Project managment and timesheet accounting
I have used a few project management software packages ArtLogik, AceProject, and dotProject (open source) at my current job and a former job. At my current job, online project management did not last long. Since we are small company of under 10 employees that do not pass projects back and forth often, there is not a great need for the overhead of project management software.
Personal Timesheet
We use job folders that an archive copy of the project on DVD and time sheets go into. Before tallying the final time sheet that is printed from Excel, I use a personal time sheet that I write on. It is a seven column time sheet with the date, start and end times, a short description, the hours of the task, the comp number (only used for print projects), and a column to check if I have transferred the time to the final time sheet that goes into the job folder.
Final Time Sheet
The final time sheet that is archived with the digital copy of the project files is an Excel template. It has a place for the job number client and project in the heading. The way these three spreadsheet cells are set up that increases productivity is that one can complete the information for all three cells, copy them to the clipboard, and then paste them into the file name of the Excel file. Thus the filename will be .xls and Spotlighting (from OS-X) the correct files in the future will be easy.
After the heading, is a list of the tasks with their date, description and total time. Below the task hours that are billed are additional fees that can be charged such comp approvals, ftp approvals, pdf approvals, and DVD approvals. This is all where material costs would be listed. These section has five columns: the date, a description of there service, who the material was sent to, how it was sent, and who said to send it. This level of description allows for a paper trail of who did what and when.
I hope that these thoughts and files help you in your project management. How do you do project management in your business? Do you use a paper trail? Track it all online?
A note about the author
Media designer with experience in interactive, print and video. I have a marketing and advertising agency background and currently work full-time at a full-service agency. Visit my contact page, even if you would just like to say hello. To stay in touch, follow me on Twitter or connect on a variety of other social networks. Thanks for stopping by!
September 5th, 2007 at 5:52 am
We’re also a small company, but we find pm software very helpful. Specifically we use Wrike http://www.wrike.com/, and it seems like it was designed for our needs. It’s easy to use and cheap. It works with our emails and really helps get stuff done. For example, if I need to create a task in Wrike I write an email to somebody in my team and send a copy to Wrike’s address. It’s this simple. We also upload different files relevant to our projects, so that we have everything in one place and always at hand. I can’t think of anything more convenient than that