Creating a spreadsheet for logging

I need to make a spreadsheet to basically log all the things our Network consultant does (& bills us for...).

I was wondering if someone already had a template or any ideas on how to do this?

It's to help me begin to start taking over the tasks he does.

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Comments

paintb4707

Why not make a simple Access database? Similar to the (2007) Issues tracking template.

9 out of 10 times I usually prefer Access over Excel when it comes to recording and tracking a series of data.

Include fields like... Consultant Company, Technician, Service Performed, $/hr rate (since consulting companies usually have variable rates depending on who they send to you.), Total Cost, Approved by with an attachment field for a digital signature, etc..

vCole

paintb4707 wrote: »

Why not make a simple Access database? Similar to the (2007) Issues tracking template.

9 out of 10 times I usually prefer Access over Excel when it comes to recording and tracking a series of data.

My boss told me to start with Excel.

I suggested Access (as she's a HUGE Access fan)
But we know how this goes.

msteinhilber

FadeToBright wrote: »

My boss told me to start with Excel.

I suggested Access (as she's a HUGE Access fan)
But we know how this goes.

Your boss is a professional tard. Sorry, had to say it... I've seen far too many posts where you suffer because of their lack of logic and reason

paintb4707

msteinhilber wrote: »

Your boss is a professional tard. Sorry, had to say it... I've seen far too many posts where you suffer because of their lack of logic and reason

Agreed. Not only that, I'd pull my hair if someone assigned me a project then forced me to do it a specific way.

It's like saying, "You have to design us a website but you can only use notepad". I feel for you F2B

Makes me appreciate my job so much more not to work underneath anyone.

As I've suggested to many of your previous posts, I'd kindly try to change her mind. Recording this data in a spreadsheet seems pretty ludicrous to me. Another reason why I'd suggest Access is because you could scan and attach the actual work order if there were ever a discrepancy.

skrpune

I think we all agree on your boss...she's distrusting and wary of anything/anyone that's new, but it some (very) small way I can see where she's coming from. I'm a bit of a control freak and it takes me a while to really trust new folks (been burned before, as I'm sure she has) and so it's understandable that she's not quite "warmed up" to you yet. But I really don't think it's a personal thing or a reflection on you or your performance - it's more a reflection on her and her distrust or her past experiences.

As for putting together the tracking spreadsheet...if she's insistent upon doing in in Excel, then develop something in Access at the same time if you can. You can show her step by step the differences between the two methods of entry/tracking and the MUCH greater ease of use & flexibility with Access. That way you can give her what she thinks she wants AND show her what she really wants at the same time.

cisco_trooper

Yep, you suffer from toxic boss syndrome. Unfortunately there is usually only one cure....

dynamik

cisco_trooper wrote: »

Yep, you suffer from toxic boss syndrome. Unfortunately there is usually only one cure....

Seppuku?

eMeS

Not sure what version of Excel you're using, but if you look in the project gallery of Office 2008 you should find exactly what you need, or at least a template that could be easily modified.

Shame on all of you for trying to overengineer...

cisco_trooper

dynamik wrote: »

Seppuku?

I took Japanese in high school...

Pash

dynamik wrote: »

Seppuku?

Actually I find the best way to get management to agree to something is Saki, but I work for a Japanese IT firm so this is way too easy!

Kaminsky

Management like Excel and are well used to analysing activities via Excel. Can't see where you guys the bad boss thing from. He's been asked to collect information on the activities of a consultant which whiil be analysed later by senior managers in a format they are used to.

As Emes says, no point in over engineering and making a simple task more complicated. If a simple task causes such a big deal, why should they give you bigger tasks down the road.

Just simple, matter of fact, non-biased and to the point reporting on what the consultant is getting up to.

Pash: I work in uk for Japanese based IT company too. FJS ?

vCole

Well my boss LOVES Access, that's why I'm just confused on why she doesn't want me to do it in Access

Pash

Kaminsky wrote: »

Management like Excel and are well used to analysing activities via Excel. Can't see where you guys the bad boss thing from. He's been asked to collect information on the activities of a consultant which whiil be analysed later by senior managers in a format they are used to.

As Emes says, no point in over engineering and making a simple task more complicated. If a simple task causes such a big deal, why should they give you bigger tasks down the road.

Just simple, matter of fact, non-biased and to the point reporting on what the consultant is getting up to.

Pash: I work in uk for Japanese based IT company too. FJS ?

Sorry not heared of FJS, im part of a small company, uk office no more than 30 people mostly based onsite at customer sites (for support), mixture of japanese/uk/ eastern european nationals.

Nice to know there are other uk nationals working in culture shock companies though. Ever been to a japanese customer site in london and walked around the office doing out of hours work only to see some crazy japs still at their desks at like 10-12 at night? Makes me laugh everytime.....although there is a sense of irony there considering im there late at night....but still GO HOME!

LarryDaMan

Pash wrote: »

see some crazy japs still at their desks at like 10-12 at night?

Are we still in WWII?

Reminds me, I have to go take my annual Equal Opportunity refresher training.

eMeS

FadeToBright wrote: »

Well my boss LOVES Access, that's why I'm just confused on why she doesn't want me to do it in Access

Having been on both sides of a request such as this one (as a manager requesting it, and as the person being requested to do it), let me give you a few reasons why Excel might be sufficient.

1) This information might be needed only very short-term to justify some course of action, whether positive or negative. Putting it in Excel provides it in a format that most everyone is familiar with and can use in a tool that they likely have on their desktop.

2) The intent might be to build a database later on. When building any database for something like this, it makes sense to start out with a spreadsheet because it will give you an idea over time of what fields are really important, what values they hold, and what volume of information will be stored. There are very few people on this site that have and/or currently do any serious database work...mostly I think they will agree that marching right into designing tables and fields can cause much more work down the road. You can always import the Excel data into a database if that becomes necessary.

3) Sometimes being a manager means knowing when to say when. Your boss knows that anything she builds comes with a cost. Such as cost to build it, cost to support it, etc.. Perhaps she doesn't want to be stuck with the long-term requirement to support a full-scale database with this information. Not wanting to be in charge of the contractor database is a reasonable requirement.

4) The cost of building it in Access likely exceeds the value provided by the solution. I would estimate that this would take you no more than 1 hour to do in Excel (actually, probably less than 30 minutes). To build it in Access would take longer, maybe an hour or two to get it all done and build queries, reports, etc.. Let's say you make $25 per hour...why spend $50 on something that should only cost me $12.50?

5) The simplest solution is always the best solution. If anyone ever says otherwise, run the other way. I have, many times in my life....

There are many, many more....

Your manager asked you to do something very specific. She wasn't looking for consulting expertise to weigh the pros and cons of different solutions, nor was she asking you to come up with some gold-plated, bulletproof solution either.

Building things that customers (your manager is your customer) didn't ask for is one of the biggest problems in IT. It drives up costs and pisses customers off... There was mention of attaching a contractor invoice when there are disagreements. That's great! Except that in the information you provided it wasn't part of the requirements!

paintb4707 wrote:

9 out of 10 times I usually prefer Access over Excel when it comes to recording and tracking a series of data.

Why? This statement puzzles me. Offering a method to record series of data is a large part of what Excel does. I struggle to see the advantage that Access provides for something so simple. Why not SQL Server, or any of the other databases out there?

paintb4707 wrote:

It's like saying, "You have to design us a website but you can only use notepad".

It's actually not like that at all. It's more like saying "I need to track a series of data, and I want you to use a tool that's really good at tracking series of data, that most everyone has and most everyone is familiar with to track that data."

MS