Something I've been looking for -- a program for keeping a running log of what I've done each day on a variety of different projects.

I want to make multiple entries per day, with fields such as: Project, Client, Category, Description, Date Started, Date Completed (if applicable), Date Billed, Date Paid, Tags, Notes etc.
Then, I want to be able to filter the entries either in a calendar view, or by Project, by Client, etc.

There are tons and tons of to-do list apps out there, but most of them kind of throw out your work history, or at least don't give you a good way of seeing the history of the project at a glance by date. There are also lots of calendar programs, but these focus on meetings and appointments, and usually aren't sortable into project-/client-centered history.

For now I've been using a Google spreadsheet with Filter views to accomplish some of what I want, but that isn't ideal for obvious reasons. Any ideas?

Tinderbox (Mac) and InfoQube (Windows) both have spreadsheet-like functionality, full support for custom fields, as well hierarchical/outlining functionality. These are multi-purpose programs that require significant initial learning and tweaking but that could be well adapted to project tracking (in fact I have used both for essentially that purpose).

On the other hand, surely there are some dedicated programs worth looking at. For Mac, Daylite comes to mind, but I've only glanced at it.

Try searching for this on the DonationCoder forum, this type of software has been discussed on there a few times.

If you're working in Windows, Zoot will do most of this. It has a steep learning curve, and there is still no help documentation for the latest version, so be aware of that. Also I don't think it has a calendar function, but its smart folders can search for almost anything in your data. You can set up custom columns to track most any information.

www.zootsoftware.com

Steve Z.

I'd definitely second @Lucas' recommendation of Tinderbox for this purpose -- but note that Tinderbox does not have "spreadsheet-like functionality" until you configure/code Tinderbox to have that feature.

I've been quite curious about Tinderbox for a while now, but sadly I'm stuck on Windows for the duration...

zoe wrote:

I want to make multiple entries per day, with fields such as: Project,
Client, Category, Description, Date Started, Date Completed (if
applicable), Date Billed, Date Paid, Tags, Notes etc.
Then, I want to be able to filter the entries either in a calendar view,
or by Project, by Client, etc.

Can't remember if you're a CT user, but CT's date topics with attributes could also be used for this.

You could create a template for your typical project, where all of the above are blank attributes to be filled in.

Once there are a few entries, you could create a separate topic with a $Summary command, which would gather and rank the topics with selected attributes in a summary table.

Clicking on any attribute (e.g. Client name) in a topic (or in the summary table) would produce a list with all the entries associated with that client.

There are some examples in this thread for such a system:
http://connectedtext.com/forum/index.php/topic,3139.msg15319.html#msg15319

Thanks! I was thinking that CT was a possibility for this, but I confess I still haven't gotten past the trial version yet. With CT date topics, can you make multiple entries per day?

zoe wrote:

Thanks! I was thinking that CT was a possibility for this, but I confess
I still haven't gotten past the trial version yet. With CT date topics,
can you make multiple entries per day?

Yes, you can have as many per day as you like. You can either differentiate them by adding time to the date in the topic title, or by adding a descriptive name.

CT calls date topics created on the same day "tasks" (but the user is not forced to adopt that nomenclature, i.e. these date topics can represent anything you like). They can get listed in the Calendar pane when you select a date with multiple topics and can get displayed as links within the body of topics with the same date (both of these features are optional).

Here is what my blank template looks like at the moment (not sure if the forum software can display it correctly). After the = sign I'd need to insert the date (except [[waiting:=]], where I'd need to insert the name of the person whose action I'm waiting for). There is actually an AutoHotkey that makes the insertion of such dates in CT format easy, by selecting it with a mouse from a pop-up calendar.

----

=To Do=

Start: [[start:=]]

Due: [[due:=]]

[[$COMBOBOX:Importance|5.Very Important|4.Important|3.Medium|2.Low|1.None]]

[[$CHECKBOX:Done|yes]]

Completed: [[completed:=]]

Waiting for: [[waiting:=]]

----

[[$CATEGORY:To Do|

And this is the syntax for the summary table topic (ordered by Due date in descending order):

=Things to do:=

[[$SUMMARY: [$CATEGORY TO DO] & ~[$PR Done=yes]|start|+Due|Importance]]

=Waiting:=

[[$SUMMARY: [$HAS Waiting] ]]

=Done:=

[[$SUMMARY: [$CATEGORY TO DO] & [$PR Done=yes] |Due|-Completed|Done]]

[[$NOCROSS:]]

Another suggestion: MyInfo. You can customize the fields in the outline. You can add tags and notes. And it has a calendar view.

http://www.milenix.com/myinfo

Steve Z.

You might check out Zoho Creator. https://www.zoho.com/creator/

I'm not personally fond of keeping data in the cloud because of security issues, but if that's okay with you, Creator just might be what you are looking for. It makes it very easy to create custom database apps, data entry forms, and reports, with no need to understand SQL And it's free. Zoho also has a project manager, but as I recall they charge a fee for its use.

One of the things I particularly like about the Zoho set of services is that -- unlike Google -- they share a common scripting language so that business process workflow using multiple apps is easily within reach.

Finally, Zoho is going to be a survivor. They've been around longer than Google Apps and are still pushing out new apps and features on a constant basis, with a much wider variety of fuller-featured services than Google. They're very responsive on subscriber bug reports, feature requests, and other support requests.

On the downside, you may need sighted assistance in setting things up. At least as of a couple of years ago, most of their documentation was in the form of video tutorials and a lot of their tools for creating custom apps depend on drag and drop.

The company is based in India.

I'm a fan of TapForms on the Mac (for those interested in this topic WRT that platform). I use TapForms for the purpose @zoe described. Form create, sync to iOS, and export is very simple. Export to CSV and xlsx. Not as pretty as Bento (of happy memory) was, but more powerful.

zoe wrote:

I want to make multiple entries per day, with fields such as: Project,
Client, Category, Description, Date Started, Date Completed (if
applicable), Date Billed, Date Paid, Tags, Notes etc.
Then, I want to be able to filter the entries either in a calendar view,
or by Project, by Client, etc.

My Hyper Plan software was conceived mainly for planning. But it might also be suitable to help you do this.

The basic approach would be:
-create a new plan
-add properties for Client, Category, Description, Date Started, Date Completed etc
-add a card for each item you want to track
-use the built in filtering to hide cards you aren't interested in
-use the layout and coloring to arrange and color cards by category/value

Whether it works for you depends on whether you like the visual, card-based approach.

You can use the 7 day free trial to see whether it suits you:
http://www.hyperplan.com

If you try it, let me know how you get on.

zoe wrote:

There are tons and tons of to-do list apps out there, but most of them
kind of throw out your work history, or at least don't give you a good
way of seeing the history of the project at a glance by date. There are
also lots of calendar programs, but these focus on meetings and
appointments, and usually aren't sortable into project-/client-centered
history.

I would suggest that you check out time tracking programmes and services that have been developed with exactly what you have in mind.

My own favourite is Klok http://www.getklok.com/ It is the most visual and will give you an excellent overview of the time you've spent on projects. It should cover most, though not all, the fields you want. It includes reporting and data can also be exported to Excel for further processing.

Another I've used in the past which may be more flexible (but less visual) is Maplexp, now called Quasima http://www.quasima.com/en/TimeTracker

Aside stand alone programmes like the above, there are several web services; these have the advantage of logging time also from mobile devices (Klok can also do this albeit with a workaround). The best known one is Harvest http://www.getharvest.com/ but I personally find it too expensive. My own favourite is Toggl https://toggl.com/

hth
alx