System and method for time recording

• US 7,908,192 B2
• Filed: 07/31/2006
• Issued: 03/15/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 07/31/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SAP SE
• Original Assignee: SAP AG (SAP SE)
• Inventors: Srinivasan, Sudarshan Lakshmipuram, Naib, Sudhindra
• Primary Examiner(s): Frenel; Vanel
• Application Number:
  US11/497,129
• Publication Number:
  US 20080027778A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,688 Days
• Field of Search: 705/32, 705/1, 705 7- 11, 707/3, 715/772, 341/87
• US Class Current: 705/32
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06311 Scheduling, planning or task assignment for a person or group
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/1091 Recording time for administrative or management purposes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/1097 Task assignment
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/04 Billing or invoicing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/10 Services

Abstract

A method and system for time recording, in which an event is triggered to start recording one of a set of tasks. Recording of the one task is initiated responsive to triggering the event. The event is terminated and recording of the one task is terminated responsive to terminating the event.

Claims

1. A method for time recording, comprising:

triggering an event to record one of a set of tasks, wherein the set of tasks comprise one or more personal tasks assigned to a user and one or more project tasks of an organization, wherein the one or more personal tasks are stored in a first table and the one or more project tasks are stored in a second table, wherein a mapping table is used to map the one or more personal tasks to the one or more project tasks, and wherein the first table, the second table, and the mapping table are each separate tables, wherein the one or more project tasks are a part of a quantity of projects of the organization;

initiating recording of the one task responsive to the event stored in an event-task table, the event-task table including at least one event identifier representative of the event mapped to the one task;

terminating the event; and

terminating recording of the one task responsive to terminating the event, wherein, when the one task corresponds to the one or more personal tasks, the one task is allocated to the one or more project tasks based on a percentage stored in the second table; and

reporting the recording, wherein the reporting further comprises selecting one or more of the set of tasks available to the user, defining a reporting scheme, and reporting the event according to the reporting scheme, wherein at least one of the triggering, the initiating, the terminating the event, the terminating recording, and the reporting are implemented on at least one processor.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing a page for presentation at a user interface, the page including the set of tasks comprising the one or more personal tasks and the one or more project tasks, the set of tasks selectable at the user interface, the page further comprising a first selection for recording user comments, a second selection for recording a screen shot, and a third selection for submitting recorded data for the set of tasks.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein triggering the event comprises receiving input to select the one task from a list of tasks in a computer user interface.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein terminating the event comprises terminating the triggered event by receiving input to deselect the one task from a list of tasks in a computer user interface.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising creating one or more notes to record user comments about the one task.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising creating one or more screen shots for the one task.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the event is triggered remotely.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the event is terminated remotely.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the event is automatically terminated after a preset period of time.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

assigning an event identifier to the event; and

mapping the event identifier to the one task.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising selecting one or more of the user defined tasks mapped to a project task.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the tasks are assigned a public attribute or a private attribute.

13. A non-transitory machine-accessible medium that provides instructions that, when executed by a machine, cause the machine to perform operations comprising:

triggering an event to record one of a set of tasks, wherein the set of tasks comprise one or more personal tasks assigned to a user and one or more project tasks of an organization, wherein the one or more personal tasks are stored in a first table and the one or more project tasks are stored in a second table, wherein a mapping table is used to map the one or more personal tasks to the one or more project tasks, and wherein the first table, the second table, and the mapping table are each separate tables, wherein the one or more project tasks are a part of a number of projects of the organization;

initiating recording of the one task responsive to the event stored in an event-task table, the event-task table including at least one event identifier representative of the event mapped to the one task;

terminating the event; and

terminating recording of the one task responsive to terminating the event, wherein, when the one task corresponds to the one or more personal tasks, the one task is allocated to the one or more project tasks based on a percentage stored in the second table; and

reporting the recording, wherein reporting further comprises selecting one or more of the set of tasks available to the user;

defining a reporting scheme, and reporting the event according to the reporting scheme.

14. The non-transitory machine-accessible medium of claim 13, further comprising mapping one or more of the project tasks to a number of the user defined tasks according to a set of mapping rules.

15. The non-transitory machine-accessible medium of claim 13, wherein triggering the event comprises receiving input to select the one tasks from a list of tasks in a computer user interface.

16. The non-transitory machine-accessible medium of claim 13, wherein terminating the event comprises terminating the triggered event by receiving input to deselect the one task from a list of tasks in a computer interface.

17. The non-transitory machine-accessible medium of claim 13, further providing instructions which when executed by the machine, cause the machine to perform further operations comprising creating one or more notes to record user comments about the one task.

18. The non-transitory machine-accessible medium of claim 13, further providing instructions which when executed by the machine, cause the machine to perform further operations comprising creating one or more screen shots for the one task.

19. The non-transitory machine-accessible medium of claim 13, further providing instructions which when executed by the machine, cause the machine to perform further operations comprising:

assigning an event identifier to the event; and

mapping the event identifier to the one task.

20. The non-transitory machine-accessible medium of claim 13, further providing instructions which when executed by the machine, cause the machine to perform further operations comprising reporting the recorded events for one or more of the set of tasks.

21. The non-transitory machine-accessible medium of claim 20, reporting comprises:

selecting one or more of the set of tasks available to a user;

defining a reporting scheme; and

reporting events recorded for the selected tasks according to the reporting scheme.

22. The non-transitory machine-accessible medium of claim 13, wherein the tasks are assigned a public attribute or a private attribute.

23. The non-transitory machine-accessible medium of claim 22 wherein a task with a private attribute is not reported.

24. A system comprising:

one or more client devices, each client device comprising;

a processor in communication with a memory, the memory storing a set of tasks to be recorded;

an event trigger to trigger an event to record one of the set of tasks, wherein the set of tasks comprise one or more personal tasks assigned to a user and one or more project tasks of an organization, wherein the one or more personal tasks are stored in a first table and the one or more project tasks are stored in a second table, wherein a mapping table is used to map the one or more personal tasks to the one or more project tasks, and wherein the first table, the second table, and the mapping table are each separate tables, wherein the one or more project tasks are a part of a quantity of projects of the organization;

a task recorder to initiate recording of the one task responsive to triggering the event stored in an event-task table, the event-task table including at least one event identifier representative of the event mapped to the one task;

an event terminator to terminate the event, the task recorder terminating recording of the one task responsive to terminating the event, wherein when the one task corresponds to the one or more personal tasks, the one task is allocated to the one or more project tasks based on a percentage stored in the second table; and

a server device in communication with the client devices to store, manage and allot the sets for tasks for each client device.

25. The system of claim 24, further comprising a project task mapper to map one or more of the project tasks to a number of the user defined tasks according to a set of mapping rules and store the mapping relationships in a task map table.

26. The system of claim 24, further comprising a notes mapper to record user comments about the one task.

27. The system of claim 24, further comprising a screen shot manager to record one or more screen shots for the one task.

28. The system of claim 24, wherein the processor assigns an event identifier to the event, the memory storing the event identifier in an event table.

29. The system of claim 28, further comprising an event task mapper to map the event identifier to the one task, the memory storing a mapping relationship between the event identifier and the one task in an event task map table.

30. The system of claim 24, further comprising:

a reporting engine in communication with the client devices and the server, the reporting engine reporting events recorded for a selected set of tasks according to a predetermined reporting scheme.

31. The system of claim 30, wherein the reporting engine is connected to the client devices and the server through a communication network.

32. The system of claim 24, wherein the server and the client devices are connected through a communication network.