Why "Next Gen"?

Timesheet Next Gen is a continuation of the Timesheet.php project by Peter D. Kovacs and later Dominic J. Gamble. Timesheet.php has a large following of users, but sadly isn't actively developed any more. Timesheet Next Gen is here to change that.

This project has two main aims:

• Firstly we aim to continue to support the current release of Timesheet.php, fixing bugs and applying patches.
• Secondly we aim to bring Timesheet.php right up-to-date in Timesheet Next Gen, focusing on ease of use and the user experience, whilst keeping it compatible (as much as possible) with the last release of Timesheet.php.

Overview

Timesheet Next Gen allows you to record the hours of employees and contractors across multiple projects. Its interface is simple, yet powerful and requires no training.

The application is completely web-based, which makes it accessible from anywhere in the world. Combine this with the flexible time zone configuration options and you can track hours worked by people across multiple countries if required.

Timesheet Next Gen allows extensive customization from within the administration interface itself, through the use of html templates and css to make the software look like your company's own. Its administration features automatically calculate reports and invoices from time sheet information entered by multiple users for multiple projects.

Users can clock-on and clock-off at the click of a button, or manually manage and update time and tasks. The calendar view allows the user to easily view weekly and monthly totals for particular projects, and show overall work patterns for all projects.

Product Features

• Easy to use
• Client, User, Project, and Task management
• Calendar view of work, grouped by project or all projects
• Monthly, weekly or daily views of work
• Easily customizable look and feel
• Work periods spanning multiple days (yes, we work hard)
• Automatic calculation of invoices and reports
• Manual clock-on/clock-off maintenance
• Administrator views and reports
• Time zone adjustment for use on international servers

Scope and goals

• The focus of this project ease of use, functionality and extendibility relating to the tasks involved with handling TimeSheets.
• Timesheet Next Gen targets the activity of enterening and tracking time, based on projects and tasks.
• Timesheet Next Gen is written in PHP, uses MySQL as backend, and standard WebBrowser as frontend.
• Project WorkFlow and business rules vary between companies and markets. TimeSheet Next Gen aims at being customizable and adaptable to integrating various Work Flow strategies and Business Rules. Providing a flexible, easy and safe way to handle timesheets.

What Timesheet Next Gen is:

• An easy way to enter time spent
• Input to Accounting systems and invoicing
• Documentation for clients
• Input to Project Control (QA and QC)

What Timesheet Next Gen is Not

• Project Planning/Management system
• Accounting system
• CRM system
• Change or bug management system

Extensibility and Integration

• Bearing in mind that Timesheet Next Gen targets the actual task of handling timesheets… From a Workflow perspective one could say that TimeSheet Next Gen will get its actual Project and Task information from a Project Planning System, and present its output to Project Progress, Accounting, Invoicing and payroll systems.
• When planning such a system, it is very easy to forget the main target of the system, by overloading it with features that are a natural part of other systems like mentioned above.

Possible points of Integration...

• Input to Timesheet Next Gen
  • User Information (CRM or other)
  • Client information (CRM or other)
  • Project and task definitions (Project Management Systems)
• Output from Timesheet Next Gen
  • CRM systems
  • Project Management Systems
  • Accounting Systems
  • Payroll Systems

Possible extensions

A lot of probable extensions are mentioned in the wish lists, found in Mantis System

Discussion on "What Timesheet Next Gen should be..."

The core functionality of Timesheet Next Gen should be that of time tracking. Timesheet Next Gen could easily become bogged down with trying to be a fully fledged PM system and this defeats the purpose - besides, there are many great PMSs out there already.

I think this project could turn into a “killer app” the moment when it realises this! This project should be about the core functionality of being a really easy-to-use method for entering time spent on a particular task. This is worth saying again: recording time spent on tasks.

Once we have this core then we can expand the focus on two things:

1. Integration into existing PM and workflow solutions - dotProject, Mantis, Bugzilla even???
2. Developing plugins to extend the core functionality - reporting, sick days, etc.

If we successfully “pull off” point 1 we don't have to worry about how tasks break down into “client/project/tasks”, it could even be “projects/versions/bugs” for all Timesheet Next Gen cares, as long as it accurately and easily tracks the time users spend working on whatever it is.

On top of this, if we can develop some really good plugins to integrate into the above then Timesheet Next Gen could become a really useful little tool.

I'm not sure how these thought will be taken in via the community using the current Timesheet.php project, but then again, this is a separate project?! Timesheet.php should be seen as a subset of Timesheet Next Gen functionality, so anyone who uses 1.2.1 should lose nothing (and gain everything) by upgrading.

Thoughts please — Rob Searles 2008/02/11 00:40