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.

TimeCard Single Integrated in the Outlook 2010 Ribbon

The Single version of TimeCard, is now updated for Outlook 2010. The ribbon integration is the same as for the Workgroup version, refer to the blog of 5 August. The image above shows the Start tab of the calendar with the TimeCard buttons in the ribbon.

The Single version is very popular among self employed people. One of them says: "I have configured TimeCard to assist me in keeping real time records of which client I was working on, the processes involved and the document type that I output. In this way I am able to provide clients with detailed analysis of the work I have done, the time involved and references to all documents associated with the time/processes." He even avoided a court process once thanks to his TimeCard records! Read the whole testimonial. It feels good to market a product that can help so many.

TimeCard Embraces Contextual Tabs In Outlook 2010

The Workgroup version of TimeCard has been updated to take advantage of the Outlook 2010 Ribbon (32-bit). If you earlier have used Outlook 2007, the difference is not so big, but Outlook 2010 has something called Contextual Tabs. This means that you while still in an e-mail folder can select an appointment in the To-Do bar, and the Calendar Tools will be visible ‒ with the TimeCard dropdowns and the Expenses button.

The new release has also a new feature, the possibility to map e-mail domain or ID for TimeCard metadata which earlier was introduced in the Single version (refer to the blogs of June 22 and 28). Members, you are very welcome to upgrade your installations.

Have you not tried TimeCard yet? This application for time reporting from inside the Outlook Calendar is suitable for both big organizations and single users who work for themselves. It is one of our most popular products, so why not see how it can help you also?

TimeReporting for the Lazy with TimeCard for Outlook

In April the kalmstrom.com team released an update of the Workgroup version of TimeCard, the application that lets users report time and expenses directly from inside the Outlook Calendar. Today also the Single version has the same improvements and also an additional feature.

A Single user pointed out to us that she wanted to see the default values in the appointment also, when she had enabled default values for empty fields in Personal Settings. Earlier new appointments were not marked with the default values, but they were added at time of appointment posting. Now users who wish to see the default data when they create a new appointment just have to check a box once in the Settings. This box is only active is default values for empty fields is enabled, of course.  

We are always grateful for suggestions that will make our products even more efficient and smooth. The users are the experts on this, and if at all possible our development experts will do their best to make the suggestion reality.

Export Appointment Data to Excel With TimeCard for Outlook

TimeCard Single has been updated with the same new features as big brother Workgroup received last week. The possibility to export the first 255 characters in the appointment body to Excel will give great possibilities to Single Users. With the appointment body alternative checked in Personal Settings, you get more data to the Excel spread sheet and do not have to go into the database to get the extra info you need.

With TimeCard you report time and expenses directly from inside the Outlook Calendar. Welcome to download the updated TimeCard Single. Support customers may upgrade their installation without extra cost, and evaluators have as much as 60 days to try TimeCard.

Use Any Character When You Report Time and Expenses With TimeCard

I am happy to announce that the kalmstrom.com developers now have added full Unicode support also for TimeCard, our application for reporting time and expenses from inside the Outlook calendar. The update of the workgroup version was released today, and we will soon publish a new single version also. At the same time they fixed some non critical bugs ‒ see the revisions page ‒ that our QA engineer found, or that were reported to us from customers. As usual we are grateful for all reports about issues with our products. They work in such complex environments that it is virtually impossible to test them all.

Community Members and Support Customers are welcome to upgrade their server installation. Once it is upgraded, the clients will be upgraded automatically if they are connected to the server. Have you not tried TimeCardyet? Please do. Reporting time and expenses directly from the Outlook Calendar is easy for the users, and the drop down selection of data minimizes the risk for errors. The integrated statistics application, OLAP Reporting Tool, is of course also updated for full support of Unicode.

kalmstrom.com Community has new page on Facebook

Welcome back after the holiday! We have had a good time, but yesterday I took some time to create a Community page on Facebook. So far we have not many fans, but you are welcome to be one!

The Facebook page will give the same kind of information as the blog and newsletter, but if you use Facebook, the Community page is a convenient way to check what is new at kalmstrom.com.

However there is one big difference between the Facebook page and our other information channels: you may comment. And I hope you will do that! We in the team get good response from users of our products via the support e-mail and chat, but this is a chance to let other users see your comments - and comment in their turn.

If it turns out well we hope to have several discussions going. It will be very interesting and in line with the closer customer contact we strive for with kalmstrom.com Community.

Statistics Tool With Full Support of Unicode

OLAP Reporting Tool is by far the most used application from kalmstrom.com Business Solutions, and the explanation for this is that it is not only a stand-alone product. OLAP Reporting Tool is also integrated in four other kalmstrom.com products – Calendar Browser, HelpDesk OSP, PF HelpDesk and TimeCard. All these are enhanced by OLAP Reporting Tool, the powerful statistics software that helps the management to organize data into simple, understandable graphs and tables. This means that improvements in OLAP Reporting Tool affect most of the kalmstrom.com customers, so we are especially happy about today's update.

Version 3.1 of OLAP Reporting Tool supports all characters. To manage that our skilful developers, Bahrur Ipham and Jayant Rimza, added a new dependency library 'Microsoft Windows Common Controls 5.0'. Most users already have the file comctl32.ocx in their system, but those who don't will be prompted to download this free product from Microsoft.

Today the stand-alone product was released, and the new OLAP Reporting Tool will of course be added in the next updates of the four applications where it is integrated. This means that the kalmstrom.com team looks forward to an increase in the use of the products in parts of the world where the Latin alphabet is not dominating. It feels very exciting!