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3 02, 2016

5 Simple Ways Architects Can Track Time and Invoice Clients

By |February 3rd, 2016|Uncategorized|Comments Off on 5 Simple Ways Architects Can Track Time and Invoice Clients

5 Simple Ways Architects Can Track Time and Invoice Clients

As an architect you have a number of different jobs and you want to be able to track them properly and accurately bill your clients. You want to be able to do your labor cost by job. In order to do that you need to deal with keeping track everyone working on the jobs.

Let’s review various options and see which ones may work for us.

 

  1. Using MS Excel Spreadsheet

          Let’s go back in history, just some 20 years ago we had to use pen and paper to do this.  Of course, later there were computers, but it was still all done manually. Then we discovered spreadsheets and it was a great way to do it. Till this day spreadsheets like below are being used to create timesheets. Click on the image below to download a sample spreadsheet.

QuickBooks Time Tracking Spreadsheet

 

Employees would normally e-mail or call the bookkeeper with their time spent on jobs, who then entered it in the spreadsheet. It’s definitely an improvement from the “pen and paper” approach, assuming that your bookkeeper has a good eye and is really accurate when it comes to data entry.

 

  1. Using Google Sheets

We live in the age of “The Cloud”. Sounds very cool and hip, but what does cloud have to do with time tracking?

The problem with the previous approach is that the bookkeeper has to do a ton of work, entering all of this data. Ideally, it’s the employees and sub-contractors who would need to enter their own time, but for each individual employee it’s just a couple of minutes of their time.

The next best thing in time tracking is probably the use of online collaborative tools (a.k.a “The Cloud”) . For example, when using Google Sheets you could offer your employees and contractors the ability to access Google Sheet timesheet and enter their time directly into it. Click on the link to open a sample sheet

Google Sheet – Timesheet

Here the bookkeeper can get online and access the timesheets in a predefined location. No more e-mailed spreadsheets or phone calls.  Each week your employees and contractors enter their own time. Still, the bookkeeper has to do manual entry to correct any of the  “human errors” that may come up.

  1. Using QuickBooks for Time Tracking

We are now looking at QuickBooks since that is possibly the most commonly used software for this purpose, but is it the best? Let’s find out…

If you’re using QuickBooks you have entered timesheets and you know the process. There are basically two options.

Use “weekly” timesheet or enter a single activity.

Weekly TimeSheet

Single Activity

QuickBooks Online Provides you with the same options.

The problem with this approach is that in order to enter time you need to purchase a copy of QuickBooks and install it on a computer where an employee or contractor can enter their time. In case of employees, it may not be such a big deal if everyone is working out of the same location.

Your contractor is a whole different story. They have no way of entering their time unless they can somehow access your company’s QuickBooks file. It is doable via services like QBox and Remote Login (LogMeIn), but can get very expensive very quickly.

  1. Using QuickBooks Timer Pro

Qb Timer is an add-on that is included in the QuickBooks Pro and Premier version. This neat little tool allows time entry in remote locations by using IIF files that are exported and imported.

Unfortunately, there is a learning curve and installation issues that many users are complaining about.

Again, it does not solve a problem of remote users trying to log time. Tracking time becomes a hassle and having people complete their timesheet can get really challenging. Click here on more information about QuickBooks Timer Pro.

  • Using GetMyTime and QuickBooks

Entering time in QuickBooks and QuickBooks Timer works great if the person entering time is in front of a computer that has QuickBooks or QuickBooks Timer installed on it.

If you’re logging time for an architect or engineer, they’re most likely working the field, doing some drafting or consulting work and don’t have access to a computer. At best, they will have their smart phone with them.  

What if there was a way to log their time from anywhere in the world? Any computer or smartphone with internet connection can record their time.

 

All they would have to do is login, choose a client and task and hit save, simple as that.

 

Have you ever had an employee entered the wrong time or a contractor purposely “inflate” their hours? Project grouping allows you to place customer jobs in “buckets” and only assign certain employees to those buckets. Project administrator will oversee time booking and can approve or reject as appropriate.

 

Switching time between tasks or need to track break and lunch time of your employees? Doing it in GetMyTime is just a couple of clicks.

 

Do you have to chase your employees or contractors for submitting their timesheets? GetMyTime solves this problem by providing you with the “Incomplete Booking report”. It will keep sending emails to the users that have not met their time threshold. Frequency of emails and number of hours can be easily configured.

 

How many hours have your employees booked so far? Are they meeting the estimates, have they overbooked a project? You can track time by Projects, Clients, Employees or Contractors, all in a n in a simple interface. See a real-time overview of billable hours. Download into Excel, CSV, and more.

 

Start your free trial of GetMyTime

 

https://app.getmytime.com/default.aspx?step=register

 

30 01, 2016

QuickBooks Timer – 11 Reasons to avoid it

By |January 30th, 2016|News|Comments Off on QuickBooks Timer – 11 Reasons to avoid it

QuickBooks Timer – 11 Reasons Not To Use It For Time Tracking.

As a business owner, you can’t afford to take time for granted. Seconds, minutes and hours – they all count. After all, time is money. Tracking your time and your employees’ time is vital to your bottom line. Let’s review the QuickBooks timer and the web-based time tracker GetMyTime.

Many of you probably use QuickBooks for your accounting software. As the #1 rated small business accounting software, one might think their QuickBooks Timer is a good option.

So, we asked, “Is the QuickBooks timer a good time tracking option for QuickBooks?” After all, it was built to work seamlessly with QuickBooks. After a bit of research, we found the Internet gives a totally different impression of the QuickBooks timer. The user reviews are most certainly not favorable.

So, we’re going to dig into it and find out why it’s not a good timer for QuickBooks. Here are 11 reasons why QuickBooks Timer is not good for time tracking.

QuickBooks Timer Pro

I’m sick of QuickBooks Timer, Let’s try GetMyTime!

 

#1: QuickBooks Timer is Not Web-Based

Since the QuickBooks timer is only available on windows based computers, you can’t use it anywhere and on any device.

GetMyTime works for you everywhere because it’s a web-based time tracking solution. Mac, Linux and Windows users all benefit from GetMyTime.

#2: Weekly Timesheets In QuickBooks Timer Are Not Available

It’s unfortunate that the weekly time sheet is not available to all of the users in your company. Why not? QuickBooks Timer requires you to have a separate installation on a user’s computer for each one. Are all your employees sitting in front of a computer all day? If you have employees working in the field QuickBooks Timer may not be available to them.

Anyone who has access to the Internet can get into GetMyTime and access weekly time sheets because it’s accessible from any web browser and any computer or device.

#3: QuickBooks Timer Doesn’t Carry Over Clients or Time entries from week to week.

Ease of use is important, and the QuickBooks Timer again falls down on the job.

Like most businesses, you would like to carry over your clients, jobs and service items from one week straight into another. You’d probably like to carry over time durations and your notes. QuickBooks Timer doesn’t have this important feature.

GetMyTime does this seamlessly with just a click of a button.

#4: No Reminders in QuickBooks Timer

If you are like most companies, you have a few lazy or forgetful employees. You probably struggle with getting your staff to log in their time and keep an accurate record.

QuickBooks Timer has no function to remind employees to track their time.

With GetMyTime, you have a great way to remind your employees they forget to track their time. How? GetMyTime simply sends an email to your employees who’ve forgotten to log their time.

#5: Reporting in QuickBooks Timer is Difficult

One of the most frustrating things about the QuickBooks Timer is that the system doesn’t allow you to view any reports until you import the entries back into QuickBooks. We don’t know about you, but we think that is an unnecessary time-consuming step.

When you use GetMyTime, you have access to some of the most flexible reporting available. You have access to seven different reports you can run directly from the GetMyTime system. Direct, available and easy to access is an important feature.

#6: QuickBooks Timer Does Not Have a Print Function

For those of you who like to print reports for easy viewing, the QuickBooks Timer falls down here. There is no print function.

If you’re interested in printing your time reports, GetMyTime does that for you in seconds. You can keep a paper trail to back up your web reports or use them however you want.

#7: No Recent Entries Feature

With GetMyTime, you can create an entry with a click of the button by taking advantage of the Recent Entries feature. This is another place where the QuickBooks Timer is lacking.

What’s more, you can select from a drop down list of recent entries making time tracking even easier.

#8: No Visual Help

If you are a visual person, you’ll appreciate GetMyTime. This time tracking solution offers color-coded entries to speed identification of un/billable and un/approved time. You can quickly recognize what needs to be attended to.

#9: Permissions Lacking

In QuickBooks Timer, the organization is lacking and missing an important feature.

In GetMyTime, you can group your entries and permission them using a project feature. This gives you control over your employees’ entries and projects.

#10: Can’t Take It with You

Today’s workforce is mobile. With people working from home, on the road and in the office, you want them to be able to track their time anywhere they are. Mistakes happen when people wait too long to track time.

QuickBooks Timer can’t help you here because they are only available from a Windows based computer.

GetMyTime is available on any computer, laptop, smartphone or tablet, so you and your employees can keep track of time anywhere and at any time.

#11: It’s Not Really Free

Intuit might tell you that the QuickBooks Timer is free, but many users explain it is just the opposite.

I’m convinced, Let’s Start My Free Trial Now!

#12: Intuit does NOT support QuickBooks Timer anymore

The Take-Away
When you look at all the reasons why QuickBooks Timer is not good for time tracking, it doesn’t make sense to use it especially because the GetMyTime timer fully integrates with QuickBooks. In fact, GetMyTime was the first time tracker to integrate with QuickBooks more than 15 years ago, giving them time to perfect the tracker.

GetMyTime is so easy for your employees to use – they just clock in and clock out with a mouse click.

In addition, for your traveling employees, they can enter their expenses anytime, anywhere and from any computer or smart device. There’s added features for keeping track of expenses per project so you know exactly where your money goes.

Full featured, GetMyTime also lets you know exactly when your employees clocked in and what they worked on. The QuickBooks Time Tracking App even lets you know what days they took off so you can ensure the project has enough hours dedicated to its completion.

Lastly, with GetMyTime, you are provided with customizable features that let you run your business the way that best works for you. That isn’t something you’ll find with the QuickBooks Timer. On top of that, you are met with professional customer support and no long wait times for help.

So, what are you waiting for? Check out GetMyTime today and see why it’s so much better than QuickBooks Timer.

We’re here to help your business blast off. Not only do you get the best QuickBooks Timer on the market, you’ll receive top-notch customer support. No matter your operating system, you can access our timer from any device and at any time.
Contact us today to start your free trial and experience GetMyTime for yourself.

 

Tracking your time and your employees’ time?

24 04, 2014

Better Reports in the New GMT

By |April 24th, 2014|News|Comments Off on Better Reports in the New GMT

Many of our GetMyTime customers have been sending feedback regarding the new site, and these suggestions help us to make the site much better. For instance, many GMT users shared feedback regarding the Reports page, and some new features of the Reports page were inspired by these suggestions.

The Reports page is now equipped with the Grouping feature, which allows you to view time entries by Project Group, User, Date, and Customer Job.
b1

Grouping by User, in particular, helps administrators to quickly view employee-specific time entries for checking or reviewing the data. You can access the Reports page by clicking on Time > Reports.

If you regularly use the Under 40 Hours report (Time > Submit Time > Under 40 Hours), you will notice that the data is now laid out by date for easier viewing.

b2

24 04, 2014

Entering Time has never been this easy

By |April 24th, 2014|News|Comments Off on Entering Time has never been this easy

The Create Time Entry window in the New GetMyTime site is one of the most important updates we have rolled out in the last few months. It is also a feature that almost all GMT users utilize on a regular basis, so we have made sure to equip the time entry process with as many thoughtful and intuitive functionalities as possible.

The Create Time Entry window is now bigger and more user-friendly. Because of the bigger space, items and notes are easier to see or input.

e1

Navigation is also much more efficient with drop-down menus and paging functions so you can go through items faster.
e2

Another helpful feature of the enhanced Create Time Entry window is the Recent Configurations list, which saves your most recent time entry selections (up to fifty of them). This helps users to easily replicate their most used time entry configurations.
e3

3 03, 2014

Classic and New GMT : Comparison

By |March 3rd, 2014|News|Comments Off on Classic and New GMT : Comparison

Getting to your Items:

Classic GMT lists Project Groups Customer Jobs,Service Items etc in the upper Section of Page

gmt1

New GMT lists jobs,Items,Classes,Employees,Vendors,Expenses,in the Company Book
Click Administration > Company Book to access

gmt2 [rb_divider top=”20″ bottom=”20″ width=”1/1″ el_position=”first last”]

Importing from QuickBooks:

The Import Process in Classes GMT Starts with click the ‘Timer from QB’ option for Data Transfer.

gmt3

To start the Import Process in New GMT

click Administration > Quickbooks to Navigate to the ‘Import Timer’ Option

gmt4

Import Timer Window:

The upload Timer Window in Classic GMT Provides Option for Including Vendors/Subcontractors in the upload, and narrowing down uploads to Service Items only

gmt1

The Import Timer window in New GMT gives users more option for uploads,including selections for client jobs,Inventory Items,Classes,Vendors,Employees and Other Names

gmt2 [rb_divider top=”20″ bottom=”20″ width=”1/1″ el_position=”first last”]

Time Entry Window:

The Time Entry window in Classic GMT has the basic options and makes use of drop-down menus for selections.

gmt1

Time Entry in New GMT is made easier with ‘Configurations’ , allowing users to access recent selections.

gmt2

7 02, 2014

Welcome to GetMyTime

By |February 7th, 2014|News|Comments Off on Welcome to GetMyTime

 

6 02, 2014

Import Process 101

By |February 6th, 2014|News|Comments Off on Import Process 101

One of the most visible changes you will see in the new GetMyTime site is the enhanced Import Process for your Timer Files (this is for customers who use GetMyTime with Quickbooks). The Import Process is now faster and more convenient than ever, and the new GMT site is also more equipped to handle data transfers and file uploads than the Classic GMT site, so if you are still using the Classic site to upload your timer files, we strongly encourage you to switch to the new site.

Importing your timer file to GetMyTime is very easy. Go to Administration, and on the left menu you will click on Quickbooks. You will see two selections: Import Timer and Import Expenses. If you have a timer file to upload, click on Import Timer.

gmt-import

The Import Timer window on the new GMT site now has more options for users to check and make sure their data is being loaded properly. There are dialog boxes you can check or uncheck depending on the data you are uploading to GMT. As a general rule, you can mark all the boxes except for Import Service Items Only when you upload a timer file; this selection usually covers all data additions.

 

You will also need to click Choose File and look for the exported timer file you will upload from Quickbooks to GetMyTime. When everything’s set, click Import to start the file upload. You will notice that on the new GMT site, the upload speed has also increased significantly, and even larger timer files take very little time to finish uploading. Also, the new GMT site is much better equipped at recognizing duplicate information and matching them with the right profiles (in other words, no more stranded users for those of you familiar with Classic GMT).

gmt-import2

Uh-oh! Some of my items are missing after the upload!

When the timer file is uploaded, and you check your GMT account and see that some of your Jobs or Items are missing, or your Employees are inactive, don’t panic. Sometimes, it takes a while for the data to refresh. Click on your browser’s Refresh button, or type CTRL + F5 on your computer. You can also logout, close your browser window, and log back in. This allows your system to refresh the data on your GMT account.

Activate on Quickbooks

When you add Jobs, Items, Employees, and other timer data to your Quickbooks, don’t forget to make them active. This way, they should automatically show as Active as well on GetMyTime once the timer file has been uploaded.

Keep in mind that if you want to make any changes to names and details of Jobs, Items, Employees, Classes, Vendors, etc., these changes have to be done on Quickbooks, and then the timer file upload to GMT will reflect those changes.

What do I do if the upload fails?

gmt-import3
If you see that message after your upload attempt, that means the account number contained in your timer file no longer matches the one on file at GMT. This usually occurs if you upgrade to a different version of Quickbooks, or in some instances, if the file is generated in a new computer, which the system might recognize as a different company altogether although the file remains the same. In these cases, you can contact GetMyTime Support to make the necessary adjustments so your file can be uploaded.

6 02, 2014

Check Out The New GMT Import Process!

By |February 6th, 2014|News|Comments Off on Check Out The New GMT Import Process!

gmt-import

The new GetMyTime site is now enhanced with a faster, smarter, more efficient Timer Process. Since uploading Timer Files from Quickbooks to GetMyTime is one of the most important and frequently used functions among our customers, we have focused much of our efforts towards developing this process and making it better than ever. If you haven’t taken a look at the new GMT site or tried the Import Process, we certainly want you to try and see the difference for yourself!

Here’s why:
1. Easy access:No more than three mouse clicks away, the Import Timer window is always conveniently accessible.

2. More options: You’ll notice that the Import Timer window contains more dialog boxes you can select to streamline your file uploads.

3. No stranding: Unlike the common problem of stranded users and duplicate information in the old site, the new GMT fixes duplicate entries on its own.

Any new thing or process takes some getting used to, so we understand that many of our customers are still finding their way around the new Import Process. Check out this blog resource we’ve created that walks you through the steps. In addition, we also discuss several common questions that customers have about the changes (such as missing items after upload, error message after import, etc.).