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Author Topic: Simple logon-logoff timekeeper  (Read 3670 times)

slavetoherpets

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Simple logon-logoff timekeeper
« on: September 08, 2018, 01:06 PM »
I’ve never posted on this site before, but have been watching for over a decade.  I’m running Win 10, fully upgraded, 64 bit, on my desktop PC.
I now have a job that may last for months or years creating graphics for one specific organization. We input our day to day hours , total hours for each day, at the end of the week. I am working remotely, from home, unconnected to the organiztion network.
What i need is simple... to “punch in” when I sit down to work. Then i need to punch out and in multiple times per day and night because i work late and take care of other tasks that may take an hour or two. There is no regularity.
I would love to be able to “one click” enter date and time / in or out. It could be connected to another piece of software like Excel.  Notepad would work.
I've been hunting for something like this on the web, but everything available seems more complicated and multifunctional.
Can you help me with this?  Thanks.

highend01

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Re: Simple logon-logoff timekeeper
« Reply #1 on: September 08, 2018, 03:13 PM »
Something like this?

Date and time fields are populated with the current time when the application is started
In and out buttons write to a file named "log.csv" (UTF-8, no BOM) in the SAME directory of the .exe file
(so don't put this in a UAC protected folder if you don't want to start it with admin permissions...)

Pressing {ESC} quits the application...

Entries look like this:
in/out,mm/dd/yyyy,hh:mm:ss
Example:
in,09/08/2018,22:05:29
out,09/08/2018,22:06:14

This should be easily importable into Excel...
« Last Edit: September 08, 2018, 03:24 PM by highend01 »

slavetoherpets

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Re: Simple logon-logoff timekeeper
« Reply #2 on: September 08, 2018, 05:30 PM »
Really nice, HighEnd01.
 I was hoping it would be cute as well as functional.
About 2 inches square. It sits right on the edge of my second monitor.
Right now, it says In entry written.
I am so impressed and happy to have it so soon.
Thanks a bunch.  Shary

Shades

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Re: Simple logon-logoff timekeeper
« Reply #3 on: September 08, 2018, 06:32 PM »
There is a free, feature-limited version available of ManicTime available. After you install that software it keeps track of all the windows that you have open and how much time they are active. All without any extra action on your part. At the end of the day you get a graphical timeline overview with the total times of each activated window specified. You can export that overview into a CSV file that can be read and/or processed with Excel.

I would suggest to try out the free version to see if its time tracking capabilities fit with your request. If you do like it, you can get the commercially licensed version with a lot more functionality, like getting weekly/monthly reports etc.  When you really like it, you can even ask your company to purchase their server software. then they can generate whatever kind of reports about every computer/user that has ManicTime installed. That should make the creation of bills much easier, smoother and faster for them and their customer(s) demanding the graphics you produce.

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