How TimeCard Can Report Time For People Who Don’t Even Use TimeCard!

TimeCard “Report on behalf of” feature
In an earlier blog post about TimeCard I introduced a new feature that will come with the next version of this kalmstrom.com application for time reporting from within the Outlook calendar. The new TimeCard feature is called “Report on behalf of”, and it allows one person to report the time other people have appointed in their calendars.

No TimeCard installation
The kalmstrom.com team of course wants everyone to use TimeCard, but with the new feature it is actually possible to report time also for people who don’t have TimeCard installed on their computers. It could be for example someone who needs to use a Mac instead of a PC. Let’s call this person Linda.

Shared calendar
In this case a person with TimeCard installed - I will call him Jack - must have access to Linda’s Outlook calendar. This calendar may very well be on Microsoft's cloud based Office 365, if Linda and Jack are not connected in a local network.

Add person to the TimeCard database
For this to work Linda has to be added to the central database used for TimeCard reports. If Linda is not there the first time Jack reports her time, he will be asked if he wants to add her. Adding persons to the database may also be done manually or with a little tool for add/edit/delete users that the kalmstrom.com team has developed and will send to Community Members on request.

Tagging appointments with time reporting data
As Linda has no TimeCard application installed, she cannot tag her appointments with the values that convert them into timesheets. Instead John will to that for her. This is easily managed, since the values for Customer and Project ‒ or whatever John’s and Linda’s company has chosen as metadata visible to the end users ‒ are selected from dropdowns.

Reporting time
When John has tagged Linda’s calendar appointments with TimeCard values he simply clicks the OK button to report her time. When Linda is added to the database and Jack has entered her calendar, her name comes up as the default name in the User dropdown John can choose from when he reports time. To be sure everything is right he is also asked if he is sure he wants to report time for Linda.

Staying in Outlook
As TimeCard is fully integrated in Outlook John never has to leave it when he reports time. After reporting Linda's hours he may go to a new calendar and repeat the process for another person ‒ or continue working with other tasks in Outlook.

New KBase Feature: Export Knowledge Base Articles to Excel

KBase for Outlook is a kalmstrom.com knowledge base that does not require a database. The articles can be saved in any Outlook folder, and they can also be integrated in a SharePoint site and exported to HTML web pages. Now there will soon be another possibility ‒ Export KBase articles to an Excel data sheet.

Sponsorship
Community Member Swiss Post needed to export their KBase articles to Excel, and they were willing to sponsor the addition of this feature to the standard version of KBase. This way they can be sure the feature is updated to support future versions of the Microsoft products that kalmstrom.com builds on. An extra plus is of course that many more Community Members may take advantage of the new KBase feature, and that fact is also part of the upgrade insurance! The more Members who need a feature, the more the kalmstrom.com team will prioritize its development.

Export selected KBase articles, categories, types or articles created by certain user?
In the kalmstrom.com knowledge base for Outlook the articles may be organized in categories and types, and with the new KBase Export to Excel feature you may export all articles of selected the categories or types. Other alternatives are to export one or more articles already selected in the KBase Outlook folder or to export all articles created by a given person.

Export attachments and HTML?
The KBase Export to Excel application also lets you decide if you wish to include article attachments in the export or not. The text version of the article body is always given in the Excel data sheet, but you may also opt to include the body in HTML.

New KBase coming soon
The image of the Export to Excel dialog above is in German, because that is the only version finished so far. As soon as the sponsor has approved of the solution we will add the other languages and release an updated KBase for all. It should not take long!

"Report On Behalf Of "Feature Added To TimeCard for Outlook

TimeCard is a popular Outlook tool for time reporting, both for single users and within organizations. Users just select some extra info from dropdowns in their Outlook appointments, and then they report both time and expenses to the database directly from their Outlook calendars.

Reporting for others with TimeCard
The South African insurance company Hollard is a Community Member that appreciates TimeCard. However, they had a problem when an assistant wanted to report time for someone else. This is possible in the current version of TimeCard, but the application will post the Outlook login name at the reporting occasion under Person in the database. To get the correct name on the report, an assistant who reported for the boss had to log in as the boss.

Sponsorship of new TimeCard solution
Hollard wanted to give their assistants a possibility to report time for several people more easily. The kalmstrom.com developers offered an elegant solution, and Hollard agreed to pay part of the development cost with a sponsorship. This way Hollard gets exactly the feature they need at a low price. They can also feel sure the new feature will be upgraded to support new Microsoft technology, since kalmstrom.com will add it to the standard product and offer it to all users.

New dropdown in the TimeCard Reporting dialog
Organizations who don't need the "Report on behalf of" feature simply avoid checking the box for it in the Common Settings dialog. Then their TimeCard applications will work just as before. If the box is checked, a new dropdown will appear in the Reporting dialog, like in the image here to the right. It will contain all the users from the database, and the logged in user will be the default choice.

Simpler procedure for "Reporting on behalf of"
With the new solution the Hollard assistants may quickly report time for other persons in this way:

1. Select the other person's calendar
2. (Mark appointments with metadata if this is not done)
3. Click the TimeCard Reporting button in Outlook to open the Reporting dialog
4.  (Make changes if necessary)
5. Select the right name from the dropdown
6. Report time and expenses by clicking the Post button

Each report will have the correct name, and the procedure is fast and easy.

For all TimeCard users
 We are sure more companies will like the "Report on behalf of" feature. Today a new TimeCard setup was sent to Hollard for their approval, and when the sponsor is satisfied we will release an updated TimeCard for all users. That way many people will benefit from this sponsorship!