We have Quickbooks Pro. I'd expect it to be a very commonly used program for most of the folks here with smaller firms. I've been researching several time management and timesheet input programs.
We currently write out sheets, then a secretary enters in everything. We then spend time revising invoices to sound correct as the field crew always seems to describe topographical survey in a different way. I will not comment on my own hideous descriptions. It makes invoicing very painful and reconciling estimates with actual takes some real time.
I looked at Toggl but they don't mesh with Quickbooks Pro.
I tried demos of GetMyTime and Minute7, looked at quite a few others that work with QuickbooksPro but the funcationality and costs vary and can be scary. There was one that wanted $40 per month plus $20 per employee.
I am now just about resolved on TeamSys Team Manager Suite. It does just about everything I want and it won't Autodesk me (ie cost me appendages). It lacks templates, but does seem to be everything I need. The secretaries or project manager can input the descriptions and the workers will simply add their time to each task.
Anybody use a time tracker / manager software? Which? Would you recommend? Anybody use TeamSys?
I haven't seen anything yet that I really liked. Several I've looked at seemed to be user friendly enough, but the invoicing templates usually look like a heat and air service call. And most were focused on product or material delivery.
At this time MS Excel is my only friend. It would be a little slicker if the field crews actually kept their time in some spread-sheet fashion that could be easily merged into the invoice doc.
But as it stands now, someone (me) usually has to sift through everyone's cryptic and hieroglyphical notes and refine it to get the totals. Oh, and get the right WO# on it.
If you find anything that works, please let us all know!
http://www.teamsys.com/
I just installed the demo and linked it to a fake company in Quickbooks and it does enough for me to consider it. I had one question before I installed it and they responded 1st thing Monday morning. I sent them more questions this evening and will see if they respond in the morning.
I've started using a program on my android smartphone called, "It's About Time." I can email myself the item and customer list exported from Qbooks, import it into the timer program and can fill out timeslips by selecting the customer, job, and item, then filling out the time and description fields just as you would in Qbooks. The timeslips can be exported and emailed to the mother ship by picking a couple of buttons. At the mother ship, you simply import the slips and print out the reports for review. Saves much time and effort and haven't had a single issue with it. It also tracks the employee and uses the timeslips to track their pay. If they don't turn in slips, they don't get paid. Pretty good incentive to fill out the slips.
I'd imagine everyone has a smart phone (that is unless they taken a bite of the big red apple). Don't know, they might even have an iphone version.
JBS
That looks pretty good, but do you have to input your descriptions?
Some of us actually do not own (nor do I wish to ever own) a smart phone or any variation thereof. My brother, sister-in-law and parents are also quite happy with their "dumb phones" and have No desire to downgrade to a smart phone. I have way too many other things to spend non-existent money on than an over priced phone plan and phone I do not need. +o(
We use the QB Timer that comes with Quick Books. It seems to work ok for us. We have also tried a SunBurst program called Crew/Overtime Entry Solution. It worked great but you have to designate a computer that has the Quick Books Pro installed on it.
You do have to enter the descriptions, but they're always pretty much different for each slip anyway. I guess you could leave them blank?
JBS
I actually find many of the tasks to have extremely similar descriptions. I also find the uniquity in the descriptions to be a product of inconsistent employees (I am the greatest culprit). If the tasks are divided down to the bare bones, there are no issues:
Research Registry of Deeds for Current Deed.
Research Registry of Deeds for Chain of Title.
Research Registry of Deeds for Plans of locus and abutters.
etc...
or
Staking northerly property line.
Disbursements: # stakes.
Staking perimeter of property.
Disbursements: # stakes, # monuments.
The tasks setup in the programs I have been reviewing allow the project manager to write the time sheet. These also give you a checklist for the employees. What's the next project? Just open the list. Oh, it's stake northerly property line, ok I know what I am doing and I only need to add time and # of stakes to my sheet.
I love my smart phone but I am not about to type in all of my work descriptions.
> I actually find many of the tasks to have extremely similar descriptions. I also find the uniquity in the descriptions to be a product of inconsistent employees (I am the greatest culprit). If the tasks are divided down to the bare bones, there are no issues:
> ...
> The tasks setup in the programs I have been reviewing allow the project manager to write the time sheet. These also give you a checklist for the employees. What's the next project? Just open the list. Oh, it's stake northerly property line, ok I know what I am doing and I only need to add time and # of stakes to my sheet.
I definitely hear you there, spledeus. That was always one of the biggest frustrations with timeslips review. Maintaining consistency between employees was a real PITA.
Perhaps there is a way to formulate phrase libraries to choose from while maintaining the ability to customize and entry when necessary. I don't have near the problem now that I'm solo, but still find myself cut/pasting from previous slips or editing them after importing.
I'll have to send that to the programmers as a suggestion.
JBS
I worked with an engineer in my past that used time management software to a tee. When you approached him with questions about a project he would start typing on his keyboard entering your question the time and his answer. If he was interrupted by a phone call he would do the same thing, and it might be a question about spilled soda in the break room. He was so good at it you did not realize that he was doing it. I always thought it was cool that he could do it but never thought I would ever have the discipline to do it myself. Sorry don't remember the software name. Jp
I just started using Harvest a couple weeks ago and I love it! It's inexpensive and easy to use. It can't really hold up against something as powerful as Quickbooks, but I don't really need all that power. Maybe you don't either? Seems like Harvest would be great for small surveying businesses.
Anyway, it may be worth taking it for a spin, free for 30 days and $10 off if you use my links to sign-up. 🙂
I did look at that one, but breezed by it for some reason. Perhaps I will take another look. Thanks, Thadd.
We use Land Survey Records Time www.lsrtime.com a great web based time and project management system.
I just played around with Harvest. Is there a way to convert the estimate to a job and thus the employees only need to input their time to complete their time sheets?
The integration with Quickbooks Pro is tough. Exporting and importing files seems like work... The TeamSys has a module that directly communicates with Quickbooks Pro so we don't have to work with the files. Plus the Quickbooks Admin can pull time sheets from the employees at any time for rapid invoicing. I think I am sold on that system (plus it's affordable). If anyone is interested, I will be setting up my templates in the next few weeks and implementing across the office by the middle of the month. At the end of the month I can follow up with a report on how I find it works. I already found a couple of nuisance methods, but I can work around those.
Dude,
We talked about this last week. Please tell me you are not trying to tie your timekeeping to your billing even tighter than they were before.
I get that you need to track employee time and project worked on for accounting and payroll purposes. But please, give the Value Based Pricing a serious look before deciding it isn't for you.
Larry P
we used Quickbooks until a couple years ago,now we use Deltek/Vision.
Smart phones can (I'm sure) serve a good "quick & dirty" purpose, but there are many things that, at least to some of us, is much better suited for at least a laptop, even a full sized desktop with a real keyboard and screen which is big enough to actually see (without a magnifying glass)
