Thursday, May 25, 2023

Follow a simple step to get a Huge Discount for our Timesheet Software


We are selling timesheet software with the source for many years. Our timesheet software is developed using PHP and MySQL so that customers can use the script without spending additional money for the software as PHP and MySQL are free. And, almost all the hosting companies are providing hosting with support for PHP and MySQL. As we provide the script with source code, customers can make any kind of changes to make it suitable for their own needs. And, I am doing custom changes and adding new features for affordable hourly charges. So, this timesheet will be really useful for entrepreneurs, especially the new entrepreneurs running their startups with less budget. Because they need not spend money every month for each employee. Though this software is providing a lot of benefits to buyers, this timesheet is currently not selling well. So, I decided to do paid promotions. But it will make me increase the price to handle the promotion expenses.  I don't want to do that. After doing a lot of analysis, I decided to give a Huge discount to the person who retweet this tweet about the timesheet. I will believe it will help to increase the Timesheet Sales while doing promotion without spending money. But this approach may decrease my profit. I believe it can be managed from the opportunity it creates for doing custom changes.


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Wednesday, May 17, 2023

Developer Guide for our Timesheet Software


We are selling our timesheet script for more than 12 years. We are already providing demo video, live demo, and screenshots for helping potential buyers understand our timesheet software. Even created a video for explaining about developing a timesheet software using PHP and MySQL.

I disabled the buy button on the sales page a few months back, as I thought this timesheet may not be much useful now as it was developed 12 years back.  But many people contacted me to buy the timesheet even after disabling the buy button. It made me enable the buy button again. And, I updated the script to make it work with the latest PHP version (PHP 8). 

After doing various analyses, I came to know that our timesheet script is much useful for many kinds of companies even though it was developed long back, and it is very inexpensive. Moreover, it comes with source code so that customers can do any kind of custom changes.

Some people asked me about Developer Guide for this timesheet software. Initially, internally we maintained Developer Guide for our timesheet software. But we found it difficult to update it continuously according to new changes made with the timesheet software.  I thought not having Developer Guide is better than having an Outdated guide which can create confusion.  

Anyway, as people are asking about Developer Guide, I have decided to keep Developer Guide content in this blog post. I am planning to keep only key information so that it can be updated easily.


Developer Guide for QulityPoint Timesheet Software

(updated on 17th May 2023)

It is a web-based application. We can access it from any web browser.  Before installing this software, we need to make sure that the server is set up with Apache, PHP, and MySQL.

The install script is available at /install/install.php

The purpose of this install.php file is to get details (e.g MySql Db details, Siteadmin details) from users while installing the software and for creating database tables and creating config.php file with database connection details.

Apart from db connection details, we can change the Browser title text and siteadmin email id in the config.php file. And, the functions.php is included in this config file.

The config.php needs to be included in all other files. 

Apart from the install folder, this script comes with the below folders.

csv -> This folder is for keeping .csv files that are created when using "Download CSV" feature from the report page. We need to make sure that this folder is having write permission to store the files. And, you can delete the old files from here.

fpdf -> Library for creating PDF report files. There won't be any need to make any changes here. If you want to use the latest version of fpdf library, you can update this folder. But you need to make sure that the latest version is not requiring any changes in the usage files.

css -> For storing stylesheet files. There will be a separate .css file for the install script.

siteadmin -> All the php files used in siteadmin login are stored in this folder.

img -> This folder is stored for keeping the logo and icon images.

jquery-autocomplete -> It is a script library for providing auto-complete feature in the drop-down/select list.

The functions.php file stores all the reused custom functions. So, need to be very careful in making any changes here. Because changing the function for one page may affect the other pages which use the same function. Though the functions are created to get inputs through function parameters/arguments, some of them are using some global variables also. So, we need to be careful in renaming any variables in other files.

header.php and footer.php are included in all the other files. 

header.php is for showing key information at the top apart from showing the Menu dynamically based on usertype. selected_currpage() is used for highlighting the current page in the Menu. If you are planning to add a new entry in the menu, you have to update the selected_currpage() in the functions.php to include a new entry for the $active array, and this new  $active array index for new menu entry in the header.php

check-login.php is used for checking the username and password. If the details are valid, session variables usertype and userid will be assigned with values. These session variables are used for providing different functionality for different types of users. These session variables are used in almost all files.  

create_newuser.php is used for creating new admins without login, as well as for creating employees from admin login.  So, this page coding is provided with many conditions. It is better to check both scenarios when making changes for one scenario to make sure it is working correctly in both situations as expected.

download_pdf.php is using fpdf.php library to create pdf report. It is linked from report.php which passes query-string parameters, like employee id, project id, start Date and end Date. Each cell attributes like width, needs to be set manually. So, it is a bit tedious and time-consuming work to make any changes here. And as explained in my previous post we need some complex logic to handle the first page with some additional information when we need to create pdf file with multiple pages.

weekly_status_entry.php is a bit complex script. So, we need to do proper testing whenever we make any changes here. CSS class names are used for doing calculations and in other functionalities. So, do any changes in class names and tables only if you are ready to make relevant changes in the javascript coding also. This page handles a lot of things, like showing the week selection feature, displaying hours data if the data is already there, handing comments, doing recalculation row-wise and column-wise whenever there is any data change in any cell, enabling/disabling submit/save/clear buttons dynamically, all showing multiple projects and non-projects. So, make any changes here only if it is really necessary.

Coding on other pages is mostly self-explanatory. Anyway, I will be updating more details here if it is needed.

For doing any page redirection, use the redirect($targetPage) function available in the functions.php. It handles redirection effectively by using both PHP-based redirection (server side) and javascript-based redirection (client side) based on whether headers are already sent or not.


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Wednesday, May 3, 2023

You can hire me for affordable hourly charges to do Web development (PHP, MySQL) and AI Development (RAG)


Update: Recently I started focusing on AI development, especially GenAI applications using RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation).

This is Rajamanikam Antonimuthu from QualityPoint Technologies (QPT).  Welcome to my blog. 

I have around 24 years of experience in various things like web development, software testing, running a small IT company, writing/publishing/selling ebooks, flipping websites, doing digital marketing,  and running blogs and YouTube channels.   I can do any kind of PHP/MySQL/Javascript development effectively with high Quality. And, I understand the importance of the need for proper communication. I will do my best to understand the requirements properly, get clarifications, update the progress continuously, and deliver on time.  Check my LinkedIn profile here.

Contact me (rajamanickam.a@gmail.com) to hire me to develop PHP/MySQL scripts, set up WordPress with all the required things, do proper testing to keep it secure and with good performance, and do SEO, and promotions. 

Apart from that  I can guide you to publish/promote your ebooks and guide you to run your YouTube channel effectively. And, I can suggest the best business suitable for you based on your skill set and competition. 

And, I can teach about using ChatGPT/Gemini effectively to improve your productivity and creativity.

Currently, I am charging only $6 USD per hour (Negotiable).  If you are in India and able to pay me directly to Gpay or my  Bank account, I will charge only Rs. 400 per hour as it will help me to save PayPal charges. Either you can pay upfront or pay daily.

I have noticed that a lot of people have their own unique skills.  But they don't know how to monetize their skills or they don't have enough skills needed to do the monetization.

Similarly many people think about different business ideas, but they find it difficult to make them a reality.

I used to go through various social media discussions related to people sharing their experiences of starting businesses and failing to succeed.  By reading their stories, I could understand that many people are not getting enough guidance from experienced people.  Actually, I too faced this difficulty and failed in my software development business. I might have avoided the failure (or at least some money loss) if I knew some simple things that I realized now.

So, I thought of sharing my experiences and suggestions through Live sessions (e.g Digital marketing, earning from YouTube, developing timesheet) on my YouTube channel. But unfortunately, my Live sessions are not attracting viewers.

Therefore, recently I decided to do paid one-on-one meetings to help people convert their ideas into online businesses. 

I have been doing freelance work for many years previously. But I stopped doing them in the past few years, as I decided to put maximum effort into my YouTube channel. Now I realize that doing freelance work for a few hours daily during my free time will not affect my YouTube channel growth. (Update: My Adsense account was disabled, So I am planning to spend most of my time for doing freelance work)


Find below my general suggestions for people interested in starting online businesses.

- Make sure that your Product/service actually helps to solve people's problems. It should be either entertaining or educational.

- Don't spend much in the initial stage. Do the scaling only after testing the market with a simple version of your product.

- Don't try to copy successful businesses.  Instead, build your business based on your own skills, and market situations at the time of starting your business.  Starting a business related to emerging technologies will be easy and the success rate will be high.

- Don't be greedy. If you are greedy, mostly you will be cheated by scammers.

- You need to understand the fact that succeeding in online business is not easy. You need to put in a lot of effort and withstand a lot of failures. 

- You should understand that starting an online business is very easy.  For example, a complete e-commerce site can be set up in a few hours without spending much.  But things like doing proper testing,  promotion/marketing, customer support, and maintenance of the site require a lot of effort and spending.

- Give more importance to hiring a great Team. If you can't find great Team members, it is better not to hire anyone instead of hiring some average or low-performing candidate.

If you are interested in hiring me,  contact me by sending an email to  rajamanickam.a@gmail.com 

Let me share some details about how to start an online business. I am writing it in a very general way. Doing actual business will vary based on various factors, like your skill set, competition, resources, regulations, compliances, etc.

Once you decide to start an online business, you need to decide your product or service.  Select your product/service based on your own interests and skills.  If you are interested in music, you can sell your own albums or just run a YouTube channel from which you can earn money from ads, sponsors, merch, membership, affiliates, etc.

Having your own website will be an advantage for doing online business, though you can do online business through other social media websites or by using free blogging sites. Owning a website won't cost much. You need to register a domain with domain providers like Godaddy and you need to have a hosting to keep files of your website. Generally, Godaddy itself will sell hosting services. But I heard that generally domain providers are not good at hosting. So, it is better to have a hosting service from a company that is good at hosting. I have used HostGator for many years without any issues. We can easily point the domain from the domain provider to our website at the hosting provider by doing a simple DNS entry. 

We need to be very careful in choosing the domain name. It should reflect our brand name, and it should be easy to remember,  it shouldn't create any confusion, and it should not violate anyone's trademark.

Another important thing is the pricing of the domain name. Though the domain names won't cost much, you need to remember that we should renew them every year. Most domain providers provide huge discounts initially, but we need to pay higher prices without discounts when renewing them. So, keep this in mind when deciding to have your own website. If you are on a tight budget, you may simply start using free blogging services.  In this case, you need not pay for domain and hosting, everything will be free. Actually, this blog is hosted with Blogger which is free and allows me to link my own domain.

While choosing a hosting service, they may offer various plans. Choose the plan that is more suitable for your requirements. It is better to start with a low-price plan, then we can move on to higher plans based on the necessity. 

Once after buying a domain name and hosting, you can start developing your website for doing online business.  One important thing is, you need to be very clear about your target audiences. It is very important from various perspectives. Even for choosing a hosting service, your target audience is important. If your target audiences are in the US and you host your website in India, the website will be loading slowly for your US audiences even though it loads quickly in India. In case, you are planning to target a global audience, it is better to use CDN services like Cloudflare which has free options also.  Apart from helping to load your site quickly throughout the world, the CDNs will provide a lot of security features and performance improvement services. 

We need to be very tough in keeping our websites free from hacking attacks and spammers, otherwise, our entire efforts in doing business will be spoiled. 

For developing a website, I would recommend WordPress which is free, open-source, and supported by almost all of the hosting services. It is very very easy to set up a WordPress site. Maintenance and customization are also easy.  We can expand the functionality of the site by adding the required plugins. A lot of free plugins are available. For example, we can set up a complete e-commerce website within a few minutes with a lot of useful features without spending any money. We have to set the plugins for handling cache to reduce the server load and improve page serving speed, set up security-related plugins, set up plugins to add analytics code, etc. But we shouldn't add unnecessary plugins.

Starting a website is easy, but bringing potential customers to the website is the real challenge.  We need to do digital marketing effectively and do lead capture and follow-ups properly.  

And, we need to make sure that our website is loading quickly. It should appear correctly on various devices like Desktop computers, Tablets, Mobile phones, etc. There are various free tools available to check the page loading performance and checking mobile-friendliness. 

Once you are ready with your products and your website developed to sell your products, you can not expect sales immediately even though you bring your potential customers to your sites through campaigns.  Because no one is going to buy from a random person. You need to have social proof or you have to establish your brand name. You can achieve it in various ways. For example, if you are selling your ebook, you first start selling through Amazon. Once after getting significant reviews and ratings you can start selling through your own website.  Similarly, if you are planning to work on freelancing projects, you can first work through freelance websites till establishing a good reputation.  After that, you can sell your freelancing service through your website itself.

One important approach for getting a reputation/branding is writing a lot of good quality and useful articles on your blog. Write articles related to your products and share them through various social media sites consistently, especially writing about your personal experiences related to your products, how you are developing your products, and the story behind choosing those products. Encourage people to subscribe to your free newsletter and send your articles through the newsletter. Once people are familiar with you, you can start telling them about your services or product sales through the newsletter. i-e you need to follow the proper funneling, starting from content marketing. Lead capturing is also important. People who are going through your product details may not buy it immediately. They may take some time to analyze your product and compare the price/quality/shipping/payment methods with your competitor. You have to do the lead-capturing properly to follow up with them later by offering discounts to make the sales.  Lead-capturing can be done by various methods. For example, if you are selling computers, you get the email ID for sending free ebooks about various computers, their maintenance, links to download the best free software for the computers, and best practices of using computers and troubleshooting them.

Once you are ready with your products and website built with key things, like good performance, easy navigation, proper lead-capturing system, and customer support system, you can start promoting through various ways, like, SEO, Social media promotion, PPC campaigns, email campaigns, affiliate marketing, running PPC campaigns, etc.

If you are interested in hiring me to help build and run your business,  contact me by sending an email to  rajamanickam.a@gmail.com  and you can check our products and services here.

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