1DayLater

Server downtime - should be resolved shortly

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 20:42:25 +0000

Apologies to any of our users who are experiencing downtime or slow speeds at the moment. Our hosting supplier Rackspace recently issued the following warning:

“At approximately 1:15 PM CT, the Rackspace Cloud Operations team identified a network traffic issue. Currently customer sites may be down or experiencing latency in their connectivity. Our operations team is actively working to resolve the issue”

Rackspace have always worked diligently to resolve these kinds of issues in the past so we expect that the downtime should not last long. Thanks for your patience.

The 1DayLater Team

Designers, now you can create customized 1DayLater invoices

Wed, 23 Nov 2011 18:03:00 +0000

Regular 1DayLater users will have noticed several improvements to 1DayLater’s PDF invoicing tool over the last few weeks; but what news for our designer community?

Well, we listened to popular demand and made it easy for designers to create their own invoice templates. We even wrote a short user guide to help. Non-designers should be seeing more customization options next year.

A case study: Digitalized Web Design

Web design company ‘Digitalized’ wanted to create an invoice which their clients would recognise immediately. They amended the standard 1DayLater template to include their own colour scheme and business logo.

The result is a sleek and professional looking template which can be populated straight from the PDF invoice tool in the ‘business tools’ section of 1DayLater.

Needing some inspiration for your design?

If you need some ideas to help you get started, we recommend you check out 1DayLater’s Flickr page. Here you can find all of the current non-customized templates for 1DayLater, including some from our friend Balazs Ertl Bakos.

Have you designed an invoice template which others would use?

Get in touch and send us your design. If we think other 1DayLater users would use it, then we will give you a free premium licence to thank you for your hard work - Send this to designs@1daylater.com

The 1DayLater user guide is now online

Sun, 09 Oct 2011 14:15:00 +0100

The simpler things are, the better.

And while we’ve tried to make sure that 1DayLater is as simple as can be, we appreciate that new users may find some things a little confusing at first!

For that reason we have put together a basic user guide, which includes everything from logging an entry, to searching your activities and the more advanced stuff such as creating your own invoice templates.

https://sites.google.com/a/1daylater.com/1daylater/home

For regular 1DayLater users we’ve also included some of the lesser known tips and tricks. In fact I’m pretty sure that there will be something new in there for everyone.

We hope this helps you get the most out of your 1DayLater experience.

Thanks,

Chris

Some recent improvements to 1DayLater

Thu, 11 Aug 2011 22:30:39 +0100

Well it’s been a little while since we updated the blog; I figured it was about time we told you about some of the recent improvements that have been made to 1DayLater.

The main thing that our users have been asking for is a mechanism that allows customer details and invoice defaults to be saved. And that’s what we’ve done…

Invoice defaults

Now each time you select a client or project you will get an additional option to save details. As well as saving the client address, this will also save any other pertinent information such as your hourly rate for that client.

Although this is a fairly minor change we think it will make the invoicing tool much more functional. We’ve already had some positive feedback from regular users, saying that it’s saving time when working on multiple projects.

Templates

The other main improvement is with our templates. We’ve teamed up with our new pal Balazs Ertl-Bakos from Hungary to improve 1DayLater’s range of templates and we can now offer a customised service for users who need something extra.

Although this aspect of 1DayLater is still in its infancy, Balazs has shown great talent and skill and we think that user will be impressed by the new service.

Check out the new range of templates

For any users who want something a bit more personalised, please get in touch and we can introduce you to Balazs. If you need one of the standard templates in high resolution then please contact support@1daylater.com

Well that’s it for this blog post, but hopefully more updates and improvements coming soon!

Cheers

Chris

Carpooling - Considering "Mileage Per Person" rather than Miles Per Gallon

Wed, 27 Apr 2011 08:00:05 +0100

Last week we summarized 5 tips to help you track mileage and improve your cars Miles Per Gallon (MPG), but what about other options? If you’re environmentally conscious then maybe Carpooling could be a great alternative to driving everywhere on your own.

Considering the environment

Here’s some interesting food for thought. According to WorldBank (World Development Indicators), there were at least 462 passenger cars for every 1000 people in the UK in 2008 (and a similar amount for the USA). In Monoco it was as high as 732 cars per 1000 people - that’s almost 1 car per person!

No doubt this figure has risen considerably in the past 3 years, but that’s certainly enough to make me stop and think about my own car use.

Start Carpooling

Carpooling (aka car-sharing, lift-sharing, ride-sharing and covoiturage), is the sharing of car journeys so that more than one person travels in a car.

The idea is that, if you’re driving somewhere and have some spare seats in your car, then why not let others travel with you. On the flipside, you might want to find a lift with someone driving your way.

Any tools to help me get started?

One great website which we’ve found is CarShare. It’s free to sign up and shows you (in map view) any Carshare journeys happening in your area.

There’s also a pretty detailed help section which should alleviate some of those worries you might have after watching slasher-films like The Hitcher ;-)

Of course if CarShare seems a bit daunting, you could always look at setting up your own CarShare with workmates. Not only will you be saving yourself some money, but you’ll be doing your bit for the environment too. Just don’t forget to get everyone to chip in for petrol!

6 budgeting and money tracking tips to keep your bank balance healthy

Mon, 25 Apr 2011 15:17:00 +0100

If you are newly married, saving up for a big expense or trying to claw your way out of debt, then managing a tight budget could be the answer to your problems. With money-related stress affecting us all at some point in our lives, it’s great to know that there 6 practical tips that can help us through the hard times.

1) Maximize Your Savings

Figure out how much money you can realistically save each month from your budget. Set up a standing order to deposit this into a savings account each month. This will serve as a handy buffer if you fall into any difficulties later on.

2) Use cash for essentials

Taking a pen and paper, work out exactly how much money you need for your everyday living costs (eating, travelling expenses etc). At the start of each week, withdraw this amount and divide it equally into paper envelopes. Name each one: “Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday” to serve as a reminder.

Just remember not to use your card as this is the quickest way to lose track!

3) Ditch your “bad habits”

If you’re a smoker or a drinker, alchohol and cigarettes are an obvious expense to cut from your spending. This could be a great opportunity to make some positive changes to your health as well as reaching your financial goals. Other bad habits like gambling can go too!

4) Pay down your credit card debt

The high interest rates on credit cards make them one of the worst forms of debt. But there are some logical steps that you can take to pay them back effectively and quickly:

Focus on the credit card with the highest rate of interest.
Pay back as much as you can each month without getting yourself into further difficulty.
Pay the minimum balance on any remaining cards - this will stop you from getting any bank charges.

5) Track your Money

The biggest hurdle to overcome in making a budget work is self-discipline. Once you’ve been budgeting for a few weeks it can be easy to fall back into old habits. Keeping track of your daily spending is a great motivator and can give you an early warning sign if any expenses. Track your money with 1DayLater

6) Analyse your spending habits

You’ve tracked your spending habits, now its time to make some practical use of this knowledge. Figure out if any of your expenses can be reduced or removed completely. Are you spending a lot of money on restaurant food each month? Could you be saving money on gas? (check out our earlier blog article on finding the cheapest gas prices in your area)

Lastly, don’t lose faith!

Keeping a budget is pretty hard work. It takes discipline and self-motivation, so focussing on your goals will be key to your success. I’d suggest attaching a photo of that big expense or dream holiday to your fridge or somewhere else where you’re likely to see it. Now good luck and don’t give up!

PDF invoicing is now in Beta

Mon, 11 Apr 2011 11:58:00 +0100

Hello everybody, I’m Chris and I’m new around these parts. Rather than describing what it is that I do, I thought that I’d reveal some new 1DayLater features which I’ve been working on. Much better!

PDF Invoices

So it’s been a good while since there have been any major changes to invoicing within 1DayLater. The simple option of being able to copy and paste information from an excel spreadsheet has suited many of our users just fine.

Users will soon have the choice between excel and PDF invoice formats

Although a simple spreadsheet invoice may be adequate for most people, myself included, I figured that it would be nice to give 1DayLater users an alternative option and throw some PDF invoices into the mix.

An early peek into the PDF invoices which 1DayLater can generate

What we’ve tried to focus on is creating a professional-looking, hassle-free invoice layout which will appeal to users all across the globe. With slight variations in what international users are accustomed to seeing on their invoices it’s no small feat!

We’ve already opened this feature up to our 100 most active users so that we can gather some critical feedback. I have to say that the response so far has been great - and you guys really speak your mind which is always great from a developer perspective!

Of course if anyone else fancies having their say, now is the time. To access PDF invoices:

1) Log in to 1DayLater as usual

2) Visit the new Beta dashboard - http://1daylater.com/dashboard_beta

3) Go to the ‘Business Tools’ section

4) Click ‘PDF Invoicing’

(note: you will have to be signed into 1DayLater before accessing this link - otherwise you will be taken to the old dashboard)

After we’ve gathered everyone’s feedback (and assuming there are no major issues) we’ll be launching the feature en-masse in a week or so. I can’t wait!

Thanks all, look forward to your comments / critique

Chris

Some cool websites that will help you find the cheapest petrol in your area

Wed, 06 Apr 2011 20:25:00 +0100

I’ve been trawling the world wide web recently to find some useful resources for 1DayLater users. I figured, hey as well as giving you a snazzy tool to log mileage, how nice would it be if we could show you how to save mileage too!

So here are the absolute best sites I’ve found to help you compare petrol prices in your area.

Gasbuddy - as the name suggests this is one from our American friends - but a local search seemed to work just fine for me (see below). You can drill into the map and and get a run-down of petrol prices in your area - how cool is that!

Petrolprices - another great site that tells you the cheapest petrol stations in your area for diesel, unleaded and LPG - you just enter your postcode and how far you’re willing to travel.

The great thing about this site is that you can also get text alerts which notify you of any price changes. There’s even an app - although I haven’t had a chance to look at this yet

So those are two pretty awesome tools which I hope you find really useful! Please drop me any other suggestions if you know any and I’ll add them to my list

What is the proper way to enter time, money or mileage into 1DayLater?

Mon, 04 Apr 2011 14:03:00 +0100

If you are using 1DayLater.com to track your business activities, you might have noticed that values can be entered as either: positive (+ve) or negative (-ve).

Although our positive and negative conventions will seem straightforward to accountants and bookkeepers, I thought an informative blog would be useful for everyone else!

Logging Time

(+ve) - used for everyday time activities
(-ve) - used for amendments

Logging Mileage

(+ve) - used for everyday mileage entries
(-ve) - used for amendments

Logging Money

(+ve) - used for income
(-ve) - used for expenses

If you’re still confused or would like to give us feedback on this or any of our other features, please get in touch using our online feedback form!

5 things you can do before driving to improve your mileage efficiency

Sun, 20 Mar 2011 17:00:47 +0000

Here are some practical tips which can help you save mileage before you even set foot in your car.

Plan your route well - Take a look at Viamente, a great web-based software which can help you plan routes with multiple destinations - http://www.viamente.com

Lighten your load - Carrying an extra 100 pounds of weight can increase your fuel consumption by 1-2%. This is especially important if you stop and go often. Light cars also perform better for mileage, something to consider when you are buying a new one!

Properly inflate your tyres - Keep your tyres fully inflated as much as possible as this can reduce fuel consumption by up to 3%. Most tyres lose about 1 PSI per month, so checking your tyres monthly at the garage isn’t a bad idea.

Use synthetic oil - Using synthetic oil in your car can help you save around 5% gas on average

Figure out your cars optimum speed - Different types of cars perform better at different speeds - this is usually around 50mph. Your cars optimum speed is the minimum speed your car is running at in its highest gear

Next week - 10 things you can do during driving to improve your mileage!

Track our blog on feedburner!

Fri, 18 Mar 2011 11:57:31 +0000

For regular tips on mastering the art of time tracking and being more productive; head over to our feedburner and become a fan of this blog!

http://feeds.feedburner.com/1daylater

Is HMRC cracking down on people who submit fraudulent claims? Can people really get away with it anyway?

Thu, 17 Mar 2011 15:53:00 +0000

There has been some talk online recently that UK tax body, HMRC are cracking down on fraudulent mileage claims. I tried to find a decent independent source to confirm this but I’m having no luck so far - I’ll update this blog once I do.

It’s fair to say though, that fraudulent mileage claims represent a real problem for HMRC (and for large companies). Mileage Auditing firm; The Miles Consultancy said that in a recent survey of their company database, 25% of employees admitted to giving fraudulent mileage claims.

Now I imagine that once upon a time, people could probably get away with sneakily bumping up their mileage claims for the taxman. However now that we all live in a world of software and automation…I reckon that we are all just blips on a bell curve somewhere…waiting to be analysed!

Thinking back to what I remember about statistics from school, I would hazard a guess that when all of our data gets pulled together by the powers that be, it looks a little something like this graph.

Now I just couldn’t resist a bit of random statistics (non maths-nerds - close your eyes for this bit)

When you have a normally distributed graph like the one shown above, the majority of the population (around 99%) lies within 2 standard deviations of that average centre line. Oooh I remembered some of my school lessons! The gist being that an HMRC statistician could easily identify any people on these extremities!

So, if you’re a taxi driver or a haulage person, your average will be way over to the right hand side as you drive further than most people each week. But of course HMRC will know all of this as they have data from millions of people in all sorts of different professions….

It’s the guys on the far right hand side who the tax office will have their watchful eyes on of course. If you’re over on the left then you’re not claiming enough and should be using mile tracking software; 1DayLater to track your business miles!

Anyway, so the short answer to the question “Can I get away with submitting fraudulent expense claims” = no (in my opinion) shouldn’t be scared of real eyes watching them in this day and age, it’s the statistical eyes that they need to be afraid of!

Mileage claims - are you claiming the right tax relief for your mileage?

Tue, 15 Mar 2011 13:09:00 +0000

Claiming the right amount of tax relief for your business mileage could be saving you hundreds of pounds each year.

Although there are several things you must be aware of, maximising your claim will really just require a combination of good discipline and proper organisation. Here’s how you do it:

Firstly, you will need to find out your country’s Approved mileage rate

In the UK, there are 2 sets of rates depending on the total number of miles you have travelled in any given tax year:

For 0 - 10,000 miles, these rates are:

40p / mile - cars and vans

24p / mile - motorcycles

20p / mile - bicycles

After 10,000 miles, this goes down to:

25p / mile - cars and cans

24p / mile - motorcycles

20p / mile - bicycles

I have to admit that I laughed the first time I saw this table, kudos to whoever travels more than 10,000 business miles on a bicycle in a year :) I want to meet that guy!

Calculated over an entire year, this could add up to a tidy sum, particularly if you or your staff are often out on the road visiting clients.

The next step now that you know your Approved Mileage Rates is to get in the habit of recording your business trips. - naturally we would recommend 1DayLater for this ;-)

The things you will need to record are:

Distance travelled (remember to check your cars speedometer before and after you make a trip)

Reason for the trip and who you visited - you will only be able to reclaim mileage for business-related trips so this is really important.

Date of journey

And if you’re lucky enough to have an accountant then that’s it….they should deal with everything else….simply hand over your mileage log or 1DayLater mileage claim and relax. Lovely!

Time Management Tips - no. 6 - are you working towards your goals?

Tue, 08 Feb 2011 17:14:00 +0000

You can work as hard as you want, and as efficiently, but if it’s not bringing you any closer to your goals then it’s time to take stock.

“If you’re going nowhere, you’re guaranteed to get there”

Effective time tracking can help you to understand if your working habits are congruent with your goals. Here is a simple method you can use to make sure you’re working ‘clever’ rather than just working hard.

Step 1-Record your daily activities

Using 1DayLater, record your daily activities over a week - or better still; over a month.

Step 2-Rank your activities in decending order

Rank your activities in descending order, with the most time-hungry tasks at the top of the list.

Step 3-Compare with your ideal case

Write our a separate list of projects and tasks in the order they should be in. Compare this to the real case; showing what you actually spent time on. Is the weight of each task mirrored by your actual ‘real life’ activities. If the ‘actual’ and the ‘ideal’ don’t mesh, then why not? Are you spending too much time on low priority tasks?

Try to look of your ‘bigger picture’ and see which tasks will benefit you in the long term. If these are being neglected it’s likely you’re getting sidetracked by low importance, urgent tasks (see our earlier article on this).

Improve

Now, armed with your newfound knowledge you can start improving the way that you work on a daily basis…

Thinking about 'Time' rather than 'Money' influences your happiness!

Wed, 02 Feb 2011 14:01:00 +0000

Hello chaps, I came across a recent study carried out by ‘The Association for Psychological Science’ and wanted to share it with our lovely 1DayLater users.

Researchers at TAPS have discovered something interesting; if we actively think in terms of our time, rather than in terms of money - we are motivated to change our habits and spend more time socialising with friends and family - behaviours that are associated with greater happiness!

^ take this cup of coffee for example, he’s already doing it!

This idea might seem really simple, but I think it’s pretty profound. By shifting our perceptions from money-focus to time-focus we can actually make ourselves happier!

I know my friends at HappiestHQ will enjoy this notion. If you get the chance, sign up to their Beta list and keep an eye out for their happyness app this year - http://happie.st/

So yes; there’s never been a better reason to start tracking your time and improving that all-important work-life balance. And before you go, take one last look at the Happy Coffee Cup; you know you want to :)

Our redesign is now up and running!

Tue, 16 Nov 2010 19:13:00 +0000

So our new redesign has finally gone live. Hurrah! We crossed our fingers and hoped that the innevitable firefighting would be kept to a minimum, and it has been. Touch wood!

One of the main things our users will notice straight away is that modules are now segmented, so they are no longer all on one page. A lot of the reasons behind this will become clear once we add ‘teams’ next year, but we feel it separates 1DayLater’s functions nicely.

Another useful addition to the new site is multiple timers. We had several requests for this feature on our feedback form, with users suggesting that it would be a good idea to be able to start and stop different projects as they flicked between tasks.

There are some other nifty improvements too; including a search feature that sits separately from user’s historical data, a handy auto-fill for export, mileage claim and invoicing features and an improved demo system.

So far Feedback on the changes has been overwhelmingly positive. Here are a few of my personal favourites (via Twitter):

“Best thing about the new @1DayLater is the multiple timers, very useful!”
- KristianLunde

“Loving the new @1DayLater redesign - looking funky retro in IE and smooth as a pebble in Firefox”
- AidanGarnish

Of course we’re up for criticism too!. Please let us know your opinions via our online feedback form or be commenting on this blog

Time Management Tips - no.5 - making sure you're always on time for meetings

Wed, 20 Oct 2010 16:58:00 +0100

With our tip of the day you’ll never be late to another meeting again ;)

Ask yourself - how many times have you stumbled into an important meeting late, sweaty and unprepared? Your potential client watching beads of sweat drip from your forehead…not a good first impression!

I’m sure this happens to everyone at some point. With so many distractions around us it’s no wonder. But there’s a simple little mental trick to avoid it happening. Cue the “super hot date” scenario.

The thinking goes…

If, instead of the meeting penciled in your diary, you actually had a SUPER HOT DATE planned (let your imagination paint the specifics here) you would probably do anything to make sure you gave yourself good time beforehand. No mountain goat, force-field, ocean or giant banana peel would stop you getting there.

I was going to put a picture of Jessica Rabbit here…but the banana won!

So that’s it, simple. With hot date on the mind, you’ll turn up well dressed, on time and well prepared…viola!

Of course if you want to become a true time management guru and take things to the next level…

Step 1 - Record your interuptions

Over a normal week you can use 1DayLater to record how much time you spend dealing with interuptions. An interuption can be thought of as something which makes you deviate from your daily plan.

Step 2 - Figure out your daily average

Divide your weekly total by the number of days you worked

Step 3 - Factor this into your everyday diary

Now you know how much you’re likely to be interupted each day. You can factor this into your diary, planning sufficient time before your meetings in case something comes up. Magic!

Time Management Tips - no.4 - ditch your bad email habits

Sun, 12 Sep 2010 20:02:00 +0100

This week I want to focus on emails and why it’s a good idea to ditch that compulsive ‘empty at all times’ email habit! If you’re one of the 68% of people in the UK who check emails during their time off this habit is not only killing your productivity, it’s interrupting your social life too!

Since starting 1DayLater over a year ago I’ve learned a lot about productivity. In the same way that you would expect a ticket inspector to buy a bus ticket, you would also expect the directors of a time tracking software to know a little bit about good time management.

And by far one of the most difficult habits I’ve tried to develop is centred around emails, and avoiding a productivity-draining ‘empty at all times’ email habit.

It’s not surprising that we are all compelled to act instinctively on a new email. By nature we’ve evolved to be curious as a survival mechanism to keep an eye out for predators. Although nowadays literally getting eaten isn’t much of a concern, having our precious time gnawed away by emails is still a pain!

These compulsive habits are also no doubt why those outstanding Facebook updates maintain such a power over you. (I recently committed ‘Facebook Suicide’ to get away from this particular distraction)

Luckily there are some things we can do to stop emails interrupting our business.

Getting into some good email habits:

Only check your emails at certain times of the day for a designated amount of time. Morning, midday and afternoon should do the trick

Turn off email notifications in between

Be selective about what you read - you will instinctively know which emails are the time wasting ones so try and get into the habit of simply not reading and then archiving them.

If people question why you haven’t read their emails tell them that this is your new habit. They should respect it

More hardcore phase

To take this to the next level

Only sweep emails

Only reply to urgent emails

Leave everything else (tricky at first)

The ability to work uninterrupted on tasks should have a profound effect on your productivity. Not only that, you will develop a reputation for only answering important emails (I know this is true because my brother is a true master of this habit and people have learned to send the less urgent emails to me!)

And when people stop bothering you with trivial matters you can spend more time on the things which really make a difference. Magic!

Shall I compare thee to a 1DayLater timesheeting system....?

Mon, 07 Jun 2010 20:35:00 +0100

If I asked you to think of timesheets you would probably think of last thing on a Friday afternoon, loads of grief, wasted time and drab spreadsheets. A necessary evil.

Well no more! When local company and Centre for Digital Excellence, Codeworks recently asked us to help save them admin time and costs we went to it with a venguence. And now we’re making timesheets beeeautiful!

A work in progress…Part of the Codeworks <-> 1DayLater dashboard.

Data is fed in from Microsoft Outlook and then presented in an easy-to-read timeline, with different colours representing different projects / clients supported.

Our central dashdoard (shown above) then allows managers to observe, at a glance, what their collegues have been up to. Users can then see forecasted activities, generate timesheets or run a number of different reports.

And because data has already been inputted once into Outlook there is little need for organisational change, a major selling point for larger companies.

We will be getting some feedback from Codeworks staff using the system in the next few weeks. We are hoping that the result will be reduced admin time, admin costs and improved reporting in general.

Ps. although it is an awesome compliment it’s probably not a good idea to compare your missus / mister to a 1DayLater timesheeting system ;)

1DayLater phone apps are almost here!

Wed, 12 May 2010 18:20:00 +0100

Over this last month we have been waylaid slightly from our feature roadmap by a large corporate tender we recently won.

The result (which you might have noticed) has been less frequent tweaks and improvements to the site. But rest assured that we are still here working hard and that there are some very exciting new things to come out of our current development.

Despite our current corporate goings-on, the latest build of our 1DayLater phone app is finally almost release-worthy. We now just need to do some user-feedback testing and then get it out into the big wide world of the app stores.

————A screenshot of the 1DayLater i-phone app————-

The 1DayLater phone app will make it easy to log snippets of information while on the move, whether that’s time spent with a client, miles travelled, or daily expenses accrued.

It will be available first on i-phone, and then on Blackberry, Google android and Nokia N-Series. We expect that this will make our service exponentially more useful for many users!

If you would like to be one of the first users to test the app, please drop me an email. We would very much value your feedback - feedback@1daylater.com

Paul