Time Tracker Accurate ?

[Kbird1]

Hi , I am curious if Others think the Time Tracker is accurate ? and perhaps it's just my understanding of how it works , as I don't usually use it , but I knew I had put in some hours on my current project as there were 8 options done for the Master Suite alone, but even I don't think it is right , after opening each Option Plan plus the Original As Built ,it seems I have done 119 hrs on this project in the last 3 weeks which I can't believe , since that would be 3 full weeks at 40hrs each.

 

Most of the Time I do an As Built from my Measure drawings or Existing Plans, do a Save As with a Proposed Drawing , and continue to do Save As Plans with each Option , until the Client is happy, then do Save As with a Final Plan. 

 

The Manual says each Plan has it's own Timer but I have to wonder now , if when I do a Save As , it is bringing the hours forward with it from the Original Plan it was save as'd from too ?

  (which means my hours are totally screwed up on this project if so.)

 

Thanks for any advice /ideas on this....

 

M.

[Designers_Ink]

You should be able to look at the dates listed to see if it brought hours forward from the previous Save As plan.  If the hours start before the date you started the current project, then you know it did.  You can then select the top entry and delete each entry down to the one you started this project on.  

[Kbird1]

Thanks Jeff , I had not thought to export and compare each one for overlaps that should work ,  I assume there will/must be overlaps. at this point.

 

 

M.

[Bill_Emery]

When you do a save as, you don't lose the time recorded previous to the save. this can become very confusing if your plan has multiple forked saves. And, unless you are disciplined, you don't have any record of the time you spent on research, beam calcs, meetings, phone calls, etc.

I used to export these as CSV into Excel, and sort them; but it's not very easy, or straight forward.

I now use Manic time to track my jobs; but it requires some discipline, as I must attribute my work to each job, or job phase.

Manic Time now has an add on for AutoCAD that makes it very easy, but there is not an add on for Chief as yet.

[Kbird1]

"When you do a save as, you don't lose the time recorded previous to the save. this can become very confusing if your plan has multiple forked saves.
 

Thanks Bill , the information on the "Forked Saves" is what I assumed , thanks for the confirmation , good to know I'm not as slow as the Time Tracker is making Out     , working out the Hours now will be a mess for sure though....

 

And, unless you are disciplined, you don't have any record of the time you spent on research, beam calcs, meetings, phone calls, etc."

 

that is the part I need to be more conscious of , time for a new phone and a good Timer APP I guess

 

I am just finding out now, about how the .csv export works ( or doesn't ) especially with my limited knowledge of Excel , the Total doesn't even export out , nor does it print,  if you print from the Time Tracker ....how is that useful ?

 

M.  

[Kelly_K]

Mick I have found if you open multiple jobs and forget to time out what you are working on, the tracker keeps on tracking even though you are outside of that project.

[Kbird1]

Thanks Kelly , I have the Time Out set to 5 mins and assumed if I'm on the phone or something it will Time Out the Plan I'm working on , but are you saying the Time Out only works if Chief is Idle not a Particular Plan?  Come to think of it I am not sure I have seen the "Plan is idle message" more than once or twice  

 

I do open multiple plans all the time especially if working with the different options for a Client , but I also drop in here and over at HomeTalk too at breaks and am constantly opening Other's Plans to check them out and offer help if I can.

 

M.

 

edit: I have reset messages to see if I disabled the idle warning

 

edit 2: the reset did work for the warning message , 5mins it barely enough time to read a new post here so no wonder I suppressed it.

[DavidJPotter]

I use the Time Tracker for all my billings. I prefer to manually turn it on and off (not a big fan of automaticity). I have found it utterly accurate.

 

DJP

[hammer102]

Where can I find out how to export to Excel?

[HamlinBC]

See Attached...

 

In step 3, I manually changed it to say .csv.