Timesheets Lite Frequently Asked Questions

• General Questions
  • What is Timesheets Lite
  • Can Timesheets Lite be used by more than one person in my company?
  • Are the reports in Timesheets Lite up-to-date?
  • What platforms does Timesheets Lite run on
  • How much does Timesheets Lite Cost
  • Do I have to pay for every Computer I Install it On?
  • How to I buy licenses?
• Installation
  • How do I install Timesheets Lite
  • How do I get started once it is installed
  • Where is my Timesheets Lite data stored?
  • What does SQL Server support entail?
  • Where should I put my Timesheets Lite stored data?
  • How do I uninstall Timesheets Lite
• Using the Software
  • What are projects?
  • What are users?
  • Can I generate reports for invoicing?
  • Can I track my invoicing?
  • Can I track project activity?
  • I want a Work Breakdown Structure for my projects
  • I want to book time to customers not to projects
  • I want to track non-billable time
  • There's something I'd like to see added to Timesheets Lite
• Support and Troubleshooting
  • I get the error "Error Message: Error Number: 91 Object variable or With block variable not set has been raised by TimesheetsLite. This error was raised in frmMDIMain.secureUserPresent " when I run the software
  • I get the error "3704 Method '~' of object '~' failed has been raised by ADODB.Recordset" when I run the software
  • I get the error "3706 ADO could not find the specified provider. has been raised by ADODB.Connection"
  • I'm getting some other error when I run Timesheets Lite

General Questions

What is Timesheets Lite
Timesheets Lite is a MS Windows project based timesheet program for companies that charge by the hour, or want to track their time spent on projects.

Can Timesheets Lite be used by more than one person in my company?
Timesheets Lite is a multi user system that in standard form allows up to 30 people at once to be connected to its' database. The database can be stored centrally on your computer network and the Timesheets Lite program installed on as many PC's as you like. Optionally if your company has Microsoft SQL Server you may purchase support for this and have hundreds of users connected simultaneously to the database.

Are the reports in Timesheets Lite up-to-date?
All reports in Timesheets Lite are 100% up to date. When a user enters a time into the system this is instantly updated to the main database.

What platforms does Timesheets Lite run on
Timesheets Lite runs on MS Windows 98/Me/NT/2000/XP/2003 Server/Vista. On Windows 98,Me,2000, and NT some computers will require some updates installed from Microsoft. On Windows Vista you need to assign full read/write permissions on the Timesheets Lite program directory: c:\Program Files\Timesheets Lite\

How much does Timesheets Lite Cost
That depends. Timesheets Lite is licensed for each database connection you would like open at one time. A database connection is used up by each person who is logged into Timesheets Lite. Experience has shown that as long as all your users dont want to use the Timesheets Lite task timer, that one database connection is usually OK for 2-3 users. Connection licenses can be purchased from the Timesheets MTS Software. Discounts apply if you want to buy more than 5 licenses. The optional SQL Server support can also be purchased from our shop.

Do I have to pay for every Computer I Install it On?
No, just for how many concurrent database connections you want to buy. See the topic above for more information.

How to I buy licenses?
From Timesheets MTS Software.

Installation

How do I install Timesheets Lite
Just download the file Timesheets.zip from the Timesheets MTS Software website. Unzip this file to a temporary directory run the file "setup.exe" to start installation. To unzip the file you'll need Winzip, if you don't have it installed then it can be downloaded and installed from www.winzip.com.

How do I get started once it is installed
Timesheets Lite adds an entry you your Program Files list under the Timesheets Lite folder. Run it as normal for your operating system.

Where is my Timesheets Lite data stored?
By default Timesheets Lite stores all of it's data in a Microsoft Access 2000 database. By default this file is called "timesheets.mdb" and is stored in the install directory of the software (most likely to be c:\Program Files\TimesheetsLite). The file is not password protected and can be opened with MS Access. You DO NOT need MS Accesss to be able to run Timesheets Lite.

Optionally you can purchase Microsoft SQL Server support for Timesheets Lite. If your company has a license of Microsoft SQL Server you can make use of it to store your timesheet information reliably with potentially hundreds of users.

Where should I put my Timesheets Lite stored data if I'm using the Access database?
In a directory on your computer or on your LAN that is backed up. If you put the file on your network on a common mapped drive then other users of Timesheets Lite can also use the file. Giving you a multi user system. To point an installation of Timesheets Lite at a "timesheets.mdb" file stored on your network use the "Options" screen in Timesheets Lite.

What does SQL Server support entail?

SQL Server is an enterprise level database system that can support many more simulataneous connections than the standard Microsoft Access backend that Timesheets Lite uses by default. If you decide to purchase optional SQL Server support for Timesheets Lite you will be supplied a database creation script to allow you to setup the Timesheets Lite database on your SQL Server installation. This will allow Timesheets Lite to be used by hundreds of users!

Note: The SQL Server license fee DOES NOT INCLUDE a license of SQL Server. You must already have a license of SQL Server or must buy one from a third party. In addition, beyond the initial creation of the Timesheets Lite Database Timesheets MTS Software can provide no support for your installation of SQL Server, this is your responsibility.

How do I uninstall Timesheets Lite?
Timesheets Lite adds an entry to the "Add/Remove Programs" applet under MS Windows (which can be found under the control panel on many Windows versions). Just remove it from there.

Using the Software

What are projects?
Projects in Timesheets Lite represent the jobs and tasks that you want the people in your company to book time against. Users cannot book time unless they associate it with a project. Projects don't have to be paying projects, you might have some generic internal projects like "Company Meetings", or "Leave", or other such activities. Projects don't have to be projects, they could be customers. Accountants commonly tally up all the billable hours spent on a client in a month regardless of what project their people were working on. So why not use projects that are named after your clients if that is appropriate.

What are users?
Users are the entities in Timesheets Lite that book time against projects. Commonly you would have a user per person you want to use the software. Other people have a login for each charge rate they have within the company (but only one person can log in as that charge rate at a time).

Can I generate reports for invoicing?
Yes. Timesheets Lite has several reports suitable for generating invoices from. The best is the Invoicing Report that gives total time spent per person for one or many projects across a time period. This report coupled with your charge rates allows invoice values to be calculated quickly.

Can I track my invoicing?
Yes. As invoices are raised by your company you mark the times associated with them as invoiced. Timesheets Lite allows you to raise "tracking invoices" as you mark these times. The tracking invoices can then be tracked by project, customer, and invoice date. You can even view an aged debtors report of outstanding invoices.

Can I track project activity?
Again yes. You can track activity on projects by using several reports showing detailed or coarse information. Using Excel you can also plot out various charts showing project activity over time, or who has spent time on projects.

I want a Work Breakdown Structure for my projects
Timesheets Lite does not provide a direct means of doing this. It does, however, provide two ways of working around this. Firstly it provides the ability for users to book time against "Common Activities" that you can define. These common activities could be things like "Administration", or "Project Management", or "Client Meetings" and so on. You can then produce reports showing the amount of time booked against these common activities for each project.

The second way that some users accomplish this is by raising a project for each element of the work breakdown structure of the project. This leads to a lot of projects in the Timesheets Lite system but allows for very accurate tracking.

If you really must have a full WBS in your projects you might like to take a look at Timesheets MTS, another product from Timesheets MTS Software. Timesheets MTS allows for a full task structure to be built up for each project and then for users to book time directly to tasks.

I want to book time to customers not to projects
Many of our users ask this question. Rather than using a project structure in their company they simply charge clients for hours spent over a time period. To accomplish this in Timesheets Lite just raise a project for each customer you bill and have your staff book time to the relevant customer project. It's that easy.

I want to track non-billable time
This can be done in a couple of ways. The easiest is to use the "non-billable" time field on the time entry screen. You can also use the Project Maintenance screen to mark an entire project as non billable, this means that any time booked to that project will by default be non-billable. One other is to use common activities. Have your users book time to a non-billable common activity and then when time comes for invoicing run the common activity report and discard all of the non-billable common activity times.

There's something I'd like to see added to Timesheets Lite
Then email Timesheets MTS Software. Much of the on-going development of Timesheets Lite is based on feedback from our users. And don't think you have to be a paying customer either, we want suggestions from all of our users. Examples of user-suggested features within Timesheets Lite are invoice tracking, most of the reports, and some of the user security features.

Support and Troubleshooting

I get the error " Error Message: Error Number: 91 Object variable or With block variable not set has been raised by TimesheetsLite. This error was raised in frmMDIMain.secureUserPresent " when I run the software
This error message appears because you have some outdated Microsoft software that is used to access databases. You'll need to download and install MDAC which is here. Download the correct version for whatever version of windows you happen to be running, so for windows 98 or NT download and install MDAC 2.7 If you do that you should be up and running.

I get the error "3704 Method '~' of object '~' failed has been raised by ADODB.Recordset" when I run the software
This error message appears because you have some outdated Microsoft software that is used to access databases. You'll need to download and install MDAC which is here. Download the correct version for whatever version of windows you happen to be running, so for windows 98 or NT download and install MDAC 2.7 If you do that you should be up and running.

I get the error "3706 ADO could not find the specified provider. has been raised by ADODB.Connection"
This error message appears because you have some outdated Microsoft software that is used to access databases. To fix this problem you'll first need to download and install MS JET which can be found here.

I'm getting some other error when I run Timesheets Lite
Then please email Timesheets MTS Software. We don't let bugs last long, and nearly all of our errors have been fixed in the next release and we are averaging a release every two weeks!