Ah Tr@cy, a user after my own heart. 

I completely agree with you.  It is SO much faster to just keep your hands on the keyboard rather than constantly reorienting them between keyboard and mouse.

What version of Timeslips are you using?  If you go to Setup, Preferences, then click on the Slip Entry area.  You can CHANGE how your tab order works on the right half of the screen.

Check and see where the Hold button is in the order, you may need to move it up or down in the order.  Probably up given your description.

Do you Hold a lot of your time entries?  Why, if I may ask? Perhaps we can achieve the same thing another way?

Control+S will save your slip. But you are doing just a bit of double work, because Control+N will both Save your current slip, AND start a new one.

So, in your two click method above you are essentially, saving, saving again, creating a new one.

Nancy Duhon, Esq.

Duhon Technology Solutions, LLC

Master Certified Consultant for Sage Timeslips

Providing individual Consultations and Third Party Remote Desktop Support - including older/unsupported versions.

404-325-9779

[email protected] 

I tried your suggestion and moved the Hold box up, so now it is right after Time Spent in the Slip Entry list, and so now it DOES land on the Hold box immediately after entering Time Spent.  (Thank you--this suggestion helped.)

However, I still have my original problem---- I just need to know what the SHORTCUT KEYS would be to check the Hold box, so that I don't have to lift my hand up to the mouse to click the Hold box.  I have been doing it this way for over four years.  Pressing Enter does NOT "check" it --- nothing happens. Pressing "x" does not check it.  Maybe there is NOT a shortcut key combination for checking the Hold box???

As for your question about holding my time entries...yes, I hold every single slip, as this is how I was taught by my predecessor.  If I didn't hold slips, then the program would try to "bill" those clients when I generate ALL the outstanding bills on the 15th in order to capture and mail out the ones over 30 days past due.  So perhaps I am not understanding a different way the program works?

I'm glad you pointed out that I am double-saving -- I did not realize that, so thank you!

I am using Timeslips 2015.  Thank you.

Nancy, or anyone, I still need to know the shortcut keys to check the Hold box. Can anyone help me with this?

For any other users with the same issue, I did not receive a solution to my final question above (requesting a shortcut key to check the Hold box so I don't have to lift my hand up to the mouse).

For a single checkbox, try the space bar when you are in that field. That should toggle it.

And when you are on a group of checkboxes (like when you are setting up a filter for a report), F4 will toggle all checkboxes that are highlighted. 

Hope this helps.

SRF - THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU - the spacebar DOES work to "check" the Hold box for me!

Nancy, you helped me initially with re-ordering the Hold box - thank you.

Now, I have a new problem in relation to all this-----sometimes there is no indication that I am at the Hold box in my data entry.  When entering an Expense slip for Postage, and I Tab to the Hold box, a dotted line appears around the word "Hold" so I can 'see' where I am in the slip entry screen.

HOWEVER, if it is an Expense slip for Long Distance, NO dotted line appears.  I just have to KNOW that's where I am because I've gotten used to the order now.  Same with entering Time slips -- NO dotted line around the word "Hold".  

This is just an annoyance.  Any fixes for this?

This is more of a Windows thing. There's not a fix and the workaround isn't great. 

If you think you're on the Hold field, press the right arrow. The fields in the Billing Status panel will now show outlines when you're on them.

The downside to this is if you're on the Billing Status field when you you press an arrow key, you might unintentionally change the Billing Status value. But, it is a clunky workaround. 

I can't think of another way to get the dotted line to appear.

Another way to approach this is setting up your own Hot Key.

- Go to Setup > Preferences > Slip Entry.

- In the list at the bottom of the screen, find the entry for Hold.

- Click in the Hot Key column for Hold. So you're not able to add your own text there. I'd suggest adding ALT+CTRL+H as the hot key, since that's likely not used anywhere else. You have to be careful because you don't want to override one that's already in use.

- Click OK. 

Now no matter what field you're at in the slip, you can hold down ALT and CTRL and press H and then you'll be in the Hold field.

Good luck.

Tr@cy:

Let's get back to the why hold in the first place, because I suspect you are working too hard and it is bugging me.

You said "As for your question about holding my time entries...yes, I hold every single slip, as this is how I was taught by my predecessor.  If I didn't hold slips, then the program would try to "bill" those clients when I generate ALL the outstanding bills on the 15th in order to capture and mail out the ones over 30 days past due."

It is true that in the absence of any filters Timeslips will try to bill out all new information that has been entered for a client when it generates a bill. That part you are understanding correctly.

However, you could use a FILTER to keep new slips from showing without all this Hold business. The easiest way that I have found to exclude all new slips is to filter your bill run to only include slips with a Slip Transaction Date of tomorrow.  You should never have slips dated tomorrow since tomorrow hasn't happened yet. 

So, Timeslips dutifully checks for slips dated tomorrow to include on the bill, finds none and generates a bill with only previous balances and payments on it.

Again, no need to keep checking the Hold as the Slip Transaction Date filter will EXCLUDE the new slips from the bill run for you.

Hope that helps and saves you some keystrokes. :-)

Nancy Duhon, Esq.
Duhon Technology Solutions, LLC
Master Certified Consultant for Sage Timeslips
Providing individual Consultations and Third Party Remote Desktop Support - including older/unsupported versions.
404-325-9779
[email protected]

Thanks for your reply....I work in a tax office and now that tax season is in full swing, I haven't had time to try your suggestions, but will look forward to doing so!

Nancy, I will be trying your suggestion but haven't had time now that tax season has hit and we are a tax office!  Will re-visit this soon!