nisus Posted June 29, 2003 Share Posted June 29, 2003 Hi all, Do you know exactly how long you have worked on your latest project? Do you know how many hours the modelling or post process stage took? Would you like to be able to evaluate your finished project before popping into your next? 'TimeSheet Constructor' is a remarkable piece of software that helps you control your workflow very easy. A very handy organiser that prints timesheets per categorie or project for easy evaluation or client reference. After a very quick setup of some categories and projects, one basicly enters project data like one does in an agenda. The program calculates how long you have spent on a project or how many hours you spent modelling a month. A very useful organiser for everyone who is self-employed or anyone who wants to know how many hours he spent on several jobs. Be sure to check out the demo version! TimeSheet Constructor rgds, nisus Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Mottle Posted June 29, 2003 Share Posted June 29, 2003 Hey Nisus, Cool stuff. I'll have to post this as news for those that don't check out the forum all the time. Is this what you guys use Nisus? At Smoothe they have a pretty cool online intranet app that does basically the same thing and a little more. I'll have to ask if I can show screenshots publically, but it tracks projects, quotes and revenues as well hours spent on every stage from quoting to final billing. Integrated is also a contact management, asset managment and email tracking system so that everyone involved in the project is aware of what everyone else is doing and working on and know the contents of project emails that are send between client and various members of the project team. It's actually one of the best setups I've seen. The only thing I've seen that goes a bit further on the asset tracking is NXN's Alien brain. (Who are actually an advertiser in July). Check it out as it's actually pretty slick - albeit a bit on the expensive side. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ingo Posted June 30, 2003 Share Posted June 30, 2003 Hmmm, so how do i connect this spreadsheet to my modelling and rendering software ? Otherwise to me it looks like a dumb Excel spreadsheet everyone can make by his/herself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nisus Posted June 30, 2003 Author Share Posted June 30, 2003 Hi Jeff, Yes we have bought a few licenses recently and use it thouroughly now. Although a netwerk version is most welcome, it does not exists yet. But even without it's a great tool. We have been searching for easy organisers/worflow managers, but have not find a simple solution yet. In our opinion we don't want to spent over a week learning the software, nor having to pay for features we don't use at all. On the other hand, we also prefer personal or group meetings to know who is working on what project instead of the ability to check it out, which most people won't do anyway. It does not have an email tracking system, but in my opinion this is not necessary at all if the compnay got good discipline of forwarding mails to everyone appropriate. It's about responsibility of all workers, not about handing out a tool to make excuses for which most of those programs are being used imho. Anyway, it does not have to be complex to work well. Ingo, How to connect to modelling? Make predefined performances and add those at the appropriate time. Also link to categorie and project. Again it's discipline, the program won't do everything automatically. But it's very easy to fill in, like an agenda. People who won't fill in agenda's could of course never benefit from this. It's not an automated excuse-generator for being lazy. A dumb excel spreatsheet? It's not. Although you can export to excel or even pdf. Timesheet is more automated and features a better system to organise afterwards. With a simple click (F3) one can generate timesheet: - per project: great to show clients how long you worked from start to finish - per stage: great to evaluate the time spent modelling over post-production, lighting etc. - per day / week / month To do these things in Excel, one needs to setup categories and the way to input data is more tedious. And as tools are only great when begin used, it's important to make it's use as simple as possible. No training, no difficulties, no worries, no excuses It saves automatically, so you don't have to worry about anything. The best part is that you don't even have to buy Excel. It's a lot cheaper and works better! rgds nisus Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garethace Posted June 30, 2003 Share Posted June 30, 2003 Thanks a million Nisus, i have circulated that link to alot of my friends, who i know the practice of doing out timesheets is very important for them. Have you ever looked at Scopeware Vision software Jeff? It is supposed to be a very simple to use software which can compile together all your documents on one system (a laptop or similar system) related to a particular project. I.e. All the emails, powerpoints, word docs, web sites,.... the demo is available at the web site too. From my own point of view, i have decided to stop filing stuff according to project and file type anymore. Nowadays i simply use date and file type. This allows my to view back later over a particular month, through all the months work for that particular file type and see exactly what i was doing. I used to file all files for a particular project together before. But i found, it was very difficult to see when you did most work for a particular project, when you neglected that project, when you could have done less on a particular project (given more time to something else) etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Mottle Posted June 30, 2003 Share Posted June 30, 2003 Hey Gareth, I have not seen that software before, but I have seen many similiar packages. I used to use one call Cumulus from Canto software, but it the software was flakey and the tech support was horrendous, even though they taunted themselves as an enterprise solution. We don't need this at smoothe as we have a custom programmed asset tracking system and a director structure that is intelligent enough to easily find documents. Do you use this software? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ingo Posted June 30, 2003 Share Posted June 30, 2003 Hi nisus, with a program link i meant that it is connected to my modelling or rendering software, so it counts automatically when i start the software, i only have to assign the project before. But for the just-type-my-time-in i would use a simple FileMaker database, much easier to handle and to change. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nisus Posted June 30, 2003 Author Share Posted June 30, 2003 Hi ingo, I understood your wish, but imho it's not about starting and quiting software. Anyway, timesheet won't monitor you work this way of course. If you use a filemaker database, I strongly suggest you test the demo of timesheet. rgds nisus Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ingo Posted June 30, 2003 Share Posted June 30, 2003 Just curious, how much did you get for every new user ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nisus Posted June 30, 2003 Author Share Posted June 30, 2003 ingo: nothing really, hence the price of the software... nisus Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kerry Thompson Posted June 30, 2003 Share Posted June 30, 2003 Hi I have come across an application called Timecore - www.back2front.co.uk. which may be useful. For my self, I run a small time sheet program in my Palm IIIx which creates an Excel spreadheet which I then AutoFilter to assist my billing. I find that billing time has a subjective component - I always like to know where I am so I can manage my effort to meet the project budgets. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garethace Posted July 1, 2003 Share Posted July 1, 2003 Interesting viewpoint Kerry, much appreciated as i have to begin using my Palm more often now too! If you use a filemaker database, I strongly suggest you test the demo of timesheet. I tried it out last night, i installed the demo on my friends laptop and my own desktop. I was surprised at 'how learn it by using it' sort of approach it uses. Which is ideal in any office situation, so that people just learn it themselves, get use to using it, and gradually it becomes a useful part of everyday working life. I think that was the original point which Nisus was trying to bring to bear on this discussion anyhow. I suggest to everyone here, therefore, download the demo (2.5MBs or something, installs or un-installs in 5 seconds flat) and use the very, very, very easy help menu to 'get the concept' of a timesheet constructor application into your brain. It is something i am going to work on, whether i use timesheet constructor or not, or use excel or Palm/excel or whatever... I am going to eventually use something. Otherwise, i cannot honestly tell myself even, or any client what/where and when i have worked for him/her. I think the old secretary processing the pages and pages of timesheets is a waste of time, a thing of the past, and given there are softwares like this out there, i definetly believe that architects, cg artists and any self-employed person SHOULD check them out. Thanks again Nis! BTW, Jeff Scopeware Vision is more to do with Capturing knowledge assets, knowledge management, knowledge as a resourse - that whole argument currently raging in the new MicroSoft world of information management and science. The classic question of bigger and bigger hard drives, web resources, blah, blah, blah... "Where is my stuff". If people have to spend 10 hours just finding 'their stuff' out of every week, then what is the point of using computers at all. Susan Conway has published an excellent book about this by the Microsoft Press, called Unlocking Knowledge Assets, which i highly recommend. MicroSoft have this sophisticated thing called Sharepoint Portal, which is for web centric collaboration. Imagine in a corporation, like Microsoft keeping track of important knowledge resources, upgraded versions etc. People like nVidia and other software houses have to use specialised version tracking applications, to track what changes were made to underlying code, drivers, plugins, GUI code, dlls etc. (All that GNU lic stuff etc) MicroSoft also sell stuff like MS Project to large companies, which are less personal than say a small cg artist company - so that all the employees are properly scheduled to do work, use expensive equipment to test, get results, analyse results... i.e. designing chips, fault testing chips etc. The argument MicroSoft make, is that Knowledge is one of the most valuble assets that any company owns in todays world. That is 'this knowledge' is simply floating around in peoples' brains, then when that person retires or simply leaves to work elsewhere, half or at least a significant percentage of the companies information capital walks out the door with them. Capturing knowledge, and creating tacit knowledge assets (KAs) is about dealing with the problem of maissive leaks in company knowledge capital due to the mobile/temporary nature of today's workplaces. Scopeware vision is simply about making all the information associated with a particular project available to anyone who needs it. Too often here at my workplace, a person leaves after a year or two, and that whole network or mesh of connections, people, contacts, dates, deadlines etc, etc associated with any particular job (master planning jobs usually) simply get lost! Making a very, very bad impression on your clients, who begin to feel messed around, and justifiably so. I have not been able to properly sell the science of information management to the boss here at work, but last February 2003, i started to study Susan Conways book, and trying to use the Scopeware trial edition, in the hope of educating myself first. Unfortunately like everything else, there has been many, many other pressures put on my time since last February, meaning that KA project of mine went on the back stove a bit. :winkgrin: [ July 01, 2003, 07:24 AM: Message edited by: garethace ] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nisus Posted July 8, 2003 Author Share Posted July 8, 2003 Hi all, So did you test this timesheet software eventually? What do you think of it after a testdrive? Do you intend to use it? rgds nisus Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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