Posted on

Employee Availability

Project managers can know when employees are available for upcoming projects. With the Standard Time® project management app a graph shows when an employee is available to work, is overloaded with work and is scheduled to work.

Scroll down to view the video.

The employee availability graph uses both projects and project tasks to determine when employees are available for work.

The simplest method takes employee assignments from projects and plots them on the graph.  For example: if a person is assigned 25% of their day to a project, you’ll see small bars.  If they are assigned to four such projects, the graph will fill up completely.

A more complex example is assigning project tasks.  All the task assignments are totaled up for each time period and graphed.  You can easily see when a person is overloaded or under-allocated.

Posted on

Interview: Time Tracking App

Smartphones have changed the way people can enter their time onto their timesheet. Consultants can  take their phone out into the field and record their time, it then goes into the cloud and is recorded.

Also clients are able to follow the progress done on their projects with Project Bot. They log in with their own ID and follow along. No longer do they have to call the office for the updates!

Posted on

Interview: Project Revenue

Look into the crystal ball – you can tell the future revenue with Standard Time®.

Well, sort of…

You can predict future project revenue  (scroll down for the video) with a nice little project sales funnel.  Here’s how it works:

1. You enter the estimated sales revenue for each project
2. You enter the likeliness of winning the project
3. You set the dates you expect to see the revenue
4. Open the Project Revenue chart and see all the projects added together

Projects with a high likeliness of winning influence the chart more than those with low percentages.

Download and give it a try.

Posted on

Interview: Timesheet Tasks

The following interview with Ray White of Scoutwest, Inc. will explain who can see your timesheet and also explain favorites. While entering time for a project you don’t have to wade through a long list, just choose your favorites and only see those.

Mr. White also describes who can view your timesheet and who cannot.  Normally, your timesheet is private.  No other employees can see it.  But your boss can.  Executives and project managers may also be able to see your timesheet, depending upon their access rights.

Posted on

Unique Timesheet Features

If you’re looking for a nice timesheet app, this one may be the answer.  It is simple enough for anybody to use, and comprehensive enough to do just about anything.

Scroll down for the video.

The video below shows many unique features. There is a Windows and Web version, all with the same features. It has six tabs available; they are Project Tasks, Timesheet, Time Log, Expenses, Billing and Time Off.

Actually, this is more than just a timesheet.  There are project management features built in, plus Time Off and PTO accruals.  Employees can submit vacation and time off requests, and have them approved by their managers.  Once approved, the time is subtracted from their bank of hours.

Project management features include a hierarchy of tasks, start and finish dates, resource allocation, employee availability, role assignments, and search by skill.

Posted on

Task Percentage Warnings

Companies can limit employee’s “task lingering” on projects. This video shows you how to do that in the Standard Time® timesheet.

Employees sometimes camp out on familiar tasks, and don’t move on.  Maybe they are unfamiliar with upcoming tasks, or maybe they just don’t want to move on for some reason.  In any case, it can cost you money when employees don’t finish up and move on to new tasks.

There’s a nice feature that prevents this.  (Scroll down to see the video)

You can no set a percent level that warns employees when they are getting close to finishing a task.  There is another percentage level that prevents all new time input.  The first one let’s them know it’s time to finish up.  The second one locks them out entirely.  Implementing a task plan like this helps improve project efficiency.

Posted on

Time off Accrual Tips

Standard Time® allows you to follow your paid time off accrual bank. The time off can be sick, vacation, maternity, military, etc; the administrator can set any reason they desire.

Posted on

Project Rollups and Task Totals

Project rollups: Totals that represent all the tasks under a project or subproject.

Each column in the Project Task view may be totaled up on the project row.  Examples include Duration, Actual Work, Percent complete, and even the Gantt column.  The video below shows how this work.

Posted on

Overtime and Regular Time

When using the Standard Time® timesheet you can choose to see the overtime hours worked. You can also choose the pay type, there are three options available.

Posted on

Project Task Warnings

This feature can help stop employees from spending too much time on a task. This will motivate them to move along and get the job done!

Here’s how it works:

Employees get a popup when their tasks are about 75% complete.  (You set the warning percentages.)  This reminds them that they should finish up and move on to the next task.  If they don’t, the task may close and no more time can be entered.

This has huge psychological effects on employees who sometimes like to camp out on tasks they are comfortable with.  They know the task will close, so they hurry up and finish.  You save money and finish projects sooner.