Effective July 1, 2010, the harmonized sales tax (HST) rate in Ontario will be 13%.  Please follow the steps below to make the necessary changes in your Timeslips software to reflect HST.

Complete all June billings first, and then proceed with the following changes.  The rate change will be effective in the system immediately and be used on any future invoices.  If your organization needs multiple tax rates you can contact our office for assistance.

Changing the GST rate of 5% to HST rate of 13% in Timeslips

1. From within Timeslips, select “Setup” and Taxes” from the menu
2. Select the “Tax Rate Rules” tab and open the GST rule
3. Change the rate in the “Rate” field and modify the “Name” field to HST
4. Ensure the “Type of charges” are set to Time and Expense
5. Click on the “OK” button to save the changes.

Note:  This change will be reflected automatically for all tax profiles that used the GST rule.  You should not have to make any changes to clients in the database.

Depending on your invoice template, you may have to change the wording from GST to HST.  This  could be a bill message, typed directly on the invoice template or come from the Tax name setting. 

If you need assistance with any of these changes, please give our office a call.

On my last post, I reviewed the “Client Default Rates” report;  today we are going to dive into the new types of custom fields added in v2010 – numeric fields. Timeslips added 4 numeric field types: percent, money, number and hours. The addition of numeric fields with the previous custom field types (text, date, list and timekeeper) provide many more options. For those unfamiliar with custom fields, let me explain what custom fields are and some ideas for using custom fields. Custom fields can be used to sort or classify clients, tasks or employees.  They can also be used to store important data such as start date, agreement number and used to help filter/sort data on reports or invoices. Each department will have different needs for custom fields and Timeslips gives you the ability to add 30 different custom fields to clients, employees, activities and expenses.

The two main uses for custom fields are a placement for information and having the ability to filter/sort/subtotal based on the custom field. When you create new custom fields, try to think how your company is set up in terms of departments and how various clients, employees or sales figures are classified. For example: If you have clients in different countries, you might want to have a different report for each country. Also, you can use the custom field as a place for information you might need later, such as a leasing company name, project projected close date, Accounts Receivable collection information, etc. Various departments will appreciate having this on one screen without having to open up a file to look up the information and other departments also have access to it.

Custom fields are added under the “setup” menu, click on custom fields in the drop down list. Note: You must have exclusive access to the database to view the Custom Fields screen and a window will appear if there are others in the database. You can create custom fields for timekeepers, clients and activities. Click the attributes to make the custom field required or other settings for list fields, text fields and timekeeper fields. The custom field can also be renamed and you can change the order of appearance by moving them up or down.

Here is an example of how custom fields could be used:

Clients are assigned to a Sales Manager. Reports can be filtered/sorted based on Sales Manager which could be time saving if your sales managers have different billing periods. Timeslip Today templates can be easily customized to show only the Sales Manager’s sales figures.

Customers can be classified according to industry. Management will use the sales reports for targeting new and existing clients.

Budget, budget hours and estimated % complete are now in an easy to view area making it visible to all Timeslip users.

Lease agreement number can be added to the invoice and statement template.

Having the addition of numeric custom fields gives Timeslip users even more flexibility, not just in the reporting and invoicing areas.  All Timeslips users can easily have a customized Timeslip Today template based on information from the custom fields.  A simple inquiry for their needs/wants and the templates can quickly be created making Timeslips a more important part of their work day.  Remember, it’s not just about the time put into Timeslips but also how the information is used which makes Timeslips so powerful!

My next post will review how Timeslips enhanced the billing area.

On my last post, I reviewed the “Print to Excel as displayed” feature, this post I’ll review a new report “Client Default Rates”.  At a quick glance, this report looks like a great addition to Timeslips report list, but I found you needed to export your results to Excel to make it really useful.

The new report is found under the “Client” tab in the report list.  The only filters are client filters, so it may be more useful if you have client custom fields setup.  Clicking on the “options” button will bring up the following screen:

The report options will significantly reduce the length of your report, but you will need to be aware of what you already know and what you really want to know.

Timeslips offers up to 20 hourly rates per timekeeper, client or task and also provides for billing exceptions, all of which is set up within each client.

Setting up rates can be tricky and this report might help.  But keep in mind figuring out why/how your default rates are set up is one thing, changing the default rate is a big step which should not be taken lightly.  Unsure how to set up or change rates for your company?  Give us a call and we can discuss your company setup and determine what’s best for you.

Getting back to the report and how it can be useful.

Let’s say you are asked for a report showing which clients have an hourly rate less than company standard rate.

• First, in our demo database the default rate source is set to “timekeeper” rate levels
• Second, in our demo database, the standard rate level is 1

Therefore, you are only interested in clients not set to Timekeeper Level 1.  Here is how you would use this report to get that information:

• Click on the “Report Options” button and uncheck all the boxes under Report Options since you already know what your rate values are and this makes the report much shorter.
• Click “OK” and change the print option to “Microsoft Excel file”.
• Ensure your Page Options are set to “Export report data as displayed” and click OK.

Depending on the number of clients, the report could be quite long, but because we printed it to Excel, we can easily manipulate it and cipher through for the information we need.

• Your Excel document should resemble something like below. Notice how the report includes all clients regardless of their rate source or level? Remember in our example, we are only interested in those clients not set to Timekeeper Level 1.

Our next step is to sort the report. First on Source and then on Level.

• Select/highlight all the data by “left clicking” on the top left portion of your data.  This is a time saving technique, especially for large amounts of data.



• Click on the sort & Filter button in Excel and choose “Custom Sort”.
• You will need to add a sort level and check “My data has headers”
• Click “OK” on that screen and click” OK” on the “Sort Warning” window to sort numbers and text separately. 

Your report should now be sorted in a way for you to easily delete all the unnecessary data.  In our example, I’m going to delete all the rows with Client set to Timekeeper Level 1, as that’s the standard rate level and I only want the clients not on the standard hourly rate.

To make the report easy to read, manually add the rate values change the font, column widths, etc.  I highlighted the data, copied and pasted to get the report below:

Unfortunately this report only includes default rate settings and does not include rate exception rules.  Remember to review those if you have changed the default rate rules and new slips don’t recognize this same rate.  As well, if you choose to print to display, you are limited to sort based on client name.

My next blog will look at the new custom field types and options.

Quite surprising, the new feature I liked the best:  “Print to Excel as displayed”, didn’t make Timeslips reported Top Seven Enhancements.  After I reviewed their list of top seven enhancements, I find myself wondering what their criteria was for the “top seven” or if I didn’t give enough credit to the v2010 enhancements and how Timeslip users could really benefit from them.  I’ve been using Timeslips for over 8 years now and it can be difficult to change old habits.  For example, navigating through the fields in Timeslips, my fingers automatically go to the “Tab” key but new Timeslip users might really like the ability to navigate with the “enter” key.  Perhaps I can even retrain my fingers to stretch less further to the “enter” key and possibly speed up my time entry!  I’m going to proceed with my favourite features review, but in the meantime I’ll also keep the other enhancements in mind as I work in Timeslips and I’ll let you know if some of them deserve further mention.

Timeslips has great reports right out of the box, with the added ability to customize your reports even further by printing reports directly to Excel.  On previous versions, you had to delete columns of unwanted data, add formulas and reformat to get the Excel document to look proper.  New in v2010, you have the option to export the report data as displayed!  This means your Excel document will look like it did if you printed to display or printer. 

Some obvious benefits of “Printing to Excel” (both options) are the following:

• You have a choice:  There are some instances where you need the extra data columns for your analysis and it’s easier to print to Excel than to create a whole new report. 
• What you want is what you get:  No more wondering what other columns of data are going to be included if you print “as displayed” to Excel. 
• Time & date the report was printed is listed at the top, along with the selection criteria.  These are nice to have in case you are comparing different reports and need to know when the report was printed - as the print date/time can be much different than the saved date/time.

Some things I didn’t like about Printing to Excel” (both options) are the following:

• Report takes longer to print to Excel than display or printer.  Depending on the length of your report and data, this could be a huge issue for you.
• I found the cells are aligned at the top by default if you choose the “as displayed” option.  Yet if you print the report data in columns, the cells are aligned at the bottom.  A small issue and it’s easy to change.
• No formulas:  The report is only numbers, if you want to change the figures, you need to add a formula to get new report total. 

To my surprise, I find myself printing to Excel more often than ever before and with the new option to print as displayed, it’s faster for me to get the figures into Excel without the fuss!

Timeslips 2010 has been out since June 2009.  This latest release has been very stable and received great reviews.  Improvements have been made to key areas, such as the reporting, billing engine and data entry. 

Top five reasons to upgrade to Timeslips v2010

- NEW! Print to Excel as Displayed: Users can now export data to Excel in a format that will resemble the printed report.

- NEW! Client Default Rates Report: Use this report to review the specific billing rates each client will use (by default) on new slips, helping to ensure clients and timekeepers are set up properly.

- Expanded! New Custom Field Types and Customization Options: Create new numeric fields that can be assigned custom values and be associated with specific names. This data can be used to select, sort, and subtotal records on reports, allowing for more powerful custom report calculations.

- ENHANCED! Billing: Add new fields to many areas of the bill including last bill and payment amount.

- ADDITIONAL Custom Field Types: Four new types of custom fields, making it even easier to track business data. 

Still running an older version of Timeslips?  Here are our favourite features from previous upgrades:

- Enhanced reporting (various enhancements through past releases)
- Improved Billing Assistant (much improved in v2007)
- Cover letters for invoices (introduced in v2008)
- Enhanced navigation (various enhancements through past releases)

Over the next while, I’ll discuss each of the features in greater detail, with practical examples how these features can be beneficial.