Small Town Software today released a free upgrade to Time and Budgets, its web-based time tracking and budget monitoring software. Along with new features, speed increases and the usual bug fixes, this upgrade introduces new stand-alone software “widgets” that pull real-time data from the Time and Budgets network — and display that information in unobtrusive translucent windows, some as small as 1 by 2 inches. Read on…
Small Town Software today released Time and Budgets version 1.2, the latest version of its web-based time tracking and budget monitoring software. This new release features seamless connectivity for Microsoft Outlook users (previously enjoyed only by Apple iCal fans), new tools for data export and MYOB integration, as well an upgraded CORE report engine. With this release, tracking and billing for time is now as simple as keeping your appointment book up-to-date, with no additional software required. Time and Budgets enables users to seamlessly convert their appointment calendars to dollars and cents, monitor project budgets, and print time sheets.
This release also introduces new stand-alone software “widgets” that connect to the Time and Budgets network and display project information in unobtrusive translucent windows — presenting information to project managers in the form of a project dashboard. “TaBulator widgets allow important project information to be visually available at all times, even as part of a user’s desktop…” says Small Town’s C. Scott Gilbert, “This gives our users a virtual dashboard showing the status of important projects, and project budgets, in real time.”
The new TaBulator [projects] widget displays a handy project number reference — useful for entering and tracking time — with project phase names and numbers showing in convenient tool tips. A small but informative project monitoring tool can be found in the TaBulator [monitor] widget, which shows detailed project financials — including budget overruns — in a tiny 1″ by 3″ square. Clicking on a project in either widget opens a web page showing detailed project information, courtesy of timeandbudgets.com. Both widgets support user selectable color themes and transparency options. Designed for the forthcoming Mac OS X “Tiger” operating system, TaBulator widgets run today using Pixoria’s Konfabulator software (www.konfabulator.com).
Time and Budget’s strength lies in its ability to collect time data from industry standard WebDAV data sources, and then convert that data into useful information. Fans of Apple Computer’s iCal software, and now Microsoft Outlook users, can seamlessly convert their appointment schedule to dollars and cents. Any calendar program that supports the WebDAV format (Web-based Distributed Authoring and Versioning) will work with Time and Budgets, though for seamless data input a WebDAV server is required (and is provided, if needed, for a nominal charge).
Reports available in Time and Budgets include time sheets with visual time charts, project reports (including details about time logged to individual phases and tasks), and aggregate workgroup reports. These workgroup reports enable a business owner, team leader or project manager to keep tabs on accumulated time for multiple people.
Time and Budgets allows you to create multiple budgets for each project, combine selected budgets, and use them to generate email-based alerts when a project has reached a financial goal — such as “when 50% of the budget has been consumed.”
This product is web-based, sports a clean and attractive user-interface, and supports 128-bit encryption to keep your data secure.
Two versions of Time and Budgets are available:
– a no-hassle, low-cost “hosted” version (your data hosted at timeandbudgets.com) is available for $15 per user (volume discounts apply)
– a server-based version (for your company’s private intranet) is available for $4,900
Time and Budgets version 1.2 is a free upgrade. Downloads and more information can be found online at www.timeandbudgets.com.
