Most organizations that provide services to their clients would breakdown their service charges either by the hour or by the day. photo credit: roland

Because of this, it is important to know exactly what each employee has worked on every single hour of the workday in order to calculate costs and earnings made for a particular project.

The best way for the accounts department to find out exactly what each employee has been working on every day is through TimeSheets – a method for recording the amount of worker’s time spent on each project / job.

With my previous employments, I’ve had several experiences submitting timesheets.

With one organization, we were required to submit a timesheet every month and with another, every 2 weeks.

Personally, I felt that it’s better if we’re require to submit every fortnight so that we won’t have much trouble remembering what we’ve done in within this shorter period.

The best practice for every employee is to record down what he has accomplished by the end of each day. But sometimes, we tend to procrastinate and leave things to the next day and so on.

If you’re like me, you would have difficulty in remembering what you’ve done in the last 30 days.

There are times when you would be working on the same project for 3 months. Your timesheet would be very easy to fill up. But if you’re working on different projects every single day, then it’s really important to log that down at the end of each day.

Some organizations would just provide a timesheet template in Excel format for all staffs to key in and submit by month end. The problem with this is the reconciliation by the accounts personnel becomes a hassle. Imagine having to open up 50 Excel sheets and summing up the total number of hours spent for a particular project. This process itself could take days to complete, depending on the number of employee and projects you have.

If your organization is still managing worker timesheets using Excel, then you might want to consider implementing a web based online TimeSheet Software. Continue Reading »Open source web based online Timesheet Software

You’re starting a 24 hours restaurant business. You have hired all your staffs and they are all ready to begin work. photo credit: ScrumptiousSally

But before you instruct everyone to report to work 24 hours by 7, it’s best to plan and break your workdays into several shifts so that your staffs can get some rest and a life of their own.

To do that, you can utilize this free duty rostering software with shift scheduler to plan your shift and assign duties appropriately.

The software is called DRoster Employee Scheduling Software created by Kappix.

DRoster is a simple to use windows application which allows a shift manager or supervisor to manage staff scheduling.

Once installed, launching DRoster immediately allows you to define the following:

• Places (e.g Restaurant Branch)
• Shifts (e.g Morning, Afternoon, Midnight)
• People (e.g Names of your staffs)

Continue Reading »Free duty rostering software with shift scheduler

Most web based remote support software these days are hosted by the solution providers. photo credit: tompagenet

The problem with this is that the data is traversing through a 3rd party relay and causes the users to be dependant on the reliability of the solution provider.

To better describe this situation, imagine if you’re currently located in Singapore and you’re trying to provide some computer assistance to a client who is also in Singapore.

If you are subscribed to remote support solution provider which is based in the US, the data transmission probably goes all the way to the server which is in the US and then back to Singapore.

If the user experience caused by this distance and 3rd party relay is degraded, then you might want to consider implementing a self hosted remote support software for the best reliability and speed.

One such software is ScreenConnect by Elsinore Technologies.

Continue Reading »ScreenConnect – a self hosted Remote Support Software

On the left is a 2D floor plan of a house.

From the floor plan we can easily spot the living room, the dining room, the dry and wet kitchen, a bedroom, a bathroom, a utility room and a washing area.

Most housing developers would create a plastic model of the house for buyers to look at from an aerial view.

Another advanced method would be to create a 3D model which allows the buyer to look into the house from a first person perspective.

This sort of view is as close as being in an actual show house without physically being there.

A friend once asked if I know of any free software which could help him convert a 2D floor plan into a 3D walk through model.

He basically wanted the ability to plan and furnish his new home via the software.

Since the house will be empty to begin with, the software will help by allowing him to place the furnitures according to the actual layout of his home.

I tried to search for such a tool and found this one called Sweet Home 3D – a free interior design tool which helps you place furniture on a 2D house floor plan, with a 3D preview.

I gave the application a try according the the floor plan above, and this is the outcome of it. Continue Reading »How to convert a 2D floor plan to a 3D walk through model