Software of the Month Club (Business) 1997 September #242

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Accurate Accounting Time Sheet Copyright 1995 Bill (the Conductor) Liatti ShareWare Program IMPORTANT: Help = (F1) or (H) Com/Key (Com/Key = Command Key) Please Note: Com/Key is also referred to as Function Key. Summary of Main Menu Note: When the Menu is on screen eight of the Function Keys have Reserved/Expan., written after them. These are for future files to help manage work. Two functions (C) & (E) are programmable to access YOUR word processor and/or YOUR utility. A word processor is not supplied with this program, but a utility is if you wish to use it. Note: The Utility is PUSH BUTTON DOS. You are welcome to use it if you care to, there is no charge for it. Note: only the UTILITY PROGRAM needs 5.0 DOS or higher. To program (C) or (E) type (@) and follow instructions. The (E) must be programed to use the utility supplied with Accurate Accounting Time Sheet. Example: (c subdir u) programs the (E) Com/Key. Note: "subdir" should be replaced with the name you used when the program was was installed. The following is the recommended sequence to follow to get started. From the Main Menu use the following Com/Keys (H), (B), (L), (A). Data must be written in (B) ,(L) and (S) only. (1) -------------------- (B) Employees Name --------------------- From the main menu select (B) Employee Name List, type the names of your employees press enter, type five characters or less to represent their job description or craft. Note: It is important that you place the supervisors name at the top of the list of employees they supervise, as the time sheet places a copy of the first name on the list at the bottom right corner of the sheet as the supervisor in charge. If you wish to select a different employee as foreman, press Function (S) you will then be prompted for a line number, (they are numbered 1 thru 10) type one to select a foreman then press enter. You need not worry about saving this file when you finish it is automatically saved. You can use Social Security for ID Number. (2) -------------------- (L) Data Entry ---------------------- IMPORTANT: Master Charge number is five characters or less assigned by you, for the purpose controlling man hours charged to a project. Subordinate Charge is five characters or less. It's to control smaller jobs within the overall project. Here is an example. Master Charge is assigned SM100. To you SM100 can represent all Man hour costs for all Safety Related items. Now you assign SM101 to represent the biweekly safety meeting required by OSHA. The next line Assign Master Charge as SM100 and Subordinate Charge as SM102 to you it equals man hours used for new employee orientation. example: Master Subordinate Description SM100 SM101 Safety Meeting Weekly SM100 SM102 New Employee Orientation. This method will yield the best results, when viewing in the database file. Note: This file saves data when you exit using (X). But it is a good practice to use the save Function when you write data. Save = (S). Remember, if you use the ESC Key to exit all data written but not saved will be lost. Also you MUST enter .001 Hrs. for N/S or the time sheet will not save that line in the export file. (3)--------------------- (A) Time Sheet ------------------------ From the main menu select (A) Function Time Sheet (H) Function Help. The commands for the header area are the first thing you will want to address. They are (L), (N), (D) and (K). Here is a Tip, when you write location of job using the (L) Function, type job location <--SPACE--> Shift (Days, Swing or Night). (D) Function Use to enter day and date. If you are filling in Date and Day always write it in the same format. Examples, 06-23-94 Thursday or 06-24-94 Friday. The recommended method is to use one of two Automatic Functions. They are Auto or Auto1. Note: Auto not auto, the A must be Capitalized in both options. Here is the procedure, From the time Sheet and before you press the (S) command, Step #1 Press (D) then Enter Key type Auto if you wish todays date to be displayed or Auto1 to display yesterdays date, Step #2 Press Enter Key, Step #3 Press (K) the Keep command to save, Step #4 Esc or (X) to main menu, Returning to the time sheet activates Auto or Auto1. The Time Sheet will always display the select date in the correct format. (N) Function, Name of Company. (K) Function, if header is complete USE (K). It KEEPS header data. If you write data the same each time, the View Function and Sort Function will perform perfectly. Note: Case is NOT important. PgDn selects the next list of Employee names, when you see the list you want Press (S) Function Key. (S) Function saves selected employees. There are only two commands that are not straight forward and may require some explaining. (C) Choose Specific (A) Add in a name an option under (C). (S) Save selected names in time sheet. The (C) function is used if you do not wish to save a list as shown. Example: Press (C) then select Line 1,2,5 and 8 to save. Now select (A) to add another name to the list you are asked, (what line to add) it to when you answer, select a line not previously selected. If you do not the line number chosen with the (A) Function will overwrite lines selected with the (C) Function. (S) Function Saves name chosen and/or added. Now you see (Command Menu Help Menu) at the bottom of screen. (H) Function Help Now is a good time to mention that any file that has help available will respond to the (H) Key. (X) or (ESC) to exit all help. If you exit help, the commands available (help bar) to assist you in making a time sheet is displayed at the top of the screen. Arrow up to see the commands bar at the bottom. The number at the top left hand side of this file is the file number. There are fifty files in the Data List. These are the files you accessed with the (L) Function from the main menu. If you recall each file has nine lines. Arrow down to read all nine lines. Now PgDn the file number at the (top left) changes. When the charge line you wish to use is on screen then press function (O). (O) Function Hours press (O) + enter for regular hours, press enter. If the employee worked overtime, press (O) again other wise press enter a second time. Prompts will appear on screen type appropriate line to write, then press enter. If you are going to assign the same hours to more than one employee do it now. This is accomplished most efficiently with the (A) Function. (A) Function Automatic. Type line number and press enter. If you are assigning the same hours to more than one employee, use the automatic function. (F) Function Fix an error. IMPORTANT: If you slip and use a charge that is incorrect then (before you do anything else), Press Function (F). (M) Function Move a data line to a different employee. If you wrote to an incorrect location use (M) Function to Move Line. Remember when moving you MUST select the smaller number first. Note: To answer a question you will ask sooner or later. Yes you can select any one of the three lines within the blocked area of each employee name. This allows you to charge against three different charge numbers. (D) Function This is used to write a new description, if an employee performed work different than the current description. (X) Function Exit and save the time sheet. Exiting the time sheet you are forced to save. Here is an example name to show you how easy you can make it for yourself. Please use the following suggested method. The date is 06-23-94 the name of the foreman is Smith J P. The name to save to is 0623SJ Press Enter. If you wish to retrieve the time sheet you do not have to search the entire list. Type the name and press enter. Also if John P. Smith has a second time sheet with more employees. Save the second to 0623S1. If you wish to retrieve it later you already know the name. Note: as a little incentive to encourage you to follow this procedure you have been restricted to six characters. These saved files are saved with a .PRN ending but you never need to type the ending when saving or retrieving. This is the best method. (4) -------------------- (O) Export File ----------------------- DATA is automatically inserted when a time sheet is saved. Tip: Use this file to export data to the Database File. When you export, ALL DATA IS SENT. Note: If you export to a name already being used the data is appended to that file. IMPORTANT: The files in the export file cannot be altered, for this reason it is important to save them and back them up occasionally. The files all end with (.HLD) after saving the default Export File. (~) Com/Key Use to Export data to the database file. Use (~) Com/Key type a name press enter the entire file is exported to the file you named. ******** Save Function is reserved for Registered Owners ************* (S) Com/Key Save export file data in a new file. This gives the export file a fresh sheet. This file can become very large therefore it should be saved occasionally. Files that are not kept small tend to become unmanageable. Try to keep the export file under one thousand lines. These files are always an exact copy of the time sheets and cannot be altered. The Export File can retrieve these files and export to the Database File should you need to work with their data. (The end of each month is one suggestion that should be given consideration.) Actually what ever works for you is best. ******** Save Function is reserved for Registered Owners ************* (L) Com/Key Load saved files with (.HLD) endings. (K) Com/Key Kill erase a file in the database (.DBS) endings only. If you wish to export a file that is an updated. You can use (K) Com/Key to kill the file in the database. Now export to the same name and you will then have a current, up to-date-file. If you wish to add to a file do not kill it, just send new data to the old file it will be appended. Warning append will give duplicate lines of data if the same data is exported more then once. (5) -------------------- (D) Database File --------------------- From the main menu select (D) for Database File, the most useful file in this program. When you save a time sheet a copy of the data is placed in the export file. From there you can export it to the database file. This file manages the data for all the charges written in the time sheets. You can view by selecting numerous combinations. Overtime hours a specific charge, view all hours for a single employee, by date, name, craft, description, master charge or subordinate charge, when using subordinate charges the program gives the operator the option to view a specific charge or to exclude it. You can factor man hours to show the additional costs incurred because of the factor rate. Data in this file will give you documentation to meet OSHA requirements. You automatically have available information to show where funds were spent and documentation for cost overruns. As an estimating tool it can give you accurate cost accounting of similar work performed in the past for estimating purposes. Take note, the only way to get data for processing is to go to the Export file, Function Key O form the main menu. This file is an exact copy of each time sheet saved. When a time sheet is created the DATA is saved and a copy of the data is sent to the export file. It is very important to remember that if data is exported to a file which already exist it is appended to the end of the file, if some of the data being exported has been previously exported duplication is a possibility. DO NOT let this happen. For clarification review item (4) this file. Load a file, then use Command Key for required task. ──────────────────────────────────────────────────── Command Key Task they perform. ──────────────────────────────────────────────────── ────────────────── H Com/Key + Enter File related help ────────────────── ~ Com/Key + Enter Creates a temporary file. Useful if you wish ────────────────── to sort a file. If sort does not give desired results, you can press S Com/Key + X + Enter. Or if results are desirable then S Com/Key type a name + Enter to save. ────────────────── S Com/Key Type a name press enter to save file. ────────────────── ────────────────── ~ Com/Key A + Enter Creates a temporary file totaling all Hours. ────────────────── Then S Com/Key to save the added file. ────────────────── IMPORTANT: File MUST be added prior to using following two commands. + Com/Key + Enter Will activate Totaling. ~ Com/Key + Y Totals all costs including equipment. ────────────────── It isn't possible to total costs faster. Note: Employee and Equipment hourly rates are factored in automatically. If desired, equipment may be removed from this file. To accomplished this review the following Command Key ( V Com/Key ). ────────────────── V Com/Key Allows selection of lines that meet Selected ────────────────── criteria. Now use ~ Com/Key + Enter to create a new file containing only selected criteria. Or A Com/Key + Enter then ~ Com/Key to add totals in new file. ────────────────── V Com/Key + B or Only Date using -To- may be selected with P + Y to Exclude Subordinate Charges or Description when using ────────────────── the exclude function. ────────────────── V Com/Key + C Note: only viewing by craft selects unique ────────────────── this is to allow better control when separating crafts from crafts foremen. ────────────────── Z Com/Key Note: use after + Com/Key is activated. ────────────────── Z Allows operator to enter Hourly Rate for a particular craft. Format example 13.44 Z Should be used only when the operator wishes to use an Hourly Rate other than the one in the Man Hour Costs. M from the main menu. ────────────────── + Com/Key Use to activate addition and factoring of ────────────────── over-time hours. Then ~ N to make sub total or Y to total. Note: To make total or sub total and not factor over-time in Press A twice then Enter after + is used. ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── IMPORTANT NEVER USE + Com/Key if Sub totals TAKE NOTE: exist in file. If you do the Total will be incorrect. ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── I Com/Key Import a file into another. The view Com/Keys allow selection of specific information. ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── TAKE NOTE: Never import a file which has been TOTALED Sub Totals are ok. ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── ────────────────── $ Com/Key Menu appears select Com/Key from menu. Sorting ────────────────── saves result to disk, therefore it is best to make a temporary file before sorting. ────────────────── P Com/Key P Com/Key + Enter starts printing, you should ────────────────── be certain you have formatted the file. This is accomplished by using the Highlighted Com/Keys at the top of screen to suppress columns you do not wish to print. ────────────────── G Com/Key A quick way to access data in large files. ────────────────── Press G type any number Press Enter. ────────────────── L Com/Key Load a new file. Only files with (.DBS) ────────────────── endings. ────────────────── K Com/Key Kill or Erase a file (.DBS) endings only. ────────────────── X or ESC Com/Key If a file is on screen and not saved it ────────────────── will be reloaded on return. F1 Key Help Key. ────────────────── F2 Key Use to edit a line in the file or to write ────────────────── Data to a blank line. Note: blank lines must exist edit will not create. Use to write comments to a file. Press Enter when the cursor is on the line you want to edit. Editing Keys Tab Key = Move Cursor one screen left. Shift Tab = Move Cursor one screen right. Ctrl + Right Arrow = 20 Characters right. Ctrl + Left Arrow = 20 Characters left. Home Key = Starting point of line. End Key = Last Character in line. Insert Key = allow inserting or over typing. Pressing Insert again Toggles Between Insert Over and Inserting mode. Note: The character is the begining of a range or field. Fields must originate at an arrow. Holding the Ctrl Key + Letter types symbols. After F2 Key + Enter Key ─────────────────── ─────────────────────── Ctrl + A = "╚" Bottom Corner for a double line box. Ctrl + B = "╬" Intersection for a double line box. Ctrl + C = "╦" Three way intersection for a double line box. Ctrl + E = "╔" Top Left Corner for a double line box. Ctrl + F = "╠" Left side intersection for a double line box. Ctrl + J = "╣" Right side intersection for a double line box. Ctrl + G = Beeper tagged line reminder, Beeps when on screen. Ctrl + H = Backspace a letter. Ctrl + K = Hide every thing right of cursor. Ctrl + M = Exits Editing and Saves = Enter Ctrl + N = "°" Can be Used as Bullet to Specify Item. Ctrl + O = "■" Can be Used as Bullet to Specify Item. Ctrl + P = "░" Can be Used as Bracket. Ctrl + Q = "─" 80 Characters Ctrl + R = "╗" Right Top intersection for a double line box. Ctrl + S = "╝" Right bottom intersection for a double line box. Ctrl + T = "║" Vertical Line intersection for a double line box. Ctrl + U = "█" Can be Used as Bullet to Specify Item. Ctrl + V = "╩" Bottom intersection for a double line box. Ctrl + W = "═" Vertical line for a double line box. Ctrl + X = "■" 80 Characters Ctrl + Y = "═" 80 Characters Ctrl + Z = "─" Vertical line single line. Tip: When editing if you press the Down Arrow, Help appears on screen. You can still edit while help is on screen and scroll up and down. If you place the line to be edited at the top of the screen before pressing the F2 Key, help will remain on screen. If the line you are editing is not at the top of the screen, then editing will overwrite two lines of the help window at the editing location. Important: The help screen has all the preceeding Ctrl + editing key commands available during editing. ────── Esc = Exit edit do NOT save changes. Enter = Exit edit and save changes. F3 Key For Copying a line to another location in ────────────────── the file or to swap one line with another. Press F3 Key: Line locations appear on screen. Press Enter type the location number next to the line you wish to copy or swap then Press Enter PgUp or PgDn to the line you wish to copy to or swap, Press Enter type number of the second line press enter again. Select C to Copy or S to Swap. Insert Key Use to insert blank lines in a file or at ────────────────── the end. Important Note: if blank lines are added to the end of a file prior to totaling the total will not be written to the file. Adding totals or sub totals should be completed prior to adding any blank to the end of the file. ─── Delete Key Removes any lines from a file. ────────────────── ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── For tips and pass words: R from Main Menu then press Space Bar. You MUST enter your Company name before access is allowed. Go to Main Menu type ~ enter name. Note: It cannot be changed. ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── (6) -------------------- (P) Print/View Menu ------------------- When (P) is pressed you are given four Function Options to pick from (P), (R), (D) and (S). If you select (P) again, you can print the data stored in one of the data files. The Data Files are the (L) Function main menu. (P) Function from the print menu. If you are managing several hundred files then this can be very useful, the person making time sheets can look at the data print out and find the file number containing the DATA line they wish to use. Try printing some of these files to have a better understanding of how it might work. The next Function Key from the print menu is (R). It allows you to retrieve previously saved time sheets. You can print, view the description or comments you wrote regarding that employee, example Jones was late, the reason he gave is "my car broke down", I had to call a friend to drive me to work. Two Function Keys remain (D) and (S). (D) Function Displays on screen the names of all files containing employee names and charge numbers. (S) Function Allows you to view data files 1 thru 50 containing DATA, charge numbers you wrote. The data files also have Identical files with (.BAK) endings. Note: These files are always write protected to protect your data. Files 100 thru 125 contain Employee names. They are not write protected. (7) -------------------- (S) Small Tool File ------------------- Small tools file prints a list of all tools on the site. Uses various sorts to display information by various criteria. There are four columns per line. The first column is for Property numbers which are assigned by the owner or tool crib. The second is a description of the specific tool. The third column should contain the tools present location. Finally the fourth column contains the name of the person to whom it is presently assigned. Setup: No setup is required. If you wish to modify the colors of various screens, there is a simple way for it to be accomplished. F8 = Default colors, F9 & F10 = Toggle colors. The following files can be modified. Main Menu, Time sheet, Employee's Name List, Database File, Program Help and New Job Data Entry. *** Note: It's possible when selecting a color setup that some colors may cause type to vanish, therefore it's wise to test all functions after changing colors.*** The following flow chart graphically demonstrates, the flow of data through your program. Note: this flow chart shows only the connection between the most important files. Note: after the box marked Operator Input, data is entered automatically by the program. While the operator may modify a job description in the time sheet it is only an option not a necessity. Flow of Information ─────┐ │ Main Menu │ ┌─────────┴─────────┐ │ Operator Input │ │ ────────────── │ ┌───── Employee Names Data Entry, New Jobs │ │ Small Tools ───┐ ┌──────┴──────┐ └─────────┬─────────┘ │ │ Craft Rates │ ┌─────────┘ │ │ ─────────── │ Time│Sheet ┌──────┴──────┐ └────┬────────┘ │ │Prints Lists │ ┌───────┘ ┌─────────┴─────────┐ │ of Tools │ │ │ Program Output │ └─────────────┘ │ │ ────────────── │ │ Save Files Export File ───┐ │ Up-date Data Entry, New Jobs │ │ │ │ │ │ │ └───────────────────┘ │ │ Database file └────────────────────────────────────────────┤ ┌─────────┴─────────┐ Statistical data is created │ Program Output │ Totals added Ot Hrs factored │ ────────────── │ and cash expenditures │Create Statistical Data Files───┐ calculated automatically. │ │ │ └───────────────────┘ │ │ │ ┌────────────────────────────┘ ┌─────────┴─────────┐ │ Program Output │ │ ────────────── │ │ Sorted Files │ │ ──────────── │ │ Merged Files │ │ ───────────── │ │ Print Reports │ │ ───────────── │ │ Unlimited │ │ Management │ │ ─────────── │ └───────────────────┘ To print this file Press the letter P