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Time & Billing Lessons Welcome to the Access Time & Billing Seminar. Total running time is 5 hours, 38 minutes. Lessons
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IntroIn this lesson you will learn how to build a complete time and billing database in Microsoft Access, including setting up tables, forms, and queries to track billable hours for each customer. I will show you how to create a timer to track work, calculate billable and unbilled time, and adjust billing rates as needed. We will cover generating printable and email invoices, batch processing at the end of the month, and using record sets to automate billing tasks. You will also learn how to configure the database to email invoices using any SMTP server, including Gmail.TranscriptWelcome to the Time and Billing Seminar brought to you by AccessLearningZone.com. I am your instructor, Richard Rost. In this seminar, you will learn how to keep track of the billable hours you spend on each customer.We will build a timer that you can start and stop as you are working for them. Watch the billable hours click up. At the end of the month, generate invoices for all of your clients with the press of one button, and you can batch print or email them out. We will begin by setting up a new database, including many of the options that I prefer for my projects. I will show you how to create a simple customer table, customer form, and a customer list. We will build an order entry form with the related tables and queries and link it to our customer table. We will create a fully printable invoice report. Then we will create an order list so you can see all of the orders sorted by date. We will also create a product list. You can add products if that is something that you do with your database. If not, you can just skip this lesson. You are going to learn about record sets, which is an important programming method for manipulating data in Access. I will be using record sets for the time and billing material, so it is important that you learn how these work if you want to be able to manipulate the database and modify it for your own needs. Once we have the foundation for the database built, we will begin working with the time and billing material. We will create the table, query, and form. It will track our billable hours for each client. We will calculate the total billable time and the total unbilled time. We will put a button on the customer form so you can see all of the work you have done for them, or just the stuff you have not billed yet. We will build a timer with start and stop buttons. This will allow you to track your billing for each customer to the second if you so choose. I will show you how to round it up in 15 minute increments. If you spend six minutes, they are billed for the 15 minute block, but you can change it if you want to very easily. You can also change the billable hours manually. If you leave the clock running, for example, and decide that you really want to bill them for three hours instead of the six that the timer says, you can also adjust the rate for the different things that you do. For example, if you do research and you bill that differently than phone calls, bill that differently than personal meetings, and so on. Next, we will use record sets to generate an invoice for all of the unbilled hours that you have for that client. Then we will see how to generate invoices for everybody in the database who has unbilled hours. We will open up a form that will show all of your clients and the total amount of unbilled time. When you click one button, it generates invoices for everybody. Usually, you will do this at the end of the month. We will then see how to batch print or batch email your invoices. If you have an email address for the customer, you can send them their email invoices once a week, or whatever schedule you prefer. If not, at the end of the month, you can print out invoices for everyone for whom you do not have an email address and mail them out 90s style. 90s style is a joke, meaning like mail is from the 1990s. Anyways, I will show you how to send email using any SMTP server, including Gmail. It is strongly recommended that you have completed my Access Beginner, Expert, and Developer classes before taking this seminar. If not, at least watch my free Intro to VBA class that is on my website. I will be building the database with you in the videos from the ground up. However, I am not going to take a whole lot of time to cover the programming concepts because I have already covered them in these previous classes. So again, if you have never done any programming with Access before, I would strongly recommend at least up to my Developer 1 class. I will be using Microsoft 365, roughly equivalent to Access 2016 or 2019. However, everything in this seminar should work all the way back to Access 2007. So it is time to sit back, relax, and enjoy the Time and Billing Seminar brought to you by AccessLearningZone.com. QuizQ1. What is the primary purpose of the Time and Billing Seminar?A. To teach how to create complex graphics in Access B. To track billable hours spent on each customer C. To design marketing email templates D. To analyze customer demographics Q2. What feature will be created to track billable hours for customers? A. Automated data backup system B. Timer with start and stop buttons C. Calendar synchronization tool D. Customer feedback survey Q3. What is one of the benefits of the timer you will build? A. It automatically sends invoices every day B. It can track billing to the second and round up time increments C. It creates detailed marketing reports D. It converts reports into PowerPoint presentations Q4. What kind of table will you create in the seminar? A. Employee attendance table B. Customer table for tracking clients C. Event scheduling table D. Social media posts table Q5. If you do not have an email address for a customer, how can invoices be sent? A. Send them a text message B. Print and mail the invoices C. Upload to a web portal D. Fax the invoices automatically Q6. What programming concept is considered important in this seminar? A. Macros for Excel B. CSS for forms C. Record sets in Access D. SQL Server integration only Q7. What is recommended before taking this seminar? A. Knowledge of PowerPoint design B. Completing Access Beginner, Expert, and Developer classes C. Taking a marketing course D. Studying HTML and JavaScript Q8. The seminar demonstrates how to: A. Build an inventory control system B. Generate invoices for all clients with unbilled hours with one button C. Perform payroll calculations D. Analyze website traffic Q9. What versions of Access is this seminar compatible with? A. Only Access 2021 B. Access 2016, 2019, 365, and back to 2007 C. Only Access 2007 D. Only Access on Mac Q10. What tool will be used to send email invoices? A. Social media management tool B. Any SMTP email server, including Gmail C. FTP software D. Video conferencing software Answers: 1-B; 2-B; 3-B; 4-B; 5-B; 6-C; 7-B; 8-B; 9-B; 10-B DISCLAIMER: Quiz questions are AI generated. If you find any that are wrong, don't make sense, or aren't related to the video topic at hand, then please post a comment and let me know. Thanks. SummaryToday's video from Access Learning Zone covers the Time and Billing Seminar, where I'll teach you how to manage and track billable hours for your customers using Microsoft Access.We start by creating a brand new database. I will walk you through setting up some of the basic options that I personally prefer for my own Access projects. You will see how to make a straightforward customer table, a form for entering and viewing customer information, and a working customer list. After that, we'll move on to designing an order entry form, linking it properly with the underlying tables and queries connected to our customer table. I will then show you how to create a fully printable invoice report. This way, you will be able to review and print invoices easily. We will also make an order list to help you see all the orders sorted by date, along with a product list. If you don't need to manage products in your database, you are free to skip that portion. A big focus in this seminar is on record sets. Understanding record sets is crucial for manipulating data programmatically in Access. I will use record sets for much of the time and billing functionality, so I will make sure you know how record sets work before diving into the more advanced topics. Learning how to work with record sets will give you the flexibility to adjust and expand your own database later. Once we have the database structure in place, we turn our focus to the time and billing components. You will see how to create the tables, queries, and forms necessary to track billable hours for each client. I will explain how to calculate not just the total billable time for each customer but also track unbilled time. We will add a button on the customer form that lets you review all the work you've completed for that customer, or narrow it down to only show tasks that haven't been billed yet. Next, we'll build a timer feature. This timer includes start and stop buttons to record the time you spend working on a client's tasks, even down to the second if necessary. I'll also explain how to round up the recorded time to the next 15-minute increment, so if you work for six minutes, the system can bill for a full 15-minute block if that matches your billing policy. You can tailor the rounding interval to suit your own needs, and you have the option to change the recorded hours manually. For example, if you accidentally leave the timer running, you can adjust the billed time later. You can also set different billing rates for different types of work, whether it's research, phone consultations, in-person meetings, or any other tasks. Once you understand these basics, I will demonstrate how to use record sets for generating invoices. You can create invoices for all the unbilled hours for a specific client. I'll show you how to create invoices for every client in your database who has unbilled time. There will be a form that displays all your clients with the total amount of unbilled work, and with a single button press, you can generate invoices for everyone at once, which is especially useful at the end of the month. After that, we will discuss how to handle batch printing and batch emailing of your invoices. If you have a customer's email address, you will be able to send invoice emails directly, either weekly or on whatever schedule you prefer. For clients without email, you can print their invoices for mailing at the end of the month. I joke that this is a throwback to the 1990s because it involves using the postal service rather than email. I will explain how to set up your database to send email through any SMTP server, including Gmail. To get the most from this seminar, you should have already taken my Access Beginner, Expert, and Developer courses. If you haven't, I at least recommend going through my free Intro to VBA lesson on my website. I will be building the database together with you from scratch in these videos, but I will not revisit the basic programming concepts covered in those prior courses. So if you have never done any programming in Access, I highly suggest you complete at least up to the Developer 1 course before moving forward. This seminar uses Microsoft 365, which is very similar to Access 2016 and 2019. Almost everything I cover will also work back through Access 2007. So get comfortable and enjoy the Time and Billing Seminar from Access Learning Zone. For a full-length video tutorial with step-by-step instructions covering everything mentioned here, visit my website at the link below. Live long and prosper, my friends. Topic ListSetting up a new Access database for time and billingCreating a customer table and customer form Building a customer list form Designing an order entry form linked to customers Creating related tables and queries for order management Generating a printable invoice report Creating an order list sorted by date Building a product list and adding products Introduction to record sets for data manipulation Creating time and billing tables, queries, and forms Tracking billable hours for each client Calculating total billable and unbilled time Adding a button to view billable work per customer Building a timer with start and stop buttons Rounding billable time in 15 minute increments Manually adjusting billable hours Setting different billing rates for different activities Using record sets to generate invoices for unbilled hours Creating batch invoices for all clients with unbilled hours Displaying a list of clients with total unbilled time Batch printing invoices Batch emailing invoices to clients Sending email invoices using any SMTP server including Gmail |
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| Keywords: access seminar time and billing lessons PermaLink How To Track Billable Hours, Build Invoices, And Automate Time Billing For Clients in Microsoft Access |
