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Working on a FOSS tool to convert raw work time data into a clean report for your boss or client. Any interest? (lemmy.sdf.org)

submitted 15 hours ago by sebastiancarlos@lemmy.sdf.org to c/linux@lemmy.ml

33 comments fedilink hide all child comments

It's almost done (it would take one or two weeks to clean it up for FOSS release). It's a CLI tool. It works great for my use case, but I'm wondering if there's any interest in a tool like this.

Say you have a simple time-tracking tool that tracks what you do daily. The only problem is that there are gaps and whatnot, which might not look nice if you need to send it to someone else. This tool fixes pretty much all of that.

Main format is a JSON with a "description", and either "duration" or a "start"/"end" pair. It supports the Timewarrior format out of the box (CLI Time tracking tool).

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[-] delirious_owl@discuss.online 2 points 2 hours ago

I just say I worked X hours per day, above my log entries describing what I did that day. Why do they need anything more than that?

[-] 01189998819991197253@infosec.pub 6 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago)

Outputting clean reports is one thing, but "normalizing" the time to make it look better, or as though I'm more busy, is something else entirely. I appreciate the effort, but this tool has the very real potential to get a contractor or employee sued for time fraud. I highly recommend against normalization of time data. The contractor either worked a full 30 or s/he didn't. It's black and white. Saying s/he worked for 30 when s/he worked for 25 is a lie, and subject to lawsuits and further legal action.

[-] yetiftw@lemmy.world 6 points 2 hours ago

"they" uses the same number of characters as "s/he" and flows more naturally

[-] penquin@lemm.ee 2 points 1 hour ago

I'm not sure why "they" isn't used more often to refer to the unknown. This is what we were taught back home when we learned English.

[-] 01189998819991197253@infosec.pub 3 points 2 hours ago

Sure, sure. But s/he reading this might appreciate the use of special characters to improve his/her password entropy.

[-] jjlinux@lemmy.ml 0 points 2 hours ago

Wao. What's with the "edu-indoctrination"?

[-] yetiftw@lemmy.world 1 points 1 hour ago

huh?

[-] joranvar@feddit.nl 5 points 5 hours ago

I do my time tracking in org-mode, and export it to JIRA once a day or so. It is quite a specific/tailored setup, written in a mix of elisp and, well, org-mode (specific names and tags are used to configure some settings), but I'd love to look at this tool to see if I can extend my workflow by using it for the "massaging into a nicer shape" part. I might end up writing some extensions for either side (org-mode input format and JIRA REST calls output format).

My current tooling quantizes everything by rounding start and end times to the nearest full 15 minutes, and starting a new task at the end time of the previous one when clocking in, so that my team lead does not have to report so many fractions of hours to higher layers.

[-] totoro@slrpnk.net 10 points 9 hours ago

This sounds really cool. I have actually made something similar (unpublished and quite hacky though).

I work as a self-employed contractor and must report my times in varying standardised formats, depending on the client or agency I am working with. My input data comes from TimeWarrior (like yours) and I usually just output CSV data so I can copy-paste that into a provided excel template.

Quantizing the data is usually the most essential step as the templates often restrict accuracy. I find it strange that many of the comments here presume this kind of transformation to be fraudulent.

[-] raspberriesareyummy@lemmy.world 4 points 11 hours ago

As someone who works atrocius times of their own volition & has to create a clean timesheet every end of the month, this is a great idea -buyt there are too many special rules to consider imo - also I never properly track time (keep forgetting) but reconstruct work times from emails, chats & calendar entries :)

[-] flashgnash@lemm.ee 2 points 10 hours ago

Could have some kind of floating timer window/widget in your bar so you don't forget

[-] raspberriesareyummy@lemmy.world 2 points 7 hours ago

The problem is working on different computers & sometimes switching back and forth between private time and work time. That'd require actual button presses or something to "clock" in/out

[-] solrize@lemmy.world 3 points 10 hours ago

Org mode has a time tracking feature, dunno about report generation.

[-] Grass@sh.itjust.works 5 points 12 hours ago

So this requires some kind of existing tracking software? Are there existing FOSS options for that part?

My current job doesn't need time tracking (yet?, some of my work is for the sister company) but a job I worked before had us clock in and out for specific projects on a computer, but the subscription ended and we were using a UI glitch to continue using it and literally cheat engine to make it still export the files for the office to use.

[-] smiletolerantly@awful.systems 2 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago)

Kimai is a great option

[-] masterofn001@lemmy.ca 6 points 14 hours ago

I don't get it.

Where's Saddam?

I'll head back to linuxmemes now.

[-] semperverus@lemmy.world 4 points 11 hours ago

Lmao, its everywhere now isnt it

[-] GolfNovemberUniform@lemmy.ml 1 points 8 hours ago

Idk what it is so I guess it's not everywhere.

[-] Nickm8@lemmy.world 2 points 12 hours ago

I would use it, let me know if you need any testing or feedback. What is it written in?

[-] sebastiancarlos@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 12 hours ago

Python

[+] NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip -15 points 15 hours ago

So .. it is a tool to automate time fraud?

Make sure to put this front and center on your CV

[-] sebastiancarlos@lemmy.sdf.org 19 points 15 hours ago

Hey, thanks for the comment. I get that it might be used for something shady, but that’s not the intention. The primary goal is to clean up raw time-tracking data into a format that’s easy to present to clients or supervisors, especially for contexts when small gaps or irregularities should be absent.

I imagine most professionals aren’t expected to account for every single minute of their workday. For example, if you’re switching tasks or taking short breaks. It’s more about reporting general productivity or overall progression of tasks, not trying to inflate hours.

Anyone aiming for 'time fraud' could probably find easier methods. My focus is to make life easier for people who already track their work but want cleaner, more digestible reports.

Appreciate the feedback though, helps me make sure the use case is clear! :)

[+] NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip -22 points 15 hours ago

Pretending the most important use of bit torrent is Linux ISO's is the kind of cya that people giggle at.

If a candidate I am interviewing has a tool to change their reported hours to me or clients on their public GitHub? That person is radioactive no matter how many times they say "but don't do anything naughty wink wink"

[-] Palacegalleryratio@hexbear.net 2 points 4 hours ago

I mean if you want to do time fraud you pretty much just can. You can start tracking a task at 9am then immediately go to make a coffee and chat to a coworker until half 9 to run up the clock. You really don’t need a fancy tool for that.

However a tool to make data more digestible and readable shows a level of interest in presentation of data. I would be less concerned about that. Someone willfully doing time fraud wouldn’t advertise it.

[-] Sanctus@lemmy.world 25 points 15 hours ago

Am I missing something? It looks like OP has to track their time and send it to a client or superior. What is wrong with making a tool to track your time over using excel? I'm sure if they wanted it through a specific end point they would have provided that.

[-] C126@sh.itjust.works 5 points 14 hours ago

The logic in the flowchart appears to take in data and mainuplate it based on normalization and ratios to fill the day. So it outputs a report with time that doesn't precisely match the tracked data, but looks nicer for the boss.

[-] Jimmycrackcrack@lemmy.ml 4 points 10 hours ago

I guess if, as this person says, the intended use is made clear then presumably so long as the original logs from which the report was generated are retained then there shouldn't really be an issue. Make your nice, digestible reports that normalise over a workday and give a more grand overview of progress, and if they smell a bit too rosy or you just sometimes need a more granular accounting of time then clients/bosses can request the original raw data from the contractor/employee. Maybe this software itself should include some ability to retain a log of the processing that was done so that the relationship between its generated reports and the source data can be more clearly audited if some kind of a trust issue arises.

The hope I guess would be that you make it clear that this is a more executive summary style of report that you've added as a courtesy because it's more useful in context and that's hopefully enough for whoever you're reporting to but if they want more transparency or detail it's all there for them too.

[-] sebastiancarlos@lemmy.sdf.org 9 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 14 hours ago)

Exactly! My tool is designed to work with existing time-tracking tools by processing their output. You can think of it as a post-processor that helps clean up and format the data.

Since there are already plenty of time-tracking tools out there (both CLI and GUI), I wanted something that could act as a flexible add-on for them.

[+] NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip -9 points 15 hours ago

Tracking time is fine.

Normalizing your time to the hours you were supposed to work is a massive no no. Especially if you are expected to break down your hours per project.

I mean, you obviously do it. But you never put it in writing.

[-] Evotech@lemmy.world 8 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago)

Honestly I think it's good. The amount of context switching and with breaks, working on several things at once. To normalize that down to a working day seems reasonable

[-] NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip 0 points 3 hours ago

It isn't about being reasonable.

If you are expected to track your time to this degree (and, to make it clear, the majority of employers actively don't want you to), there is a reason. That reason usually being different funding sources. Generally a mix of grants and clients.

And if a client or grant source finds out you are lying about those? Maybe you only had enough work to do 34 hours instead of 40 hours in one week. Would you be cool paying extra because the guy repairing your muffler had a slow week?

And if people think being proud of a tool that openly talks about what everyone else silently does isn't a red flag for employers? Hey, its a great job market so I am sure none of that will matter.

[-] Enkers@sh.itjust.works 25 points 14 hours ago

Boss makes a dollar, I make a dime.
That's why I use this app to normalize time.

[-] sebastiancarlos@lemmy.sdf.org 15 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 14 hours ago)

Totally understand your perspective, and I’m not here to push back against it. You’ve got a valid point.

I’ll just add that there are already commercial tools that do similar things to what I’m building. It’s interesting to consider how perceptions might shift if a tool were released by a company rather than a solo developer. Sometimes the context influences how a tool is interpreted, even if the underlying functionality remains the same. For what it’s worth, I have no commercial intent behind this.

this post was submitted on 22 Sep 2024

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