Time tracking blog

This just in from the geeks at TSheets: that magic time code that everyone loves (except maybe HR departments and supervisors) is now even more love-worthy (even to HR departments and supervisors). With TSheets, PTO control is now off the hook. Our tech heads recently added a handful of enhancements to the existing PTO accruals feature to make it work better in real time.

Keeping track of how many PTO hours have been accrued and used for each job code is an important function for timekeeping software. So first we’ve given administrators the ability to control whether a manager may view or edit an employee’s accrual ledger.

With TSheets, you can set how many hours should be accrued by each employee for each PTO code that you assign to him or her. Previously, TSheets only supported accruals annually, but now, automatic accruals can be scheduled by pay period.

Timecard supervisors also now have more options and rules relating to when and how individual employees accrue hours—allowing customization to fit the existing structure of your business. You now have the ability to download and upload accrual settings in bulk, along with the ability to download and upload balances.

Managers or administrators can now even receive emails about users that are approaching the anniversary of their hire date that outlines their hire date and their current accrual settings. Easy and efficient HR? Now everyone deserves more paid time off.

Did you also know the geeks maintain a TSheets wiki to help you quickly understand and utilize all the features behind the app? Get the feel for it by checking out the full and detailed section on paid time off.

The development crew here has been busy improving our API and the tools for accessing it. We have much more planned, but wanted to announce the immediate availability of toolkit downloads for those PHP and Perl developers out there. These toolkits make accessing your TSheets data and doing things like clock-ins, clock-outs and job-code management a breeze.

Simple PHP Clock-in Example ¶

require_once('tsheets.inc.php');
$tsheets = new TSheetsRestClient($url, $api_key, $username, $password);
$json = $tsheets->request('clock_in', array('job_code_id' => 12345678));

Simple Perl Clock-in Example ¶

require("HtGet.pm");
require("TSheetsRestClient.pm");
$tsheets = TSheetsRestClient->new($url, $api_key, $username, $password);
%params = ('job_code_id' => '12345678');
$json = $tsheets->request('clock_in', \%params);

What else can the API Do? ¶

The full list is documented on the API page. A few examples:

• Find out if you’re on the clock or not
• Load a list of users on-the-clock
• Clock-in, clock-out & switch job-codes
• Add, edit, list & delete users
• Add, edit, list & delete job-codes
• Get day and week totals for hours logged

• Run timesheet reports

Download ¶

Please download these from the API Toolkit Downloads page.

Future Plans ¶

We actually have a number of enhancements to the API coming in the near future. A few worth mentioning are the ability to work with “manual” time entries (entries with no in/out times) and better reporting options. Enjoy what’s there and keep the stream of requests coming, it helps us prioritize what happens first.

Holiday cheer from the TSheets crew :)

We have released our new scheduling add-on to everyone. You can now create a schedule for specific times, events or shifts.  Users, Admins or Managers can be enabled to receive reminders (via text, email or twitter)  about clocking in/out of a scheduled event.

This add-on has a lot of great features that you should try out! Check out our wiki for a detailed guide on how to use the scheduling add-on and/or you can watch it in action through this video link.

For the past couple of months we’ve been hard at work on many different projects, one of the highlights is our new scheduling add-on. This add-on allows you to schedule users for an event and enable them (and/or managers and admins) to receive reminders to clock in/out for the scheduled event.

Please note: This add-on is still in beta and is still under development. Please be patient and submit all bugs/feedback to support@tsheets.com.

Sit back and watch the video below for a quick overview or if you want more detail, visit our in-depth article posted on our wiki.

Ready to get started with scheduling on your TSheets account?  Give us a ring at 888-836-2720 or send us an email at support@tsheets.com and ask for the ‘Scheduling Add-On’.

Time Tracking with Twitter

Today we have another exciting announcement – TSheets has leveraged the Twitter API to create a link between our services. TSheets users with Twitter accounts can now send direct messages to @tsheets to start or stop the clock, switch job codes, or add notes to their work-log.

Text messaging for international users

One of the unexpected benefits we quickly discovered is if you’re outside the US and want to send text messages to track your time, you can now do it! Twitter has phone numbers that allow almost anyone in any country to send a text message to @tsheets via twitter. Tracking your time from your cell just got easier :)

Learn More

Check out our Twitter integration page where you can see examples, screenshots, and more. If you don’t already have a TSheets account now’s the time. Enter coupon code “TS0420″ when signing up and get $20 credit instantly applied to your paid account. (offer expires May 1st 2009)

So now in addition to voice recognition, a polished iPhone web-app, a Google gadget, text messaging, a Mac widget, and your personalized TSheets account page, you’re ready to rock the clock with Twitter.

So you want to be a TSheets Beta Tester?
We are looking for current or new TSheets clients that are BlackBerry and/or AT&T mobile users with a phone that is not more than two years old.  Inquiries will need to be sent to our support desk at <help-at-tsheeets.com> with the make and model of your phone, and your top three favorite foods.  If we like your favorite foods (and your phone will work for our beta testing) we’ll email you instructions for the download and information on how to give us feedback.
Thanks so much for participating…great products are a result of consumer interaction, especially when a company listens & takes note.

Quick Overview
What is TSheets wanting me to Beta test?
Our J2ME time tracking application can be downloaded onto your phone so you can track time on the go, even if you are out of cell range.  In the future we are even planning to track your GPS location on certain phones.

Can you give me the perks on the J2ME app?
1. It works when out of cell service.
2. It’s a download on your phone so it’s faster and nicer than the browser.

What services/phones does it work with?
Currently most Blackberrys or any relatively new AT&T phone. Unfortunately iPhone users are not eligible for this beta test, yet.

Why would a company/individual use it?
Convenience. When you want you or your employee’s time accurately tracked even when out of cell service range.

Who would be a perfect BETA customer?
A company with a hand-full of mobile employees or even just an individual that has BlackBerry’s and/or AT&T phones (again except the iPhone)
OR
A freelancer who’s a little tech-savvy and wants to track their time while traveling.

How long is the Beta Test?
Beta will start this week and end when we feel it is ready, a few perfectionists on board here!

What will I have to do to report information to you?
Once we agree that you qualify for Beta testing, we will email you back with all the information, downloads & where you can go to give us feedback with your experience.

What is TSheets?
TSheets provides tools and software to make time tracking easy for businesses and freelancers alike.

Brandon Zehm
Director of Technology

These are relatively simple new items, but nonetheless, they are new & we wanted you to know about them!

Timesheet List Updates
When viewing the timesheet list, you can now sort the list in chronological or reverse chronological order by clicking on the “Time In” tab. We’ve also added the ability to sort the timesheet list by Time Out, Total Hours, First Name, Last Name, Job Code, and Location. Just click the approperiate tab and you’re on your way. The user search has been improved too. You can now search employee’s timesheets by either first name, last name or email in addition to user name.

To get this new update, click on “Manage Timesheets”, then click “List View” in the upper left hand corner. If you need to refresh your browser, you’ll see a baby blue notification pop up directing you to do so in order to enable the new feature.

Updated Report
Once again, our customers are helping shape the wow factor & usability of TSheets – keep the requests coming in!
The new PDF reports are easier to read for Internet Explorer users and the job codes are no longer abbreviated, you will now see the full job code name.

New People
It is very exciting to be hiring people when there are local companies shutting their doors and  down sizing all over the place.  Please welcome our newest additions to the team!

Bill Logsdon: Bill is a local boy with general manager experience in the cable TV industry that loves to connect with customers and thrives on creating relationships.  He has an impeccable sales record that led him to one of the top positions in the Northwest.  Bill is a dedicated father of two: Alyvia & Jaksen and loves to shoot hoops when ever the chance arises.

Rick York: Rick is a fresh faced graduate of Northwest Nazarene University with a degree in Business Administration.  His unmistakable swagger with customers makes him likable and successful at solving problems at the same time.  Rick is a sports nut to the core & loves to throw the ball around even in our parking lot on a snowy day.

Jen Harris: Jen landed at TSheets in November of 2008, geared up to make a difference in a company with a social media plan.  With three years of educating, training & doing social media for local SMB’s, Jen understands the power of the internet when combined with evangelical customers and a great product.  Jen has three kids: Five year old Ella & two year old twins Henry & Clara.

The old adage “The devil is in the details,” couldn’t be more true when referencing TSheets.  Why is this?  While others use a simple stopwatch approach (keeping track of duration only), TSheets uses a detailed timestamp for all clock-ins/outs and job code switches, something that appears simple on the surface, but that is actually quite complex under the hood.

Why Timestamp?

Aside from making development much more complex (think timezones and daylight savings), timestamps allow TSheets to track not only time, but to log a time line of when events actually transpired.  For instance a typical day may involve working for a total duration of 8 hours, but what events took place during that time?

With TSheets, that may look something like this: Clock-in at 7:59a, switch job code at 10:12a, clock-out at 12:10p, clock-in at 1:30p…. you get the idea.

Why is this Good?

Timestamps create a virtual paper trail of when events took place, allowing for detailed reporting and auditing.

Without timestamps, your recorded time is like a sandwich with no meat.
 

The ability to send text messages to track your time has long been a staple in TSheets’ plethora of time keeping options.  However, if you have long job/task names you run the risk of developing something akin to ‘CrackBerry Thumb‘ with all of the typing involved!  I am extremely slow at typing text messages into my phone, so this latest feature comes with a huge sigh of relief.

Now you can assign aliases or ‘SMS Codes’ to your jobs/projects within TSheets.  This allows you to retain your long, descriptive job/project names and have an extremely short and simple label for use with your text messages.

First, make sure you have the SMS add-on installed.  Then, to assign SMS Codes to your jobs/projects, open up the Job Codes management window (in the left-hand menu in the main interface).  Edit a job code, and you’ll see an additional field available now called ‘SMS Code’.  You can type up to 10 letters or numbers in here, no spaces.

Key Point! If you are using a tiered job/project model (i.e. Clients -> Projects -> Tasks), the SMS Codes you assign at Level 1 automatically get prepended onto the codes at Level 2, and both are prepended on to those at Level 3, etc.  See the following example.

Here I have a job code named ‘Animal Training’ at the top with an SMS Code of ‘at’, and then a child job code underneath that named Cheetah with an SMS Code of ‘c’, and finally another child underneath that named Running with an SMS code of ‘run’.  You can see that the codes inherited from the parent job codes are reflected in the edit window for any given job code, so it makes it easy to see what you’ll end up with.  So, for this example, the SMS Code I would use to clock in to the ‘Animal Training / Cheetah / Running’ job code would be ‘atcrun’.

Once you get all of your SMS Codes set up, wouldn’t it be nice to have a cheat sheet to refer to while trying to remember them all?  We thought so too.  You can access a printable SMS Code Cheat Sheet by Clicking on the ‘SMS Integration’ link in your account and clicking on a link in the resulting window.  If you are an administrator who hasn’t set up their own phone for SMS within TSheets, you can access the printable Cheat Sheet by going to My Account -> Addons -> SMS -> Preferences, and clicking on a link from there.

Happy texting!

This is just downright awesome, you heard it, right? TSheets now offers invoicing! We have a fully integrated solution with our newest partner – FreshBooks . Now that’s what we call getting things done!

FreshBooks is an exceptional invoicing software solution aimed primarily at freelance professionals. They’re built on the premise that billing is a pain, and shouldn’t be. They realize you’ve tried other archaic methods and they developed something simple, affordable, and easy to use. Does this philosophy sound familiar? If so, you’ve been reading the “TSheets Story”…

A quick view of our CEO, Matt Rissell’s inbox reveals that TSheets customers have been overwhelmingly requesting invoicing capabilities. TSheets customers have the ability to clock in and out real time through any computer, text message, iPhone, Android and even a phone call! Now, when you add invoicing, it’s like business productivity meets euphoria. Remember, TSheets allows you to track specific job codes, projects, and sub-projects with an actual time stamp and not just simply ‘hours worked’ or elapsed time like a stop watch. A seemingly simple act, but when you’re an employer, you need to know if the employee was at the job at 8:03am vs. just working for 6 hours on a particular day

Brandon Zehm, our CTO, is passionate about the technology involved on the backend of the process because while it’s complicated on the backend the front end is “5th Grade Simple”.

“With over 100 hours of development time, the TSheets / FreshBooks integration wasn’t a small feat. We leveraged the API that FreshBooks provides to both pull information from and send invoice data to FreshBooks. The most challenging aspect of this integration was adding the ability to “lock” timesheets to ensure data integrity is maintained.”

To our valued TSheets customers – you asked, we listened, and together with FreshBooks, we’re delivering. Starting today our Freelancer, Business, and Platinum accounts will now feature the full power of FreshBooks invoicing features for pain free invoicing of any number of clients.

View our screencast below to see our FreshBooks invoicing integration in action:

We see the FreshBooks integration as a way to further our commitment to our customers:
TSheets Philosophy: Make the life of the small business owner simpler, easier, and more productive.
The TSheets Audacious Goal: Empower the world’s business owners.