Custom Timesheet/Ticket Tracking Site
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So here's what I'm looking to do...
I want to setup a site that I can use (and potentially share with others to use) that will do the following:
- Have a dropdown with a list of clients that you can choose from, and an auto-fill option preferably (if you start typing a client's name, it'll suggestion options)
- Allow you to input the following fields: case number, time logged, date worked - these are required; location, store number, and I'm sure a few other fields (we can expand and add other fields later) - these are optional (for when entering data)
- What I don't need: current ticket status, ticket history, contact info for client, etc
- I'd like to be able to run reports also for a given time period that will spit out a list of how much time you spent on each client, on each day, and give you a list of case numbers for that client for that day
- Some optional reports could be things like average time spent on a client, average billable hours logged per <insert window of time here>, your lowest number of hours logged, highest, etc
So while writing this I realized I'm basically looking for a ticketing system but without ticket tracking. The reason for this is at one of my jobs, we can run reports of the cases we worked and enter it between a date range, but it doesn't tell you if you worked that case more than one day in that time range, it doesn't give you a list of cases you worked by date, and we don't track time in our internal case management system. We have to do all that manually. Why that is, I don't know but that's what I'm working with. @scottalanmiller, no comments about it missing basic ticketing functionality, as I'm not a dev here (and they built this whole system on Ubuntu, which was surprising).
I have something pretty nice setup in Excel, but it's very limited. I'd love to setup something up with an Apache frontend, and some PHP and MySQL or some other database option. The problem is I've never done anything like this, so I have no idea where to begin. There's no immediate rush to build this, as it's just a side project for me to make my life (and possibly my co-workers' lives) easier. When we submit our billing, we input how much time we spent on a given day for each client as one sum total and then in the notes include the list of case numbers we worked.
Any help would be much appreciated!
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Why reinvent the wheel. Pretty sure there are FOSS time clock type web apps.
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This sort of what you are looking for?
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@coliver said:
This sort of what you are looking for?
That looks like just a timer. We bill everything in 15 minute increments, so not quite what I'm looking for. Honestly, everything I am looking to do I know can be done in AutoTask but that's a ton of extra functionality we also don't need.
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@coliver and an expense that I can't decide on or spend personally, obviously.
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@thecreativeone91 said:
Why reinvent the wheel. Pretty sure there are FOSS time clock type web apps.
I'm sure there are projects similar. If I can take one of those and customize it, that's fine. As long as I can get it to do what I need, that'll be fine. That's why I'm asking...to find out if anything I can use to start with or whatever already exists.
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@handsofqwerty said:
@coliver and an expense that I can't decide on or spend personally, obviously.
Expensive? It is free for up to 5 users with unlimited clients. Looks like it will do most of the things you are requesting. It will log your time, I'm sure the date, and you can probably add a custom field for case number. Haven't looked it but I have looked at the features.
It would be a good proof-of-concept at the very least.
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@handsofqwerty said:
@thecreativeone91 said:
Why reinvent the wheel. Pretty sure there are FOSS time clock type web apps.
I'm sure there are projects similar. If I can take one of those and customize it, that's fine. As long as I can get it to do what I need, that'll be fine. That's why I'm asking...to find out if anything I can use to start with or whatever already exists.
Customize? That's a LOT more work than making your own.
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What you need is a book to get started.
Why are you looking for things like PHP and Apache though? If you don't know how to do this, why would you make choices about those components?
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@scottalanmiller said:
@handsofqwerty said:
@thecreativeone91 said:
Why reinvent the wheel. Pretty sure there are FOSS time clock type web apps.
I'm sure there are projects similar. If I can take one of those and customize it, that's fine. As long as I can get it to do what I need, that'll be fine. That's why I'm asking...to find out if anything I can use to start with or whatever already exists.
Customize? That's a LOT more work than making your own.
Yeah, by customize I meant within reason. Same reason why remodels for houses are 10x the work of burning what's there to the ground and starting over. It's cost that drives that.
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@scottalanmiller said:
What you need is a book to get started.
Why are you looking for things like PHP and Apache though? If you don't know how to do this, why would you make choices about those components?
That was just what I thought might work. I'm not fixated on those.
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@handsofqwerty said:
@scottalanmiller said:
What you need is a book to get started.
Why are you looking for things like PHP and Apache though? If you don't know how to do this, why would you make choices about those components?
That was just what I thought might work. I'm not fixated on those.
I'm pretty sure it'll need a database backend of some sort though, to run queries against, etc.
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@coliver said:
@handsofqwerty said:
@coliver and an expense that I can't decide on or spend personally, obviously.
Expensive? It is free for up to 5 users with unlimited clients. Looks like it will do most of the things you are requesting. It will log your time, I'm sure the date, and you can probably add a custom field for case number. Haven't looked it but I have looked at the features.
It would be a good proof-of-concept at the very least.
Free for up to five users you say? o.O I might have to try this...
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@coliver, I'm on AutoTask's website and don't see what you're referring to...
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@handsofqwerty said:
@coliver, I'm on AutoTask's website and don't see what you're referring to...
AutoTask? I never linked to that. I linked to Toggl (https://www.toggl.com).
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@handsofqwerty said:
@coliver, I'm on AutoTask's website and don't see what you're referring to...
Where did that come from?
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@handsofqwerty said:
@coliver said:
This sort of what you are looking for?
That looks like just a timer. We bill everything in 15 minute increments, so not quite what I'm looking for. Honestly, everything I am looking to do I know can be done in AutoTask but that's a ton of extra functionality we also don't need.
@coliver said:
@handsofqwerty said:
@coliver and an expense that I can't decide on or spend personally, obviously.
Expensive? It is free for up to 5 users with unlimited clients. Looks like it will do most of the things you are requesting. It will log your time, I'm sure the date, and you can probably add a custom field for case number. Haven't looked it but I have looked at the features.
It would be a good proof-of-concept at the very least.
I interpreted his response to mean AutoTask. My misunderstanding.
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To be honest, I'd love to develop something from scratch. Partially because I like doing that but also because I like the challenge and want to learn. @scottalanmiller, for what I'm describing, what would you:
- Recommend to use as a solution?
- Recommend as a good resource to use to learn to implement said solution?
Thanks!
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Developing isn't the major task here. maintaining the project would be.
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@thecreativeone91 said:
Developing isn't the major task here. maintaining the project would be.
Pretty much always true.
