Tips on using Activity & Expense Tracker

Thanks for downloading a copy of Activity & Expense Tracker
from SpiritWorks Software Inc. We intend you find
this productivity software very useful. Remember that by
keeping track of all your time and expenses, you can make
more money by billing more of your time, become better
organized, and benefit from increased knowledge about your
business and the time you may be spending on activities
that are non-productive.

Included with Activity & Expense Tracker is a set of
example "records" which will help you quickly familiarize
yourself with the software.

After you are done working with the sample data, you can
delete those records and start creating your own. Just
click the Delete button and choose "All" or if you want to
save records you have created, choose "Old Records" and
then enter "2/02/02".

In the lower right hand corner of A&E Tracker there is a
set of important buttons that includes: the New button
(for creating new records), a Delete button (for deleting
one or more records), a Find button (for searching for text
on another record), a Sort button (for sorting the records
by predetermined fields), an Import button (for importing
sample or archived records) and an Export button (for
backing up your data).

You can change the button and background colors of each
component in Activity & Expense Tracker by clicking the
Prefs button and then selecting new colors from
the two lists in the Preferences window. If you want to
return to the original colors just click the Default
Settings button in the Preferences window. To save your new
colors, close the Preferences window and then click the Save
button in the component's window.

Included in the integrated Help system is a Tutorial,
which will introduce you to the most important features of
that component. Just click the Tutorial button near the top
of the Help window. More detailed explanations can be found
by clicking the other buttons found near the top of the
Help window.

There is also a Quit button and a Save button on the main
window. Although records are normally saved when going to
another record or closing the component, it is often a good
idea to click the Save button after making changes, just to
be safe.

Occasionally during a save or a crash, the database
will get corrupted. Fortunately the file is always saved
with an .mc~ extension first. So if you ever have problems
opening A&E Tracker, look for a file named aet.mc~
in the application's folder. If you see one, just delete
the aet.mc file and change the name of aet.mc~ to aet.mc.

It is always a good idea to backup your data on a daily or
weekly basis. You can do this my copying the .mc file
to another disk or by clicking the Export button in A&E
Tracker and then saving the resulting .txt file to
another disk. This export file will come in handy when
upgrading to a newer version of the software.

You can also save any or all of the text in the help system
as either an HTML or text file. Just click the Save as...
button found at the bottom of the Help window. You can then
print the text file from any word processor or view the html
file with your web browser.

If you have any questions or comments about the software,
feel free to write us at support@productivity-software.com


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Tips on using Activity & Expense Tracker
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Each "record" in Activity & Expense Tracker consists of the
name of the client, the project, the type of activity, the
start and stop dates, and start and stop times, the total
time, plus any expenses and notes. You can use the activity
timer to automatically add time information to the record,
or add all the information manually by using the Timer Log.

It is highly recommended that you create a new record for
each activity each day. This will result in more accurate
reports so you can see where your time was spent during any
particular day. You can add new records or edit the
information for any record at any time.

Before entering your projects and activities into Activity
& Expense Tracker, you may want to make a list on a sheet
of paper. Sometimes the distinction between a project and
activity is unclear. By making a list of activities that
might apply to any project, and then making a list of
projects that you are currently working on, the difference
will become more obvious.

You can assign rates (hourly, flat or none) to activities,
projects or clients. Just use the Assign Rates from
buttons. If a rate has not been specified, you will be
asked to enter a new rate. You can also assign custom rates
just for the current record. Just click on the Hourly, Flat
Rate or Non-Billable button.

Use the timer feature to keep track of the time you spend
on each activity for each day. You can Start, Stop or Pause
the timer as many times as you wish. You can also view or
edit the timer log by clicking the Show Timer Log button.

When you click the Start Timer button, any timer that is
already running will be stopped, unless you have the Allow
Multiple Timers option checked.

Keep track of how accurate your time estimates are by
entering an Estimated Time into the field provided. Then
whenever the Total Time is updated, the difference between
these times will be entered into the Time Variance field.
These fields can be included in reports too.

The Table View button takes you to another window where the
records are displayed in a spreadsheet fashion. You can
specify a client or project (by clicking on the field) or
include all Clients or all Projects. You can also add and
remove columns from the table, sort by any column and even
expand the window to suit your needs.

Click the Go To button above the Client or Project field
(in A&E Tracker, Invoice Tracker, and Version Tracker) to
go directly to either the first or last record of a
particular client or project.

If you want to go to the first record of a particular date
in any module, just click the "Find Date" button at the top
of the window, and then enter the date. If you know the
record number you can click the Record # field to go
directly to that record.

Click the Quick Check button in Activity & Expense Tracker
to get a quick report on the number of hours you've spent
on a particular project. You can choose a specific activity
or all activities and even specify a range of dates.

Use the Collapse button (located beside the Record # field
in Activity & Expense Tracker) to make the window smaller.
This button then changes to an Expand button you can use to
restore the window to its normal size. You can move the
collapsed window to any location on your screen.


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Tips on using the reporting features of A&E Tracker
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The reporting features of A&E Tracker are fairly extensive.
They are broken into three groups: Invoices, Time & Expense
Reports and Expense Reports. Clicking one of the three tabs
at the top of the Invoices & Reports window accesses each of
these.

Here are a few "Options" that you may have overlooked:

Select one or more clients for a report (but not for an
invoice). With the Project & Activity Reports tab selected,
click Select Clients and choose any combination from the
list. Of course if you want to report on all clients, you
can just click the All button next to the field under the
Select Clients button.

You can also select more than one project for a report or
invoice. Click Select Projects and choose any combination
from the list. If you want to report on all projects, just
click the All button next to the field under the Select
Projects button.

To include expenses in your reports or invoices, make sure
the Expenses button is checked. You can only choose
specific expenses by clicking the Expense Reports tab at
the top of the window. The click the Select Expense button
to list one or more specific types of expenses. For all
expenses, just click the All button next to the field under
the Select Expenses button in the Invoices & Reports window.

If you want to add a header that includes information about
your company or your customer, click the Add/Edit button
next to the Header button. A field will appear where you
can type in the information you would like included.

You can save what you type to a text file for easy
retrieval by clicking the Save as... button below the Edit
Header field. This way you can save several different
headers and easily include them by clicking the Import
button (also found below the Edit Header field). When you
are finished editing the header, click the Close button
below the Edit Header field.

If you want to add a footer that includes payment terms or
other information, click the Add/Edit button next to the
Footer button. A field will appear where you can type in
the information you would like included. You can export or
import footer information too.

One other feature, only available when the Invoice tab is
clicked, is the Mark Up Expenses option. If you check this
box and enter a percent number (the default is 25%) all
expense totals in the invoice will be increased by that
percentage.

To round times to the nearest 15 minutes (or any number you
choose), just click the Round off times to button in the
lower right of the Invoices & Reports window. This option
will cause all times in an invoice or report to round to
the nearest unit specified in the adjoining field. You can
also use the Round Up Only option to round times up to the
nearest increment, rather than rounding up or down.

You can also specify if you want times displayed as mins or
partial hours by clicking the button to the right of the
round off time field. If you choose Mins then minutes will
be displayed normally (ie, 2 hrs 15 minutes). If you choose
Hours then minutes will be displayed as hundredths of an
hour (ie, 2 hrs 15 minutes = 2.25 hrs).

For example: To round off all times to the closest 5
minutes, select the option and put 5 into the round off
time field. To round off all times to the closest .25
hours, click the mins button and choose Hours, then select
the option and put .25 into the round off time field.

The way that I usually generate an Invoice in Activity &
Expense Tracker is to first generate a Report with the
"Show Record Numbers" option checked. I may also want to
"Show Start & Stop Times" so I can check to see that I have
not made any errors in recording my times.

Make sure you choose the specific client you will be
creating the invoice for, and then click the "Create
Report" button. By viewing this report you can easily see
if all the records are in order and everything makes sense.

If you see any errors you can note the record number and
then click the "Go to Record #" button. You will be asked
for the record number and then be taken to that record
where you can make any necessary changes.

Next click "Invoice & Reports" and then "Create Report"
again until you are satisfied with the results. Finally,
click the Invoices tab and then click the "Create Invoice"
button. When everything is perfect you can either print it
directly from the Invoice window by clicking the Print
button. Or save the invoice to a text file (by clicking
"Save as..." in the Invoice window) for further
modification in a word processor. Or you can click Copy to
Email and then paste your Invoice into a new email message.

After generating your invoice you can click the "Mark
Records as Invoiced" button at the bottom of the invoice
window, which will automatically mark all the records for
this invoice as Invoiced. This will help you determine
which records are invoiced but not paid, which have not
been invoiced and which are both invoiced and paid.

When an Invoiced record is paid, click the Paid button on
the record. If there are more than one records for the
invoice, they all will be marked Paid.

If for some reason, you don't want a record to be included
in an invoice, click the On-Hold button.

In the Invoice window you can add a logo
and other styled text to create a letter head. Click the
Edit Header button to add your logo and modify the size,
style and position of the name and address fields.

On the output window you will find the following buttons:
Save As... (saves the output as a text file for archiving
or exporting to a word processor for formatting, etc.);
Font (allows you to specify the size and font of the text
in the report output); Print (usually just prints the
output - you may need to print some reports in landscape
mode); and Edit Report (allows you to make changes to the
report before printing or exporting - when this button is
unchecked (its normal position) you can click the main line
of each record's output to go directly to that record
(accept in A&E Tracker where you need to use the Go to
Record # button).

There is also a row of buttons, just above the report's
output field, that allows you to change the width of the
columns (the tab stops) in the report. Just drag any of the
little rectangles left or right to make the report more
readable.

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I hope you enjoy using Activity & Expense Tracker.
Please let us know if you have suggestions for ways to make
the product even better.

Sincerely,

Garth Catterall-Heart
SpiritWorks Software Inc.
support@productivity-software.com


