system processes the report you will be returned to this
- window. This allows you to review the report or change its
- destination, without having to re-specify the reporting options and
- re-sort the records. For example you may want to see the report in
- the screen first before deciding to send it to the printer.
-
- Press the ESC key to return to the Report Options window.
- PAGE 16
- 9 REPORT SAMPLES
-
- 9.1 General Instructions
-
- The best way to see the effects of the various options is just to
- experiment. For example, choose a date range of a week or so to
- limit the time it takes to select and sort. Then select one or
- more subtotal fields in the SUBTOTALS section (if no subtotal
- fields are selected you will just get a "Grand Total" report with
- no subtotals). Limit your report to only one Project using the F3
- key, or change some of the Viewing options. Finally, press the F2
- key to start selecting and sorting.
-
- Remember - reports do not change what's in the database so you
- can't accidentally erase any timecards or do any other damage here.
-
- You can interrupt the sort process by pressing the ESC key.
-
- When the Output Destination window appears, press S to send the
- report to the screen.
-
- Note that the following sample reports show only the 1st page of
- multi-page reports.
-
-
- 9.2 Sample Report 1 - Grand Total only
-
- See Figure 9. For a grand total report only the From-Date and To-
- Date were filled in. The user then pressed the F2 key to proceed.
- The number of records being selected and sorted is displayed near
- the bottom of the window, showing how many timecards were found
- between the two dates.
-
- Notice that the report heading indicates:
-
- a. the date and time the report was run
- b. the date range specified by the user
- c. no subtotal fields were specified.
-
- Also notice that the total time is displayed in the default format
- of hours and minutes.
- PAGE 17
- 9.3 Sample Report 2 - One Subtotal Field
-
- See Figure 10. Here we specified a single sort field in the
- SUBTOTALS section, namely Client. The report now shows that:
-
- a. the subtotal field is displayed in the report heading.
- b. the grand total is shown first
- c. the timecard times are subtotaled by Client.
-
- Notice that the grand total is shown first, then the subtotals.
- This is a little different than a standard accountant's way of
- showing a progression of subtotals, which usually appear as a
- column of numbers that add up to the grand total:
-
- A1
- B1 25
- B2 5
- -----
- 30 Subtotal
- A2
- B1 30
- B2 10
- B3 10
- -----
- 50 Subtotal
- --------
- 80 Grand Total
-
- The alternate idea here is that the user can "explode" a given
- total into subtotals, or "collapse" it back just by specifying more
- or fewer subtotal fields:
-
- No subtotals 1 subtotal 2 subtotals
- Grand Total 80 Grand Total 80 Grand Total 80
- A1 30 A1 30
- A2 50 B1 25
- B2 5
- A2 50
- B1 30
- B2 10
- B3 10
-
- This "nesting" can occur up to 5 levels deep. At each level the
- total of that group is presented first, then the subtotal within
- that group. One advantage of this approach is that you can see the
- grand total right away, without having to page-down to the end of
- the report. By making use of indentation the report lets you see
- group subtotals more quickly even if all 5 levels are involved.
- PAGE 18
- 9.4 Sample Report 3 - 2 Subtotal fields
-
- See Figure 11. Here we specified a report subtotaled by Task
- within Client, showing percentages. The report now shows the 2
- levels of subtotals using the indentation described above.
-
- Notice that the percentages of the Tasks reflect the percentage of
- the Client it "belongs" to. In other words, a subgroup's percent-
- ages are only in terms of the group directly above it, and do not
- reflect a percentage of the Grand Total.
-
- In turn, the Client percentages are in terms of the Grand Total
- because Client was the primary Subtotal field specified.
-
-
- 9.5 Sample Report 4 - 2 Subtotal fields plus Notes
-
- See Figure 12. Here we specified a report subtotaled by Task
- within Client, showing Notes. We also changed the VIEWING FORMAT
- to "hh.dd" (decimal time). The resulting report shows the time and
- the Note text for every timecard, beneath the last subtotal field
- (Tasks). You may want to see all cards as a double-check of your
- data entry. For example, if you see a timecard was recorded with
- a time of 16 hours you might want to go back to the View window and
- correct it.
- PAGE 19
- 10 SYSTEM UTILITIES
-
-
- 10.1 Utility Window - Appearance
-
- The UTILITIES system may be invoked in one of 2 ways:
-
- 1. Press "U" from the Main Menu
- or 2. Press "U" from the View Window
-
- You will be presented with the window shown in Figure 13. It lists
- the following 4 Utility Options:
-
- INFO Display/print summary information about all
- the TIMESTAX database files
-
- DISK Perform any of the disk input/output
- operations, (Import/Export, Archive/Unarchive,
- etc.)
-
- SETUP Update Activity Code Tables or change their
- Names; Change Employee passwords
-
- QUIT Return to the previous window.
-
- To select an option press its first letter, for example press "D"
- to invoke the Disk Utilities.
-
-
- 10.2 INFO Utility
-
- Press "I" from the Utilities Main Menu to invoke the INFO utility.
- See Figure 14. The options presented are:
-
- DUMP: Display or print every timecard in the database for
- debugging purposes. See Figure 15 for an example. The
- ID# field is the Employee ID number; the EXP field
- indicates whether the timecard was exported yet; the S
- field indicates status, where a "*" means the timecard
- has been marked for deletion.
-
- FILES: Display summary information about all the disk files
- relevant to the TIMESTAX System. See Figure 16 for an
- example.
-
- PEOPLE: Display summary information about all the timecards in
- the database, grouped by Employee. See Figure 17 for an
- example.
-
- QUIT: Return to the Utility menu window.
- PAGE 20
- 10.3 DISK Utility
-
- Press "D" from the Utilities Main Menu to invoke the DISK utility.
- See Figure 18. The options presented are:
-
- PACK: This operation will perform a database "pack", which will
- physically delete all timecards previously marked for
- deletion (by using the ERASE command from the View
- window). This operation may take several minutes, so be
- prepared to wait. The window will show what record number
- is currently being processed. See Figure 19.
-
- THE FOLLOWING OPTIONS ARE EXPLAINED MORE FULLY IN A SEPARATE
- SECTION BECAUSE THEY MUST BE DONE CAREFULLY!
-
- BACKUP/RESTORE:
- These operations will copy all relevant timecard files to
- or from the disk drive you specify.
-
- EXPORT/IMPORT:
- These operations are used to COPY a subset of your
- timecards (within a date range you specify) in one
- of 2 directions:
-
- EXPORT: FROM your timecard database TO another disk file
-
- IMPORT: FROM another disk file INTO your timecard
- database
-
- You would typically do an EXPORT in order to create a copy of a
- week or month's worth of your timecards on another disk, which is
- then given to the System Administrator to incorporate into a Master
- Timecard Database.
-
- ARCHIVE/UNARCHIVE:
- These operations are used to PERMANENTLY MOVE a subset of
- your timecards (within a date range you specify) in one
- of 2 directions:
-
- ARCHIVE: FROM your timecard database TO another disk
- file
-
- UNARCHIVE: FROM another disk file INTO your timecard
- database
-
- You would typically do an ARCHIVE in order to erase old or unwanted
- timecards which are taking up space in your database, yet save them
- onto a diskette for future reference.
-
- QUIT: Return to the Utility menu window.
- PAGE 21
- 10.4 SETUP Utility
-
- Press "S" from the Utilities Main Menu to invoke the SETUP utility.
- See Figure 20. The information you fill in here is kept in the
- TIMESTAX.TBL configuration file.
-
- If the Password Security option is currently active, you will only
- be allowed to view or change the Setup information if you've signed
- on as the Administrator. All other users are prevented from making
- changes.
-
- The options you are presented with are described below:
-
- 10.4.1 Assigning Activity SubLists
-
- Press "A" from the SETUP menu. See Figure 21. Here you may assign
- to Activity list 1 specific subsets of items in Activity lists 2
- and 3. For example, if you have defined Clients, Projects, and
- Tasks then you can assign certain Projects and Tasks to each
- individual Client. This can greatly simplify the job of entering
- timecards in the Add window, because you are shown only those
- Projects and Tasks which that Client is assigned.
-
- The method of moving around this window and making your assignments
- is the same method used on the Report Selection window (see Section
- 8.5).
-
-
- 10.4.2 Naming Activity Lists
-
- Press "N" from the SETUP menu. See Figure 22. You may name the
- Activity Categories anything you like by typing in the names in the
- fields provided. Press the F2 key to save your changes and return
- to the SETUP menu.
-
- 10.4.3 Password Security ON/OFF
-
- Press "P" from the SETUP menu. This will toggle the Password
- setting between ON and OFF. See Section 11 for a complete
- description of the Password Security features.
- PAGE 22
- 10.4.4 Sorting Activity Lists
-
- Press "S" from the SETUP menu. The program will lead you through
- the process of sorting and re-numbering all the items in the 3
- Activity Lists (but not the Employee List, where you manually gave
- each employee a separate ID number). This function must change
- each and every timecard in the Timecard Database, because timecards
- really only record the item number of an item in a list, not its
- text name. When that number changes the timecard must be updated.
-
- TimeStax normally adds new List items to the end of the list and
- assigns the next available sequential number to it. You would use
- this Sort function whenever you wanted to re-alphabetize the list
- to make it easier to find the item you want when entering new
- timecards.
-
-
- 10.4.5 Updating Activity Lists
-
- Press "1", "2", or "3", or "4" from the SETUP menu. Each of these
- options presents you with a popup list like the one shown in Figure
- 23. You may Add an item, Change the spelling of an item, or mark
- an item as "* deleted *". When adding People, you are prompted to
- enter an ID number from 1-999. When adding other Activity items
- the system automatically assigns the next highest internal Code
- number.
-
- WARNING: The timecard database (TIMESTAX.DAT) stores only the Code
- Numbers of the various Activities, not the actual text. The text
- is stored only in the TIMESTAX.TBL configuration file. This has a
- few important implications:
-
- 1) It is imperative that LAN users work from the same lists
- of Activities to be able to exchange export/import files.
-
- 2) To prevent mixups you are not allowed to delete an
- Activity entry while there are still timecards which
- refer to it.
-
- 3) You may not re-assign the internal Code Numbers or
- renumber them.
- PAGE 23
- 11 PASSWORD SECURITY FEATURES
-
- When the Password Security system is ON (see Section 10.4.3) the
- following features are enabled:
-
- 11.1 Signing On
-
- When TimeStax is first started up you are shown a list of Employees
- in the TimeStax database, as in Figure 24. Select one from the
- list and press ENTER. Then you will be prompted for a password, as
- shown in Figure 25. You have 3 chances to get the password right
- before TimeStax kicks you back to the DOS prompt. Note that the
- characters you type are displayed as "********".
-
- You can also change your password after you have typed in the
- current password. Instead of pressing the ENTER key, press the F3
- key, then enter and confirm a new password (see Figure 26).
-
- Employee passwords are encrypted in the TimeStax database for
- further protection against unauthorized access.
-
- 11.2 Password Administration
-
- One Employee is designated as the Administrator. Only this
- Employee can change the SETUP information and generate reports on
- all Employees. Other Employees may view timecards and reports only
- for themselves, and may not view or change the SETUP information.
-
- The Administrator may view or change any Employee's password when
- viewing the Employee list from the SETUP window, as shown in Figure
- 27. Move the highlight bar to the desired Employee name and press
- "P". Then enter and confirm the new password.
-
- The Administrator may also change which Employee is designated as
- the Administrator. In a default configuration of TimeStax the
- first Employee in the list is the Administrator. Move the
- highlight bar to the desired Employee name and press "M". Note
- that you will continue to have all Administrator privileges until
- you back out of the SETUP menu. If you try to re-enter the SETUP
- window you will be blocked, because you are no longer the
- Administrator. Go to the Viewcard window and select the Name
- function to sign back onto TimeStax as the new Administrator.
- Remember what the new Administrator's password is before you leave
- this window!
- PAGE 24
- 11.3 Timecard Viewing/Changing Security
-
- TimeStax allows you to view or change only one Employee's "stack"
- of timecards at a time. To view another Employee's stack you
- normally use the Name option from the ViewCard window. When
- Password Security is ON you are also prompted for the password of
- the selected Employee.
-
- 11.4 Timecard Listing Security
-
- The Utilities/Info/Dump utility normally generates a dump listing
- of all Employees' timecards in the database. When Password
- Security is ON, only the Administrator can list all timecards.
- Other users are limited to lists of their own timecards only.
-
- 11.5 Timecard Reporting Security
-
- In the Report module you may normally press F3 to select a subset
- of the Employees to include in a report. When Password Security is
- ON, only the Administrator can use this feature. Other users can
- still see the full list of Employees, but only his own name is
- selected and he is not allowed to select any other entries. In
- this way users cannot generate reports for anyone's timecards but
- his own.
- PAGE 25
- 12 HOW & WHEN TO EXPORT AND IMPORT
-
-
- 12.1 Overview of EXPORT and IMPORT
-
- If you are using TIMESTAX in a LAN environment you may need to
- periodically give subsets of your timecards to the System Adminis-
- trator, who then loads them into a centrally maintained Master
- Database of everyone's timecards. Or you may want to export some
- timecards to an ASCII file for use in an accounting or database
- package.
-
- Please note that the current version of TIMESTAX system is not a
- true "multi-user" system, where everyone enters data into a central
- Master Database directly. Instead, everyone maintains his/her own
- database of timecards, and a master database is periodically
- updated with the latest timecards from each person.
-
- For example, if there are 5 people using the system there will
- really be 6 databases - the 5 personal databases kept by each
- individual (which contains only his/her timecards), and a 6th
- database kept by the Administrator (which contains everyone's
- timecards). The Export/Import operations are intended to facili-
- tate this transfer from your personal database to the Master
- database. By definition:
-
- a. EXPORT is a transfer from your database to some small
- file on another diskette (or in a "common" area
- on the LAN). YOU perform exports.
-
- b. IMPORT is a transfer from that small file into the master
- database. The SYSTEM ADMINISTRATOR performs
- imports.
-
- You and your Administrator should agree on how often you will
- export timecards - every week, every 2 weeks, every month. Try to
- keep on schedule with your exports to ensure that the master
- database has the latest information. That way the Administrator
- can generate summary management reports which cover the entire
- group's work.
-
- PAGE 26
- 12.2 How to EXPORT timecards
-
- Bring up the Utilities Menu by pressing "U" from either the
- TIMESTAX Main Menu window or the TIMESTAX View window. From there
- press "D" to invoke the Disk Utility menu. Now press "E" to
- perform an export operation. You will see the window shown in
- Figure 28.
-
- You are now asked to specify the date-range of timecards you want
- to export. If your group has agreed to do exports each week, you
- may be trying this on Monday morning. In that case the From and
- To-Dates would indicate the previous Monday through the previous
- Sunday.
-
- Next you are asked what disk file to write the export file to. The
- system shows you the default filename (which it gets from the
- TIMESTAX.INI file, described in Appendix A). If the default is
- acceptable you can just press the ENTER key to proceed. You can
- however change the filename here before pressing ENTER. For
- example, if the TIMESTAX.INI file supplies only the pathname you
- must fill in the filename yourself, as in:
-
- TIMESTAX.INI says A:\
- You fill it out as A:\BHP0715.DAT
-
- One strategy for naming your export files might be to use your
- initials plus the to-date. For example, file "BHP0715.DAT" would
- contain Bob Programmer's timecards for the week ending 07/15. The
- next week's export file would be called "BHP0722.DAT", etc.
-
- Next the system indicates how many timecards it found between the
- given dates and asks you if it's okay to proceed with the export
- operation. Press the ESC key if you decide it's not okay. If
- there were NO timecards found between the given dates the system
- will tell you.
-
- The system now copies the selected timecards to disk and the
- operation is done.
- PAGE 27
- Cautions about EXPORTING timecards
-
-
- 1. The EXPORT operation does not delete timecards from your
- database, it only makes a copy of them. This means you
- can still generate reports using those timecards even
- AFTER you have exported them to the master database.
- For example, you might export weekly 4 times in a month
- but you want to run your own end-of-month report. The
- timecards for the whole month will still be around on
- your personal system.
-
- 2. If you try to export some or all of the same timecards
- a 2nd time you will get a warning message as shown in
- Figure 29. The system has marked those timecards the
- first time they were exported and warns you about it
- now. The danger is that later the Administrator would
- again merge your timecards into the master database and
- end up with duplicates. You can choose to go ahead
- with the export (for example if the Administrator has
- told you the first export was lost before it was
- processed), just be sure you are aware of the potential
- problem.
-
- 3. You may get a warning that the export file you are
- writing to already exists. This may mean that the
- Administrator has not yet had a chance to merge it
- into the master database (or, if you are re-using
- the same floppy disk 2 weeks in a row, that the old
- export file is still on it). You can choose to replace
- the old file here.
-
- PAGE 28
- 12.3 How to IMPORT timecards
-
- Only the System Administrator will normally be concerned with an
- Import operation.
-
- Press "I" from the DISK UTILITY menu. You will see the window
- shown in Figure 30 which asks you for the name of the file you want
- to import. The default filename is taken from the TIMESTAX.INI
- file, but you may override it before you press ENTER.
-
- You cannot specify a date-range for an Import operation - the
- entire import file will be merged into the master database.
-
- Next you will be prompted to press the ESC to exit or any other key
- to proceed.
-
- Again, the system marks the import file's records so that you don't
- accidentally import them a 2nd time. If you try to do so you will
- see a warning as shown in Figure 31. You may ignore this warning
- if you want, but be aware of the consequences.
-
- PAGE 29
- 13 HOW & WHEN TO ARCHIVE AND UN-ARCHIVE
-
-
- 13.1 Overview of ARCHIVE and UNARCHIVE
-
- The Archive/Unarchive operations are very similar to the Ex-
- port/Import operations, with one important difference:
-
- WHEN YOU PERFORM AN ARCHIVE, THE TIMECARDS YOU SELECT
- ARE PHYSICALLY ERASED FROM THE DATABASE.
-
- The whole point of archiving timecards is to do just that - get
- them off your database, where they are cluttering up the file and
- slowing down data entry and reporting.
-
- By definition:
-
- a. ARCHIVE is a transfer from your database to an archive
- file.
-
- b. UNARCHIVE is a transfer from an archive file to your
- database.
-
- IMPORTANT NOTE:
- The archive file is a cumulative file - new archive records are
- added to the end of it each time you perform an Archive operation.
-
- One strategy might be to archive any timecards over 2 months old,
- and to do this at the beginning of each month. That way you would
- always have at least 2 months of old timecards available "online"
- for running reports, but not so many that they slow down your
- system. For example, on October 1st you could archive all the July
- timecards to a file called "TIME_89.ARK"; then on November 1st you
- could archive all the August timecards into that same file.
- By the end of the year all your timecards for 1989 will be
- collected in the single archive file.
-
- You do not HAVE to archive at all. The system will still work but
- will generally slow down as more and more timecards are accumulat-
- ed.
-
- The Unarchive facility allows you to retrieve archived timecards
- and merge them back into your timecard database. You might want to
- do this if you want to generate a summary report that spans many
- months of timecards.
-
- Note that both individual timekeepers and the Administrator will
- probably want to periodically remove timecards to an archive file
- to keep the system performing well.
- PAGE 30
- 13.2 How to ARCHIVE timecards
-
- Bring up the Utilities Menu by pressing "U" from either the
- TIMESTAX Main Menu window or the TIMESTAX View window. From there
- press "D" to invoke the Disk Utility menu. Now press "A" to
- perform an archive operation. You will see the window shown in
- Figure 32. You are now asked to specify the date-range of
- timecards you want to archive. Type in the From-date and To-date.
-
- Next you are asked what disk file to write the archive file to.
- The system shows you the default filename (which it gets from the
- TIMESTAX.INI file). Normally the default is acceptable and you
- just press the ENTER key to proceed. You can however change the
- filename here before pressing ENTER. As mentioned above, one
- strategy for naming your archive files might be to use your
- initials and the year, as in "BHP_88.ARK".
-
- Next the system indicates how many timecards it found between the
- given dates and asks you if it's okay to proceed with the archive
- operation. Press the ESC key if you decide it's not okay. If
- there were NO timecards found between the given dates the system
- will tell you.
-
- If you have not yet exported some or all of the selected timecards
- you're trying to archive, you will see the warning shown in Figure
- 33. You should first export those timecards to the Administrator
- before attempting to archive them.
-
- The system now copies the selected timecards to the archive file
- and automatically performs a "database pack" to physically remove
- them from your database.
-
- 13.3 How to UNARCHIVE timecards
-
- Press "U" from the Disk Utility menu to perform an Unarchive
- operation. You will see the window shown in Figure 34. Enter the
- From and To-dates to tell the system which timecards in the Archive
- file you want to extract. Then enter the name of the Archive file
- you want to process.
-
- Next you will be prompted to press ESC to exit or any other key to
- proceed.
-
- IMPORTANT NOTE:
- The system DOES NOT mark the archive file's records during an
- Unarchive operation. This means that you CAN accidentally
- unarchive them a 2nd time and the timecard system will not warn you
- about it. If you do so you will be adding those records a 2nd time
- to your database.
- PAGE 31
- 14 HOW & WHEN TO BACKUP AND RESTORE
-
-
- 14.1 Overview of BACKUP and RESTORE
-
- Computer disk technology is not perfect and it is possible for data
- to be lost, written over, or otherwise corrupted. For this reason
- you should FREQUENTLY back up all files on your hard disk. There
- are many commercial programs available for disk backup but the
- TIMESTAX system additionally provides a way to back up just those
- files it deals with.
-
- The safest way to perform a backup is to copy the files to a floppy
- disk which you then put in a safe place, as often as once a week.
- At the end of a month, when you have 4 or 5 backup disks, you can
- re-use the 1st (oldest) disk as you start a new month. In this way
- you're never more than a week out of synch with your backups. In
- other words, if your hard disk is erased you only have to re-enter
- 1 week's worth of timecards after you Restore from your most recent
- backup.
-
- Backups are insurance policies. It's up to you how much risk your
- willing to take and how safe you think your data is on your hard
- disk.
-
- Note that the Administrator must be much more concerned with doing
- frequent backups because the master database is the accumulation of
- everyone's timecards. In fact, individuals may be more lax about
- backing up their own systems because they think the master database
- has all their timecards anyway. DO IT ANYWAY!
-
- A Restore operation is done when you want to completely replace all
- existing timecard files with a backup copy. Note that a Restore
- does not perform any checks of the data - it simply erases the
- current files and copies the backup files in their place.
- PAGE 32
- 14.2 How to BACKUP your database
-
- Bring up the Utilities Menu by pressing "U" from either the
- TIMESTAX Main Menu window or the TIMESTAX View window. From there
- press "D" to invoke the Disk Utility menu. Now press "B" to
- perform a backup operation. You will see the window shown in
- Figure 35.
-
- You are asked what drive and path to back up files to. The default
- is taken from the TIMESTAX.INI file (typically A:\), but you may
- override that here.
-
- Next you will be asked to press the ESC key to abandon the backup
- operation, or any other key to proceed. The system will backup all
- related TIMESTAX files to the drive and path you have specified.
-
-
- 14.3 How to RESTORE your database
-
- Press "R" from the Disk Utility menu to perform a Restore opera-
- tion. You will see the window shown in Figure 36 which asks you
- for the name of the disk drive where the backup files are to be
- found. The default filename is taken from the TIMESTAX.INI file,
- but you may override it before you press ENTER.
-
- Next you will be prompted to press ESC to exit or any other key to
- proceed. The system will erase the current set of TIMESTAX files
- and replace them with the ones found on the backup drive.
- PAGE 33
- APPENDIX A. LAN CONFIGURATION FOR THE LAN ADMINISTRATOR
-
- TIMESTAX version 2.5e is NOT a true multi-user database system. It
- will not support several users at once reading and writing to the
- Master TIMESTAX.DAT file or its index files. However it is
- possible to make use of several key features of a LAN which make
- controlling and maintaining the system easier.
-
- The basic concept for LAN use is that each person maintains his
- personal timecards on his own local PC, while a Master Timecard
- Database is maintained in a secure location on the file server.
- Periodically each person will export a subset of his timecards to
- a directory on the LAN; and a designated Administrator will import
- those files into the Master database. Strictly speaking, the
- individual Employee files could also be on the file server in that
- user's private directory.
-
-
-
- The TIMESTAX.INI Configuration File
-
- TIMESTAX.INI is an ASCII text file which tells TIMESTAX where to
- look for the various files it needs. If there is no such file
- TIMESTAX assumes all files are on the current working directory.
- You may also specify the name and path of TIMESTAX.INI as the 1st
- argument to TIMESTAX (as in "TIMESTAX c:\LOCAL\TS.INI"). For use
- in a LAN environment you might set up TIMESTAX.INI to look like
- this:
-
- Text Line Comment
- SYSTEM = F:\APPS System files are to be found in the
- \APPS directory of the F: drive on
- the LAN file server.
- DATA = C:\TIMESTAX Personal timecards are to be found
- in the \TIMESTAX directory on the
- C: drive of the local PC.
- BACKUP = A: Backup files to drive A:
- EXPORT = F:\TS Export files to path F:\TS on the
- LAN file server
- ARCHIVE= C:\TIMESTAX\ARK Archive to file C:\TIMESTAX\ARK
-
- Some of the files TIMESTAX requires are called System files. These
- are files that should be maintained only by the Administrator in a
- secure area of the LAN file server. These files are:
-
- SYSTEM FILE NAME Description
- TIMESTAX.EXE TIMESTAX executable program
- TIMESTAX.TBL Activity Code tables
- TIMESTAX.HLP Online Help Text
- PAGE 34
- LAN CONFIGURATION (continued):
-
- Once TIMESTAX is run the following Data files will be automatically
- created and maintained in the directory specified by the TIMESTAX.-
- INI DATA parameter:
-
- DATA FILE NAME Description
- TIMESTAX.DAT Main database of timecards
- TIMESTAX.NTS Timecard notes
- TS_DATE.NDX Index of timecards by date
- TS_CUST.NDX Index of timecards by Client
- TS_PROJ.NDX Index of timecards by Project
- TS_TASK.NDX Index of timecards by Task
-
- The MASTER Timecard Database
-
- The Master Database is the same as a normal TIMESTAX database,
- except that it contains all timecards from all Employees. The
- Master is updated periodically by the System Administrator by
- importing users' export files. It must be protected from
- unauthorized use. The simplest way to do this is to create a
- special Master directory and grant access only to the
- Administrator:
-
- Directory F:\MASTER - contains master TIMESTAX.DAT,
- TIMESTAX.NTS, plus master *.NDX files
-
- Then the Administrator should have his/her own TIMESTAX.INI file as
- set up to allow direct access to the Master Database as follows:
-
- SYSTEM = F:\APPS
- DATA = F:\MASTER
-
- Finally, create a "staging area" where all Export and Import
- operations can occur. For example, you may set up everyone's
- TIMESTAX.INI file to specify:
-
- EXPORT = F:\TS_STAGE\
-
- This pathname will be presented to all users when they do either an
- import or an export operation. In this way users can place multiple
- export files in this one directory, where they stay until the
- Administrator imports and deletes them.
- PAGE 35
- APPENDIX B. TECHNICAL NOTES
-
- The TIMESTAX program is written in Microsoft C v7.0 (large code-
- model) and uses the LATTICE (c) dBc-III database library which
- allows for directly reading and writing dBase-III files. In this
- way the system has the speed and performance of a compiled language
- program, and the flexibility of allowing you to design custom
- reports within the standard Dbase-III environment.
-
- As it turns out, only the .DAT and .NTS files are Dbase-III
- standard (corresponding to .DBF and .DBT files). The index files
- were purposely not written in standard format to reduce the size of
- the files. Specifically, the key fields are not standard ASCII
- derived from the .DBF fields, instead they are concatenations of
- binary internal fields of various lengths. This should not be a
- problem for the Dbase user however, since he can create his own
- indexes very quickly using built-in Dbase commands.
-
- The Dbc-III package used is not the multi-user LAN version,
- although such a version is commercially available. It was thought
- that given the very large volume of timecards/records involved in
- daily time-keeping, a single central multi-user file would quickly
- grow too large and cumbersome to use effectively.
-
- Instead, the approach we took was to provide each person with his
- or her own personal timecard database with "private" timecards in
- it. The disadvantage is that each person must periodically export
- subsets of the database to an Administrator, who must import those
- files into the master database. The larger master database exists
- only for reporting purposes and not for the day-to-day access by
- busy office workers. The advantage is that each person will have
- a fast and efficient system to record his time.
- PAGE 36
- APPENDIX C. A Word About Shareware
-
- Publicly-distributed software has evolved over the last 15 years
- into a variety of forms. It differs from retail or "commercial"
- software in two ways - its cost and its method of reaching the
- users.
-
- The original form was "Freeware", programs that were widely
- distributed on public computer networks and bulletin boards and
- could be used completely free of charge. Sometimes the author
- requested voluntary donations and (more importantly) user feedback
- on his work. "Public Domain" software is also free, but it's
- usually distributed with the program source code to a large and
- diverse community of programmers, so anyone who obtains it is free
- to tinker with the way the program works without violating any kind
- of copyright. Tinkering is in fact encouraged, with the idea that
- many heads are better than one and the resulting program is better
- than the original. A lot of the original bulletin-board PC
- software was itself distributed in one of these two formats.
-
- The term "shareware" has been used in different contexts over the
- years, sometimes meaning freeware, sometimes public domain
- software. The authors sometimes requested voluntary contributions,
- sometimes not, and sometimes insisted on payment by making the
- program do mean and nasty things after a certain number of times
- you used it without sending in payment. The word itself has a nice
- ring to it, and in the context of the original grass roots personal
- computer network movement, not tied to any megalithic profit-
- centered capitalist-pig enterprises, the "share" part made people
- feel like they were part of a nice little community co-op.
-
- These days "shareware" has a slightly more specific, if less
- communal, meaning. We have a "try-before-you-buy" approach to
- marketing and distribution. If you like it, pay for it. If you
- don't, throw it away or pass it along. Shareware programmers seem
- to have discovered that, as George Bush might have put it, "Profits
- - good, capitalism - good! Working for nothing - bad!".
-
- Shareware today is big business, but the emphasis is still on the
- individual user. Many top-sellers compete head to head with and
- sometimes surpass their "commercial" counterparts in quality, yet
- you benefit from a reduced price and in many cases better support.
-
- Very few shareware programmers make a living off their products, so
- when you do use them, please pay for them. You're not only saying,
- "Hey, this is good stuff and I'm glad to pay this measely fee".
- But your honesty may mean the difference between a programmer
- continuing to improve and develop "your" program, and throwing in
- the towel after Version 1.0. It's that simple.
-
-