Tip History - Is there an easy way?

[wjr3]

Anyone have a better solution than copy and paste into a spreadsheet?

I prefer copy-and-paste but I've run into a browser-related problem.

If I use Firefox, everything is fine. (Assuming that I remember to use Paste Special / Text.)

But if I use Chrome, the fields are all funky after they get pasted, especially the date/time info which can't be parsed easily.

So I use Chrome if I want to log in to visit someone's room, but I switch to Firefox to access my token history.

And I have banished IE completely. Doesn't work well for either purpose. :snooty:

 

[Always_Tim]

This is not really a direct answer to the original question, but since my script-fu is better than my spreadsheet-fu, this is what was easier *for me* to do to automate the process of keeping track of my MFC tips:

I created an sqlite database to store my complete tip history.
After every month, I download my tip history for that month. I run Linux, so I use a single "wget" command to do this.
I wrote a perl script that I then run to parse the file, extract each tip, and insert entries into the database.

I use the database to do different queries (eg. sort models by total tips, report monthly totals by model, etc.).

Everyone's sharing their methods, so here's mine:

1. Wait for the end of the month and open up the tipping history for the month in Chrome.
2. Select the contents of the table and copy it.
3. Paste it into a text file.
4. Run the text file through a perl script that turns it into a properly-formatted CSV file. (Among other things it cleans up the timestamps. Although it can't fix the fact that MFC doesn't include AM/PM info. 7 PM shows up as 07:00:00. ew.)
5. Manually fix any token transfers from other people. (Which will show up as going to "Always_Tim" … which isn't useful! I need to know who sent them, not the recipient in that case!)
5. Paste the resulting CSV into my Numbers spreadsheet.
6. Macros in the spreadsheet (Very similar to some already posted by others here) automatically calculate all sorts of things that can be both enlightening and depressing, LOL.

 

[Falke]

Copying and pasting from MFC into Excel took less time than I expected. I have to say, though, that I sort of wish I hadn't done it. I don't regret a single token/cent, and I am glad that I have been able to be supportive of one model in particular, but it is shocking how the tokens can build up.

I agree with others that it's not really in MFC's interest to provide totals. It's probably also best for models that the information is not immediately available. I am sure a depressingly large number members already do it, but I can imagine an epidemic of "bb, don't you think I should get some consideration for the XXXX tokens I have given you?"

 

[Alcon]

I ended up doing the same thing but I didn't want to go pivot table route.

After I pulled them all in so that 'Model/Recipient' was in column C, 'Tokens' were in column D.

I then copied the names in column C over to column H and removed duplicates from that column (under Data tab then 'remove duplicates')

Then in column I, i pasted this formula down for every unique name in column H.
=SUMIF($C$2:$C$1797,H2,$D$2:$D$1797)
My list has a header in row 1 and only goes to 1797 individual tips for the one account I did this on. So your numbers would have to be adjusted down to the bottom of your list, or just make it a really huge number that goes beyond your total number of tips. It would work too.

That formula looks up all the names in C for a match to what is next to it in H, then adds up all the tips in D that are next to the name in C.

I used this method and it worked like a charm.

 

[UKgent]

I never thought this would be the place to pick up Excel tips!

I actually thought I might be the only one to keep track of MFC activities using Excel. I have a separate list of all my private sessions but I mainly just enter the details every time I buy tokens. This allows me to plot a graph of total expenditure against time and so far linear regression shows that this has been pretty linear. I can also plot a graph of the pounds to dollars exchange rate but I guess this data would be easy enough to find elsewhere!