Musicians' Calendar and Gig Income and Expense Logger
New version GigBag 2.0 - now run GigBag on your Android tablet!
Changes for version GigBag 2.0
Tips and tricks when using GigBag 2.0
Designed by a musician, for musicians, GigBag is a full-featured gig calendar, tracker, and income and expense log. Even if you are not a musician, GigBag is a great event calendar and expense logger.
Features include:
- List view of gigs or other events with date, time, color-coded summaries, and tax-related indicator.
- Gigs or events easily added and edited, including date and time, duration, summary, color-code, event type, contact name and phone number, notes, and transactions.
- Calendar view with events and relative times indicated using summary color-coding.
- Transaction list (income, various types of expenses) associated with each gig or event.
- Transaction reporting for previous year, current year, or date range with a "tax-related" filter - a great help at tax time!
- Settings for current IRS mileage rate, email address for synching data, and setting data filename.
- Ability to email sync individual records, entire data file, and transaction report.
- Data file is easy to read xml. A desktop version is underway that will read and write the same file format.
The initial view you see when you launch GigBag is a list of calendars you have created and a button to create a new calendar.
Tapping a calendar in the list will load the file and take you to the List View
Tapping the "+" will open a dialog to enter the name for a new calendar.
When you tap the "+" (Create new calendar) button on the Launch GigBag View, this dialog appears.
Enter a new calendar name and tap the "OK" button, or "Cancel" to cancel the operation.
Calendar names can have only letters (Caps or lowercase) or digits with no spaces or punctuation.
The initial view you see when you launch GigBag is a list of gigs or other events that you have entered. The type of event is indicated with an icon. Next to the icon is the date and time and a color-coded summary of the event.
A "g" in the far left column indicates that this event has been synced with at least one of your online Google calendars.
A "?" following the date indicates that the event is not confirmed.
A "*" following the summary indicates that the event is business or tax-related.
Tapping the calendar button (top, far left) takes you to a typical monthly Calendar View.
Tapping the "+" button adds a new event and takes you to the Add/Edit View.
Tapping the "list all" button (top, far right) will list all events/gigs entered. This is useful when coming from the Calendar View and only one or a few events are visible.
Past events have a black background, and future events have a very dark red background. The next gig/event is indicated by the lighting up of the little triangle at the far left of the list.
Menu Items
The menu items on the Gig/Event List View are:
- View Calendar
- Does the same as the Calendar button - takes you to the Calendar View
- Settings
- Takes you to the Settings View
- Tasks
- Takes you to the Tasks View.
- Help
- Takes you to this help file online.
Gig/Event List View Context Menu
Context Menu
If you tap and hold down an individual event in the Gig/Event List View, a context menu will pop up. The menu items are:
- Extend...
- Opens the How many days dialog that allows you to select the number of days to extend this event and creates a copies of the event with the date bumped up one day. It does NOT copy the transactions for the original event.
- Copy and insert event
- Makes a copy and inserts it before the selected event.
- Make repeating
- Takes you to the Repeat View to set the type, interval, and number of repeats for this event. Note that if the selected event is a past date, the "Make repeating" item will not show up.
- Edit selected record
- Takes you to the Add/Edit View to edit the data for this event.
- Delete selected record
- Removes the selected record from this list and deletes it from the data file.
- Email record
- Emails this record with all transactions in the message body of a message.
- Sync with Google calendar
- Opens the Select Calendar View to sync this record with one or more of your Google calendars.
When you tap a record on the List View, a popup toolbar will appear with the same options as the Context Menu described above with the addition of a "close window" button.
Note that, like the Context Menu, if the selected event is on a past date, the "Repeat" (green counter-clockwise pointing arrow) will be grayed out and disabled.
The Calendar View gives you a typical month calendar overview of events. Use the left up/down arrows to move forward or back a month at a time. Use the right up/down arrows to advance or go back by year.
Events are shown as rectangles whose widths are roughly based on the duration of the event (entered on the Add/Edit View). AM events are shown above the horizontal line halfway down each date, and PM events are shown below the line.
Tapping on a date that has events will take you to the List View with only those events listed.
Tapping on an "empty" date will take you directly to the Add/Edit View to add an event on the date selected.
When you click on a date in the Calendar View, a popup window will appear containing a New Event button and a list of the events that may already be set for that date.
Overlapping events on a single date will be shown as blended colors. An example is shown here at the right on the December 6th date.
New with GigBag 2.0 - Search for text in your list of events. Currently, only text can be searched. Plans are to add search only transactions and by event type.
Tapping the Search button (magnifier) opens a view with an edit box for entering the search-text. Searching is not case sensitive.
A list of events that have the search-text anywhere in them, including in transactions, will appear. If no events with the search-text in them are found, the list will have one entry - "No records found."
The Search Results View has menu items as shown below. You can save off the list of events found as a separate calendar file that will appear in your list of calendars when GigBag opens.
The Search Results View has a context menu as well. It allows you to edit, delete, and email events, in the same way these operations can be performed from the main List View. Changes made to events from the Search Results View will automatically be reflected in the main List View.
Tapping an event on the previous event list view opens the Add/Edit View. It is here you set the date and time of the gig/event, its duration in hours, and other items.
The "All Day" checkbox overrides the duration setting.
The button to the right of the "Confirmed" checkbox takes you to the Event Type Picker View.
The edit text view below the checkboxes is for entering a short summary of the event. The button to the right of it opens the Color Picker View
Below the summary line is an edit text view for entering notes about the event.
The button below the notes edit text view is to view and add transactions like income and various expenses linked to this event. Tapping it opens the Add/Edit Transactions View.
Tapping "OK" saves the new or edited event and takes you back to the List View.
Tapping "Cancel" takes you back to the List View but does not save any changes in the event, including any transactions added or edited.
If this view is scrolled up to fully show the contact information, there is now a button next to the contact name that will allow you to select a contact from your devices' contacts list.
Next to the contact phone is a button to dial the number.
A planned enhancement is to add a second phone number field.
GigBag lets you keep track of event-related transactions, including income and various types of expenses.
Click on the "+" button to add a transaction. This will take you to the Add/Edit Transaction View.
Click OK to save and return to the Add/Edit View.
Click Cancel to return to the Add/Edit View without saving any added or edited transactions.
The current version of GigBag has 12 different event types:
- Business meeting
- Music engagement/gig
- Medical appointment
- Church/Synagogue/Mosque
- Meal (breakfast/lunch/dinner) date
- Air travel
- Automobile travel
- Sports event (the choice of a golfer icon was arbitrary)
- Vacation
- Other
- Unknown
- Any/All (you can see I'm a Windows programmer from the icon).
Other types may be added in the future, especially if there is feedback and I get requests.
Use the Tax-related checkbox to specify whether this event is business and tax-related.
To select the event type, click on the icon for the type you want. Selecting an event type will automatically return to the Add/Edit View.
This view allows you to select a transaction type from a list, enter an amount, and enter a short description of the income or expense.
Note that if you select "Mileage" from the dropdown list, you should enter the number of miles. The amount in dollars will be automatically calculated based on the current IRS mileage rate that is entered on the Settings View.
Tap on OK to return to the Add/Edit View.
This view allows you to pick the parameters you want to set to generate a transaction report.
You can generate a report for any one or all types of events.
When you tap the "Go" button, a report will be generated and display on the Report Results View.
This view displays the results of the report generated from the Report View.
Menu
- Email Report Results
- Email results in the message body of an email to the email address set on the Settings View. Takes you to the Send Email View.
This view allows you to pick the color of the summary text that shows on the List View and the color of the event indicators that appear on dates on the Calendar View.
Tap the color square you want. Selecting a color will automatically return to the Add/Edit View.
Currently, there are only a few settings that should be entered for GigBag.
The preferred data filename is anything you like. When you first install GigBag, the filename is just "default.xml." Files are stored on the SD Card, but ONLY the filename needs to be specified, not the sdcard path.
The file format for data is xml, so the "xml" extension should be used.
GigBag allows you to send your file to an email address you specify in the second edit text field. You can send an individual event as a message from the Event List View, a transaction report as a message from the Transaction Report View, and your data file as an attachment.
You should enter the current year's IRS mileage rate in cents in the third edit text field. This allows GigBag to calculate actual dollar amounts for mileage that you enter in miles on the Add/Edit Transaction View.
Tap "Set Google Account" to select the Google account you want to sync events to. When you tap this button the Set Google Account view will open.
Tap the OK to return to the List View.
This view allows you to use the email address set in the Settings View, add another email address (comma separated), or override the settings and type a different email address.
Tapping "OK" takes you to the email "chooser" system dialog box that is phone and service provider specific.
Once the email is sent, or if you click "Cancel" you will automatically return to the Gig/Event List View.
The view to the right appears when Email Document is selected from the Whole Calendar Tasks View.
The view to the right appears when Email Record is selected from the main List View Context Menu or from the Popup Tools Window.
Some users have more than one Google account online. This view uses your phone's Account Manager to get a list of Google accounts you have set up. Each account has an authorization code that GigBag uses to connect to Google so that you do not have to enter a user name and password each time you connect.
This view filters out all non-Google accounts you may have set up on your phone since the calendar entries from GigBag are specific to the Google calendar format.
Tapping one of the accounts that shows up sets the account, closes the view and takes you back to the Settings view.
Most users have more than one Google calendar. This view displays some information about the event you will be syncing, and allows you to sync the event to a specific calendar.
Tapping any one of the calendars will send the event to it.
Note: in GigBag 2.0 the "Done" button has been removed and better instructions are now above the calendar list. Use the device's back button to exit back to the List View.
Most users have more than one Google calendar. This view displays some information about the event you will be syncing, and allows you to sync the event to a specific calendar.
Tapping any one of the calendars will send the event to it. When finished, tap the "Done" button to take you back to the List View.
There are a number of things you can do with all, or at least most of, the events in your calendar.
- Email Document
- Opens the Email View to email your GigBag document to your default email address or to another GigBag calendar user.
- Export CSV Format
- Allows you to export your GigBag records in CSV format (Export View) to import into your Google calendar or, separately, your transacations to import them into a spreadsheet like Excel.
- Report Transactions
- Opens the Transaction Report View.
- Backup Document
- Makes a copy of your data file.
- Split By Year
- Creates a separate GigBag Calendar file of events for each year in the currently loaded calendar. This is very useful if your current file is starting to get large and difficult to scroll through.
The new calendar files created are named using the current filename with "-" and the year appended.
Note that "Restore Document" has been moved to the Launch View context menu.
An information dialog like the one shown here on the right will appear when your file is backed up.
This view allows you to set repeating events, like lessons or steady gigs.
Each repeating type has a maximum number of repeats (there is no "foreever" option) because the events are actually created and added to the list of calendar events rather than calculated on the fly.
Each created event is a duplicate of the starting event (minus transactions which may be different for each event) except for the date.
- Weekly Type
- Set to repeat weekly on the current day of the week. The maximum number of repeats of this type is 52.
- Monthly Type
-
- Set to repeat on the day of the month of the start date, for example, the 5th of every month. If the the day of the month is 31, months with 30 days or February will be skipped. Similarly if the day of the month is 30, February will be skipped. If the date is the 29th, February will be skipped except in leap years.
- Set to repeat on, for example, every 3rd Sunday of the month. If the start date is a 5th weekday or weekend day of the month, those months without a 5th weekday or weekend day will be skipped. The "interval" for this type of repeating event is always "1", so the edit box is disabled if this type is selected.
- Set to the last day of the month. If the starting date is not the last day of the month, this option "Does not apply."
- Set to repeat on the day of the month of the start date, for example, the 5th of every month. If the the day of the month is 31, months with 30 days or February will be skipped. Similarly if the day of the month is 30, February will be skipped. If the date is the 29th, February will be skipped except in leap years.
- Yearly Type
- Allows you to set up repeating dates like birthdays and anniversaries.
When finished exporting files, tap the "Done" button to take you back to the List View.
This view allows you to export your document or transactions in CSV format and email the files.
- Export records
- Export your records to a CSV formatted file to import into a Google calendar.
- Export transactions
- Allows you to separately export your transactions for import into a spreadsheet like Excel.
- The reason for seaparating these export options is that the Google calendar does not recognize transactions.
When finished exporting files, tap the "Done" button to take you back to the List View.
- Bugs
- Removed Restore option from Tasks and added it to the Main calendar selection view. This is required because of the changes made to allow data to be loaded only when the calendar is selected from the Launch View.
- Calendar records now loaded only when calendar is selected. This eliminates problems with lost data when changing orientation and when going between the Calendar View and the Event List View.
- Removed Restore option from Tasks and added it to the Main calendar selection view. This is required because of the changes made to allow data to be loaded only when the calendar is selected from the Launch View.
- New features
- View All button (magnifying glass) on the List View is now a Search button.
- Calendar View now has popup window showing an event list for the selected date and an Add New Event button.
- Contact info on the Add/Edit View is now accessible from the devices' contacts list.
- The entire app has been redesigned to adapt to Android tablet computer screen sizes and orientations.
- View All button (magnifying glass) on the List View is now a Search button.
Tips and Hints for using GigBag
- Known Bugs
There apparently is a well-known problem with synching events to your online Google Calendar that affects, not only GigBag, but many other calendar-oriented applications, including the calendar shipped installed on Android devices. Actually, there may be two problems:
- Events appear on the online calendar 1 hour off from what they are entered in GigBag, in my case, 1 hour later. I have worked on this problem for literally weeks, with no consistent positive result. It has something to do with the timezone settings on each end of the sync and daylight savings.
The only workaround I can find is to just go online and manually change the event time. This is obviously unacceptable, but until I can resolve it in the program or Google responds to the many requests that it be fixed, it is the only solution.
- All day events frequently sync one day late. This seems to be another Google Calendar quirk based on the number of online reports. The workaround for this is to always set the event start time to something other than 12:00 AM for all-day events.
- Events appear on the online calendar 1 hour off from what they are entered in GigBag, in my case, 1 hour later. I have worked on this problem for literally weeks, with no consistent positive result. It has something to do with the timezone settings on each end of the sync and daylight savings.
A number of users have wondered how to sync calendars between devices they own, for instance, between their phone and their tablet. Unfortunately, at this time there is no automatic method of doing this. Automatic syncing from email is on my list of "To do" items.
However, early in development of GigBag, I saw the desire and possible need for emailing the GigBag Calendar document even just as a backup on your desktop pc and incidentally for development purposes so I could see what was going on myself.
What you need to accomplish syncing using email is, first, a way to save email attachments and second, a way for GigBag to find them, since the built-in email client for Android devices does not have a "Save Attachments" option, nor does it have a file-explorer app for moving files around on the device.
- On phones, "Save My Attach" seems to work great as one possiblity for saving. It allows you to save to a particular folder you choose on the sdcard unlike some others. Save the calendar xml file to the "GigBag" folder on your sdcard and it will appear in the list of calendars when you open GigBag.
- On tablets, "Save My Attach" works, but does not seem to allow you to choose the folder - the file is automatically saved in the "downloads" folder (others may have this option). To allow you to move the calendar file the downloads folder to the GigBag folder you need a file explorer. The best one I have found so far is "ES File Explorer."
Of course, none of this really helps if there is no way to merge the files easily without losing data, so I will be working on a "merge" feature to add to GigBag in the near future. However, if you ONLY update the calendar on one device and know for certain that nothing has changed on the other, it is safe to just copy over the file.
Please be sure to send suggestions, comments, complaints, and compliments to me. Use the contact page to send them. Thanks for your support and consideration.