Customer Cost Tracker FAQ
Customer Cost Tracker is designed to be as easy-to-use as possible. Nonetheless, there are a few questions about it that crop up from time to time. This is the page that will help you, the befuddled customer, find the answers you seek. That is, this is where the answers to the Frequently Asked Questions may be found.
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| Question | Answer |
| How do I login if I don't know or have forgotten my username or password? | Answer |
| How do I use the sample data included with my new site? | Answer |
| How do I give staff members access to my site for tracking time and expenses? | Answer |
| How do I add Customers and Customer/Projects? | Answer |
| How do I customize the select lists my users see on their time and expense entry screens? | Answer |
| How can I ensure that project time and expenses are logged to valid activities, bill types, expense codes or sources for the selected project? | Answer |
| How can I create new reports or modify the existing reports? | Answer |
| How do I get my Total Cost Reports to roll up costs to the customer level? | Answer |
| How do I close out a user account when a staff member leaves or a login account will no longer be used? | Answer |
| I've received notice that my 30 day trial period is about to expire. What are my options? | Answer |
| If I have any questions about billing for my subscription, who should I contact? | Answer |
Can't Find The Answer Here?
Contact support to get answers to the infrequently asked questions.
How do I login if I don't know or have forgotten my username or password?
If you have just signed up for a new site and have never logged in, please refer to your registration confirmation email for your Site Manager username and password. Please Note: All passwords must be at least 6 characters and must contain both letters and numbers.
If you have forgotten your username, you must contact someone in your group who has manager access to your site. This includes your initial Site Manager and any other CT Manager accounts. If you are the only manager for your site and have forgotten your username, please contact Journyx Support.
If you have forgotten your password, you can ask one of your managers to reset your password (via tabs: Management → Users → User Passwords), or you can request a new password by clicking on the "Reset your password" link on the login screen. Provided you enter your username correctly AND have an email address included as part of your user profile, you will receive an email with a link to reset your password. If you do not receive an email after requesting password reset, contact one of your managers to confirm that your username is correct and an email address is included in your user profile.
How do I use the sample data included with my new site?
Customer Cost Tracker sites come with sample user, customer projects, time and expense records for easy evaluation of the service. The names of the users and customer projects are intended to simulate "real" data to demonstrate suggested configuration and usage. The time and expense records cover a 4 week period and provide data for evaluating reports available in the system.
Any CT Manager can delete the sample data at any time by going to Sitemap → Configuration Quickstart → Sample Data and clicking on the "Delete All Sample Data" button. Until you delete your sample data, the sample users will take up 3 of your active user spots for your subscription.
Please Note: If you create your own users and they track time or expenses against one of the sample customer projects, those records will be deleted when the sample data is deleted. Likewise, you will not be able to delete specific Activities, Bill Types, Expense Codes or Expense Sources that are used by sample records until you have deleted the sample data. The system protects your data integrity by blocking deletion of items with associated time or expense records. If you don't wish to delete the associated records, you can change the status of specific items to "Reportable Only" which blocks new records against the item while maintaining the ability to report on older records.
How do I give staff members access to my site for tracking time and expenses?
Anyone assigned to the CT Manager role can add new users to the system by going to Management → Users → User Management. The "Create User" button takes you to a screen where you can enter all of the new user's information. You are required to enter the username for login access to the system. You have the option to set a password. If you leave it blank, the username and password are the same for initial login, and the user will be prompted to change it immediately after logging in. Please Note: All passwords must be at least 6 characters and must contain both letters and numbers.
You may choose between two roles to determine the level of access to the system: "CT User" and "CT Manager". See the next paragraph for an explanation of the differences between these two roles. You may also choose between two types of layout for time entry screens. "CT Timesheet Grid" is similar to a spreadsheet view of projects and other information in the left margin and dates across the top with cells for entering total hours by project for each day. "CT Timesheet Line Item" includes the options to select dates from drop down menus and enter "in" and "out" times that indicate the exact start and end times for a project/activity.
The final section of the user profile includes optional custom fields. The "Email Address" field must contain a valid address if you want your users to have the ability to reset passwords automatically. The Employee Start and End Dates determine when a user is active and can login/enter time and expenses.
The two roles available in the system determine what the holder of a login account has access to. The CT User can enter time and expenses, run reports on his/her own data and information, and change his/her own preferences. In addition to the abilities included in the CT User role, CT Managers can also add/modify/delete users, add/modify/delete customers and projects, reset user passwords, and report on all users and information in the system.
For access to the system, managers must send new users the login address to the site. This address is included in the initial email for site access that is sent to the Site Manager. The address is http://asp.journyx.com/YourSiteName - where "YourSiteName" is the name the Site Manager selected when (s)he created the new site. This is the address all users should bookmark for quick browser access.
Regardless of the role assigned to an account, anyone who has entered time, expenses, or project notes in the last 30 days is counted for subscription purposes. While it is possible to add more users to the system than are included in your subscription, no more than the subscribed amount will be allowed to enter time and expenses. Some features will be temporarily disabled if you exceed your subscription. Each subscribed user costs $5/month. Only the original Site Manager who initially signed up for the service can adjust the subscription to add or subtract users. Subscription information is accessible via the Subscription Management tab.
How do I add Customers and Customer/Projects?
Anyone assigned to the CT Manager role can add new customers and projects to the system by going to Management → Users → User Management. The "Create" button takes you to a screen where you can enter all of the new customer or project information. You are required to enter a name for your new customer or project, and the status field will determine if the project is available to users for time and expense tracking. "Loggable and Reportable" projects will appear for selection on time and expense entry screens. "Reportable Only" projects will appear in reports and in the project popup hierarchy/tree display on entry screens, but they cannot be selected for time or expense entry. You also have the option to choose a different Parent project. This field determines where in the hierarchy a project appears. Generally, customers are listed under the "Top of Project List" as Parent, and customer projects are listed under each of these with customer as Parent. The Estimated Hours and Percent Complete fields are manually entered and updated fields that allow you to estimate projects status. The Estimated Hours are then compared to Actual Hours in Project Status Reports available under the Reports tab.
The custom fields are optional and can be populated with any information you choose. For roll up of total customer costs in Total Cost Reports, you will need to include values in the Customer Name and Project Pay and Bill Rate (unless you will use User Pay and Bill Rates only) fields.
After you have saved a new customer or project, you have the option to filter the Activity, Bill Type, Expense Code, and Source values that are valid for the given project by clicking on the "Modify Field Value Dependencies" link. By default, all values can be included in an entry for the project. You can limit the list by moving only the valid selections from the select list on the left to the select list on the right and clicking on the "Change Dependencies" button. You can also pass dependencies on from a parent project to all its children. For example, you can set dependencies for a specific customer and copy them to all of the customer's projects.
How do I customize the select lists my users see on their time and expense entry screens?
CT Managers can add, edit or delete the values in select lists that appear on time and expense entry screens by going to Management → Field Values. For example, you can create a new Activity by selecting it from the drop down menu in the upper right corner and clicking on the "Create" button. You also edit an Activity by selecting it from the search drop down menu, running a search and clicking on the name of the Activity that you want to edit. Finally, you can delete an Activity by selecting it from the search results and clicking on the "Delete" button. If the Activity has any time logged against it, you will not be able to delete it. You can, however, set the Activity to "Reportable Only" to ensure that no more time is logged against it in the future.
How can I ensure that project time and expenses are logged to valid activities, bill types, expense codes or sources for the selected project?
After you have saved a new customer or project, you have the option to filter the Activity, Bill Type, Expense Code, and Source values that are valid for the given project by clicking on the "Modify Field Value Dependencies" link. By default, all values can be included in an entry for the project. You can limit the list by moving only the valid selections from the select list on the left to the select list on the right and clicking on the "Change Dependencies" button. You can also pass dependencies on from a parent project to all its children. For example, you can set dependencies for a specific customer and copy them to all of the customer's projects. When a user selects any of these customer's projects on his/her time or expense entry screen, the drop down menus for the other columns will be filtered to only display the values included in the project's dependency list.
How can I create new reports or modify the existing reports?
Customer Cost Tracker comes with a built in reporting engine that allows you to create custom reports or modify existing ones as needed. The majority of the report making magic occurs in the report modification screen. To get to this screen, either enter a new report name and click Create, or select an existing report and press modify.
The first portion of the report modification screen allows you to set up your report date options. You can anchor the report to certain dates. Simply select an anchor start date and anchor period from the drop down menus, and the report will display information only for that time period. For example, if you select January 1 and one month, the report will show records for the month of January only. If the report has no anchor, you will be prompted to enter a start and finish date each time the report is run. The portion of the modification screen below the date anchor section is a set of filters. This section allows you to filter the records by various attributes. For example, you can select Only Selected Users under Choose Mechanism and then highlight the name Joe User. The report will then show only the records for Joe. CT Users can only report on their own data and information. CT Managers can report on all users in the system.
Below the filter section is a drop down menu that allows you to decide whether the report will be modifiable if it is copied to other users.
The next section allows you to customize the report header and footer. This section uses HTML tags to add text to the header or footer. Text should be surrounded by <center></center> in order to be centered in the header, <strong> </strong> in order to appear as strong text, <h1> </h1> to appear as a large heading, etc. For example, <strong><center>Joe's Report</center></strong> would produce a centered, strong Joe's Report in the report header. Additionally, tricky tags may be added that display attributes as seen in the Time Entry Screen Management HTML Options section.
The next section is specific to the type of report being created/modified. For a Time Report or Expense Report, there is a series of drop down menus and radio buttons. The first menu allows you to set a Subtotal period by selecting a number of days, weeks, months or years. The next menu allows you to select an attribute by which the report will Subtotal. The next menu allows you to limit the records to meet certain Subtotal criteria. The first button lets the User decide whether or not a grand total will be displayed. The next button chooses whether or not to display days or Subtotals with zero hours or amounts. The last button sets the report to either display all the details or hide them all and only show Subtotals.
For a Matrix Time Report or a Matrix Expense Report, there are two buttons and two drop down menus. The first button sets the report to either show percentages on the far right column and the bottom row or hide them. The second button sets the report to either show column and row Subtotals or hide them. The drop down menus allow you to select which attributes will be the row and column headings.
For a Project Status Report, there is a drop down menu that allows you to roll up Project actuals and estimates.
Matrix Time Reports and Matrix Expense Reports have no further sections. For Time Reports, Expense Reports, and Project Status Reports, there is a last section that allows you to decide which fields will be displayed in the report output.
Total Cost Reports combine existing Time and Expense reports in order to show all costs (labor, as well as direct expenses) associated with a customer or project. Each Total Cost Report has one Time Report and one Expense Report (configured as described above) associated with it. Like the other reports, you have the option to set an anchored date period or enter dates at the time you run the report.
The next section allows you to select the Time and Expense Reports that will act as the source data for the report and whether or not to display these reports below the Total Cost Report output. The options for Pay and Bill Rate Origins determine the basis for the total cost calculation. You can pull the rates from the user or project custom fields, the greater or lesser of the two fields, or prefer one of the two unless the field is blank (i.e., "Prefer user" will look for a value in the user custom field for pay or bill rate first. If it's blank, it will then look at the project rates.). The option for calculating the Total Cost field determines if the value will be hours x pay rate or hours x bill rate. It also gives you the option to include direct expenses. Group and subtotal options allow you to roll amounts up by user, project, or any of their custom fields. The final options allow you to decide what fields to display in the report and what names to apply to the calculated columns. The Bill 2 and Bill 3 columns only apply to rate report functionality which is not included in Customer Cost Tracker.
How do I get my Total Cost Reports to roll up costs to the customer level?
Each customer and project has a custom field called "Customer Name". The default Total Cost Reports that come with Customer Cost Tracker are set to group costs by this Customer Name field provided there is a value included in this field. If your Total Cost Reports are showing "No value" for the group, you need to fill in this custom field for each of your customer projects. You can do this quickly for existing projects by selecting them from search results and clicking on the Compare and Modify button.
If you're seeing "no rate" in one or all of the dollar amount fields, you need to enter bill and pay rates for your users, your projects or both. Bill and pay rate fields are custom fields in the user and project profiles. They must be numeric values, and they are always calculated based on an hourly rate.
How do I close out a user account when a staff member leaves or a login account will no longer be used?
Anyone assigned to the CT Manager role can deactivate user accounts by going to Management → Users → User Management. The Employee Start and End Dates included in the user profile determine when a login account is active and can be used for time/expense entry. When a staff member leaves or will not be active for an extended period, you can turn off login access for the account by adding a specific Employee End Date. If you want to deactivate a user account starting with the current date, you can also select the user and click on the "Deactivate" button. This automatically populates the Employee End Date with the current date. The information associated with inactive accounts will still be available for reporting purposes, and you can reactivate the accounts at any time by erasing the End Date and entering a new Start Date. In the event that you reactivate an account, the previous Start and End Dates will not be saved in the database.
I've received notice that my 30 day trial period is about to expire. What are my options?
You can sign up for uninterrupted access to your Customer Cost Tracker site by going to the Subscription Management tab and setting up a recurring payment for your selected subscription amount. Please Note: Only the original Site Manager who initially signed up for the service has access to the Subscription Management tab.
Regardless of the role assigned to an account, anyone who has entered time, expenses, or project notes in the last 30 days is counted for subscription purposes. While it is possible to add more users to the system than are included in your subscription, no more than the subscribed amount will be allowed to enter time and expenses. Each subscribed user costs $5/month, and subscriptions must be purchased in 5 user bundles.
If you do not choose to subscribe to the service, you must go to your Subscription Management tab and cancel your recurring payment in PayPal. Your site will be removed, and your data will be archived for a short period should you change your mind.
If I have any questions about billing for my subscription, who should I contact?
After your 30 day trial is complete, the credit card that you entered in PayPal for a trial and subscription to Customer Cost Tracker will be billed each month for your selected number of users at a rate of $5/month/user. You can increase, decrease or cancel your subscription at any time. Any changes will take effect the next time your credit card is scheduled to be billed. If you cancel your subscription prior to the end of your 30 day trial period, your credit card will not be billed for anything.
If you discover any errors in billing, please report them to PayPal. For all other billing inquiries or general questions, please contact Journyx at support@customercost.com.
