can you help me solve a puzzle? / Problem?

[Bluebell]

Ok I'm having a puzzle over how to do something and normally quite able to think about things but in this situation I don't get how to do it!

I have found a brilliant app called hours billing which means that I can record the times that children arrive and leave by pressing a 'timer' button. I can then print out a report showing the attendance record for the week/month with exact times of arrival and hometime.

On top of this it works out the hourly rate and calculates what the parent owes me. all good so far. I can even convert the duration into an invoice and e-mail to parent.

There is also an option to enter payments which you can put as a deposit/retainer and then mark off later against the invoice or against an already created invoice.

This is going to be brilliant for producing attendance records for legal Ofsted requirements - especially when I do pickups or meet parents somewhere, rather than being at home and being able to write it down.
Also good for year end accounts and producing money received.

BUT and here is the problem I can not seem to solve - what happens when the actual hours attended do not match the contracted, therefore billed, hours?

I can not adjust the time attended because that is the reason I use this app - to record actual attendance of child!

I could have 2 durations - attended hours and contracted hours and only invoice the contracted hours to the parent (or for record keeping purposes) but that seems to be doubling my work as i would have to enter timings twice!

I could just produce the invoice but then parents will wonder why they are being charged more/less than the actual used hours or there will be a discrepancy for an invoice that is underpaid - say parent is 5 minutes earlier picking up and 5 minutes late picking up - I don't charge for that but the app does!!

I can ask the timer to round up or round down but obviously all parents are different. I can change timings to 'fit' the contracted hours but that defeats the point of having accurate timings for Ofsted records! For example I have a mum who is contracted 5.5 hours. She works shifts so if she picks up an hour early she still gets charged the same, if she's a bit late I don't charge because of the flexible nature of her job and if she is an hour or more then I charge the extra! Most of my parents pay in advance so I won't need to invoice them as such but I do need to match my invoices to my income for book-keeping reasons!

The only other thing I can think of to do is at the end of the year/month produce a credit note for discrepancy purposes to balance books explaining what it is for. The app doesn't allow for this so I would have to do it myself, but I just feel there should be a simpler way!

Does anyone use apps for this purpose? How would I solve this problem it is really puzzling me!

Any help appreciated!

[The Juggler]

lol just reading this made my head spin. sorry I will be not one ounce of help but hope someone comes along soon with a solution

[Bluebell]

you've made me laugh and as I posted it I thought I'm sure I'm over-thinking this here and I should just get a life!!

[FussyElmo]

Cant you just use it as a tool for attendance hours and then carry on invoicing in your normal way

[Rick]

My rule is if something which is supposed to help ends up being more complicated then don't do it!

[Kiddleywinks]

My rule is if something which is supposed to help ends up being more complicated then don't do it!

^^^ What Rick said

[supermumy]

I'm confused already lol :/

[bunyip]

you've made me laugh and as I posted it I thought I'm sure I'm over-thinking this here and I should just get a life!!

Not sure you're over-thinking so much as over-tech-ing.

There's low-tech, high-tech and excess-tech.

Sometimes it really is easier just to work it all out on the back of an old envelope.

[Bluebell]

Thank you - I've figured it out!
Gonna use it primarily as an attendance tool and print out attendance record at end of each week. If there are any parents that need invoicing I can adjust times to contracted hours without effecting the attendance record because i've already printed that out! Knew I was making it too complicated! doh!

[Bluebell]

Not sure you're over-thinking so much as over-tech-ing.

There's low-tech, high-tech and excess-tech.

Sometimes it really is easier just to work it all out on the back of an old envelope.

tee hee - I did just have to write the process down on a bit of paper so I could figure out what I needed to do!

[rickysmiths]

Goodness how complicated!! Than goodness for good old fashioned paper!

My trusty Pacey Attendance Register and Accounts Book do exactly the same thing and it takes 2 mins a day to record the attendance in every day and half an hour to do all the accounts for the week at the most. At the end of the year I have all my totals for my tax return and I have an annual sheet for each family for what they have paid me.

[FussyElmo]

Is it an iphone app as I cant seem to find it on android. Im always looking for new ways on recording attendance

[Bluebell]

its an iphone app called Hours billing. there are others called 'hours time-tracker', 'hours tracker Free - time tracking and time sheets',so maybe able to search for something similar that works for you.

[Bluebell]

Goodness how complicated!! Than goodness for good old fashioned paper!

My trusty Pacey Attendance Register and Accounts Book do exactly the same thing and it takes 2 mins a day to record the attendance in every day and half an hour to do all the accounts for the week at the most. At the end of the year I have all my totals for my tax return and I have an annual sheet for each family for what they have paid me.

Ricky you are so organised!! I'm organised at writing in my income and arrival times etc -( most of the time!) but leave it til the end of the year to add it all up!
I like the idea of pressing a 'stop watch' that times the arrival and departure of children and then adds everything up!

[bunyip]

Goodness how complicated!! Than goodness for good old fashioned paper!

My trusty Pacey Attendance Register and Accounts Book do exactly the same thing and it takes 2 mins a day to record the attendance in every day and half an hour to do all the accounts for the week at the most. At the end of the year I have all my totals for my tax return and I have an annual sheet for each family for what they have paid me.

"App" = a word invented by tech-heads who can't cope with a big word like "application".

Always makes me wonder: if they can't even manage 70%+ of the word, how much exactly is missing from the program(me) ?

[FussyElmo]

"App" = a word invented by tech-heads who can't cope with a big word like "application".

Always makes me wonder: if they can't even manage 70%+ of the word, how much exactly is missing from the program(me) ?

Now now Bunyip apps/widgets will rule the world

[WibbleWobble]

Now now Bunyip apps/widgets will rule the world

bunyip doesnt have a widget......he likes to do things by hand!


oh my word!

wibble the double entendress! x

[jackie 7]

i just like my attendance book. then bill for contracted hours and any overtime

[bunyip]

bunyip doesnt have a widget......he likes to do things by hand!


oh my word!

wibble the double entendress! x

If you ever in need a double entendre I'll be happy to give you one.