TimeCard for SharePoint Under Development

I am excited about our current development project, TimeCard V5, which will give TimeCard Workgroup users the option to report time and expenses from SharePoint and not only from Outlook.

Report time from the calendar
The idea behind TimeCard is that you should report time from the same place as where you plan your time, to avoid double entries.

Time is planned in a calendar, so that is where the reporting should be done too. I chose to create my application for the Outlook calendar, as Outlook is widely used and a good platform to build on.

Reporting to database
When TimeCard was developed 13 years ago, most people reported time to a database in a local network, so we gave TimeCard the options Access or SQL Server database. For users who needed to report from outside the network we offered reporting from the Outlook calendar to an ASP page, that forwarded the time reports to the database.

SharePoint superior cloud platform
Today, when the internet makes remote work so much easier, many want to both plan and report their time in a cloud calendar. Therefore it is time to take TimeCard to the cloud as well.

I have found SharePoint to be the by far best cloud solution. If you have followed this blog you know that I aim to give all the kalmstrom.com products a SharePoint alternative.

Plan and report time in the cloud
Version 5 of TimeCard Workgroup will give the option of using the new TimeCard for SharePoint, either as a separate solution or in combination with the Outlook version.

Each user will have his/her own SharePoint calendar, and when the Outlook version of TimeCard is used with the Outlook calendar, TimeCard will synchronize appointments in the two calendars. Time and expenses can be reported from either SharePoint or Outlook.

Similar to Kanban Task Manager
If you know the kalmstrom.com application for project and task management, you have already realized that TimeCard for SharePoint and TimeCard for Outlook will work together just like Kanban Task Manager for SharePoint and Kanban Task Manager for Outlook. You can either use both versions together or opt to use only one of them.

And ASP?
I recommend Community Members using TimeCard and ASP reporting to transfer to SharePoint when TimeCard V5 has been published, but I am not sure all  can manage that. I therefore sent an e-mail and asked them yesterday.

If necessary we will continue to support reporting via an ASP page, but should none of the current Community Members need it for future time reporting we will remove that part from TimeCard.

Customer care
My first aim is to keep subscribers happy, so that they keep using my products. That is why I sent my e-mail to ask about ASP usage.

To the customers, this is one of the advantages of being a subscriber instead of a buyer – the kalmstrom.com team is always there for them. We are happy to give assistance, answer questions and make sure the applications work well. We don't leave you on your own after the purchase!

Release plans
In addition to the SharePoint option, TimeCard V5 will have a new design, Excel reports and support for the 64 bit versions of Office 2010 and 2013, so it will be a while before we have put all parts together. We have recently added more developers to the team, though, so I hope we can release TimeCard V5 in October.

I will come back and tell you more about TimeCard V5 in this blog later, and you are of course also welcome to contact us with any questions you might have.

By Peter Kalmstrom
CEO and Systems Designer
kalmstrom.com Business Solutions.