The LA Fox Developer Newsletter

January 995

Time Trakker [Con't from page 4]

developer’s initials or designation (available from a user’s picklist), and clicking on the punch-in icon. “Punching out” is just as simple a task and provides you with a memo field to either make notes on the entry or to charge against a certain project task. (We’re also using Microsoft Project v4.O to track each finite task in the project.)

Accuracy and client preferences regarding how they are billed (1/4-hour increments, 1/2-hour increments, etc.) are two aspects of this type of time-and-billing application that Time Trakker handles with ease through the system default screens. (See Fig. 3)

Basically, you punch-in and punch out against specific clients and Time Trakker handles the rest.

Reporting, probably the most important aspect of this type of application, is one of Time Trakker’s strengths. You may select all or any number of clients to report against for a specific period, all or any number of users to report, billed/unbilled/both (or any categories you create), select any number of output options, grouped by client-bill type, user-client, or bill type- client. (See Fig. 4) You’re also given a choice of printing detailed or summary reports.

Outputting the reports is also a snap. The user is given four basic choices for report formats. (Let’s also not forget about third party add-ins you may already have, such as R&R or FoxFire.) Choices include outputting to the pnnter(whith results in a very attractive report if you have a laser printer), print preview, outputting to the screen (which results in a DOS-type output), or outputting to a file. (See Fig. 5, next page.)

“Browse Entries” opens up a typical FoxPro BROWSE screen (See Fig. 6). Browsing the enthes gives you a quick overview of what’s been billed and what billable hours are still outstanding. (Notice the last three lines of the browse screen.) You may also highlight an

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