Web Worker Daily

Billings 3: Slick Time-Tracking and Invoicing for Mac

Posted: 19 Sep 2008 01:00 PM CDT

For the most part, the applications we cover on WWD are web applications. But every once in a while a desktop application comes along that’s worth consideration by dedicated web workers. Billings 3, the latest release of this time-tracking and invoicing application, is one such. If you’re using a Mac to do your work, and you need to track your time and create your own invoices, it’s definitely worth a look.

Certainly there are plenty of good web applications for this sort of thing, including FreshBooks, Zoho Invoice, Blinksale, Cashboard, and Harvest. But some people just don’t want to share their financial details over the web, no matter how much they trust a service - or they may want more flexibility and customization than most of the web applications provide.

Billings delivers well. It provides a variety of ways to enter time, and then helps you create great-looking invoices (with a whole pile of built-in templates and the ability to create your own). It also offers constant monitoring of your cashflow position, and lets you send statements or past due notices to slow-to-pay clients with just a few clicks.

The basic functions of the application worked well in Billings 2; in addition to modernizing the user interface, Billings 3 also adds a bunch of new features. These include consolidated invoices covering multiple projects (great when you do a variety of work for a single client), recurring invoices, assign different people to different timeslips, and a wider variety of reports.

There’s still room for improvement here. In particular, the multi-user story remains weak: while Billings can assign different users to different slips, this is a manual process unless you perform an import from MarketCircle’s other product Daylite - and you may not want to make a commitment to that productivity suite. I’d rather see a truly networkable Billings, even at a higher price.

You can download a 30-day trial of Billings and run it immediately. After that, you’ll need to pay $59 to register the application, or #35 to upgrade from a previous version. Overall, if you want to go the non-web route for your billing and have a Mac, it’s an excellent choice.

Share/Send

Flowgram Could Beat Traditional Screencasts

Posted: 19 Sep 2008 12:00 PM CDT

I demo about 5-6 new tech products every week, often with a little handholding from the company behind the technology because my brain absorbs information much better when somebody tells me about it rather than when I read something or try to figure it out myself. The other day, I was on the phone with the CEO of a new startup, Flowgram, and he directed me to a link with an explanation of Flowgram created as a Flowgram. My reaction? Absolutely Brilliant!

Every once in a while, I come across a Web 2.0/social media tool that not just speaks to me but sings to me. Right away, I get it and really, really want to use it. Flowgram is like a screencast, only better. A screencast uses software on your desktop to capture your visuals and your audio, and you end up with a self-contained file that is…well, contained and not interactive.

Flowgram, however, provides the functionality of screencast software entirely online so any web site you show in your Flowgram is totally live. That means that as a person views your flowgram, they can click on a link and explore a site. So if you made a Flowgram as a tour of your online store, a person could click on an item you show in your Flowgram and immediately purchase the item from your site.

A person can also pause, rewind and skip through a Flowgram so they view at their own pace and in their own way. You can even build stops into your flowgram with instructions for a person to click the Play button again when they are ready to proceed. Even though you are not really there guiding people through your Flowgram, you can produce it to make it feel like you are.

Sharing a Flowgram is a cinch. You can copy and paste a link to your completed Flowgram or lift the widget code and embed it into your blog or site. You can even save it as a YouTube video!

The Elements of a Flowgram

You aren’t just limited to live web pages for your Flowgram. You can also use:

PowerPoint slides and other documents
Photographs
RSS and Atom Feeds
Custom Pages - pages you create using the Flowgram WYSIWYG program

Flowgram provides you a number of editing tools including

Highlighting pen - handy for highlighting text on the page you are showing.
Flowgram notes - to add a digital “sticky” note to a page with additional information or instructions.
Timeline - to view your Flowgram timeline like a video or audio timeline.
Add Media - to add background music.

Web Worker Uses of Flowgrams

Right away, I can see using a flowgram for

Explaining something about the Internet to my clients;
Showcasing work I’ve done for clients and talking through a case study;
Developing a portfolio of my work and giving some commentary on pieces;
Showing off the Second Life products I’ve produced and link people to my CafePress store;
Offering lessons on my web site or blog explaining Internet and social media concepts.

These ideas barely scratch the surface of ways I can use Flowgrams.

Using Flowgram

So I had all these great ideas and attempted my very first Flowgram. It’s a little rough (to put it mildly) as I get used to the tools. I think I need to watch another Flowgram that gives more detailed instructions about the mechanics behind creating a Flowgram.

The tools weren’t as easy to use or intuitive as I had hoped. In fact, if I didn’t already have a bit of audio and video editing experience, I would have been totally lost. But even with my editing abilities, my Flowgram is still rough, especially the transitions and mixed audio quality. The audio is being pulled from my built in microphone but I find the audio quality on Flowgram to be almost as bad as Viddler’s record function. I don’t seem to have the same problem with a site like Seesmic so not sure what is causing the bad audio.

And I can’t figure out how to get the page scrolling I do when I record the Flowgram to show up in my finished Flowgram unless I highlight text somewhere on the page (maybe that’s the secret). I’m sure as I use it more - and seek out more instructions - I’ll be able to produced much more polished Flowgrams.

Despite the momentary frustrations and the learning curve, I’m excited about this product and how it will help me with my work.

Share/Send

Clearing The Cache - Blogging Edition

Posted: 19 Sep 2008 10:06 AM CDT

Like many of us, I spend quite a lot of time on the web and come across a staggering number of interesting things. In Clearing The Cache I choose a theme, pull out some of my favorites and share them with you here.

The Windows Vista blog team announces the Best Vista Website

Simple Help teaches us How to install WordPress on your Windows PC

Zoho sponsors Cloud Avenue blog to focus on online business applications

Smashing Mag offers up a WordPress Developer’s Toolbox

Serendipity is a powerful, feature filled weblog application and a worthy WordPress alternative.

Share/Send

Teamwork for Independent Web Contractors

Posted: 19 Sep 2008 10:00 AM CDT

Just because some freelancers work independently, it doesn’t mean they always work alone. There will always be big projects that require them to be part of a group, to be a team player, and to work on a small part of a big product. But if you spend the bulk of your career working on solo projects, working with a group might be a tougher transition than you expect.

Working together

The first thing that needs to be established is that everyone on the team has to be accountable. The job distribution should be clear from the start, to avoid any overlaps or confusion. In fact, group projects should always have a detailed table of deliverables and deadlines per person.

It’s also important to have all communication in one interface used by all, such as a wiki, as opposed to private email communication between each member of the team. Basecamp and Web Office are other common tools used for this purpose. However, some rules must be established before everyone starts using these tools. What types of messages should be available for everyone to read? Are the contractors free to talk about their rates? Is the wiki or communication platform reserved for “business only” messages? These rules are needed to avoid miscommunication.

The out of sight, out of mind approach

In some team projects I work on, the client keeps each contractor “blind” to each other’s work. For example, if I’m working on a website’s copy, I don’t know who’s designing the website, nor do I see how everything comes together until the project ends. Each contractor works one on one with the client.

The advantage of this approach is that there’s less ‘noise’ for each contractor to handle. You don’t have to receive communication from too many people - the client is the only person you have to worry about. Less noise means that it’s generally easier to focus on your fraction of the project.

Of course, there are disadvantages. First, the back and forth communication with each contractor can prove to be taxing for the client. Also, if the client isn’t paying extra attention, it’s possible that the project will lack overall cohesiveness, since the people working on various elements won’t work well with each other. But these disadvantages are on the client’s side, and she is likely to be equipped to handle that, especially if they’ve worked on multiple projects this way.

Your role

When working with a team, whatever your client’s approach may be, your number one priority should be your job. That sounds like common sense, but it’s easy to get distracted from your actual work if some teammates don’t pull their weight - especially if their work will make your work look bad.

If some teammates are very difficult to work with, raise your concerns directly with the client, be as tactful in your wording as possible, and give your colleagues the benefit of the doubt. There’s a fine line between a tattle tale and a concerned web worker.

Also, if you’re allowed to communicate with the rest of the team, it helps to keep their contact info. This is more important if you enjoyed working with them. After all, you’ll never know when such a contact could come in handy in the future.

Have you ever web worked with a team? Was it effective? How did it affect your working style?

Image by: Roger Stoll from sxc.hu

Share/Send