TimeSheet using Outlook

[Calvin SK Kee]

Anyone has experience of using Outlook Form
for TimeSheet purpose? What I am looking
for is a way that allows everyone keys in his time sheet
using a form in the public folder and it gets
saved in the database say Access. and
a report can be generated maybe in another form,
ie. when we open up another form in the public folder,
it's the report/summary of weekly timesheet for all people.
Can this be achieved with little or no script
programming at all in Outlook?

Or anyone has any suggestions? My intention
is to use Exchange/Outlook for TimeSheet.
And just an easy and quick solution.

Thank you so very much,
calvin

[Todd Reavis]

While it can be done, there is a lot more to a timesheet system than meets
the eye. A simple system using just a person's name, day, and hours
worked - not breaking down by task/job/activity within a day - would still
require a fair amount of coding within Outlook forms, especially when
integrating with a database.

Think of how you yourself would enter time - you'd probably expect to open a
form that at least displayed a week grid beginning on the first day of the
current week. This requires coding to set the labels correctly. It would
be nice if you could scroll to the previous week to remind yourself what you
did - a fair amount of code for an Outlook form. If you get into providing
job codes that must be used, then maintaining and presenting these requires
even more code. Of course then there are timesheet printouts - a ton of
code and integration to make this acceptable from an Outlook form!
Timesheet systems quickly go beyond quick and easy.

Usually all the data you collect is best served being in a RDBMS for the
inevitable queries that have yet to be thought of. Exchange/Outlook are
hierarchical dbs. This may bring into question the need for Outlook at all
if all data is already in a database. I understand the desire to have it in
Outlook and easily accessible from people's email and other apps. A
straight Outlook/Access solution will require more code than you are
thinking - and the final product will contain limitations that may be
incapable of resolution within Outlook. You'll also have to setup ODBC
drivers on each workstation to make this work - and/or build some custom
event scripts on the Exchange folder or with OL2000 using its folder events
to ferry data to/from the db. To alleviate possible limitations, and to
keep the system within Outlook, consider creating a VB app to do this and
publishing it to Exchange/Outlook with mPower98 from SaxSoft:
http://www.saxsoft.com

Bottom line: My suggestion is to not do this in Outlook and to create a
web-based intranet timesheet app using ASP. This way the server is the only
one needing an ODBC driver, most limitations are avoided and totally
controlled by your ASP code, reports are a breeze, etc., etc., etc.
However, this is still not quick and easy - it requires more code than you
think.

Good luck,
Todd Reavis
tre...@ecommercelabs.com

Calvin SK Kee <cal...@singnet.com.sg> wrote in message
news:7jj5ph$am7$1...@violet.singnet.com.sg...

[Hal Hostetler [MVP DTS]]

FWIW, Microsoft has a pre-built "Time Card Form for Outlook" which you can
download. I haven't used it, but the description looks a lot like what
you're seeking. It's available here:

http://officeupdate.microsoft.com/downloadDetails/timecard.htm

Hal
--
Hal Hostetler, CPBE -- h...@kvoa.com
Senior Engineer/MIS -- MS MVP-DTS -- WA7BGX
http://www.kvoa.com -- "When News breaks, we fix it!"
http://home.nbcin.com -- NBC Interactive Neighborhood
KVOA Television, Tucson, AZ. NBC NBC-IN

[Calvin SK Kee]

thank you very much now i have a better
understanding.
calvin

[Mike Beck]

i am currently working on a solution for our company. currently it consists
of a outlook form which allows for choosing a client and project (derived
using a query via DAO from an access database) and choosing start and
endtime or, alternatively enter the amount of hours directly.
The data is saved on public folders on an exchange server and can be
imported into an access database with a button click. The access database
allows for entering the wages of the employees and the budget for a project
and will have lots of reports on where the money was spent.
the userinterface of the accessdatabase has been made to look a bit like
outlook to make it as easy as possible.
the accessdatabase is thought as an projectanalisistool for the management,
the normal user will have a simple excelsheet to sum up this month' hours,
calculate his +/- hours and look what his projects look like. (this is
because most of our users wouldn't be able to use access, but are fairly
used to excel).

i am thinking of selling this solution (once it's ready, which will be in a
few weeks) , of course i plan to optimize it on the customers wishes,
therefore, if you are interested tell me which features you would need and
tell me how much you'd like to pay and let's talk.
(if you'd like the database and outlookformular on an as-is-basis to develop
your own solution mail me as well - currently it is in german, therefore i'd
have to ask you for a small donation there as well, but well, let's talk)

CU

Mike Beck
webm...@ibmiller.de
http://www.mikrocosm.de
http://www.ibmiller.de
Calvin SK Kee <cal...@singnet.com.sg> schrieb in im Newsbeitrag:

[t...@timesheetreporter.com]

I know this post is kind of old, but you may also want to take a look at our solution, TimeSheet Reporter, which makes it possible to report time via Outlook.

You can read more at http://www.timesheetreporter.com

Thanks.

Best regards,
Thomas
TimeSheet Reporter
http://www.timesheetreporter.com
http://www.timesheetreporter.com/dk