Time Helper - A tool for helping you do your timesheets.

Author

arthurguru

Synopsis

Time Helper is a windows application that helps you do those mundane office tasks like timesheets and expense claims that overpaid PeopleSoft/SAP/Siebel consultants don't do for us for the Human Resource Management Systems (HRMS) they build and force us to use.

Description

Many years ago I had a script that would read the login log and automatically produce a well formatted timesheet - life was good. But things change and now we are forced to use HRMS that require an accountant to operate. Of the many HRMS I've used they all seem to be very disingenuous when it comes to time calculations and I've often needed to grab a pen and paper to do the arithmetic. A friend uses Excel macros to solve his dilemma, but I wanted something even simpler and handier so I created this application.

Good things come in small packages and the Time Helper window is very small. Just as well because it's also modal meaning you can have it tucked away in a corner with your main application maximised and still be able to read the results.

The application is made up of two parts. Simply click the tab on the part you want to operate.

Time Helper:

This is a handy time calculator.

Simply enter a Start Time, an End Time and any Deductions then click the Calculate button. You can relax entering formal time e.g. entering "834" in the Start Time field will automatically convert to "8:34", entering "56" in the Deductions field will automatically convert to "0:56", entering "6" in the End Time field will automatically convert to "18:00".

Results are displayed in both normal time format and in decimal time format.

Accumulative results are displayed in the Acc: label. If you make a mistake you can click this label and go back - but only once. This is handy for doing weekly timesheets.

Results are also placed in clipboard allowing you to do a paste into some other application.

GST Helper:

This is a handy GST calculator.

Simply enter an expense and set the GST (or VAT in some countries) and click the Calculate button.

Calculating forward GST costs is a no-brainer but I once worked with a HRMS where I had to calculate GST costs in reverse which is why I wrote this feature.

Results are also placed in clipboard allowing you to do a paste into some other application.

Implementation

Simply put the executable on your desktop. There is only one file for this application (the binary file) and it is quite small.

Unfortunately it only runs in Windows - which is where most HRMS clients run in anyway.

Standard Disclaimer

I take no responsibility for any outcome real or imagined that you may or may not inflict upon yourself.

Download

Download the Time Helper application time_helper.zip

Enjoy, arthurguru, Feb 2008.