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TimeStax (TM) The Personal Timecard Manager User's Manual Version 2.4 February 19, 1990 _______ ____|__ | (tm) --| | |------------------- | ____|__ | Association of | | |_| Shareware |__| o | Professionals -----| | |--------------------- |___|___| MEMBER Copyright 1988-1990 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 INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 1. INSTALLATION AND SETUP. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 1.1 Installation for Local Area Network. . . . . . . . . 2 1.2 Installation for Single PC with hard disk. . . . . . 2 2. GETTING STARTED . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 3. TIMECARD VIEW SCREEN. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 3.1 View Screen - Appearance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 3.2 View Screen - cursor movement keys . . . . . . . . . 4 3.3 View Screen - Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 4. TIMECARD ADD SCREEN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 4.1 Add Screen - Appearance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 4.2 Add Screen - Commands. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 4.3 Add Screen - data entry instructions . . . . . . . . 7 5. TIMECARD CHANGE SCREEN. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 6. GENERATING REPORTS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 6.1 Report Options Screen - Appearance . . . . . . . . . 9 6.2 Report Options Screen - cursor movement keys . . . . 9 6.3 Report Options Screen - Commands . . . . . . . . . 10 6.4 Report Options Screen - options. . . . . . . . . . 10 6.5 Report Selection Screen. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 6.6 Displaying and printing your report. . . . . . . . 13 7. REPORT SAMPLES. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 7.1 General Instructions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 7.2 Sample Report 1 - Grand Total only . . . . . . . . 14 7.3 Sample Report 2 - One Subtotal Field . . . . . . . 15 7.4 Sample Report 3 - 2 Subtotal fields. . . . . . . . 16 7.5 Sample Report 4 - 2 Subtotal fields plus Notes . . 16 8. SYSTEM UTILITIES. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 8.1 Utility Screen - Appearance. . . . . . . . . . . . 17 8.2 INFO Utility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 DUMP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 FILES. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 PEOPLE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 8.3 DISK Utility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 PACK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 8.4 SETUP Utility. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Naming Activity Lists. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Updating Activity Lists. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Assigning Activity Sublists. . . . . . . . . . . . 19 9. HOW & WHEN TO PERFORM AN EXPORT or IMPORT OPERATION . . . 20 9.1 Overview of EXPORT and IMPORT. . . . . . . . . . . 20 9.2 How to EXPORT timecards. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 9.4 How to IMPORT timecards. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 10. HOW & WHEN TO PERFORM AN ARCHIVE or UNARCHIVE OPERATION. 24 10.1 Overview of ARCHIVE and UNARCHIVE. . . . . . . . . 24 10.2 How to ARCHIVE timecards . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 10.3 How to UNARCHIVE timecards . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 11. HOW & WHEN TO PERFORM A BACKUP or RESTORE OPERATION. . . 26 11.1 Overview of BACKUP and RESTORE . . . . . . . . . . 26 11.2 How to BACKUP your database . . . . . . . . . . . 27 11.3 How to RESTORE your database . . . . . . . . . . . 27 APPENDIX A. LAN CONFIGURATION FOR THE LAN ADMINISTRATOR. . . 28 The TIMESTAX.INI Configuration File . . . . . . . . . . 28 The MASTER Timecard Database. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 APPENDIX B. TECHNICAL NOTES. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Page 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. 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 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? TimeStax version 2.4 provides the following features: o Unlimited "stacks" of timecards that record time spent in any activity, classified by Date, Client, Project, and Task categories for unlimited number of employees o Sublists of Projects and Tasks specific to each Client o Ability to name and maintain category lists of unlimited length o Sort timecards on screen by any category o An optional 8-line Note for each timecard o Online help screens o Summary reporting with up to 5 levels of subtotals with the ability to include/exclude any Employees, Clients, Projects, Tasks o Utilities to backup and archive the databases o Utilities to export/import subsets of timecards between user databases and a master database o An automatic clock to time any given activity o Single-PC or LAN (not multi-user) configuration Page 2 1. 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. 1.1 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. 1.2 Installation for Single PC with hard disk With the installation disk in drive A:, type C> A:Install C:\TIMESTAX. The installation program will create a subdirectory called "TIMESTAX" on your PC's C: drive and copy the TIMESTAX.EXE program file to it. A set of Demo files are copied to C:\TIMESTAX\DEMO. Use these files for practice by typing DEMO. 2. 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 12. 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 reponsible for assigning the Employee ID codes for you. 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. Page 3 Getting Started (cont.) The next screen you will see is the TIMESTAX MAIN MENU. This screen shows the date, a running time clock at the top right, and the five available options: TIMECARDS - go to the timecard View screen REPORTS - go to the Report Options screen UTILITIES - go to the Utilities screen HELP - show a Help screen 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. 3. TIMECARD VIEW SCREEN Each user is given one "stack" of timecards in the database. The View screen lets you look at one particular user's stack and move forward and backward within that stack. Press "T" from the main menu to get to the TIMESTAX View screen. 3.1 View Screen - 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 on the screen. If timecards do exist, the last 15 timecards on file will be displayed on the screen. A reverse-video "highlight bar" will highlight the last timecard (red on a color monitor). There are several features of the View Screen 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 screen, and the CHANGE command is highlighted. o 'N' at the left of a timecard means a Note is attached o 'E' at the left of a timecard means it is 'Erased' Page 4 3.2 View Screen - cursor movement keys Several keys are used to make your way around the View screen. 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 an employee. END KEY: Move the highlight bar to the very last timecard on file for an employee. LEFT/RIGHT ARROW Move the COMMAND highlight bar left KEYS: and right at the bottom of the screen ESC KEY: Return to the main menu screen. ENTER KEY: Execute the currently highlighted COMMAND 3.3 View Screen - Commands The commands at the bottom of the VIEW screen 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 the New Timecard screen to add timecard(s) CHANGE: Go to the EDIT data entry screen to modify the timecard that is currently highlighted on the VIEW screen 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 "*" on the screen. You must perform a PACK operation (see UTILITIES) to remove the timecards marked for deletion. Page 5 3.3 View Screen - Commands (cont.) HELP: Show a help screen for reference. JUMP: Jump to the first timecard with a specific user- selected 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. 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 on the screen. This means the text may not appear in "alphabetic" order on the screen. 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. 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 6 4. TIMECARD ADD SCREEN The same Add screen is used both for adding a new timecard and for changing the timecard currently highlighted on the View screen. 4.1 Add Screen - Appearance Press "A" from the TIMESTAX View screen to invoke the ADD command. A set of windows is displayed where the information for a single timecard will be entered. Notice these features of the Add Screen: 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 existing timecard for the currently active Employee. o The named boxes across the screen are the same as on the View screen - for example, DATE, Client, Project, Task, and TIME. This is where you enter the information for 1 timecard. o The center of the screen shows a large window 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 screen. 4.2 Add Screen - Commands F1-HELP: Show a help screen 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 Screen without saving the timecard information just entered. Page 7 4.3 Add Screen - data entry instructions The Add screen 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 5 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. Client, Project, and Tasks: Note that the names of these fields are user-defined in the Utilities NAME program (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. or 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. TIME: There are several formats you can use to enter the time associated with this timecard, as shown in the center window. 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 text 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 - Erase the 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 Page 8 5. TIMECARD CHANGE SCREEN Press "C" from the TIMESTAX View screen to invoke the CHANGE command. This screen looks just like the ADD screen. The fields have been filled in with the timecard which was highlighted on the View Screen, so it can now be modified. The operation of this screen is almost identical to the operation of the ADD screen. The only difference is that once you press the F2 function key to save the changes you are automatically returned to the View Screen. Page 9 6. 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 6.1 Report Options Screen - 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 Screen The report screen 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 screen. 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 Screen, the Printer, or a Disk file on your PC. Section 7 gives details on how to generate several sample reports. 6.2 Report Options Screen - cursor movement keys Use the following keys to make your way around the Report screen: 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 screen. HOME/END KEYS: ENTER KEY: Accept the data for the current field, and move to the next field in sequence. 6.3 Report Options Screen - Commands F1-HELP: Show a Help screen for reference. F2-PROCEED: Using the options you typed in so far, proceed to the Select/Sort step. You may press the ESC key to abort this step if you feel you made a mistake. F3-SELECT: Go to the Report Selection screen (discussed below). ESC-Return: Return to the previous menu. Page 10 6.4 Report Options Screen - options The Report Selection screen controls several options in 3 main areas of the screen. 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 timecards TO DATE: 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. The system can fill in the year for convenience. Type 'T' for Today's date. 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". or 2. Use the LEFT/RIGHT arrow keys to move the highlight bar to the correct field name, then press the ENTER key. Page 11 Report Options (cont.) 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. 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 (mmm). 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 12 6.5 Report Selection Screen Press the F3 key from the Report Screen. You will see a screen 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 Screen Page 13 6.6 Displaying and printing your report After the system selects and sorts the timecards you requested, you will see the Output Destination screen. 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 screen. 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 on the screen first before deciding to send it to the printer. Press the ESC key to return to the Report Options screen. Page 14 7. REPORT SAMPLES 7.1 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 1 or more subtotal fields in the SUBTOTALS section (if no subtotal fields are selected you will get a "Grand Total" report with no subtotals). Limit your report to only 1 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 screen 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. 7.2 Sample Report 1 - Grand Total only 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 screen, 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 15 7.3 Sample Report 2 - One Subtotal Field 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 16 7.4 Sample Report 3 - 2 Subtotal fields 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 percentages 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. 7.5 Sample Report 4 - 2 Subtotal fields plus Notes 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 screen and correct it. Page 17 8. SYSTEM UTILITIES 8.1 Utility Screen - 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 Screen You will be presented with the screen which lists the following 4 Utility Options: 1. INFO - Display/print summary information about all the TIMESTAX database files 2. DISK - Perform any of the disk input/output operations, (Import/Export, Archive/Unarchive, etc.) 3. SETUP - Update Activity Code Tables or change their Names 4. QUIT - Return to the previous screen. To select an option press its first letter, for example press "D" to invoke the Disk Utilities. 8.2 INFO Utility Press "I" from the Utilities Main Menu to invoke the INFO utility. The options presented are: DUMP: Display or print every timecard in the database for debugging purposes. 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. PEOPLE: Display summary information about all the timecards in the database, grouped by Person. QUIT: Return to the Utility menu screen. Page 18 8.3 DISK Utility Press "D" from the Utilities Main Menu to invoke the DISK utility. 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 screen). This operation may take several minutes, so be prepared to wait. The screen will show what record number is currently being processed. 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 screen. Page 19 8.4 SETUP Utility Press "S" from the Utilities Main Menu to invoke the SETUP utility. The information you fill in here is kept in the TIMESTAX.TBL configuration file. The options you are presented with are described below: Naming Activity Lists Press "N" from the SETUP menu. You may name the Activity Categories anything you like by typing in the names in the fields provided. Press the F2 key to return to the SETUP menu. Updating Activity Lists Press "1", "2", or "3", or "P" from the SETUP menu. Each of these options presents you with a popup list. 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 1-99. 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. Assigning Activity Sublists Press "A" from the SETUP menu. 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 screen, because you are shown only those Projects and Tasks which that Client is assigned. The method of moving around this screen and making your assignments is the same method used on the Report Selection screen (see Section 6.5). Page 20 9. HOW & WHEN TO PERFORM AN EXPORT or IMPORT OPERATION 9.1 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 Administrator, 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 facilitate 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 21 9.2 How to EXPORT timecards Bring up the Utilities Menu by pressing "U" from either the TIMESTAX Main Menu screen or the TIMESTAX View screen. From there press "D" to invoke the Disk Utility menu. Now press "E" to perform an export operation. 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). 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 22 9.3 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. 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 23 9.4 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 a screen 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 message. You may ignore this warning f you want, but be aware of the consequences. Page 24 10. HOW & WHEN TO PERFORM AN ARCHIVE or UNARCHIVE OPERATION 10.1 Overview of ARCHIVE and UNARCHIVE The Archive/Unarchive operations are very similar to the Export/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 accumulated. 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 25 10.2 How to ARCHIVE timecards Bring up the Utilities Menu by pressing "U" from either the TIMESTAX Main Menu screen or the TIMESTAX View screen. From there press "D" to invoke the Disk Utility menu. Now press "A" to perform an archive operation. 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 a warning message. 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. 10.3 How to UNARCHIVE timecards Press "U" from the Disk Utility menu to perform an Unarchive operation. 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 26 11. HOW & WHEN TO PERFORM A BACKUP or RESTORE OPERATION 11.1 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 peform a backup is to copy the files to a floppy disk which you then put in a safe place, perhaps 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 27 11.2 How to BACKUP your database Bring up the Utilities Menu by pressing "U" from either the TIMESTAX Main Menu screen or the TIMESTAX View screen. From there press "D" to invoke the Disk Utility menu. Now press "B" to perform a backup operation. 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 you have specified. 11.3 How to RESTORE your database Press "R" from the Disk Utility menu to perform a Restore operation. You will see a screen 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 28 APPENDIX A. LAN CONFIGURATION FOR THE LAN ADMINISTRATOR TIMESTAX version 2.4 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 user 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 user 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 user 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 Page 29 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 user notes TS_DATE.NDX Index of timecard dates TS_CUST.NDX Index of timecard Clients TS_PROJ.NDX Index of timecard Projects TS_TASK.NDX Index of timecard Tasks The MASTER Timecard Database The Master Database is the same as the normal TIMESTAX database, except that it contains all timecards from all users. 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 \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 them. Page 30 APPENDIX B. TECHNICAL NOTES The TIMESTAX program is written in Microsoft C v5.1 (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 users 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 user with his or her own personal timecard database with "private" timecards on it. The disadvantage is that each user 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 user will have a fast and efficient system to record his time.