your favorite hours billing software

[Guest Simon Olesen]

hey i'm a craftsman and i'd like to use my smartphone to keep check on the hours.

do any of you do it, what software do you use, and what have you tried ?

[Guest awarner (MVP)]

I just use Outlook and enter my hours worked manually for extra hours worked. Apart from that I have my shift work entered automatically as it repeats on a sixteen days cycle.

[Guest Simon Olesen]

1)ideally i'd like to be billing someone all the time, just press some butten and the party changes.

2)allso it would be nice with a todo list for every client so i can remember what i need to do/order before i get there next time.

regards Simon

[Guest Simon Olesen]

I just use Outlook and enter my hours worked manually for extra hours worked. Apart from that I have my shift work entered automatically as it repeats on a sixteen days cycle.

how do you filter through the schedule to calculate the total from bill to bill ?

do you need to remember things related to the type of hours worked ?

[Guest awarner (MVP)]

I did not realise you wanted to charge specific hours to different jobs. That's one thing I do not generally do as I am based at one site.

Apart from that any other work is noted at time of work in the calender entry, then I go though the calender once a month to work out times.

I generally only do a few different tasks so it's not hard for me to work out.

You could try Excel to do the calculations and a seperate sheet for tasks etc but the Excel on Windows mobile is limited.

[Guest Simon Olesen]

sorry i didnt make a very good description, but i'm curious about what other people use for the purpose of billing hours without a lot of headache with different prices, things that must be done at some place, before some time, different contacts for different sites and materials/hours that must be paid for by different costumers. But that's just my problems, many people must have problems like this and maybe some people use their smartphone to keep track of things. if they do i bet they have less headaches, more precise bills, faster billing and less time lost in the office.

Apart from that any other work is noted at time of work in the calender entry, then I go though the calender once a month to work out times.

[...]

You could try Excel to do the calculations and a seperate sheet for tasks etc but the Excel on Windows mobile is limited.

thank you for the tip, how long does it take to add up per item a month ?

maybe it would be a bit cluncky to work with though :D

[Guest chucky.egg]

I use calendar entries for billable time, and use Categories to "assign" that time to different contracts. Once category identifies the contract/client, the other specifies whether it's a time billing entry or an expense. That makes it quick and easy to add data on the move, but accurate enough that you don't need to review it at a later date.

I also use Paul's excellent "CallHistory2Calendar" to put my call log into my calendar, so by adding Contacts to the contract categories I can easily bill for that time too

I've developed an Access database, which pulls all the data from my calendar, matches the categories to contracts, produces timesheets, expense sheets, invoices etc

I see you're a developer, so you'll probably get how the database works:

1. Import calendar appointments, assign uniqueID (write this back to the calendar appt to billing info field too)

2. Check appointment categories against list of contract categories (get Timesheet/Expenses and Client)

3. Check uniqueID is unique (ie. has not been imported before) and add data to TimesheetData (or ExpensesData) table

4. Basic sums on TimesheetData table produce timesheets per client/contract

4. Basic sums on ExpensesData table produce expenses per client/contract

5. Basic sums on client/contract produce invoices based on the above

With hindsight I wouldn't have done the invoicing in the database as well, mainly because I have very few clients and prefer to control the invoices myself. By including invoices I had to also include "custom invoices", statements, credit notes... argh!

[Guest Simon Olesen]

I see you're a developer, so you'll probably get how the database works:

oops my profile thing is old, that programming thing just got too timeconsuming compaired to the results i got so i kinda quit it and earned some money instead :D

I've developed an Access database, which pulls all the data from my calendar, matches the categories to contracts, produces timesheets, expense sheets, invoices etc

sounds real good, how long did it take you to make ?

how does number 4 work i really dont understand how you could make that ?

[Guest chucky.egg]

how does number 4 work

Err, there are two number 4s apparently! :oops:

They both work the same way though...

All my billable appts are either in my "Timesheet" or "Expenses" categories, and have a second category to specify the Contract they are under (eg "Customer - Contract")

When the appts get imported (ie. added to an Access table) the Contract category is checked and the corresponding Contract ID is added to the record

When I produce a "Timesheet" (ie. month ends) it uses a SELECT query to pick out data for the Contract ID, and each record gets a new Timesheet ID added to it

Then the Timesheet itself is simply an Access report which specifies the Timesheet ID to bring up and format all those records

[Guest Paul (MVP)]

This is great but PPC only:

http://www.iambic.com/billrate/wmppc/

SP apps seem to be somewhat thin on the ground, but check out:

PEA Time and Expense - http://www.peaconsultingservices.com/mobile/ - seems to be $3.95 for some reason at Handango!

TimeTTracker MX2 - http://www.rfcons.com/index.php?id=47

Teal Tracker - http://www.tealpoint.com/softtrac.htm

P