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andk5591
Samba Member
Joined: August 29, 2005
Posts: 16757
Location: State College, PA
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 Posted: Tue Nov 02, 2021 7:35 am Post subject: Shop owners - time and project tracking app suggestions |
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I need to do something better than what I am doing. I want to get a mobile app for my small shop (4 people total). Need to be able to track time on any given project as well as their hours here. Did not realized that there are a LOT of these. Obviously you all have run into the problems I have. Tech working on one project, then gets pulled over to a different one and then back mabe severla times a day...and soe get here before I do, so making sure they are actually here when they punch in. I run flexible hours, so if someone wants to come in super early or work on a weekend, they can. Not suspecting problem, but don't want there to ever be one.
Looking at Buddy Punch right now... Thanks!
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D-Dubya Manx clone - 63 Short pan,1914.
Rosie 65 bug - My mostly stock daily driver.
Woodie 69 VW woodie (Hot VWs 7/12).
"John's car" 64 VW woodie - The first ever
Maxine 61 Cal-look bug - Cindy's daily driver.
Max - 73 standard Beetle hearse project - For sale
66 bug project - Real patina & Suby conversion
There's more, but not keeping them... |
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cbeck
Samba Member
Joined: January 14, 2014
Posts: 2495
Location: high ridge, mo
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| Posted: Tue Nov 02, 2021 10:03 am Post subject: Re: Shop owners - time and project tracking app suggestions |
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We used field edge for a year, sucked. Now we are using service titan. Better, still not perfect.
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My cut in half and rebuild thread
www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=647779 |
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Who.Me? 
Samba Member
Joined: July 14, 2014
Posts: 2207
Location: UK (South)
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| Posted: Tue Nov 02, 2021 12:09 pm Post subject: Re: Shop owners - time and project tracking app suggestions |
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My Mrs and I have been trying Clockify for our consultancy business. https://clockify.me/feature-list
We have to chop and change between projects for customers and keep a record of what work was done when to back up the invoice. I've been using MS Outlook to log appointments and reminders then transfer chargeable hours to a spreadsheet, but it takes a couple of hours per person per month to work out what is chargeable and what is just a 'reminder' etc. My Mrs found Clockify and has been trying it for her customers.
Pros of Clockify - simple; can track time per customer and project; can record time by linking to Outlook, or by entering hours manually, or by starting and stopping a 'stopwatch'; cloud based so you can use it on any device with a browser; can flag hours as billable or not, so you can acrue a block of time to bill in future if you're overrunning against the customer's budget; dashboards and reporting so you can visualise time per customer/project per person or for the company as a whole; free version does the basics; paid versions aren't expensive (charged by user by month) and include invoicing tools etc.
Cons - The accrual function is pretty basic, so I still have to do some manual adjustment (I have to bill work at least half-day blocks).
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Andy
Looking for info on my truck's history. Are you from Campbell California or nearby. Do you recognise it? ... http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=636786 |
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cbeck
Samba Member
Joined: January 14, 2014
Posts: 2495
Location: high ridge, mo
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| Posted: Wed Nov 03, 2021 4:05 am Post subject: Re: Shop owners - time and project tracking app suggestions |
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One thing I do like about service titan is that it records incoming and outgoing phone calls. I have had to play I t back for several customers.
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My cut in half and rebuild thread
www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=647779 |
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andk5591
Samba Member
Joined: August 29, 2005
Posts: 16757
Location: State College, PA
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| Posted: Fri Nov 05, 2021 7:34 am Post subject: Re: Shop owners - time and project tracking app suggestions |
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Talked to Quickbooks who can integrate everything since I already use it. Have a call into my local payroll company that I use as well.
_________________
D-Dubya Manx clone - 63 Short pan,1914.
Rosie 65 bug - My mostly stock daily driver.
Woodie 69 VW woodie (Hot VWs 7/12).
"John's car" 64 VW woodie - The first ever
Maxine 61 Cal-look bug - Cindy's daily driver.
Max - 73 standard Beetle hearse project - For sale
66 bug project - Real patina & Suby conversion
There's more, but not keeping them... |
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skills@eurocarsplus
Samba Peckerhead
Joined: January 01, 2007
Posts: 16863
Location: sticksville, ct.
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| Posted: Sun Nov 07, 2021 8:36 am Post subject: Re: Shop owners - time and project tracking app suggestions |
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| andk5591 wrote: |
| Talked to Quickbooks who can integrate everything since I already use it. Have a call into my local payroll company that I use as well. |
why would you need to get your payroll co involved unless they are doing your invoicing?
are you looking to dump timecards all together? unless you're a huge shop i don't know if the expense is worth it.
every customer (on big jobs) gets a folder and time cards stored in that folder. as i punch in/out on that job the cards stay with the folder.
if you have "customer smith" for example and paul, joe, pete and dave are all working on it they all get a time card with their name on it and it gets put into the folder.
unless you don't want to add up all the time manually (which really only takes a couple minutes) i can see doing a tracking system but the end user (paul, joe, pete and dave) have to know how to use it.
there is a bunch of timecard calculator programs you can use.
i dunno, i'm a fan of keep it simple. if the app/program bombs and it's not somehow backed up it could be a real ass ache trying to recover that data.
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| gprudenciop wrote: |
my reason for switching to subaru is my german car was turning chinese so i said fuck it and went japanese....... |
| Jake Raby wrote: |
| Thanks for the correction. I used to be a nice guy, then I ruined it by exposing myself to the public. |
| Brian wrote: |
| Also the fact that people are agreeing with Skills, it's a turn of events for samba history |
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andk5591
Samba Member
Joined: August 29, 2005
Posts: 16757
Location: State College, PA
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| Posted: Sat Nov 20, 2021 3:27 pm Post subject: Re: Shop owners - time and project tracking app suggestions |
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My payroll company has an app that is really inexpensive ($2/month per employee), integrates with their system, can create a file that I can import directly into Qbooks and can be used on their phones or a shop laptop. $100 one time set up. Just need to pickup a cheap laptop and get it all set up. I still have to enter their hours into billing, which will only take a couple minutes.
Will save about an hour per pay period, be way more accurate.
_________________
D-Dubya Manx clone - 63 Short pan,1914.
Rosie 65 bug - My mostly stock daily driver.
Woodie 69 VW woodie (Hot VWs 7/12).
"John's car" 64 VW woodie - The first ever
Maxine 61 Cal-look bug - Cindy's daily driver.
Max - 73 standard Beetle hearse project - For sale
66 bug project - Real patina & Suby conversion
There's more, but not keeping them... |
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skills@eurocarsplus
Samba Peckerhead
Joined: January 01, 2007
Posts: 16863
Location: sticksville, ct.
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| Posted: Sat Nov 20, 2021 3:56 pm Post subject: Re: Shop owners - time and project tracking app suggestions |
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| andk5591 wrote: |
| I need to do something better than what I am doing. I want to get a mobile app for my small shop (4 people total). Need to be able to track time on any given project as well as their hours here. |
you mean you don't have a time clock?
how are they punching in/out for their shift?
when i was at the dealer you'd punch it for your shift (7:45) your lunch time and what time you left (4:00)
when you were there you punched in/out on whatever job was dispatched. all the time cards were then stapled to the r/o and the front end totaled it up.
sounds to me like you want a system that does all of this for you?
_________________
| gprudenciop wrote: |
my reason for switching to subaru is my german car was turning chinese so i said fuck it and went japanese....... |
| Jake Raby wrote: |
| Thanks for the correction. I used to be a nice guy, then I ruined it by exposing myself to the public. |
| Brian wrote: |
| Also the fact that people are agreeing with Skills, it's a turn of events for samba history |
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andk5591
Samba Member
Joined: August 29, 2005
Posts: 16757
Location: State College, PA
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| Posted: Mon Nov 22, 2021 2:04 pm Post subject: Re: Shop owners - time and project tracking app suggestions |
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| skills@eurocarsplus wrote: |
| andk5591 wrote: |
| I need to do something better than what I am doing. I want to get a mobile app for my small shop (4 people total). Need to be able to track time on any given project as well as their hours here. |
you mean you don't have a time clock?
how are they punching in/out for their shift?
when i was at the dealer you'd punch it for your shift (7:45) your lunch time and what time you left (4:00)
when you were there you punched in/out on whatever job was dispatched. all the time cards were then stapled to the r/o and the front end totaled it up.
sounds to me like you want a system that does all of this for you? |
Ummmm yeah..I want to minimize my time in the process and of course improve accuracy, so if there are tools out there that can do this and not cost a bunch, hell yeah. Have never had a time clock. The guys have been tracking hours in their notebooks and it's time to move past that.
When I started looking into this, there were a bunch of apps out there. Was close to pulling the trigger on the Quickbooks solution, but my accountant suggested checking with the company that does my payroll and they can do a lot of integration that will work well and only cost a couple bucks more than the currect payroll expense.
Seems like a no brainer - the do the setup and all that. But the guys would prefer having a shop lap top instead of using their phones, which they could. So I need to pick up a decnet used one for $150 or so.
_________________
D-Dubya Manx clone - 63 Short pan,1914.
Rosie 65 bug - My mostly stock daily driver.
Woodie 69 VW woodie (Hot VWs 7/12).
"John's car" 64 VW woodie - The first ever
Maxine 61 Cal-look bug - Cindy's daily driver.
Max - 73 standard Beetle hearse project - For sale
66 bug project - Real patina & Suby conversion
There's more, but not keeping them... |
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| Back to top |
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