Mutliple Time Sheets 6, Finally

This is a blog about the development of MTS 6, the next version of the wildly unpopular Multiple Timesheets.

It's one of those apps that just never took off. It was probably to quirky and personal, and worked a little funny compared to other solutions. Despite these problems, it helped me make money.

Lately, I've needed to track my time more closely, because work is getting overwhelming, and I'm letting it overwhelm me. I also need to get my finances in order.

Thus, the next version.

With new, exciting (yawn) features planned.

• Uses a database!
• Support for more than one user!
• Track expenses!
• Invoice for expenses *and* time!
• Will work for employees who need to manage time, as well as contractors who bill for time. Somehow.
• Some use of AJAX to make things faster.
• Even less nice looking than version 5. Say goodbye to color!

I'm also daydreaming of integration with Trac, the nice project management software that integrates with Subversion. That's not really going to happen - the task organizing model doesn't mesh with what will be done in MTS.

And of course, the feature I wish I could make but will not: mobile phone integration.

This is a culmination of several years of aging, illness, depression, and continued employment in this field. New features will include project management techniques learned "on the job" or "for the job" but, don't necessarily get used by normal working people, who somehow deal with things without structure. (Chaos and creative finger-pointing seem to work in lieu of structure.)

Being good, in-control types, however, these features will be used. Not only that, they'll be useful! When the PM asks you how far done you are - you will know. When you want to know how many hours you've been working - you will know. When the client wants you to resend the invoice - no problemo! When it looks like they're paying you twice - you can tell them, and retain their goodwill! Frequent status reports - again, not really a problem anymore, even when you're in the cave and "radio silent" to the real world.

Are you sick of goofing off? Get that work week down to 50 hours, or 45 hours, or 40 hours, or even 35 hours! Get work done at work.

Also, something that's becoming a problem in my life is basic expense managment. The savings are still happening, but it's not clear why. Where's the money coming in, and where's it going out. The problem is, you can't run Quicken at work. MTS will fill that gap. It won't do your accounting, but it will record expenses. (Eventually, it'll record income, and bring things full circle.)

Expenses are being added because we work to live. We don't live to work. At least I hope I'm not living to work. By controlling our expenses, we can work less and live more. And we can really live, not simply go shopping, or get entertained, and call that "living".

This is personal software. It is an appendage to the "self" - a piece of machinery that will make it possible to stop thinking so hard about work, and reclaim that bit of mental space away from work and "the market".

Oh shit. I was going to attach the schema for the app here, but, the uploading feature is turned off.