As a web developer I have not find a way of tracking my work, and creating invoices or time sheets for that work. Its often a tedious and difficult task, and I do believe if it time management is applied wisely it can greatly improve productivity. In comes Ora Time and Expense, a Flash Application that uses the AIR (Adobe Integrated Runtime) to run as an application on your desktop. Running this application requires Flash and you have to install the runtime as well. Once the flash player and runtime is installed the application will be downloaded to your PC from where you can install it. Running the application for the first time you are greeted by the screen below:
The first thing you might want to do is configure the application for your specific use. To do that you simply go to the configure section, a button is located top right, which once clicked will bring up a screen similar to this one:
The screen contains all your personal details, and you will note that there are 7 tabs at the bottom:
Each tab needs to be configured individually for your specific needs. Once you have configured them you can start using Ora Time and Expense to track the amount of time you spend on a project. To do this you simply click on the Start Timer button at the top. Before the timer starts another screen will appear asking you to provide task details. Complete it and click start, and you should notice a timer appearing in the top left corner. You can pause, restart and stop this timer for each task. So if you take a break between working on a project you can pause the timer. Once you have completed a task you click stop and it will record the time spent on that task and project. If the task and project is approved you can tick the approved tick box.
The best feature of this application is the reporting it does on your project work. You can export reports in several formats, xls, csv, xml, etc. You can export reports based on your expenses and time. It can also generate invoices. This is proving to be really useful. It is not suitable for a team environment or a multi-user environment, but is ideal for a developer or designer working by them self.
