Simple Timekeeper and Wage Calculator.
For the last 3 days I been tearing my hair out trying to get thing to work. Finished! I hope.
Any of yoose guys got Excel wanna try it out and see if you can find any flaws for me?
The idea behind it is that a small contractor doesn’t want to spend a lot of time recording times, wants to have an easy way to find goof offs, and just needs to send a wage list to the check writer. The check person will figure taxes and such.
If you approve, and even if you don’t, I’ll see if they want to have it over at JLCs Library and if Jerrald wants to distribute a copy.
I’ll pump it up to the end of next year before I offer it to all.
The comments on the SS are supposed to explain it all, so I’ll leave it at that.
Thanks in advance,
SamT
Arguing with a Breaktimer is like mud-wrestling a pig — Sooner or later you find out the pig loves it. Andy Engel
Replies
sam...i guess it's ok... but it doesn't do anything for me
i don't have any problem getting my guys to record their total hrs.. what i need is transcribing their time after it's coded by job and task into our Labor Log..so my bookeeper can give me job costing
we code by 27 field field labor categories and several admin categories
as far as Payroll goes... i post their total hours to a FAX sht and send it to a payroll service.. they print checks, pay all taxes, generate all reports, and mail me my payroll checks every week... that part takes about 90 seconds of my time and about $15/week
here's the front and back of our time card... i stole the basic layout from that red-headed dude, Bob Criner, that gives a lot of the JLC seminars
Mike Smith Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore
Uh, yeah, Mike,
It's just not aimed at someone like you.
I'm rather aiming at maybe a sub or specialty contractor with one or two helpers.
Since I am just starting, I'm trying to keep it simple. As I develop my programming skills and learn more of what I need to track, I will create more and more, eventually having an office suite that does what I need.
SamT
Edited 8/22/2004 7:54 pm ET by SamT
well... you wanted someone to tear you a new 1.. only trying to oblige
sam .. have you looked into a payroll service.?
one of the best business moves i made Mike Smith Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore
You didn't chew very hard, I barely felt it.
Yep, a payroll service, Employee leasing, accountant, lawyer, insurance etc, etc. Checking into all the needs and alternatives.
Right now I'm limited to about 6 hrs/day and maybe 24 hrs/wk. I'm just waterproofing my FFILs Basement as fast as I can. Real slowly.
2 weeks ago I put in 2 13 hour days (including 3 hours breaks) on an excavator and had to follow that with 4 hours replacing a watermain. Put me in bed for 2 entire days. This week, I put in about 30 hours in the field and was never in my life so glad to see a rainout day. Whew.
But, the more I push, the farther I can go.
SamT
sam.. you gotta remind me... what's ailing you that you're recuperating from ?Mike Smith Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore
Had cancer. They took out everything between the kidneys and open air.
Samt
geeze Sam, when was this? I never heard a thing..probly b4 I got to hangin here so much huh?
Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
Repairs, Remodeling, Restorations.
Sphere and Mike,
First, I see this cancer as a blessing and reward from our Creator for a really intensive Healing I performed for a group of people. During that Healing, I was told that for it to succeed, I would have to take on all their karma. I had a Knowing that it was heavy karma, too.
Operation was almost a year ago. Prognosis good, We'll see about the lifestyle change, I'm still working on getting my strength back.
Boo hoo.
Before, I used to literally throw railroad ties, strong like an ox, outwork and outlast 30yo's. This Friday, I unloaded 7 60# bags of redicrete, carried 'em 30'. It was all I could do. If there had been 9 bags, it wouldn't have gotten done.
BTW, I am onery, dammit.
My goal, is to streamline my new office free during this downtime and excersize what little brains I gots when I can't excersize my bod. I'll give any little things like the Simple Timekeeper and Wage Calculator to anyone who can use them.
SamT
damn... and all this time i just thought you were ornery..
so.. good prognosis ?...change in life style ? career change?..
just ignore me if i'm getting too personal...
i do enjoy your posts though... you're one of the guys i'm always curious about..
one of the reasons Helen and I had the fest was to get to meet people like you up close and personal...
anyways.. your time log... what is your goal.. to write & market the software ? or just something you're playing with ?Mike Smith Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore
Looks pretty basic, but I haven't put it through the wringer.
Probably off topic, but you might consider Quickbooks. It has a time tracking feature, and it dumps right into payroll. The basic DIY payroll feature is like $169/year and it's easy to use. It takes a little time to set up at first, but once you input your employees, wages, deductions, etc., it goes pretty fast. You can set up overtime, or any other wage category (we use on-call pay during iffy weather)
I have to do payroll for our neighborhood swimming pool lifeguards. I take their time cards every two weeks, enter the start time and end time, and it calculates the hours. Then it's dumped into the payroll feature, which automatically calculates deductions, taxes, etc. Then I print out the checks and statements. Then quarterly file the tax forms, which is about 3 mouse clicks. I have 8 lifeguards, and the biggest part of doing payroll is typing in the hours, which I read directly from the timecards.
I have a head guard who may clock in and out more than once during the day. Maybe he works a regular shift, and then comes back later to check the water chemistry or something. This is absolutely no problem to do in this software.
We used to do it in Excel, then send the hours to the accountant, who calculated the check & tax amounts, and then tell us what checks to write. Then we would have to remember to file the quarterly reports. All printed out and done manually. That was ridiculous, and errors were easy to make and hard to find. QB works pretty well for payroll, I must say (and I'm not a BIG fan of Intuit at all, but this works well for us).
I know the software ain't cheap (like $400) and you have to add on the QB DIY Payroll, but at $15/week for a payroll service, I think it's a lot cheaper.
Pete Duffy, Handyman
For my purposes, I need to record multiple tasks per day, and sometimes multiple tasks at multiple jobs. Enforcing accuracy is not much of an issue, and if it is then usually there are other problems at that person is on their way out.
Pete and David,
Thanks.
The philosophy behind Simple Timekeeper and Wage Calculator is that a small sub or specialty contractor like me is too dumb to do much else.
This just gives me a list of names, wages, and deductions to give to the accountant or bookkeeper. Lets me tell the guys how much (gross) they've got comming or what their YTD is.
I can scroll down the calendar and see who has unusual habits about lunch and days off.
SamT
Sam,
I saw one item (I'm really picking knits here) that you might want to change. In cell J16 (weeks pay), the formula:
=SUM((E16*Pay_Rate)+(G16*OT_Pay_rate*Pay_Rate)+I17)
works fine, but the +'s in the formula are not needed. They should be "," . As in:
=SUM((E16*Pay_Rate),(G16*OT_Pay_rate*Pay_Rate),I17)
Or you could eliminate the sum funtion and leave in +'s in. As in:
=(E16*Pay_Rate)+(G16*OT_Pay_rate*Pay_Rate)+I17
I'm not sure if the way you have it programed would ever cause a problem, but you never know.
The only other thing that puzzels me is in cell M4 (YTD Pay). Are you planning on copying the group of cells for each week? Hince the "=SUM(J9:J560)"
If this is your 1st time programing excel, good job. I hope it works out for you. I do not have an opinion on the need because I do not have any employees to deal with.
The next step will be visual basic to copy the range of cells for the start of the week. Let me know if you want any pointers.
Pix,
Thanks, I will change them to read =(E16*Pay_Rate)+(G16*OT_Pay_rate*Pay_Rate)+I17
I think that is easier to read and understand than SUM(A,B,C,Etc). Oops, I gotta change E16, G16, and I17 to Names, also.
>>The only other thing that puzzels me is in cell M4 (YTD Pay). Are you planning on copying the group of cells for each week? Hince the "=SUM(J9:J560)"
You got it in one.
>>The next step will be visual basic to copy the range of cells for the start of the week. Let me know if you want any pointers.
Love it.
Gotta run, time for play is up. Gonna go rent a pressure washer for the basement walls.
SamT