Painless Timesheets

This is an idea I got while listening to a few colleagues griping about filling out their timesheets. Nobody I know likes timesheets. Yet everyone has to fill them out. So is it possible to make them at least tolerable?

I think maybe.

There are a few programs out there that monitor you while work. PTM is one - it looks exactly like the windows task manager, but it tracks what you're doing automatically, and you can then map it to a set hierarchy of tasks that you set up and it will generate summarized and detailed reports based on the hierarchy.

What if we used a program similar to this to capture how time is spent, use inputs both from live monitoring and scheduled information. Further we make the mapping simpler by providing the ability to tag any timeslice with multiple keywords, and a means to map keys to a hierarchy or graph - whatever makes sense to the official timesheet system. Finally we provide a browser plugin or expect/mechanize type mechanism that auto fills the fields so that the user doesnt have to ever enter time. To top it off, we make the whole system pluggable so multiple timesheet systems can be supported - and extended by anybody.

Advantages:

• User entry is automated, and never requires remembering what was done in the past
• We use the best evidence in hand - calendar info, and actual tracked time on pc
• Its still not big brother as there's no reporting to anyone but the individual
• Data entry is also automated.