JBCL About Time Professional - Time Recording

Current Version

V10.24.8.23

Who is it for?

For all those who have to record and account for our time for work, it might as well be easy, streamlined and fun to do.

Particularly suitable for those in standalone businesses who need a quick and excellent way to track time.

Where does it come from?

John Bird of JBCL has worked on Time and Cost systems since he starting programming.   These were integrated with accounting and Legal Trust Accounting systems, and this originally was designed as a superior way to enter time for these.  John Bird has been the main user of this and has used it to record his working time since 1996. In the last few years he has turned it into a standalone program that anyone can use.

Currently John Bird works at a Health IT firm, where time is entered in JIRA cloud - he prefers to still enter the time during the day in this About Time Professional system and transfer it at the end of the day as it gives better time recording and is quicker, more accurate and easier to use.

This is open software of an innovative type - the core time recording module is proprietary to JBCL (for now) but the data format is quite simple and open and JBCL encourages other systems to integrate with it - to import or export data.

You can enter time 3 different ways

Using the computer clock to record time as you go - Research shows using accurate timing gives around 30% more chargeable time.   This is most accurate way of tracking chargeable time exactly.  Both elapsed and chargeable time are recorded so time can be written off as you enter it, with a record of that.

As a Timesheet - list a day or range of days on the screen.  Entries can be added,  and edited here by double-clicking on a time entry.

As a Diary Page - easiest way to enter time after the even.  Time length can be set by click and drag, or using Shift + arrow keys.  Time details can be edited by double-clicking an entry.
Chargeable time is shown in warm colours (yellow/green etc), non-chargeable in cool colours (blue/purple).
This day is also shown in the TimeSheet View above.

About Time Professional - Main Features

• Professional Time Recording Software - called About Time Professional
  
• This software is freely available to download and use - it is not copy protected
• You can get updates at any time freely to the latest version and get new features at no extra cost
  
• You can freely move software and data to another computer.
• You can freely copy the software to new computers for new users
• You pay very small charges to use the software - typical charges are under 1 cent for recording a timesheet entry etc.  Typical monthly totals may be around $2-$3 per month used constantly - the less it is used the less it costs.  Pay only what you use.
  
• The software starts with a credit balance, so you do not have to pay anything until you have used up the credit and tried it out
  
• Program contains full ability to Maintain and add New Clients/Jobs/Work Descriptions etc
• You don't have to remember client codes etc - everything can be looked up by name (Clients/Jobs/Work descriptions/Cost Centres etc)
• Also contains a TimeSheet Manager program which allows an accounts department to review and report on time for the employees.
• Multi Employee, Multi Company (several different organisations and employees can all store their time on the same computer but all are independent from each other).
• Invoicing
• Ability to sync data to cloud - ideal for those wanting to record time on  many computers, e.g. office and working from home.
• Future plans are to add mobile versions and many other features.
  

This above covers most of what you need to know quickly.

Below covers more details.

More Details of using About Time Professional

Setup Clients

When you install a new setup of JBCL, defaults are created as a guide, and you will want to set the names and details to suit you.

Setup Jobs

Default job is created, you can rename and add others to suit your needs

Note the default is to have a chargeable rate for each employee/for 1 unit of time (e.g. $15 for a 6 minute unit). An employee can have up to 6 chargeable rates.

Normally the jobs do not specify the charging rates (the rate are got from the employees who work on it), but some jobs you may wish to have special charging rates.

Setup Employees

Again defaults are created, you can rename and add others to suit your needs

Setup Cost Centres and Work Descriptions

Cost Centres are areas over which time and costs can be analysed - typically these will be like Office Administration, travel, sales, purchases, support. You should create only as many as you wish to analyse costs over

The Cost Centre code for a new time record defaults to the last Cost Centre recorded for that job.

Work descriptions are frequently used abbreviations for work done, and you can add as many as you wish.

These provide a quick way to describe the work, you can add as many as you wish to describe common types of work.

The code for a new record defaults to the last work description for that job.

Note you do not have to use these as you also can add notes for each time entry.  

There are lots of setup options for input

There are many settable options to streamline entry of time.

JBCL No-Nonsense Licence Agreement  for general users

• This is commercial software of a new type
  
• This software is free to download and use - it is not copy protected
• You can get updates at any time freely to the latest version and get new features at no extra cost
  
• You can freely move software and data to another computer.
• You can freely copy the software to new computers for new users
• You pay a small charge to use the software - typical charges are 1 cent for recording a timesheet entry etc.  Typical charges may be around $3-$4 per month.
  
• The software starts with a credit balance, so you do not have to pay anything until you have used up the credit and tried it out
  
• (There may be an alternate option to buy a time subscription for those who want predictable costs if users request this)
• Until you have trialed it and you want to keep using it - it will not cost you
• You pay for what you use after you have used it.
• Charges in the program are only applied to operations of some benefit to the user.
• From time to time you top up your credit to keep the program working fully - similar to recharging a phone card.
• Charge rates are expected to decrease over time.
• Although you can freely copy the program and data files,  each payment can only be applied to one computer site setup.
• Your data remains yours - if you cease using the software and run out of credit, you can still run reports on information you have entered.
• Usage charges are accumulated by another JBCL program : JBCL Small Change Meter.   You will see this program start automatically, just leave it running in the background.   You can use its screen to check your running balance etc.
  

Privacy

• When you pay for a top-up JBCL sends some information from your system to get charging details.   The information has details of types of operations done (entry using clock or diary or reports etc).  This information does not include any of your data such as client details or notes.
• There is no advertising in this software, and no data is send from JBCL to any advertising organisations.

Open Software

• This is open software of an innovative type - the core time recording module is proprietary to JBCL (for now) but the data format is quite simple and open and JBCL encourages other systems to integrate with it - to import or export data.
• JBCL intends to add an interface with JIRA so that current jobs(tasks) can be  downloaded and recorded time can be uploaded to JIRA
• Time can also be recorded on a phone and uploaded to the JBCL About Time Professional data
• Other interfaces like this to other systems are encouraged.
• 2020 update - With the Covid-19 pandemic disrupting work all around the world, and a large number of people are having to work from home this Time Recording system is convenient to use as it is stand-alone, lightweight and very modest cost.   Until the world starts to come out of lock down JBCL is not intending to impose charges for use of this software.

Innovative

• It caters for 4 different ways of entering time - via computer clock recording the times, or a standard timesheet, or a diary page, or via a phone.  These are all interchangeable - everyone has their favourite.
• High resolution - time is recorded to the millisecond, but can be shown in minutes, units or hours etc.
• A very large number of clients and a very number of jobs for each client are possible (about 1844674407370960000)
• Elapsed and charged time are both always recorded, so time written off or not charged can be easily seen
• Uses another JBCL program - JBCL Small Change - to mount up small charges for using the program.
• This program can be used to charge other software as well.
• Small payments after some time of use can be made simply

Goal of this software

• For all those who have to record and account for our time for work, it might as well be easy, streamlined and fun to do.