TaskLedger™Beta V.1.03

Table of Contents

© 2009 Geomagnet Incorporated. All rights reserved.

TaskLedger™ software is property of Geomagnet Incorporated. The software is not an open source project. Thissoftwareand<a href="docs.htm">Documents</a>includesanenduseragreement(EUA),wherebyisfurnished underlicenseandmaybeusedorcopiedonlyin accordancewith theterms of thelicense.

The contents of this guide is furnished for informational use only, is subject to change without notice, and shouldbenotbeconstruedasacommitmentbyGeomagnetIncorporated. GeomagnetIncorporated assumesno responsibilityor liabilityfor anyerrorsor inaccuracieswhichmayappearinthis <a href="docs.htm">Documents</a>,nor for inaccuracy,loss,or security of thedataprocessedby thesoftwareoranyonline facilitation of thedistribution oraccessto thesoftwareand <a href="docs.htm">Documents</a>.

Geomagnet, the Geomagnet Logo, TaskLedger™ product name and Logo are copyright and trademark protected in the United States.

Introduction -TaskLedger™is an application designed to record projects, and the time to perform tasks requiredto completetheproject.Although therearemanyotherprogramsavailablefor project management, TaskLedger™providesjustenough additionalfeaturesto makeits functionalityhighlyproductiveand intuitive.

Interface Layout -TaskLedger™utilizesAJAXtechnologywhichallows forthebrowserto sendandreceive datatotheserverwithoutthebrowserpagerequestinganewURL. Yourinteractionisrecordedeitherby clickingabuttonorautomaticallyviaabrowsereventwhichtriggersarecordingaction. Forinstance,sliding thepriority arrow causesanevent whichtriggersyouractionto beautomaticallyrecordedanddisplaysthe newpriorityvalueinnearlyreal-time. Typingtextintothetask fieldisprocessedandrecordedatthemoment youbeginanyotheractivity. Thiseventcapturingmethodisveryusefulnotonlyintermsofeaseofuse,but savesbrowserrealestateandprotectsdata.Otheractionsrequireclickingabutton,forinstance,creating a new user

Theinterfacelayout hastwo mainsections.The ControlPanel,whichistheuppermostblockofoptions,and the Task Menu,the lower majority of the interface displaying atable of rows and information.

The ControlPanel has5subsectionswhichgroup additionaloption you can apply to your current project. The first panel labeled “Project” displays3options.Thefirstoptionistheprojectselector. It displaysthecurrent projectwhichisactive.

To change the current project, click on the current project name and a dropdownmenuwillappearwithotherproject. Selectaproject and itwillbecomeactive. ThesizeoftheprojectandyourInternet connection willdeterminetheamount of timeit takesto loadthe project into the Task Menu screen.

Thismeansits agoodideatomakeyourprojects small(lessthan100tasks)forquickerresponse. Ifyou havealargeproject,youcanbreakit up into smallersub-projectsby creating new projects with thesame name and a numbered suffix (e.g. project_1 or project_April ).

Oncetheprojectisloaded,youcanclickonthe “Information” sectionandapanelwillappearwithoptions relating to the overall project. Project Name: will change the name of the current project. Default Rate: is the $amount whichisthebase(ordefault)billingrateforeachtask performedintheproject. Bill To: istheuserthatinvoiceisbilledto.Thisisusefulifyouhaverepeatcustomers. AcceptingChangeswill updatetheprojectinformation. Deletewillpermanentlydeletetheprojectandthetasks,butnottheusers.

Individualtasksrates canbelatermodifiedbythe Quote: options in the Task Menu.

“ NewProjects” willgeneratethesamepanelas “Information” butallows youtocreateanewproject name. The Default Rate: and Bill To: areresidualfromthecurrentproject. Thisisusefulifyouhaverepeat customers. Ifit'sanewcustomer,simplyselectyournameasthe Bill To: and update it later after you have created the new customer(s).

The FiltersGrouping has3options“Collapse,Expand,andCriteria” . The “Collapse” Filterwillcollapsethe entriesinthe Task Menu byTask,Sub-Task,Comment,All,orDefault. Thisisusefulifyouhavenestedtasks andcomments totasksandyouwanttoconserveonbrowserrealestate. TheExpandFilterwilldothe oppositeofthe Collapse filterandexpandtheentriesin the Task Menu.CriteriaFilterwill filtertherows by New Tasks, Open Tasks, Closed Tasks, Comments, or ALL.

Inthe UsersGrouping thefirstoptiondisplaystheactiveuser. Thishasnobearingover Task Menu.However, if selectedadrop down menuwill appearwith alistof namesof userswhichhaveaccessto yourcurrent project.Thenameof theselecteduseristheactiveusewhichisausefulwayto insureyouhavethe appropriate user for editing.

The “EditUser” option,whenclicked,willdisplaythecurrentusersinformation.Thetopoptionshowsalist ofallusersfollowedbyacheck boxlabeled “Includeincurrentproject ” .Thisisusefulifyouhavecurrent projectsandnewusersyouwouldliketoallowaccess. Simplychecktheboxandthatuserhasaccesstothe current project.

Youcanlimit thedegreeof accessbyselectingthe Authority: gear-arrow

icon at the bottom. Thiswilldisplayapanelofrightsoptions. Deselectingalloptionsisthesameas read-only, where selecting all optionsisfullrights. NoticetheradiobuttonisselectedasUserRights bydefault. Usersarealsoreferredtoas customers.

TherearealsoDevelopersandAdministratorswho'srolescanbecomparedto Subcontractor/Employeefor DevelopersandContractor/Employerfor Administrator.Theseusershavealltherightsof the Usershowever are not implemented in the Beta version (see version 2).

Its a good idea to enter as much information as possible as this will be used to generate invoices.

“NewUsers” willdisplayablankEditUserpanel.Ifthe “Includeincurrentproject” boxischecked,the rights willmatchyourrankbydefault. Theserights canbechangedbyclickingthe Authority: icon. Otherwise,if the include box is unchecked no rights are assigned as the user is not part of the project. Filling outtheinformationwillcreatetheuserandclickingthe “CreateUser” buttonatthebottomofthepanel will create the user. Usersarewillalwaysappearinthe “Allusers” listof“ EditUser” optionregardlessofwhichprojectthat are included. From the User perspective if he is included in several projects the next time he logs in, he will seetheincludedprojectsavailablein the Project Name drop down.However,hewill not haveaccessto the otherusersassociatedwiththeprojectunlesshehasrights tocreateotherusers. Inthiscase,hewillonly have access to users he creates.

The Financialgrouping showsthecurrentbalanceoftheproject. Thefirstoptionisnotanoptionatallit's simply a statistical read-out for convenience

Thesecondoption “Snap-shot” willgeneratea ProjectFinancialSnapShot displayingwhotheprojectis beingbilledto; theprojectdefaultbaserate;andtheamountdueatthebottom. Theotherstatistical information relatesto thetasksandisdefinedasfollows:

rate x the hourssofar disregarding the

capping

● Debit – This is the amount of base or specific rates x capped hours

(ifhourssofarexceedsthecappedhours,otherwiseit usesthehourssofar)andit being billed.

Allproject totalsarerunning totals.Thismeansif aproject amount dueis$200andacustomerfundsyou $100 and the asksfor more tasks, TaskLedger™accounts for the money received, deducts if from the current amount due,andreflectsthenew amount duefortotaltimeexpended.Inotherwords,youwill not losetrack of the amount of money owed for a project.

AddingCredits will displayasimplepanelwith aninput fieldwhereyoucanenterthedollaramount of the payment receivedforaproject.Thisdoesnot appearontheUserslogin asonlyyouareallowedto entercredit for the project.

Take care when using this option as there is no undo or edit. Entering the wrong amount will adversely affect the invoicing accuracy.

The Configurationgrouping hasanassortmentofoptions.Thefirstbeing “Company” ,whichreferstoyour company. Thisinformationistobeincludedontheinvoice. Asidefromthetypicalcompanyinformation there are a few specific to the this application. These are URL and logo. The URL is the link you want generated onthePDFwhichallows theUsertolinkbacktoyourwebsite. Thelogoisyourcompanylogotobe integratedintotheinvoice. Ideallythisimageshouldbe200pixelswideby100pixelstallandin “ png” format.

“Globals” aresettingforlaunchingexistingprojects.Theseareshowthemostrecentproject,hide completedtasks,orlaunchwith taskcollapsed.

“Upgrades” optionsaretochangetheappearanceofthe TaskLedger™.

“ ReportBugs” optionlaunchesabugreportingpanel.SincethisistheBetaversion,pleaseuseitfor everythingfrom suggestions,to bugs,orcommentsabout functionality.

The Task Menu showsalltasksrelatedtothecurrentproject. Thefirstoptionavailableisthe “Generate Report” featurewhichwillgenerateaPDFinvoiceofthecurrentproject. Thenextnoticeablelayoutfeatureisthetasktableheaderwithlabeling. Fromlefttorightthefirst columnrepresents the UniqueTask IDnumber. Thesenumberarenotsequential,howevertheyarelinear. Thisisdueto thefacttheIdsareassignedbythedatabasefortasksof anyproject andlinkbytheprojectid. ThesignificanceoftheIdsforhumansisforcommunicationreference. Forexamplediscussingaprojectwith task id 1907iseasierandunmistakablebecausethisid doesnot existanywhereelseforanyotherproject. Thenext column containsaniconforcollapsing/expanding thetasks. Thisactionappliesto taskswith subtasksandcomments asaconvenient wayto group tasks.Thenext column displaysaniconwithawrenchiftherowisatask. Clickthe

iconcreatesanewtask immediatelybelow the selected row.

The Task: column contains an auto-expanding text field to accommodate any amount of task description required. The field will collapse/expand by clicking the first arrow icon in the Options: column. The middle icon in the Options: columncreatessubtasksimmediatelybelow theselectedtaskrow.Subtasks haveallthesameoptionsof atask,but aregroupedwith theparent task. Subtask are denoted by the lack of the wrench-page icon in the third column.

Comments can be created by clicking the last icon in the Options: column. Comment rows are denoted by a paleyellowbackgroundandthelackof subtasks,priority,time,andquotefeatures. Thisisbecause comments are not billed.

The status of the comment is actually the type of comment. This feature was placed here for layout consistencyalthoughitisnotreallyastatus. Thetype(status)canbeTech-notes,Private,Public,orcan bedeleted. PrivatenotesarenotvisiblebytheUser. Tech-notesarepublicbutarecollectedtocreatea “Wiki” inVersion2.0.Publicnotesaredefault.

The Priority: column containsasliderwhichprovidesavisualqueue and numeric read out to quickly ascertain which tasks require more attention. Ideally, the User will have rights which allow him to change thepriorityofeachtask. Uponloadingtheproject,changesinthe prioritywill beevident soyourefforts will beconcentratedontasksthat satisfy your customer the most.

Time: headercontainsacheckboxlabeled “Auto” . ThisisadiscreetfunctionthatallowstheDeveloperto override punch-in/punch-out time. Forinstance,supposeyougetdistractedandgotolunch,butforgetto punch-out. Upon returning to TaskLedger™, you can uncheck the box and manually enter the time you left to lunch.Entering12:30p(useonlyasinglelowercaseletter“a ” or“p ”)willenterthetime12:30PM.Any other combination will fail (as a safe guard). Withthe “Auto” boxchecked,simplyclickingoftheclockiconintheappropriatetaskrowwillstartthe timerandchangetheiconscornerfromgreentored. Thetimeinthethetextfieldwillshowthetimeinwhich you started the task. Clicking the icon again will stop the timer and display the total elapsed time accurred for that particular task.

Theiconbetweentheclockandthetext field isthe

“TimeCard” icon. Itwilldisplayitemizedpunch-in/ punch-out timesforanyparticulartaskaswellasits totalearnings.

The Quote: column displays a lock icon, dollar symbol icon, and text field. The lockicontogglesforcappedoropen. Whentheicondisplaysthelockbeingopen, the task is an open task. Locked, means the task is capped. If the text field is empty,thetask isconsideredandreports as “open” regardlessofwhattheicon displays.

The dollar icon will display a Specific Rate panel and will show the Default (Base) Rate. If the value is changed and submitted by clicking the dollar icon, that will become the billing rate for that specific task.

The Status: columnencouragesaprogressivecompletionprocess.ByallowingtheUserto “approve” of stagesof development whicharerespondedto bytheDeveloper,anobjectivecanbeappliedto eachtask therebylimiting yourexposureto loss,andtheUsersexposureto failure. Thestatusfeatureappliestotasksandsubtask,butnotforcomments. Onebenefitofthestatusfeatureisthe

deletefunctionality. Ifatask hasbeenstarted,itcannotbedeleted. This protectstheDeveloperfrom losinghourswhichmayhavebeenexpended performing a task. However, if no work has been done, the task can be deleted. Anotherbenefitisthe“ volley” ofdirectives. Itflows asfollows:

A task iscreated, then reviewed by the Developer (perhapstime is quoted, or feasibilityisdiscussed),thenapprovedbytheUser. Thenworkisstartedonthe task by the developer and then passed to the User for inspection. If there are changesorerrors(whichthereusuallyare)theusersubmits alist of revisions/ correctionsandtheDevelopermakesthoserevisions. Oncethetaskhasbeen completedandmeetstheUsersexpectations,thetaskisaccepted,oncetheDeveloperreceivepayment for the task, the tasks is closed. This typical life cycle is displayed by the status column. By marking a task complete,youcansetfilterstohidethetask duringprojectloading. Thissavesonbrowserrealestate, reducesload-up responsetime,andhelpsreduceinformation clutter.

Message from the Developer:

I appreciate you taking the time to use TaskLedger™. Therearealotofprojectmanagementprogramsout there (over 160 last time I checked). Which is why I built TaskLedger™. I enrolled, downloaded, and triedseveraldozensofprogramsandcouldn'tfindanythingthatworkedthewayIwanted. Theywereeither too complicated, too simple, or were designed for high level management. Nothing was geared for freelancersandtheircustomers. Ivisualizedsomethingwhichwouldallowoneto quicklycreatetask while talkingonthephonewithacustomers.Itneededtogenerateprojectquotes,estimates,andinvoices. Most importantly, it should record the time expended performing individual tasks. After fruitlessly looking for months I decided to build TaskLedger™ from scratch.

I hope you find TaskLedger™ useful and I welcome your feedback.

Sincerely,

James Scott Geomagnet, Inc. Owner TaskLedger™Developer