Time Tracking From Any Device With Xpenser
Comments(7)
By popular demand, we are happy to bring you time tracking from any device using Xpenser.
Many of you suggested it would be great to track time using all of the interfaces Xpenser supports. As Linda put it “Would you please add time tracking so I can keep all my billable items in the same place?”. Several of you wanted time tracking via IM, others wanted SMS, Twitter, etc.
With tonight’s release you can track time with the same ease you’re used to, either by noting the amount of time spent or by using start and end timers, from all of the interfaces Xpenser supports – Email, SMS, iPhone, Jott, Dial2Do, IM (Yahoo, MSN, AIM, GTalk), Twitter, and the Web.
You can define your hourly billable rate, your billing time increment, and your rounding method (closest, always round up, or always round down), and let Xpenser become your personal time assistant.
From the Keywords page, enable Time Tracking:
Set your paramters as desired:
Now any expenses you submit that start with the word “time” will trigger the time tracking feature. Here are some examples:
- time 15 min phone call
- time 1:30 contract review
- time 3.5 on-site with client X
- time 90 minutes design
You can express the time in minutes or hours, using the words minutes, mins, hours, hrs, or hr. Note that as always if you are using SMS you must include “exp” in front of your submission.
You can also use start and stop timers to measure time spent. At the start of your task, submit the expense “time start”. You can also include notes for this time – e.g. “time start contract review”.
Once you are done, submit the expense “time stop”. Xpenser will calculate how much time you spent on the task, converting your “time start” and “time stop” to a single “Time” entry using the rounding increment and rules you defined.
So there you have it, hopefully as simple as the rest of Xpenser. We received good feedback from your during the development process (particularly the attorneys, consultants, and freelancers), but we know there’s always plenty of room for improvement, so let us know what you think, what you like and don’t like, and what else you’d like to see added.
And as always, send your feature requests to feedback@xpenser.com . We generally prioritize implementation by user requests, so don’t be shy about putting in your vote.
From today morning, ‘Go’ button used for exporting is not displayed.
Jinto, we’ve updated the design to no longer require the “Go” button. Simply select the export format from the drop-down list and your expenses will be exported.
OK, I am sold. Discovered you via beta.go2web20.net/#expense. Give them a big Thank you. The clincher was adding the time tracking feature to go with the ’submit any costs by any means’ expense report. One stop for a contractor/freelancer working a gig. That’s great. You will get a plug on my blog, twitter mention, promotion at my May presentation in Ft Worth,TX @ http://tinyurl.com/bzovvn. Did I bribe you enough to win the iPod shuffle? Also having the screen cast demo of how xpenser works makes my task of informing others a lot easier.
Doug, much thanks! Please let us know how the presentation goes, and as always let us know what we can do to improve Xpenser.
I need start times and finish times, is that information not available?
CJ, the start and stop times are currently not displayed, but they will be added in an upcoming release. Keep an eye on the blog or Twitter for the update.
Cj, just a suggestion you probably already thought of but it is way to obvious. “Time Start, John Doe 2:30 PM” “Time End John Doe 3:45 PM” Then You have submitted a time start and end note along with the project. Of course that will mean that you need to know what time it is. Ugh! When will we get good enough that we can just stay in bed ; )