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Overview

Time records may be imported and exported.  For the format details, please see: Sharing Data with Other Programs.

Client, Descriptor, and Accounts Receivable data may be imported into or exported from Time Logger.  The text file contains one record per line.

NOTE: The data for clients, descriptors and accounts receivable (invoices and payments) is stored in Microsoft Access format database files (.mdb).  For information about how to access these files directly see: Sharing Data Directly Through .mdb Files.

 

IMPORTANT NOTE:

While you can change the delimiters in the Tools/User Options/Other window, we recommend this only for advanced users who understand the consequences.  The default delimiters, a comma between fields and a double-quote around each field, are what is used in the examples below and in these directions.

•If the data field is empty, do not skip it, but rather include two double quotes next to each other with no space between like this: "first", "", "third", "fourth"
•Make sure all of the double quotes (") [or your designated Prefix and Suffix characters] are balanced and have a match.  Improperly balanced double-quotes might not be caught as an error and your data may import into the wrong fields.
•Make sure that you have commas [or your designated Field Delimiter character] between each field and outside the Prefix and Suffix character.

 

IMPORTING TIPS:

•For all of your editing of the file to import, make sure you use a plain text editor like Notepad or EditPad Pro or JEdit.  Most of those are available for free.  Just search for them by name on the Internet.
•Do not open and save a file you want to import file using Microsoft Excel.  It will destroy the formatting.
•Make sure there is no word wrapping and that each line contains just one record in its full length.
•No blank lines at the beginning, middle or end of the file.  Be sure to delete the last blank line in the file.
•Verify all of the data (each field or column) is the correct data, type and format.  When in doubt about importing, export some existing data and see how Time Logger formats it.  Use that same format in your import file.

 

Clients Import/Export Format

The importing and exporting is done from:  Client List window (Edit/Edit Client Information),

NOTE: On the Client List window you may change the width of the columns.  Decreasing the width of one of the columns to zero, making it invisible, is fine for viewing the data, but that column will not be exported in that situation.

Here's the format for Clients data (10 data values):

Client Name, Terms, A/R Category, Contact Person, Address 1, Address 2, City,State, Zip, Comment

Here is some sample data:

"ABC Corp.","Net 30","","Joe","123 Main","","Troy","CA","92892","Thanks"
"AR Software","Net 30","Fees","Betsy","234 Center","#1","Baker","CA","94700","Acct. 34232"

 

NOTE: When you import clients, their name is automatically added as a Client in the Client Descriptor list.

 

Descriptors Import/Export Format

The importing and exporting is done from:  Edit Descriptors window (Records/Edit Record Descriptors)

The Descriptors are imported from an ASCII text file that can be edited by a program like Notepad.

TIP: Export your existing Descriptors and edit the file in Notepad.

IMPORTANT: The current version of Time Logger will NOT import existing Descriptors (those that are already in your list of Descriptors) and will stop importing with an error if it one is encountered.

IMPORTANT: The file contains 4 fields, each enclosed by double-quotes (") and separated by commas (,).

The 4 fields are all on one line, and each row of 4 fields represents one Descriptor.  These 4 fields are:

Descriptor Text, Type, Text of Descriptor to Which it is Linked, Type of Descriptor to Which it is linked

1) The first field is the descriptor itself.  It may be something like "Research" or "IBM Corporation" or "60.00".

2) The second field is the descriptor type -- that is, Person, Client, Project, Subproject, Activity, etc.  This is how the different types are represented:

Descriptor Type

Number

Person

0

Client

1

Project

2

Subproject

3

Activity

4

Other

5

Hourly Rate

6

Internal Rate

7

Tax Rate

8

Mileage Rate

9

Thus, if your descriptor is a Client, the second field would be "1".  If it was an Activity, it would be "4".

3) The third field is for linked Descriptors.  If it is NOT linked, the third field is empty (represented by two double-quotes with nothing between them "").  If it is linked, the third field contains the text of the descriptor to which this descriptor is linked. For example, if the client "EasySoft" (in the first field, with a 1 in the second field) is linked to the Person "Bob Smith," then this third field would contain "Bob Smith." If you are not familiar with descriptor linking, please see Linking Descriptors.

4) The fourth and final field is for linked Descriptors.  If it is NOT linked, this field is "-1".  If it is linked, this field is type of descriptor that this descriptor is linked to.

To clarify, here are two examples:

 

A) This example shows a client descriptor, "Nexus Corporation" that is not linked to any other descriptors.

"Nexus Corporation"," 1","","-1"

 

B) This example shows an hourly rate, "125.00" that is linked to "Account Management" which is of type 4: Activity.

"125.00","6","Account Management","4"

 

C) This example shows several rows of a Descriptor import file:

"Nexus Corporation","1","","-1"
"125.00","6","Account Management","4"
"100.00","7","Account Management","4"
"Microsoft","1","","-1"
"Atlantis Jar Company","1","","-1"
"Account Management","4","","-1"

 

Note that all four fields must be present on each line.

All fields must be represented -- if you wish to omit a value for a field, that field should be represented by a pair of quotes with no characters between them (as in the first example above).

 

Accounts Receivable Import/Export Format

The importing and exporting is done from:  Accounts Receivable window (Invoices/Accounts Receivable).

NOTE: On the Accounts Receivable window you may change the width of the columns.  Decreasing the width of one of the columns to zero, making it invisible, is fine for viewing the data, but that column will not be exported in that situation.

Here's the Invoice/Payment import/export format (7 data values):

Invoice or Payment, Number, Client, Date, Amount, File Name, Comment

The first field should be the text "Invoice" or "Payment".  Payment amounts must be negative with the - minus sign.  Invoice amounts are positive (do not add the plus sign).

Here is an example showing an invoice of $1,000 and a payment of $500:

"Invoice","1000","AR Software","11/20/06","1,000.00","c:\timelog\InvoiceNumber1000.rtf","First invoice"

"Payment","2045","AR Software","12/02/06","-500.00","","Dave told me the rest is on it's way"