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Wanted: Daily project logging app
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Posted by Marbux
Jul 28, 2015 at 05:08 AM
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.
Posted by Paul Korm
Jul 28, 2015 at 11:01 AM
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.
Posted by Andy Brice
Jul 28, 2015 at 11:17 AM
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.
Posted by Alexander Deliyannis
Jul 28, 2015 at 04:46 PM
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