Estimated Time against Projects / Tasks

[stuartBarrett]

Hi

I am in process of looking for an iPad app to record the time I spend on Projects/Tasks for clients. Time Master look likes it might fit the bill but one thing I do need is the ability to enter an estimated time for a Project and/or Task with some way of comparing the Actual time to the estimate. It is this possible with the iPad version of Time Master ?

Thanks

Stuart

[Adam]

We do not currently have an "analysis" function in Time Master.  It is something that has had several requests and we will very likely add something in the future, but we do not have an ETA for it yet.

One thing that I'm not clear on is if you are billing a "Fixed Amount" for your projects?  If you do, then you would create a Project that has the "Kind" of "Fixed Amount".  When you have completed the project, you would mark it is "Completed" and only at that point would it be available for invoicing.  Your client would only see the Amount, but no duration.  On your device you would still be able to see how much time you actually spent.  You can check to see if you were over or under your estimated time.  You could put your estimated time in the Project Note field so you can compare that to the actual time when the project is completed.

I'm not sure if that answers your questions or not, so please feel free to write back on this.

[stuartBarrett]

Hi

Thanks for the reply.

Sure I could put the estimated/budgeted time into the notes but it's not ideal.

Let me layout a couple of scenario’s :

a.   Quite often when a client asks me to do a job they ask for an estimated time so that they can budget for the cost and will quite often say something like 'if it looks like you are going to go over your estimate let us know before carrying out the work so that we can get approval for the additional cost'. Therefore in my ideal world the app would highlight Projects/Tasks in some way were the actual time to date has gone over a predefined hours/minutes threshold i.e. say 90% of the estimated time.

b.   To calculate a Fixed Price job I estimate the number of hours I need to allow for the work and add on a percentage to cover unforeseen additional work, which happens quite often in my line of work. In this case it would be very useful over time to see whether for particular types of fixed priced Projects/Tasks whether I am tending to over or under estimate. This is where a report showing the variance between Actual and Estimated time would be very informative.

Thanks

Stuart

[Adam]

Yes that is what they Analysis module would be for.  We have not written that yet and have to figure out how to make it so that it is flexible enough for people to use who want that type of function.  This is on our "wish list" and we will get to it eventually, but we have no ETA on when we will have the time to tackle that yet.