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Showing posts with label time reporting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label time reporting. Show all posts

14 May 2012

Outlook Calendar TimeCard With Enhanced Meeting Request Handling

TimeCard bannerDo your team members use the Outlook calendar for time planning? Do they send meeting requests to each other every now and then? In that case you should take a look at TimeCard, the kalmstrom.com application for time reporting from the Outlook calendar. Today TimeCard has been updated with a new feature for smooth meeting request handling.

Tag Outlook calendar appointments with time reporting data
With TimeCard the team members use normal Outlook calendar appointments to report time and expenses. They just tag their appointments with Customer, Task, Project or other data selected from dropdowns, and that makes the Outlook appointments ready for reporting to the central database – still from within the Outlook calendar. To make it even easier for the team members the administrator can set some values as default, for example internal time.

Meeting request data automatically added
If one team member sends a meeting request with TimeCard data to other members who also use TimeCard, the same data is added automatically in the calendars for all the members who accept the meeting.

Say that Mr. Wachowski requests a meeting with Mr. Anderson and Mr. Smith to discuss a quotation for the ABC company. He tags the meeting request with ABC and Quotation. Mr. Anderson and Mr. Smith both accept the invitation, and that means that they will not only get the time and the place in their own calendars – with the new version of TimeCard they will also get ABC and Quotation without having to add it.

Reporting inside the Outlook calendar
No more work has to be done for the time reporting of this meeting. Everything is already there in the appointment. The reporting dialog is opened with a button that TimeCard adds to the Outlook calendar ribbon/toolbar, and with a click on another button this and all other appointments each team member wishes to report will be sent to the central database with all the data included.
TimeCard reporting dialog
Free upgrades for Members of kalmstrom.com Community
If you are a Community Member and already use TimeCard, you are welcome to upgrade your installation to get the new meeting request feature.

Is your organization a Member, but for another kalmstrom.com application? In that case you may use TimeCard too, without paying anything extra for it. We strive for a long relationship with our customers, and therefore we give free use of our products to Community Members. Just contact the kalmstrom.com sales department, and we will be happy to send you a registration key for TimeCard also.

Try it for two months
To give organizations a chance to try TimeCard with a monthly time report, we offer evaluators a trial period of 60 days with the same extensive support as we give to our Community Members. Welcome to download TimeCard for the Outlook calendar and give it a try. I am sure you will like it!

02 April 2012

Use Outlook Meeting Requests For Time Tracking

TimeCard logotype With TimeCard for Outlook regular Outlook calendar appointments are tagged with time reporting data and used as time cards. Thanks to a sponsorship this data will now be automatically filled out when users accept a meeting request.

Select time reporting data from dropdowns
When you have TimeCard installed and you open an appointment in Outlook, it has dropdowns where you can select Customer and Task – or whatever values you wish to report on.

Categories in the settings help you to get more background information for the statistics, but you don’t have to bother with them in each appointment. Also the time reporting is done inside Outlook, and there are no double entries.   
Outlook calendar appointment with TimeCard   
Meeting requests with time reporting data
If one TimeCard user tags an appointment with TimeCard data and then sends a meeting request, the TimeCard values are not transferred to the calendar of the person who is invited. In the next version, though, we will add a possibility to handle meetings in an even smoother way than before.

When the new feature is enabled and a meeting request is sent to another TimeCard user, the TimeCard data from the invitation will be added automatically for the invited person when the meeting is accepted. Say Yes to a meeting, and you will at once have it ready for the time report!

Sponsorship speeds up development
The organizations who subscribe to the kalmstrom.com applications – we call them Members of the kalmstrom.com Community - are often very dedicated and interested in helping us improve the products. We get a lot of good suggestions, and when a Community Member is prepared to pay part of the development costs for a feature we want to add we usually make it a priority.

In this case we are grateful to Premium Member Hay Group, who sponsors this latest enhancement of TimeCard for Outlook.

Release by the end of April
Premium Members of the kalmstrom.com Community get their own copy of the kalmstrom.com product they use, a copy that has the Member organization logotype and does not need to be registered.

kalmstrom.com will give Hay Group the updated version of their TimeCard copy in the beginning of April, and it should take less than a month to update the other Premium Member TimeCard copies and also create a new version of the standard product. I will come back with another blog post about TimeCard for Outlook when all TimeCard users and evaluators can try the meeting request feature.

29 February 2012

Use TimeCard And Report Time And Expenses Directly From Your Outlook Calendar


The kalmstrom.com Outlook application TimeCard is available in both a Single and a Workgroup version. Today we have released a minor update to fix a bug that showed when users opened a meeting request in a new window.
TimeCard logotype Tag appointments with time reporting data
TimeCard logotype When TimeCard is installed in a PC, the Outlook appointments get dropdowns for Customer, Project, Task or whatever is decided on by the user, and from these dropdowns the correct values for each appointment are selected. Also expenses can be added to the appointment. That way the Outlook calendar appointments are converted into timesheets that can be reported to a database – still from within the Outlook calendar.

TimeCard Single for one person
The Single version of TimeCard is intended for one person only. This user keeps everything in the PC, where TimeCard creates an Access database for the time reports. The settings dialog is reachable directly from Outlook, and it offers many possibilities so that you can easily configure TimeCard for your own personal needs.



TimeCard Workgroup for organizations
The Workgroup version of TimeCard has central reporting, to a Microsoft Access or SQL Server database. Later this year we hope to also add the option to report directly to a SharePoint site. The TimeCard administrator makes a central configuration and decides what properties should be reported on, but each user can also make personal choices and select to only show certain values – to not have so many to choose from.

Extra long trial
Many big companies and organizations have shown an interest in evaluating and using TimeCard Workgroup, but to really get a chance to try how it works for the employee time reporting many have needed more than the usual 30 days trial period. We therefore allow 60 days for TimeCard – for practical reasons also for the Single version.

Welcome to learn more about TimeCard! And if you already use TimeCard and have had a problem when opening meeting requests I recommend you to upgrade. Community Member organizations and Single Support customers have free upgrades, as always with products from kalmstrom.com Business Solutions.

30 January 2012

Release of TimeCard for Outlook 4.4 With Report On Behalf Of

TimeCard bannerkalmstrom.com Business Solutions is happy to announce the release of TimeCard V4.4. The main new feature, Report on behalf of, is by its nature only for the workgroup version of TimeCard, but as there are some smaller improvements also we have published a new Single version too.

Report on behalf of
The latest new feature has been sponsored by the South African Community Member Hollard, and we are grateful for their support and confidence. The Hollard assistants and secretaries often need to report on behalf of other people, and with the new feature they can do that and still get the correct name into the statistics. Some of these people do not even have TimeCard installed!

It is very easy to use Report on behalf of. The administrator needs to check a box in the Common Settings dialog, and then a new dropdown with names will show in the Reporting dialog. So just go into the calendar you wish to report from, and report as usual. TimeCard shows by default the owner of the calendar as the first alternative in the new name dropdown, so normally you never need to touch it.

More info about TimeCard enhancements
I have written two earlier blog articles about the Report in behalf of feature, "Report on behalf of" feature added to TimeCard for Outlook and How TimeCard Can Report Time For People Who Don’t Even Use TimeCard, so please study them if you want to know more. Also refer to the TimeCard Revisions page for a full list of the improvements in version 4.4.

Free upgrades
Members of the kalmstrom.com Community are entitled to upgrade their TimeCard Workgroup installations without cost. For Member organizations with many users we will be happy to supply an MSI package for the client upgrade. Just contact our support department, and they will send you a download link.
TimeCard logotype
Try TimeCard!
kalmstrom.com Business Solutions gives as much as 60 days of free trial for TimeCard Workgroup, so that you really have time to test the reporting properly.We give support to evaluators, so very welcome to contact us if you encounter problems with the trial or have questions about TimeCard.

First users in a Swedish town
Peter Kalmstrom, the creator of the kalmstrom.com Office applications, made his first TimeCard for Outlook when a Swedish town ordered a time reporting system that would be reliable but also easy for the users to learn. As they were already planning their time in Oulook calendars it was a natural step to build on that platform, and since Peter was an Outlook expert even at that time he could create what the clients needed. They have now been happily using TimeCard for over ten years, through update after update, and seen more and more features being added to "their" product. And our work will continue!

17 January 2012

Display Tutorials ‒ kalmstrom.com Assessment of Third Party Tools

The kalmstrom.com add-ons work inside Outlook, and as they operate in a well known environment they are easy to learn and use. They however require some studies from the administrator side to work at its best, so we want to present our product documentation and tutorials as nicely as possible. For this we utilize a number of third party tools, and here are my experiences with some inexpensive software we find useful on the kalmstrom.com website.



Presenting manuals and slide shows

The kalmstrom.com Office applications are extensively documented, and we make use of  Issuu to present our slideshows and manuals. The slideshow above is also embedded in the HelpDesk OSP slideshow page. HelpDesk OSP icon The Issuu embeddings give the website visitors a chance to take a first look at the document without having to download it. We think many hesitate to download if they are not sure what they will get, but the Issuu preview solves that problem.

I hope the impression of the kalmstrom.com documents is good, even if the Issuu quality is not the very best. Many presentations get a grey shadow in the middle of each page, and sometimes text and images are not quite clear. Nevertheless, I have noticed that quality has improved during the years we have used Issuu, and I assume they are still working on it.

Issuu gives traffic statistics for each file ‒ PPT or PDF ‒ and for our documents they show that most visitors come from the kalmstrom.com website. Only a few percent come from within Issuu, so I don't believe much in Issuu as a marketing channel. For showing our manuals and slideshows, and also for quickly looking something up directly online, it is however a useful tool.

Showing video demonstrations
Calendar Browser icon Demos are an important part of the kalmstrom.com documentation, and we use two different platforms to display them. One is YouTube, which is good for marketing. The kalmstrom.com video channel on You Tube displays a selection of videos. They are of two kinds, presentations and tutorials. The presentations of our products are embedded on the product homepages, see for example the Calendar Browser homepage. The tutorials do not directly involve our products but belong to the kalmstrom.com Tips section.   
TimeCard icon
We also use the Screencast.com media rolls for the kalmstrom.com product tutorials. As you can see on the TimeCard Workgroup demo page they give better control and customization possibilities, and therefore we get a nicer demo presentation that fits better into our website.kalmstrom.com MediaRoll

Sadly we have not been entirely happy with Screencast.com. Once they downgraded our service level by mistake, and on another occasion they destroyed all our video thumbnails. Even though they acknowledged that it was their fault, it took several weeks of nagging until they had put the thumbnails back again – and then only with the default ones. We did not get all our custom thumbnails back.

In spite of these troubles we will continue using Screencast.com, but we will of course remember them if we get more problems. Just like with Issuu the Screencast.com statistics show that most viewers of our demos come via the kalmstrom.com website.

The kalmstrom.com team uses more valuable third party applications, and in a later blog I will assess our tools for support and sales contacts.

08 December 2011

Microsoft's Weapon against Apple gives new marketplace for kalmstrom.com

Windows 8 logo This week Microsoft has presented their plans on a Windows Store, that will come with Windows 8. This is very interesting news for the kalmstrom.com team. Next year, when the new operating system is launched, it will be possible to buy applications for Win 8 based PCs and tablets online directly from within the system.

Windows Store - A New Sales Channel For kalmstrom.com
For Microsoft the motive is of course to take up the fight with Apple and App Store, but for kalmstrom.com the Windows Store gives new possibilities. We will explore them thoroughly and certainly find the best way to take advantage of them for the kalmstrom.com Office applications. Windows Store will be global, and Microsoft invites us developers to sell our apps in 231 markets and in more than 100 languages. At release 20 languages will be supported. I am not sure Swedish will be among those first 20, but I am positive that English will!

Better than App Store?
At a first glance Windows Store seems to have some advantages over App Store. We are happy that users will get a chance to try the apps first, just like they can with the current kalmstrom.com products. For our success it is also important that Microsoft will give developers a bigger share of the sales than Apple, that we can use third-party payment partners and that we will be allowed to sell the apps from our own platform also. We cannot do that with the iOS apps we now market on App Store.

Perfect for TimeCard Single
TimeCard for Outlook logotype TimeCard Single seems to be very well suited for Windows Store. Today the kalmstrom.com time reporting tool for Outlook is mostly used by big organizations, but I am sure more one man companies would find TimeCard Single  valuable if they only knew about this kalmstrom.com Outlook-addon. It is very convenient to keep track of how time is spent directly within the Outlook Calendar, and by using Windows Store we can give many more single users a chance to do that.

Peter is enthusiastic
Our CEO, Peter Kalmstrom, is excited over the news and already full of plans. His aim is to have something ready for the Windows Store when it launches with the Beta version of Windows 8 by the end of February. By that time we will have learned much more about the Store in Windows 8 and be well on our way to explore this new sales channel.

16 November 2011

OLAP Reporting Tool Gives Community Statistics

Graph Last week kalmstrom.com Community celebrated 2 years, and we have now looked at the statistics a bit, of course using our own applicationOLAP Reporting Tool. Here are some interesting facts and changes.

How many products?
Community Members are entitled to use the kalmstrom.com applications freely, without any extra costs for additional products. This is obviously not the feature that dips the scales in our favor, though, because ever since the start most of the Community Members have been using only one of the kalmstrom.com products.

The main selling point when choosing kalmstrom. com is something else. Organizations search for a product that fits their needs, and when they discover the kalmstrom.com solution they find it worth the money regardless of the possibility to have more. Today 87 % of the Community Members are using one product, 8 % are using two and only 5 % are using three products. Nevertheless we will keep that option open to all our current and future Members.

What products?
PF HelpDesk iconPF HelpDesk has been the kalmstrom.com flagship for many years, and this tool for issue tracking within Outlook is still the most popular one. After it TimeCard for Outlook and HelpDesk OSP for Outlook and SharePoint has approximately the same number of user organizations. Calendar Browser Calendar Browser iconis used by only 10 % of the Community Members, but during the last few months we have had two new Premium Members on our resource booking application for Outlook. As we also see an increasing interest in evaluating Calendar Browser, we believe it will have a higher user percentage next year.

Who are the Community Members?
All kinds of organizations have joined kalmstrom.com Community, from small local businesses over public and governmental entities to large worldwide companies. It is fascinating to see how the percentage of Members from outside Europe and USA has grown during the two years of kalmstrom.com Community. From 8 % after 6 months the figure has now risen to 22 %.

We still get most new Community Members from Western Europe and the US, but we are excited about the kalmstrom.com expansion in other parts of the world. The fact that they know about and trust kalmstrom.com Business Solutions in New Zeeland, Australia and Canada is no surprise, but we now also have Members in South Africa, Russia, United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Hong Kong, Greenland and Barbados ‒ just to mention some of the new countries.

Discount to schools and charities
50 % discountAs both Sigge, Siret and I are former teachers it feels good to be able to give a 50 % discount on the Community fees to educational institutions. The kalmstrom.com products are especially popular among universities. We also grant this discount to charities, and we hope it will give them a possibility to do a bit more good with the money they else would have paid for software ‒ or give them the possibility to work more efficiently with software they could not afford at all without the discount. The percentage of schools and charities has been relatively stable at around 18 % all the time during the two years since we launched kalmstrom.com Community.

Promising future for kalmstrom.com Community
Looking back gives knowledge and inspiration, but mostly the kalmstrom.com team is looking forward instead. We study the development in our branch, carefully choose our battles and select the challenges that might be useful to overcome or sidestep. The future for kalmstrom.com Community looks bright, and next blog will probably be about future plans or new releases again.

14 November 2011

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

TimeCard Report on behalf of feature 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
Report hours and expenses directly from the Outlook Calendar - use TimeCard! 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.

01 November 2011

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

With TimeCard you report time and expenses directly from within the Outlook calendar 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.

With TimeCard you report time and expenses directly from within the Outlook calendar 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!

31 October 2011

Finnish Versions Of Outlook Add-Ons From kalmstrom. com

Finland flagWhen Siret Toots joined the kalmstrom.com team we did not only get an excellent Sales manager but also a much longed-for translator into Finnish.

Finnish software for Outlook +Exchange/SharePoint
Finland has many users of the kalmstrom.com Outlook add-ons, but so far the Finnish translation has not been up to date. We are therefore happy to announce that new translations are on their way for all our products. Hyvät Suomalaiset, olete tervetulleita kokeilemaan kalmstrom.com tuotteita Outlook + Exchange tai SharePoint! (Finns, you are very welcome to try the kalmstrom.com products for Outlook + Exchange or SharePoint!)

Resource booking in Outlook with Calendar Browser
The kalmstrom.com resource booking tool for Outlook was the first one to be fully translated, so the latest version of Calendar Browser will be completely in Finnish for users with a Finnish Office. As Calendar Browser is a product that may be used by a great number of clients, it was an important first step. When booking a room or a car from your Outlook calendar it feels better to have the add-on in the same language as Outlook, and the risk for mistakes is minimized.

Time reporting in Outlook with TimeCard
TimeCard is another kalmstrom.com product that may have many users. A number of big companies are Members of kalmstrom.com Community, and they let hundreds of employees report time and expenses directly from the Outlook calendar to a central database. Siret has just finished the Finnish translation for TimeCard, and in the next release we will add the new phrases to this software. Also the Single version will be updated, so that Finnish businesses of all sizes can use TimeCard in their own language.

All products will be updated for Finnish
One after one the kalmstrom.com products will be updated with a full Finnish version. I may not mention it here in the blog every time, but it will certainly be included on the Revisions pages. The kalmstrom.com team is looking forward to seeing more organizations from Finland joining kalmstrom.com Community!

05 October 2011

New iPhone version and new kalmstrom.com app


Yesterday Apple presented their next iPhone,
4S. On the surface it does not look so different from earlier versions, but underneath we find a faster and more powerful smart phone with a voice control feature, a new wireless system and a better camera.   

Today only 5 % of all mobile phones are iPhones, but we think this figure will increase. Therefore kalmstrom.com Business Solutions develops apps for the iOS operating system used in iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. We stick to areas that are interesting to our regular customers, and soon we will release the iPhone app iCalendarTimeCard. With this app you can filter, edit and create new appointments with assigned TimeCard categories and thus make them ready for report.

I am sure iCalendarTimeCard will be popular among TimeCard users who don't spend all their working time at the desk, and it will of course be free to Community Members and TimeCard Singel Support customers!

18 May 2011

iCalendarTimeCard Design Nearly Finished


 In an earlier blog I told you that kalmstrom.com and RampUp are developing an iPhone app for TimeCard users. TimeCard makes it possible to tag appointments in the Microsoft Outlook calendar with time reporting data. That way reporting of both time and expenses can be done from inside the calendar, and no double entries are needed. With TimeCard in the iPhone also, time tracking will be even more quick and simple.

The new kalmstrom.com app is called iCalendarTimeCard and the development work goes well forward. Today I can show you how the calendar day view with appointments will look in iPhone. It will be easy to open and edit the appointments only using a finger, and you can add new appointments in the same smooth way. Dates and times are taken from the iOS gear wheel, and we generally use Apple recommended controls. It will be interesting to test the finished product!

06 May 2011

New kalmstrom.com App Under Development: iCalendarTimeCard

Today I have great news for users of TimeCard, the kalmstrom.com application that lets you report time from inside the Outlook calendar. We have made an agreement with Ramp Up, who also helped us with TimeCard Mobile, to create a TimeCard app for iPhone. It will be called iCalendarTimeCard.

TimeCard Mobile has served well for several years, but now it feels a bit outdated. It is time to give TimeCard users a better alternative for their smart phones, and we will start with the iPhone app. Next step is to make iCalendarTimeCard work for iPad and iPod touch also, and then we will turn to Windows Phone7.

With iCalendarTimeCard it will be possible to filter, edit and create new events with assigned TimeCard categories in iPhone. Since neither iPhone, Windows Mobile nor Android supports the categories field, we will also support an addition to the body field for the TimeCard properties.

The iCalendarTimeCard Add Event screen will be similar to the default iPhone calendar – but with additional dropdowns for the TimeCard properties and with the kalmstrom.com design and colors. In this first step reporting will have to be made from TimeCard, but later we wish to create a TimeCard for smart phones that can be used stand alone. We have that in mind during the development, but we will take one step at a time.

I am sure iCalendarTimeCard will be an excellent tool for the many TimeCard users who don't spend all their working time in front of a computer. And of course it will be free of cost to Community Members and TimeCard Singel Support customers!

30 March 2011

kalmstrom.com Products All Get Five Stars On Reopened French Office Marketplace

kalmstrom.com products now presented on the French Microsoft Office MarketplaceMicrosoft's Office Marketplace is an important marketing channel for the kalmstrom.com products. We get many visitors to the website from Office Marketplace, and those visitors are exactly the people we want to reach. They are often skilled IT professionals who know what they are looking for, and most stay long on our site and study several pages. Many of them also download our products and eventually become Community Members.

Therefore we are happy that the French Office Marketplace now has reopened after being closed for several months. Five of our products are presented there: Calendar Browser, HelpDesk OSP, OLAP Reporting Tool, PF HelpDesk and TimeCard ‒ and they all have highest possible ratings: five stars!

03 March 2011

kalmstrom.com Selected For Excellent Win7 Development


kalmstrom.com products were selected when CNET wanted to show applications whose developers have been extra skillful in taking advantage of the possibilities that Windows 7 gives them. As there are nearly 3 million developers building on Windows out there, we feel we have the right to be proud!
Around 100 applications were chosen, and only 17 in the group Business Related Software. No less than 3 of those 17 come from kalmstrom.com! Both the Workgroup and the Single version of TimeCard are included, as well as HelpDesk OSP, the kalmstrom.com application that connects Outlook to SharePoint or Office Live. We will do our best to live up to the honor and be in the frontline also in the future.

08 September 2010

Update of TimeCard for Office 2010 Users


TimeCard for Outlook - time reporting from inside the Outlook Calendar for single users and workgroups
Today kalmstrom.com has released a minor update of TimeCard, both the Workgroup and the Single versions. Minor, but still important if you use Office 2010. An evaluator reported a problem that had slipped through our testing: the metadata values in the dropdowns did not refresh if you first selected a marked appointment and then a blank appointment. We do our outmost to test all scenarios before we release a new version of a product, but it is virtually impossible to test all contexts. Therefore we are very grateful for bug reports, and we fix the problem as soon as possible.

If you evaluate a kalmstrom.com product and get problems, please contact us instead of giving up! In many cases the answer is in the documentation, but it might be difficult to take in all information in the beginning. And sometimes you have found a bug, and your report will not only help you but also other users.

We recommend Members who use Office 2010 to upgrade their installations. The rest of you should not have this problem, so there is no need for an upgrade this time.

09 August 2010

TimeCard Single Integrated in the Outlook 2010 Ribbon

Report time and expenses from within the Outlook Calendar

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.

05 August 2010

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?

28 June 2010

New Demo for the TimeCard E-mail Mapping Feature

Tha kalmstrom.com team tries to always keep the manuals up to date with new releases, so the TimeCard Single manual was updated with info about the E-mail mapping feature at the same time as the new version was published. Now we have also made a video demonstration about the improvement. Welcome to watch number ten!

31 May 2010

Updated TimeCard Gives New Possibilites For Appointment Subject

kalmstrom.com Testimonials
Today we have had another release, as the Workgroup version of TimeCard was updated. This tool for time reporting from inside the Outlook Calendar has many users, so I know the new feature is welcome. It is now possible to write a subject of your own and still have the TimeCard data automatically added to the Subject. If you check the box for this alternative in Personal Settings, you may now have it all – both the metadata and you own comment. They are separated with :: to avoid misunderstandings, and the metadata always come first. Welcome to upgrade, Community Members!