Computer Select (Limited Edition)/Computer Select.iso/pcmag/v11n01/trackr.doc

Text File | 1992-01-06 | 12.7 KB | 251 lines

TRACKR.COM


Scott Chaney                           January 14, 1992 (Utilities)


Purpose: Trackr is a memory-resident utility that keeps track of the
time you spend on a project. If you bill clients by the hour it can
multiply the logged time by your hourly rate using the information you
enter in a client data file and prepares a printable billing report.

Format: TRACKR

Remarks:

     A 7K memory-resident utility, TRACKR lets you create or switch
tasks at any time, stop the clock temporarily, switch applications
with the clock running, combine multiple separately timed tasks for
the same client into a single billing report, and update your task log
at a keystroke. Increments for partial-hour calculations can be as
small as 1 minute. If at any time you are in a TRACKR menu and wish to
return to your application, simply press Esc key. If you're two or
more menus deep, you will have to hit the Esc key twice.

You can use any ASCII editor--DOS 5.0's EDIT, PC Magazine's TED, or
even your word processor (in its nondocument mode)--to create
CLIENT.DAT, the file holds the billing information for each of your
accounts. A typical entry in CLIENT.DAT might be:

ABC Incorporated
123 Anystreet
Anytown, AK 55555
[phone]
\95\15

After the line containing the client name, you can include any number
of additional lines (each terminated by pressing Enter) that you want
TRACKR to print out in its billing report. In the above sample, for
instance, you might want to add an account number code for the client,
or you might decide you don't want to include the phone number on the
invoice. Anything between the client's name and the last line of each
client entry is optional.

     The last line in each client entry is the only one that must
follow a specific format: \$$$\mm\, where $$$ is the rate at which you
bill this client per hour, and mm is the minimum billing increment in
minutes. The last line in the sample entry above, therefore, tells
TRACKR that you bill ABC Incorporated at $95 per hour and that
partial-hour calculations should be rounded up to the next 15 minutes.
Note that the billing rate and increment line must be the only line
whose first nonspace character is a backslash.

     Your CLIENT.DAT file will hold the multiline entries for up to 30
clients, and entries can be separated by blank lines or not, as you
choose. If you put more than 30 clients in your CLIENT.DAT file,
TRACKR will notify you with the message, "Ignoring Extra Clients". You
can either continue (but not have access to all your clients) or
uninstall TRACKR, edit your CLIENT.DAT file down to 30 clients, and run
TRACKR again. Do not edit CLIENT.DAT while TRACKR is running.

USING TRACKR

When you have created your CLIENT.DAT file, you're ready to install
TRACKR. You can do this simply by running it, either from the DOS
prompt or as a line in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file. The full syntax for
TRACKR is

TRACKR [/n] [/U] [/I d:\path]

THE "CLIENT.DAT" FILE MUST BE IN THE SAME SUBDIRECTORY WHERE THE .LOG
FILES ARE TO BE LOCATED.  THE FIRST TIME YOU USE TRACKR YOU MUST TELL IT
WHERE THE CLIENT.DAT FILE AND THE .LOG FILES ARE TO BE KEPT.

You do this by using the "/I d:\path" command line option. For example,
if want your log reports kept in the C:\BILLING subdirectory, then move
CLIENT.DAT into that subdirectory and start TRACKR with the following
line:

TRACKR /I C:\BILLING

TRACKR will thereafter remember where you keep its ancillary files, so
you need only use the /I switch once.

     When you're logged onto a task, TRACKR periodically displays the
name of the active task and the elapsed time (in hh:mm) since you
started it. This reminder appears in the upper- right corner of your
screen for 5 seconds, and by default it is repeated once a minute. You
can disable the reminder or change how often it appears by using the
/n command line switch when you install TRACKR. The n value is the
number of minutes that should elapse between reminders, and it can
range from 0 (no reminder) through 9. When in Pause mode (described
below), the reminder pops-up as before, except that instead of
displaying elapsed task time it reminds you that you're in PAUSE mode.

     The /U command line switch allows you to uninstall TRACKR from
memory, subject to the usual limitation that TSR's must be uninstalled
in the reverse order in which they were loaded. If at any time you
forget the command syntax, simply enter TRACKR /?.

     Once loaded, TRACKR pops-up when you press Ctrl-R. Both the
default hotkey and the colors used by the TRACKR menus can be changed
with PATCH (Utilities, November 12,1991) and the TRACKR.ZIF configuration
file. Any time you are in a TRACKR menu and wish to return to your
application, simply press Esc.

      TRACKR can pop-up only in text modes. Thus, if you need to access
the utility while running a program that uses graphics modes, you must
get to a part of the program that uses text mode before the hotkey will
have any effect. If necessary, you can go out to the DOS prompt, using
the application's "shell" function. Only in the worst case might you
temporarily have to exit the application.

     The first time you use TRACKR, it will notice that you haven't
created any tasks to be timed for any of the clients listed in your
CLIENT.DAT file. TRACKR will therefore simply present you with a list
of the clients. (Only the first 21 characters of each client's name
will be shown.) When you select a client you'll be asked to provide a
Task Name.

     The Task Name can be 8 characters long and must not contain
anything  that cannot be part of a legal DOS filename or begin with a
backslash. (TRACKR will append the extension .LOG to the Task Name,
and this combination becomes the filename of the billing report.) When
you type in the desired Task Name and hit Enter, TRACKR will prompt you
for a comment, the can be up to 30 characters and is designed for short
notes or identifiers such as "First Qtr State Tax Return."

     Whether you include a comment or not, hit Enter once again. You
will be returned to the application in which you were working (or to
DOS, if you shelled out), and TRACKR will start the meter on the task
you have just created for the selected client.

TRACKR MENUS

If you now hit Ctrl-R again, the task you just created (along with
others, as your task list grows) will appear on the left side of the
menu window. On the right side are five menu choices: Pause, Log Off,
Switch, Create New Task, and Update Task Log. Press the highlighted
letter to select the desired function, or press Esc to return to your
 application.

     If you're interrupted during a task and want to suspend billing
time during the interruption, press P for Pause.  That way you don't
have to log off and relog onto the same task later. When you want to
resume, press Ctrl-R to get to the menu and hit R for Resume.

     Press L from the menu to Log Off the currently active task. TRACKR
will then stop charging time to the active task, write the time
information to that task's log file, and recalculate the billing entries
in that task's log file.

     Pressing S (for Switch) provides a shortcut option that logs you
off the current task and immediately logs you onto another. This is
particularly handy when you're working on one project and get a billable
telephone call for another client. Note that each available task is
identified in the menu by both name and number; when switching tasks
you enter the number  of the new task.

     To create a new task, you press C for Create Task at the menu.
This will initially bring up an alphabetical list of all the clients
from the CLIENT.DAT file, displayed on the left side of the pop-up
window. Since TRACKR can only display five clients at a time, you may
need to use the PgUp and PgDn keys to go though the entire list. Select
the client to be billed (again, by  number), and you'll be asked to
provide a Task Name (remember, it can only be 8 characters). You'll
again have the option of entering a comment. Once you press Enter,
TRACKR logs you onto the new task and returns you to your application.

     Over time, you will probably create more tasks than the 10 that
can be displayed at once in the menu window. The PgUp and PgDn keys
will again take you through the entire list, which is limited to a
total of 50 tasks (.LOG files). If you create more than 50 tasks,
TRACKR will warn you when you load it into memory.

     Since all the tasks you create are listed alphabetically rather
than being grouped by client, you may want to include a client code in
 every Task Name. For example, you may want to have a Phone Task for each
    client so that when he calls you can immediately start tracking the
amount of time you're on the phone with him. Thus, if you have three
clients--ABC Corp., XYZ Corp., and PC Corp--you might have Task Names
of ABCPHON, XYZPHON, and PCPHON.

     As mentioned earlier, TRACKR takes a Task Name, such as "proposal,"
and creates a PROPOSAL.LOG file from it. The .LOG file for each task
contains the client information entered in the CLIENT.DAT file, plus
an entry for each time you start the task. Each entry consists of the
date, the time you began the task, the time you stopped the task, the
time spent on the task, and any comments you entered in the Comment
field. The file also tallies the time totals for each day and multiplies
these by the billing rate, thus coming up with a billable amount for
each day. The last entry in the .LOG file is the total amount of time
spent and money due for the entire task.

     If you want to update the calculations without leaving the task,
you simply hit U, for Update a task, which is the final selection from
the menu. Note that when TRACKR calculates the time you spent working
on a task it always rounds up to the next billing increment: If you
work on a particular task for 16 minutes and you bill in 15 minute
intervals, TRACKR will bill for 30 minutes. Since the log file shows
the actual log-on and log-off times, you may occasionally want to
adjust the log-off time shown in the file to avoid overcharging. TRACKR
will update the calculations, based on the corrected time, the next
time you perform the task or use the Update function.

     Rounding up to the next billing increment can cause similar
confusion when you encounter a series of interruptions and are using
the Pause feature. Each time you resume, a new entry is started, and
rounding up a series of short fractional increments can plainly result
in overcharging. One solution is to bill in smaller minute increments
(down to one minute), but again there will be times when you want to
edit the file and update it before printing it for your client.

     You can use any ASCII editor to edit a .LOG file and delete, add
or adjust any entry. When editing, be sure to keep the columns lined
up, and use spaces (not tabs) to keep everything in line. Note,
however, that when TRACKR updates a .LOG file, it pays attention only
to the date, start time, end time, and comment fields. If you need to
adjust a total, therefore, you must do so by adjusting the start or
end times. TRACKR's recalculations will wipe out any editing changes
you make in a total field. You can, however, edit the client information
shown in the .LOG file, including billing rate and billing increments,
and these changes will be reflected at the next update.

      When the .LOG file is finalized, you can use your word processor,
any print utility, or the DOS command

TYPE filename > PRN

to print out the billing report.

     When no task is currently being metered, pressing Ctrl-R brings
up a  menu with only three choices on the right side of the menu:
Create new task, Update task log, and Log in new task. Only the L (for
Log in) option is new here, and the procedure is familiar. After
pressing L, you select the desired task from the list by entering its
number rather than its name and then by entering a comment, if desired.
TRACKR will immediately return you to your application and start
tracking your time on this task.

     Two final notes are in order. You must always load TRACKR before
you load Microsoft Windows. If TRACKR still doesn't pop up in the
application you're running under Windows, then open the DOS window in
the Main folder and pop it up from there. Note also that you may have
to install TRACKR before you open other DOS applications. If you shell
out from a program and try to load TRACKR, you may not be able to get
it to pop up within the application.

Scott Chaney is the founder of RSE, a company in Auburn, Washington,
that specializes in the development of productivity shareware for PCs.