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[Another] New iOS app...TV Timecard


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Hello again, ladies and gentlemen! I just wanted to announce here first that we just released our latest app, TV Timecard. To keep it simple, this app is designed to give you the fastest, most reliable and least cumbersome interface to keep track of your hours while on set. It's specifically meant to NOT keep up with your rates and perform other calculations that you either don't need or don't want to do. So if you're looking for something that does everything the accounting department would do, look elsewhere. Some people do want that, but I didn't. I built this out of frustration in dealing with existing timecard apps, "Notes" and other methods of keeping track of my hours. To me, they were all very clunky and inefficient. I wasn't interested in setting up a job, title, payrate, etc. each time I started a new shoot. I just wanted the bare bones package of keeping up with my times; and possibly more importantly, writing them down on my timecard at the end of the week. So here you have an app that is super easy to enter your daily times and super easy to view your times for the entire week. It's a tap here and a tap there and you're done.
 
I think/hope y'all will like it. I've been testing it thoroughly for the past few months and have all the bugs worked out. I've also integrated Crashlytics, which automatically generates anonymous reports on any fatal errors a user might experience to help quickly solve any issues that may arise. I've attached some screenshots for convenience, but feel free to go to the app's page here or download on your iPhone here. It's $1.99 in the App Store for iOS devices. There's also a $0.99 in-app purchase available to allow for multiple users (if an AC wants to keep track of the DPs hours). If you guys have any questions, feel free to ask. I'll be following this posting.
 

 
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Select which day you want to keep track of
 
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Just tap on the desired field and it will insert the current time, or if it's lunch it'll automatically advance to 6hrs after call. All are adjustable, obviously.
 
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To fill out your paper timecard, select the week you want.
 
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You'll get all of your weekly times on one screen
 
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You can also create a simple PDF to e-mail or send the times as text via e-mail or text message
 
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Preview the PDF in app
 
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View of some settings. You can also backup everything via Dropbox (more services to be added later hopefully)

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This looks great Tyler.

 

I'm sure you've thought of this, but wanted to at least propose 2 thoughts.

 

1. Total hours column

 - last couple projects I was on needed me to do that math for my time card, at the end of a long week math can be hard

 

2. Meal penalty notification

 - something that triggers if the work period extends beyond 6 hours

 - could be as simple as a '*' (13.5* - 14.0) on the lunch start time, or an auto added note "07/02: Lunch 14 minutes late"

 

I use sound report writer every shoot, will definitely add this one to my set apps folder

 

Thanks!

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Thanks for all the comments, thoughts and suggestions. Some of these I hadn't thought of. I will definitely be adding a total hours column, as that has been a popular request. Adding a few other functions, like adjustable meal times and meal penalty markers should be perfectly doable. Thanks again!!

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Great app! I would also suggest a meal penalty check box or auto-fill for that. Manual check box would be good because sometimes the crew graces 15 minutes.

Also, a turn-around penalty similar to the meal penalty. Having this be editable because some companies are 8 hours, some are 10, some are 12, etc.

I like the simplicity!

Production Sound Mixing for Television, Film, and Commercials.

www.matthewfreed.com

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  • 1 month later...

Just wanted to let everyone know I've released an update for TV Timecard that includes nearly all feature requests that you guys gave feedback on. Please do continue to provide suggestions and give feedback. If it's something that's obscures my vision for the app (simplicity, efficiency, etc.) I'll let you know. Otherwise, shoot away!

 

+ Added "Total Hours" column 
+ Added a mileage tracker 
+ Enter multiple users' times simultaneously 
+ Swipe to navigate through multiple users 
+ See your YTD hours, days and hours/day at a glance 
+ Option to view 2 weeks at a time 
+ Option to mark "meal penalty" 
+ Option to mark "NDD" 
+ Redesigned user interface to make entering and editing your times even easier 

- Notes now appear alongside each day rather than at the very bottom in "Timecard View" 
- Other small bug fixes and general stability improved

 

Thanks again for all the suggestions and feedback! And enjoy the new version.

 

If you do really like the app, the best way you can help spread the word is through a post on Facebook and/or a rating or review on the App Store. Thanks in advance!

 

http://inaudiblelabs.com/tvtimecard.html

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Bought it too... Nice !

Would like:

Being able to enter start/stop time in Transport ( on my present gig they pay this way)

Maybe a "charged on room" column? For drinks, meals charged on the room when traveling... (I know I could use notepad for that but having it in the app would gather it all together)

Cheers... And again; nice app !

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(I know I could use notepad for that but having it in the app would gather it all together)

These are the kind of charges and notes in general that are an ideal for for the "Notes" section on top of each day. I think it might take away a lot more than it would add by having a column dedicated to room charges. Just too few people would be able to use it I think. Unless I'm wrong??

BTW, another update has already been submitted to the App Store that fixes a minor calculation issue if you crossover midnight from call to wrap. I also added an option to change the default lunch duration for those that are lucky enough to have hour-long lunches as the standard. Current review time is around 7-8 days, so it should be published by next weeked.

And YES, Android version is on the way!!

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That's what I'll do Tyler: put it in the Notes section.

I was using it for the travel time (noting the hours) but I realized that if I leave the small plane icon unchecked I can enter my time like a regular work day and simply use the Note section to (also) remind me that day as a "travel day".

That works well.

Didn't have time to use it so I cross time from a day to the next but good work again on that one. You rock! :-)

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Tyler,

I wonder - is there a way to somehow add a level of organization where you can label the days as different projects? Mainly for day players - it would probably be nice to be able to search how many hours you might have done for a specific project...

That has been suggested and is in the cards. Honestly, I'm hung up on the best way to execute it. I have a few ideas. What will always remain as the primary focus is keeping it clean, uncluttered and easy to use. So long as I can maintain those ideals, I'm all for it.

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My coworker downloaded your app and we looked at it about a month ago, so forgive me if this is outdated, but...

We've seen this on many production time card apps - no one seems to handle the lunch times in a way that works for us. 

 

We keep track of the in time, the time we break from lunch, the back in time and the wrap time. However, a lot of times the time between the break for lunch and the back in time is more than a half an hour, but we're only off the clock for a half an hour. We can't fully use a lot of apps, because we're forced to choose between putting an incorrect back in time (which changes the math for dinner meal penalties) or leaving the lunch times correct but then settling for an incorrect total time. 

 

Btw, it even confuses the accounting departments. Sometimes, we write in "half hour lunch" next to (but still including) the lunch times. There have been instances where lunch is a half hour off the clock, but it's taken a while to get everyone to and through the lunch line, so the lunch times look like an hour lunch. If we don't write "half hour", the accounting departments might take an hour off the clock for us.

 

Josh

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  • 3 weeks later...

Hey Josh, sorry for the late response. I will say there was an update a few weeks ago, so make sure you've updated to the latest version. It will include meal penalties, NDD and custom lunch durations. However, it seems like the way you guys log your lunch times is fairly unique. Generally speaking, you would log your 30-minutes of lunch, either starting on time (at 6hrs. for example) or from the backend of your lunch out (sounds like a MP). Writing your times and then annotating with the correct time and calculating based on your notes is a factor I haven't considered because this is the first I've heard of it. Where are you located? I'm curious if this is unique to your location.

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Hi Tyler,

 

This is how we do it under local 52 rules in New York, but I'm imagining it's the same for all IATSE jurisdictions.

It is certainly confusing. Our "hours" will typically look like this:

call: 7am

lunch: 1pm to 1:46pm. 

wrap: 9pm

That's a 30 minute (off the clock) lunch. Which makes the total hours 13.5. No lunch penalties, but there are some dinner ones. This is what seems to be too complex for a lot of apps. It's only 30 minutes of lunch, but that 1:46pm back in time is important because the dinner penalties would start 6 hours afterwards, at 7:46pm. So on this hypothetical day, we'll get 3 (30 minute) dinner penalties (7:46-8:15, 8:16-8:45, 8:46-9pm wrap). Also of interest, those 3 will be at a minimal amount but had we gone into the 4th meal penalty, we would have received prevailing rate for it.

 

Another example:

call:7am

lunch: 1:10-2:10pm

wrap: 7:30pm

The lunch time looks like an hour, but what I'm imagining to have happened is: Grace was called so even though we broke after 1pm, there is not a lunch penalty. Catering, however, was a long van ride away and it took until 1:40pm to get the last man through the line (which is where the 30 minute clock actually starts). We wrapped at 7:30 with no MPs and a 12 hour day. Unfortunately for production, they only got 11.5 hours of work out of us because of the catering travel.

 

Other variables are one hour lunches that also take into account the last man through the line, one hour walk away lunches that are one hour off the clock, but lunch time is either an hour and ten minutes or an hour and fifteen minutes to account for walking to the restaurant time. And just to further clarify the prevailing rate trigger on meal penalties, if you get 2 lunch penalties, it is still you're 4th dinner penalty that is prevailing rate. The two lunch periods are not cumulative in counting towards prevailing rate. You could also have 4 lunch penalties where that 4th one is prevailing rate, but if you then get two dinner penalties, those will be at the minimal rate.

 

Anyways, the trickiest part I think for a lot of apps is accounting for lunch times that are longer than the off the clock time, so the total hours and meal penalties are accurate.

 

Josh

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