LiveTimer.com - News

Expense Input / Output Improvements

2009-04-21T19:45:00Z

We just released a few features that should make it easier to both input and output expenses.

First of all, we made a few tweaks to improve the speed of expense entry. For instance, when you add a tax percentage and then choose "Add Another", the tax percentage sticks around for the next entry. Try using "Add Another" to persist other data between entries as well.

Furthermore, expense reports can now be exported in XML or CSV formats, just like time reports. XML data is particularly useful to developers, while CSV (comma-separated values) files can be opened with spreadsheet applications such as Excel. In order to download any report in these formats, look for the links in the upper right corner of the report (next to the printer icon).

We're now getting back to work on our time and expense review features, which we hope to release soon.

A New Look for LiveTimer

2009-03-23T20:37:00Z

We've refreshed LiveTimer's logo and general appearance just in time for Spring (well, in the Northern hemisphere). We've added more color to brighten up the site, hopefully without being distracting.

For instance, the Timer page has gone from this:

To this:

So why update the appearance now? We're getting ready to roll out a new LiveTimer support site, which will include a number of articles and screenshots. We thought we should take a weekend to refresh our "look" before snapping all those screenshots.

We certainly hope you like the changes. Please feel free to let us know what you think!

Billable and Reimbursable Reporting

2009-03-17T14:23:00Z

We've just added new filters and grouping options to our reports. Time and expense reports can now be grouped and/or filtered by the billable status of entries. Expense entries can also be grouped or filtered by their reimbursable status.

For instance, the following expense report is grouped according to billable status:

How is Billable Status Determined?

The billable status of time and expense entries depends on the level at which you've defined billing rates for your account (see Settings / Billing Rates):

Clients, Projects & Tasks - A billing rate must be assigned to a project or task for it to be billable. This can be overridden by a "not billable" activity (if activities are enabled for your account).
Activities - A billing rate must be assigned to an activity for it to be billable. This can be overridden by a "not billable" client, project or task.
Users - A billing rate must be assigned to a user for his or her time to be billable. This can be overridden by a "not billable" client, project, task or activity.

In order to keep these rules fairly simple, we decided that even billing rates of $0 / hour would be considered "billable". We also added explicit "not billable" flags at the project and task levels to override a rate set at a higher level. For instance, the following billing settings should be available at the task level (assuming your billing rates are set at the client, project and task level):

This gives you the option of considering gratis work billable or not. Assign a billing rate of $0 / hour to keep it billable, or else use the explicit "not billable" option.

How is Reimbursable Status Determined?

Expenses are reimbursable if they're associated with a reimbursable payment method. The following payment methods are created by default when expense tracking is enabled (of course, these can be customized):

More to Come...

These reports are a big step toward the addition of invoicing to LiveTimer. Along those lines, we're working to add the ability to review time and expenses for yourself and others within your organization. As part of this review process, you'll be able to mark entries as billed and/or reimbursed. This will give you the ability to create invoices (billable time that hasn't yet been billed) and reimbursement reports (reimbursable expenses that haven't been reimbursed).

We're getting there - thanks for your patience!

Selectors Now More "Descriptive"

2009-02-27T20:58:00Z

When selecting from multiple classifications (such as clients, projects and tasks) to make a time entry, it can be difficult to distinguish between your classifications by just their names. This is especially true if a colleague named them and you need to decipher those names.

For this reason, one of our users made the excellent suggestion that we should display detailed descriptions when you mouse-over items in the selectors. This seemed like a great use of the description fields that you can already enter for classifications in the Manage section.

We've just completed this addition, which we consider to be a subtle yet elegant way to clarify your assignments and perhaps save a few clicks.

If you have any suggestions of your own that could help streamline our interface, please comment below or send us a suggestion from the Help tab in your account. Thanks - we'd love to hear from you!

Update regarding Browser Support

2009-02-27T20:20:00Z

LiveTimer now officially supports the following desktop browsers:

Firefox 2.0+ (3.0+ highly recommended) (Mac, Linux and Windows)
Safari 3.0+ (Mac and Windows)
Internet Explorer 7.0+ (Windows only)
Google Chrome 1.0+ (Windows only)

We no longer support Internet Explorer 6.0 because of the significant amount of custom development and testing required to do so. We've studied our usage statistics and found that only a miniscule percentage of our users have ever accessed their accounts with IE 6, so we felt that we could responsibly make this decision. Although we won't intentionally break anything that currently works in this browser, we also won't actively develop for and test with it any longer.

We strongly recommend that users of Firefox 2.0 upgrade to version 3.0. We've encountered serious performance problems resulting from Firefox 2.0's inefficient javascript processing. As a result, we've disabled our most javascript-intensive page, the bulk time entry view in the time ledger, for users of Firefox 2.0. Please note that we provide the same level of support for Camino 1.6+ (a Mac-only browser) that we provide for Firefox 2.0, since it is based on the same Mozilla engine.

In addition to the desktop browsers mentioned above, we also provide support for the Apple iPhone and iPod Touch. We hope to add support for BlackBerry and other mobile devices in the near future.

Track Your Expenses with LiveTimer!

2009-02-26T02:00:00Z

Expense tracking has come to LiveTimer! This past Sunday, we finished our testing and finally released these often-requested features. Expense tracking is now available in all accounts for no additional charge.

If you're an administrator for your account, you can enable expense tracking by going to the Settings tab and then Features. Check the box labeled Expense tracking and you'll be ready to start.

Currently, there's only one option available for expense tracking, which is whether sales tax should be tracked (it is by default). If you don't have a need for sales tax data, and want to keep expense entry simple, you can change this setting from Settings / Expense tracking.

Expense categories and Payment methods are two new classifications related to expenses which can be configured via the Manage tab. Expense categories can be used to classify expenses such as meals and entertainment, mileage, utilities, etc. Payment methods specify different ways expenses can be paid for, such as company cash or personal credit. Several default expense categories and payment methods have been entered, which can of course be modified or removed.

Expenses can be entered via the new Expenses tab. Expenses are entered as part of a "receipt", which can represent an actual receipt or simply group expenses together by date, vendor and payment method. One or more expenses can be entered per receipt.

Expense reports have been added to the Reports tab. The configuration options and filters for expense reports are very similar to those for time reports, so they should look quite familiar.

Even though we're planning to add expense tracking to the iPhone interface and Mini mode soon, we didn't want to hold up this release any longer to complete this feature. We're also planning to add several new options for expense reports, such as filters for billable and reimbursable time.

We hope you find the new expense tracking features useful. Please let us know what you think!

System Upgrades, New Features and More to Come...

2009-02-09T03:42:00Z

It's been a busy day. This afternoon we updated our web servers and moved our database to a faster server, which should be good news for LiveTimer's performance and stability. All went smoothly and required only 15 minutes of downtime.

This evening, we released a number of new features:

Users can be assigned to all projects and / or activities - Because some people are a part of every project within a company, we've made it easy to assign them automatically to all current and future projects and / or activities. Look for the checkbox at the bottom of the assignments tab for each user (in Manage / Users).
User assignments are now optional - Perhaps everyone is a part of every project within your company? Or perhaps you're a freelancer? Either way, you can now turn off user assignments altogether by unchecking User assignments in Settings / Features.
Easier addition of projects and tasks - We now include a little add button next to each client and project in the Manage tab, allowing you to create new projects and tasks with a single click.
Expand / collapse all clients, projects and tasks - It can be a bit tedious to open and close these hierarchical elements individually, so we now allow you to expand / collapse them en masse both in the Manage tab and the selector in the Timer.
Simplified setup - We trimmed our Welcome tab down to a single page to get new users up and running faster.
Interface clean up - LiveTimer's interface has been neatened and improved, often in subtle ways, to help you focus more on your data and less on our application.

We've actually got some even bigger improvements coming very, very soon. Many of our customers have waited quite patiently for expense tracking, and I'm glad to say that it's going through final testing right now. We're ironing out some final wrinkles and plan to release it in the next few days!

Major System Upgrade Coming February 8th

2009-02-04T03:55:00Z

We are planning a major upgrade to LiveTimer at 2pm EST (GMT-5) on Sunday, February 8th. Due to the nature of this upgrade, we need to plan some downtime to ensure that it proceeds smoothly. Our service may be unavailable for up to one hour, although we expect our downtime to be significantly less.

Please feel free to contact us before, during, or after this upgrade via email (support AT livetimer DOT com) or Twitter if you have any questions or concerns. Thanks!

Dynamic Time Zone Detection

2008-12-29T17:07:00Z

When travelling with your laptop or iPhone across time zones, it can be inconvenient to have to log out and then back into LiveTimer in order to force it to recognize the time zone change. Therefore, we've begun checking your time zone every time you start or stop the timer.

In order to identify your time zone, LiveTimer checks with your browser, which in turn checks your operating system. Unfortunately, some browsers, such as Firefox, seem to cache the time zone once they've been started. Therefore, it may be necessary to close and reopen your browser for changes to your operating system's time zone to be recognized by your browser.

We've confirmed that dynamic time zone recognition works in the following platform / browser combinations:

iPhone / iPod Touch: Safari
Mac: Safari 3.2, Fluid 0.9.5
Windows: Internet Explorer 7

If you travel quite a bit, consider using LiveTimer from one of these browsers. After all, jet lag is enough to worry about!

Ice Storm May Affect Service

2008-12-12T17:00:00Z

Southern New Hampshire has been struck with an ice storm that has left hundreds of thousands without power. The ice is continuing to build on trees and power lines, so the situation may worsen. The regional power company has predicted multi-day outages.

Our hosting facility, based in Manchester, NH, has kept our service running smoothly despite the adverse conditions. We're hopeful that their backup generator and redundant Internet connections will prevent any outage.

We apologize in advance if this situation does result in any LiveTimer outages, or hinder our responses to support requests. We'll try to post Twitter updates as the situation changes.

Custom Time Zones for Reports

2008-12-09T04:01:00Z

We've enhanced our reports in a couple ways that should be useful for teams distributed across multiple time zones:

Custom time zones can now be specified for reports - When configuring a report, you can now specify a time zone different from the time zone in which you logged in. This custom time zone will be used when applying date filters to your report. This allows everyone on your team to see the same results when running a report filtered by the same dates.
Detailed listings can now be shown with times converted to the same time zone - Previously, times could only be shown in the time zone in which they were entered.

Both of these options are available from the Configure tab of reports. Of course, you can memorize reports with these options in order to quickly run them again without reconfiguration.

LiveTimer Mini: Versatile & Compact Time Tracking

2008-11-19T20:39:00Z

We recently launched LiveTimer Mini, a compact version of our most frequently used features. We created LiveTimer Mini by reworking our iPhone interface to be compatible with every desktop browser we support (Internet Explorer 7+, Safari 3+, Firefox 2+, and Google Chrome). In the process, we also boosted the performance and improved the look of our iPhone interface.

In order to try out LiveTimer Mini, just click on the Mini link in the lower left corner of your LiveTimer account. This should resize your browser and load LiveTimer Mini (note: because Google Chrome does not allow web sites to resize your browser, it may be necessary to resize your browser manually). Once in Mini mode, you can return to full sized Standard mode by clicking on the Standard link in the lower left corner.

LiveTimer Mini currently has all the capabilities of the iPhone interface, including a small version of the Timer and Time Ledger. You'll notice that the Time tab looks a bit lonely at the top. It will soon be joined by an Expenses tab for expense tracking, a feature that many of our users have waited for patiently.

Many Integration Options for LiveTimer Mini

Although LiveTimer Mini runs just fine in desktop browsers, you may appreciate integrating it more closely into your Mac or Windows desktop. Options include:

Mac Dashboard Widget - Browse to your account in Safari, switch to Mini mode, and then right click and choose "Open in Dashboard...". Select the entire page, from the upper left corner to the lower right corner, and then click Add. Voila! LiveTimer Mini has become a Dashboard Widget.
Fluid Application in Mac OS X - If you'd like a visual indication of when your timer is running right in your Mac's dock, try running LiveTimer with Fluid. The simple instructions are described in this article and this video, and work for both Mini and Standard modes.
Google Chrome Application in Windows - Creating desktop applications with Chrome is simple: Browse to your LiveTimer account, then click the Page controls in Chrome, and then "Create application shortcuts...". As mentioned above, switching between Mini and Standard modes in Chrome is a bit tedious because it requires that you manually resize the window, but that's the only downside we've found.
Firefox Prism Application in Windows - Firefox 3 has an add-on named Prism that can be used like Chrome to create a desktop version of your favorite web applications. A future blog post will be dedicated to running LiveTimer with Prism.

We will soon post video tutorials that explain each of the above techniques in detail. In the mean time, don't hesitate to ask for help if you have trouble with the brief instructions provided here. Also, please let us know how LiveTimer Mini works for you!

SmashingMagazine calls LiveTimer a "Useful Project Management Tool"

2008-11-14T00:38:00Z

Cameron Chapman of SmashingMagazine included LiveTimer in a roundup of 15 Useful Project Management Tools. He wrote:

LiveTimer is an easy-to-use time-tracking program that works on both your computer and iPhone. It can be used for billing purposes or simply to improve your productivity and accountability. The iPhone integration makes it easy to track your time even if you’re not at your desk, making it more useful than many other Web-based time-tracking applications.

Thanks for the write-up, Cameron!

LiveTimer + Chrome: Tracking Time with Google's New Browser

2008-10-08T18:21:00Z

Several of our users began testing LiveTimer with Google's new Chrome browser soon after it was released in Beta last month. We've just completed some testing of our own and have fixed all of the incompatibilities we encountered. Even though Chrome is still in Beta and therefore liable to change rapidly, we will do our best to support this exciting new browser.

Chrome is a compelling browser for many reasons, including:

Speed - Chrome's Javascript engine is very fast, which makes dynamic sites like LiveTimer feel even more smooth and responsive.
Security - Chrome periodically downloads blacklists of malware and phishing sites, and warns users before visiting a site that could be harmful.
Stability - Chrome creates a separate process for each site that's visited, even on different tabs, so that a problem in one site will not affect others.
Simplicity - Chrome has a clean look and elegant features like the Omnibox for entering URLs.

Only time will tell how successful Chrome is against the market leading browsers: Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari. If you're interested, try out LiveTimer with Chrome and let us know what you think.

Maintenance Release: More Refinements

2008-10-08T12:06:00Z

We've just completed another maintenance release, which includes the following refinements to LiveTimer:

Selectors remember the open / closed state of nodes - This applies to all selectors for hierarchical classifications, such as clients, projects, and tasks.
Search within selectors - You can now search for classifications by name or ID directly from selectors, such as those within the Timer.
Selectors are always visible when opened - When opening a selector near the bottom of the page, it will open "up" instead of "down" so that the page does not need to be scrolled to view it.
Improved report filters - Multiple filters can now be added to your reports without repetitively clicking "Add Filters".
Simpler management filters - The filters in the Manage section are now more accessible and easier to understand.
All outstanding Google Chrome problems resolved - We expect to announce official support for this new browser very soon.

Thanks to everyone whose feedback made these changes possible.