User Guide for iTookOff for iOS

iTookOff 1.6 User Guide

Welcome

Thank you and welcome to iTookOff Paid Leave Tracker, the best way to manage your paid leave on your iPhone or iPod Touch. This guide will help set you up and get you started. It was written with version 1.5 in mind.

iTookOff's core functionality is to accrue your time automatically when you open the app after date settings of your choosing. While care has been taken to fully account for time accrued over long periods of time, there may be special cases where your time may be not be exactly what it should be if you haven't opened the app for a while. iTookOff includes other features such archiving your used time off and a slick calendar view.

Setting it Up

Tap the "Settings" button to get to the settings screen. The settings on this screen have the following meanings in the app.

  • Show Time In - Allows you to set the display of time to hours or fractional days; ie. 8.0 hours or 1.0 day.
  • Enter Time In - Allows you to set the way you enter time in either hours or fractional days; ie. 8.0 hours or 1.0 days.
  • I Currently Have - In this section you must enter your current leave balances that you can get from HR. You can also change the names of the leave categories here.
  • And I Get - Enter the amount of time you get and the period in which you receive it. Periods are as follows:
    • Monthly - Time will be accrued when you open iTookOff after the 1st of the month.
    • Yearly - Time will be accrued when you open iTookOff after Yearly Anniversary date. (See the following section for details).
    • Bi-Monthly - Time will be accrued when you open iTookOff after the 1st and the 15th of the month.
    • 2 Weeks - Time will be accrued when you open iTookOff after Next Paycheck date. (See the following section for details).
  • Yearly Anniversary - If you have leave categories setup with "Yearly" this is the date after which your time will accrue.
  • Next Paycheck - If you have leave categories setup with "2 Weeks" this is the date after which your time will accrue. iTookOff automatically adds two weeks to this date after your leave accrues.
  • My Work Day is - Set how many hours long your workday is. iTookOff allows you to view time in days but it's internal databases use hours. It is important to set this accurately.
  • Roll Over - If you have leave categories setup with "Yearly," you can tell iTookOff to carry your time over into the next year or to drop it and start over.
  • Autofill My Email Address - You can enter your email address for iTookOff to automatically populate the To: field in the email backup. This is to save time and is not required for the email backup to work.
  • All Time, This Year, Work Year - On the front screen there is a summation of your time in the third column of the table. This setting allows you to modify how that time is shown.
    • All Time - All time will be counted in the sum.
    • This Year - Only the current year's time is counted in the sum.
    • Work Year - Only time occuring since the Yearly Anniversary of this year will be counted.
  • Delete All Saved Time Off - This is to nuke all of your saved time off. It is for those who do not wish to archive any of their data. It simply deletes all of your current days off. It does not affect archived data.

Archiving Your Data

Archiving your data allows you to clean out the main database to possibly speed up iTookOff or just to clean things up for the new year. To archive time, tap "Archive" on the home screen, and then tap the "Add" button on the top right. You can now choose a date to archive up to. All dates that occur before this time will be moved to your archive and taken out of the main tables.

There is no calendar view for archived data. Currently in 1.5, you can not edit archived time but in 1.5.1 you can un-archive or delete archived time.

When you do an email backup, all of your archived time is attached to the email as a comma separated value file (CSV) that you can open in excel.

Email Backup

Occasionally you should send yourself an email backup with your stored time. Email backups include attachments of your archive data in CSV format as well as any notes you've taken in plain text format. It is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED that you always do an email backup before updating iTookOff. Future versions may include an email backup reminder.

Adding Time Off

You can add time off by either tapping an unused day in the calendar or tapping the "Add Time" button on the home screen. On the "Take A Day Off" screen, you can enter how much time you'd like to take off, what type of time it is, the date, and a reason. You may also choose to Add the time instead of deducting it or ignoring accounting altogether.

If you enter time off in the future, iTookOff will show you how much time you will have at that future date. This may help you plan vacations.

You may enter more than one day's worth of time. iTookOff's calendar will denote this with a block of time and arrows.

Deleting Time Off

To delete time, you can simply swipe left or right on the day in the table. A red delete button will appear and you can tap it to delete the day. iTookOff will ask you if you'd like to add the time back to the category or not. This may help if you've made a mistake. If you delete added time, iTookOff will ask you if you'd like to deduct it from the proper category.

In 1.6 you may also delete time from the button found on the edit time screen.

For more information on the swiping action, please see below:

How to swipe and delete images in iTookOff for iOS

Contacting the Developer

My name is Eric, and I'd be happy to help you further if you are having trouble. Use the "Email Me" button if you have any comments, questions, or criticisms.

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