Shift Technologies, Inc. — Timesheet Reporting By ThinMind

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From the Oct. 2006 Review of Practice Management Systems

Timesheet Reporting 6.2 is a web-based time, expense and issue-tracking product that can be extended with project and document management utilities. Professional service firms of all sizes can easily adopt this platform, though this product does not provide the entire suite of practice management capabilities such as billing or client management.

Ease of Use/Flexibility -- 4 Stars
From the perspective of setup and amount of training time necessary to get started, ThinMind presents one of the best products. Firms looking for a complete online practice management solution, however, will be disappointed to find that Timesheet Reporting does not provide billing or detailed management of clients and contacts. Still, for those firms looking for a better way to serve employees that are regularly out of the office, having a tool that allows for rapid entry of project information plus time and expense keeping over the Internet may be just the answer. (The company noted that it provides a Consolidated Billing Report that outlines billable items by user within a date range with other options available. Users can use this report and attach it to the back of the invoices they create in their own accounting systems.)

Despite the fact that this is an online application, it operates very similarly to the workstation products, and reports are returned exceptionally fast. A dashboard approach is provided for timekeepers to review recent timesheets, get statistics of their performance and billability, and note the status of current timesheets. Categories are provided for reporting purposes, allowing for breakdowns of clients, employees, projects and task types.

Midsize to large firms can make use of the customizations and requirements that are available through security settings. The ability to specify roles is contained within the security panel, including what menus and reports are available for each user’s login and the option for setting password policies, restricting access by IP address, and setting time-of-day restrictions. Best of all, this product is meant to require little time investment for setup and maintenance. During the 30-day free trial, potential customers can receive free training and setup their company completely. The Help system and available tutorials can guide you through any questions you may have, and the “express setup wizard” really can have you operational in less than an hour.

Scalability/Stability -- 5 Stars
Because this is a hosted solution, stability and scalability are limited in meaning. No servers are necessary, and the database is contained on ThinMind’s servers. During testing, the system seemed to operate very efficiently, which can likely be attributed to its recent AJAX makeover. Larger professional service firms are already making use of ThinMind’s product, and accounting firms of most any size could adopt this platform.

Productivity Tools/Features -- 3 Stars
As previously noted, certain features such as scheduling and billing are unavailable, which limits the amount of information firms can pull for analytical reporting and project management. Web research cannot be tracked, and limited notes can be kept pertaining to a project or client. (The company noted that an unlimited number of project updates can be posted with unlimited text and an unlimited number of documents can be uploaded and attached to projects.)
Some useful features that are provided include a message center for online communication between managers and employees, a quick entry option for timekeeping, and a project/task completion view. Messages appear on the user’s home page, but no option exists for responding to a message. The quick entry option allows the company to set up reference codes (similar to service codes) for fast assignment of hours to a particular project. The timesheet has some other efficient processes built in, such as the ability to enter time across each day of the week for the current selected client and service. As well, some reporting options concerning individual timekeepers’ profitability and work habits may be useful for small and midsize firms.