Using distribution lists

This is my third post in the series on Time Manager 2010 Quarter 3.  Today I’m going to keep it simple and show you how to set up distribution lists.  Even though this is a very easy process, it has powerful implications because it means you can now send reports to multiple email addresses simply, and can schedule reports on a regular basis and have them automatically distributed.

To view the video just click here.

To view the other two videos so far in this series you can click on the links below.

Simple report scheduling

Scheduling reports

Next time I am going to roll my sleeves up and show you some of the more powerful features available through the Alerts and Scheduling engine.

Scheduling reports in Time Manager Part 1

In my last post I told you how, in the 2010 Quarter 3 release of Time Manager reports could not be sent to a separate Scheduling and Alerts engine.  Today I am going to extend that concept and tell you a little about how reports can be scheduled.  You can view a five minute video of the process by clicking here.

Offloading reports to another process is only of limited use.  However, setting up a report once and then running it at regular intervals becomes much more interesting.  It allows you to pass a great deal of administrative work out to the alerts engine.

An example might be a productivity report you run once a month on the third of each month for the previous month.  Instead of having to remember to open Time Manager, select the report, select what data to appear on the report and run it, you can now set this up as a scheduled report and have it delivered to your inbox automatically.

The video will show you more about how scheduling of reports works.

Next time I will tell you about distribution lists and some of the other alert functions which do not rely on reporting.

Running Reports in Profess

When you’re running a Report using the standard Build Selection screen, did you know that if you want to run the Report again, but for a different Project/Client/Staff Member, etc., you don’t need to close the Report down and start again?

When you’ve filled out the standard Build Selection screen once, and the selection code is still visible in the Preview area, click on Build Selection then click the Selection tab.  From here you can edit the Selection code, over-typing any of the references to search on something else. 

Just make sure you keep the single quote marks around what you’re searching for if it’s a Reference. 

You’ll find this is speedier that starting all over again. This is also a good way of using Saved Selections.

Trouble getting Team Managers to Approve timesheets?

Chasing managers to manage. It’s a popular pastime.

To make things easier – with regard to Timesheet Approval across your entire database/structure – I’ve just finished writing a new report.

You can find it on the Hosted edition NOW under Reports folder Administration > ‘Complete Timesheets to be Approved’ – or for installed users, you will need to wait until the next build (which is due for release w/c 12th July or so, depending on our own testing).

This report is specifically designed to assist with the chase-up of Approval of Completed (Submitted) timesheets by Team Managers.

The report is organised by Year, then Team then individual Staff and includes all Managers listed for each team.

You will be able to filter results by Team or select one or more Staff records.

The number of outstanding Completed/Submitted timesheets still awaiting Approval is listed per Team and as a Grand Total on the last page of the report. Obviously, if you do NOT use Approval, all timesheets Completed/Submitted will appear on the output.

Running Reports in Time Manager

Just a quick note about a new fix in the latest release of Time Manager. When running Reports, if your web browser is set up to open the report in a separate page (which most are), then after closing the Report you will be taken back to the Selection Screen. In the old version if you entered another set of Selections and ran the Report again, you would get a System Error.  Now you simply get a message asking you to close the screen before re-running the report. This should improve reporting for anyone who uses this setting.

New Report export option

I have just added a new export option, Excel Spreadsheet (Record Format) to the reports export options in Time Manager. 

When you export to Excel, this can be done in two different ways.  The standard Export formats the data so that it appears as close to the original printed display as possible, but this means that the data is not shown in individual columns.

The Record format option formats the output so that each column on the report appears in its own data column in Excel.  However, depending on how the report has been designed, sometimes this produced columns exactly as you expect, other times it does not produce a useable spreadsheet.  In general, if there are several different groupings on a report, with group headers running across several columns, this option will not format correctly.  However, for simple reports, this may be the preferred option because it means you can more easily manipulate the data in Excel after exporting.

Now you have the choice of either option.