CRM

I understand on what you are saying, but I just want an nice way of it being in create content. I really want it to be a nice replacement for STORM as the module has a lot of bug and not quite complete.

Thanks for replying so quickly! :D

Cheers
Sam

I wouldn't mind trying this. I'm sure there wouldn't be much to do, as a lot of features wanted are available in other modules.

I was thinking of using OG as a company then add contacts that are related to the company as a user. This would allow the contacts to update there own contact details and track the project and submit bugs. This is why I wanted to be able to add a user using the create content.

Sam

Invoice Management would be a great feature, but I don't know of any module that would do this. Any ideas?

I was think of something in CCK and Views?

Sam

This project is comprehensive enough to justify a dedicated subdomain in most cases. Or run in a directory under multisite. Minimally it should be themeable separately from its parent site.

Initial screen:
Authenticated users get a screen with a list of projects which they have access permissions for.
This includes a sandbox project for demo and training.
Inauthenticated users are shown guest login details.
All may request access to specific projects/files.

A link to the proper page of the user manual book is on every page. Install/config documentation is separate.

Choose a project off the initial screen. There could also be a block with a dropdown list to choose projects. Optionally, choosing a project could log you out of one project on your timecard, and log you into the new one. Also, to log out of a project, you could be required to enter info as to what you were doing. Choosing a project for less than a few minutes would bill time to overhead instead. Supervisors would also have an administrative link on the project select page.

Each project shows a page to choose a function: Forum, Repository, Database, Timeline, etc. Some of these could be available in mini-app blocks.

Forum is rather basic, with the ability to deny access to threads.

File repository is basic upload & download with versioning. I'm not a real programmer, so I'm not yet familiar with CVS, so I don't know if it could be made to work well with business docs instead of code. The document's owner (company?) should control versions, cleanup to keep within disk quotas, archiving, etc. I use CADD files of several megabytes, and the trend is for files to get bigger. Users should be able to browse files based on company, date, filename, etc.

Timeline displays as a table. Time periods are in the table header, while task names are in links in the left column. Perhaps summary info in right column. You click on the task name to enter info. Projects can be defined in terms of predecessors, dates, durations, etc. There would be a summary timeline showing the schedule for the entire firm, which could be made public. Scrolling & zooming to different time periods. Subtasks. If my tasks are dependent on another player's, I could create the other player's task & transfer ownership of that task to them. I'm not all that interested in resource allocation, but if others want to add it, fine. I'm not trying to clone every feature of M$ Project, just produce a simple, useful tool.

The database would have several views: mainly a treeview, but with one key difference. Records can have more than one parent. Although I call it freeform, it can be structured. Perhaps this is too lengthy to adequately convey in this post. Briefly, records have parents, if parent = 0 it is a root record. Users can just start entering stuff in random records, then when it's apparent how to structure the DB, you add categories with parents. So telephone number could be a child record of person. After the categories are created, you could check for nonconforming records and properly categorize them.

Contact info & web links could easily be part of the database, but may justify separate modules. For example, granting access to a project should add the company to the project's contact page, Web links are broader in scope than projects; access control is to streamline the experience rather than enforce security. I envision users being able to promote their links so others can see them, and managers/supervisors can undo this.

The timeclock is simple, with ability to clock into projects and track tasks, phases, etc. and leave comments, and output invoicing info.

I'm thinking of two overseeing roles: supervisors control access to projects, and managers control within projects. So those with manager permission would have a manage link on their project page.

Not a lot to it. Note that AutoDesk and others sell systems of varying capabilities for hundreds of dollars per month, so the possibility for providing service is huge.

An other idea would be, a company as og and a project as sub og

Sam

Table has fields for personID, timeIn, timeOut, projectID, projectPhase, taskID, comments, etc.
Related tables link project, phase, task numbers to translatable phrases. People already have names & other info through Drupal.

Worker Form has dropdown lists for the above, and pushbuttons to clock in/out (starting to sound more like JS than PHP). Possibly login/logout, or rely on Drupal and OS login/out.

Administrative form restricts availability (You can't clock in to a project phase that was finished last year, etc.), controls billing (this person is billed at $X, this task is billed at $X). Weird things happen (he'll kill us if we bill him for that!) so the capacity to make adjustments after the fact is needed. Perhaps a middleware layer with business rules & exceptions, system of hooks (very Drupal-like).

Reporting layer consists of a query builder that's comprehensible to someone who's taken a correspondence course in office management, a query engine (could probably borrow someone's library) which probably puts stuff in variables, and finally a theme layer. Need to be able to filter queries by time range, employees, project, etc.
Proper bookkeeping practice involves periodic close-out: once something's been billed it gets archived away so it can't get billed again. Option to show individual items or summaries. Output should probably be a table, with plenty of classes & ID's for CSS magic.

Oops, I've been thinking service-oriented. I'm being selfish. Of course you need to bill for things, too. Is it your intent to expand this into an order/inventory system? Should probably eventually be part of the suite. Seems like we need the ability to look up pricing, enter quantities, use a middleware layer to determine the extent of haggling,

Sounds like a medium complexity piece of work. You should probably start with a simple db that tracks hours worked, items sold, and generates simple reports, and go from there.

Subs

"All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them." -

-- Galileo Galilei

lfhub.com is the community I am building now..I wish to learn programing..any mentors out there?
:)