LaoA Diary
Real stories from nine-to-fivers
Episode 22: Managing Customers Starts with Managing Information
Old A is back at pre-sales support for a new project—doing product demos, solution discussions and customer communication with sales rep Xiao Yi. Xiao Yi works relentlessly, making dozens of calls a day, but there's a problem: all customer information lives in a little notebook, and every conversation is remembered by memory alone. Every request for Old A's help comes at the last minute, shredding his daily work. Old A wants to find a CRM tool for Xiao Yi, so she can manage customers well and he can finally breathe. But the idea keeps getting delayed—because he has no spare time either. Days pass, no project closes, and the boss keeps painting big pictures. Old A even dreams about pitching projects and debating solutions. The pressure is suffocating.
Episode 21: Penny Wise, Pound Foolish — Don't Settle on Timesheet Management
Old A's company always believed in "save wherever you can." With no timesheet system on a custom development project, the workload couldn't be verified — losing over 200,000 yuan for nothing. The boss hit rock bottom, and Old A saw the perfect moment: while the pain was fresh, pitch a professional timesheet management system. But the boss's reply was even more crushing: "We've already lost so much — let's earn it back first! Finish the project well, make up the shortfall, then think about buying software." Old A was stunned: without tools, how am I supposed to do it well? Can't do it well without tools, so never buy tools? A perfect dead loop. The boss's hardship and stubbornness, Old A's helplessness and complaints — an episode of workplace life that makes you both angry and laugh.
Episode 20: One Client Sentence Sinks a Million-Dollar Project: Why Should I Trust Your Excel Data?
Old A's company always followed a "save wherever possible" principle and never used a professional timesheet system. Then bad news arrived: a major client decided to suspend the project due to performance issues. But the custom secondary development had already been delivered—just not yet tested and accepted. The client refused to settle per contract and demanded real development workload data. Old A quickly opened the Excel timesheet, only to find no review, no control, arbitrary entries, and more than half the data missing. The client sneered: "That's it? Even data we fill in ourselves would be more credible." The settlement failed, and a million-dollar contract went down the drain.
Episode 19: What Is It Like Managing R&D Timesheets in Excel? Old A Tells All
Old A's new company started with just 8 people in the R&D project team, and everything ran smoothly—they used AceTimesheet, timesheet entry was easy, and data was summarized automatically. But the good times didn't last. After signing a big project, the team quickly grew to 20 people. AceTimesheet's 10-user free limit shut them out. Overnight, the team went back to the Stone Age of Excel timesheets. Data was often deleted or altered by mistake, and missing or wrong entries piled up. At month-end the boss wanted project hours and labor cost data, finance chased them daily, and work was interrupted in every possible way. Old A proposed buying a system, but the boss replied: the project isn't profitable now—cut costs, save where you can.
Episode 18: Tired of Managing Timesheets in Excel? A Free Solution Has Arrived
Ever since collecting timesheets with Excel, Lao A became the company's "timesheet specialist" — filer, reminder, statistician and analyst all in one. Every morning he checks progress, every Wednesday he nags for updates, and before month-end he stays up late tracking everything down. With a pile of his own development work, he spends hours chasing timesheets and has to work overtime just to catch up on real tasks. Sometimes he wants to flip the table, but fears hurting colleague relationships. Until one late night, it suddenly hit him: does AceTimesheet offer a free trial? He checked and found teams of up to 10 people can try it free for 6 months! He immediately signed up and got his team on board. From then on, Lao A's timesheet life switched from hell mode to easy mode.
Episode 17: Boss Says Improve Efficiency, But Still Uses Excel for Project Management? That's a Bold Move
Old A arrives at his new company full of expectations. On day one, the boss and R&D lead sit around the table and solemnly say: "We hope you can improve the project R&D process, boost efficiency, and strictly control costs." Old A's heart leaps — isn't this exactly what AceProject is for? He already pictures Gantt charts, task boards, and timesheet analytics. But the boss adds: "However, we won't purchase a system for now. We'll wait until the team grows bigger." Old A's heart sinks. Back at his desk, he silently opens a shared Excel spreadsheet, creates the first sheet named "Project Progress Tracker." Everything returns to the "primitive era" he knows all too well.
Episode 16: IPO Self-Developed Project Risk Review: Clear Project Accountability to Avoid Core Owner Blame
After being laid off, Lao A didn't dare tell his girlfriend for fear of worrying her. Every morning he left home in a suit, but actually spent all day in cafés frantically sending out resumes. Heaven never seals off all exits — he received an interview invitation from his dream AI company, one even listed on the U.S. Entity List, proving its technical strength. Lao A prepared carefully. When the interviewer asked why he left his last job, he told the truth. The interviewer casually asked: "Which system did you choose back then?" Lao A replied: "AceProject by AceTeamwork." The interviewer smiled: "What a coincidence, we use it too." They chatted about AI and R&D management, hitting it off. But a week passed, then two — no word. Just as despair set in, an offer from another small company arrived like a lifeline. Lao A accepted without hesitation — at least he no longer had to lie to his girlfriend.
Episode 15: Real IPO Failure Case: Boss Rejects Mature R&D System, Self-Development Causes Compliance Traceability Gaps
During the IPO sprint phase, the boss insisted on self-developing an R&D project management system instead of adopting a mature commercial tool. After 6 months, the system launched with frequent bugs. During IPO review, R&D work hours were non-compliant, cost allocation fell short of standards, and audit trails could not be traced. The listing was directly rejected, and the team paid a heavy price. Don't blindly reinvent the wheel when it comes to IPO compliance.
Episode 14: Ultimate Compliance Solution for R&D Expenses in SOE IPO with XinChuang
During IPO preparation, state-owned enterprises face multiple challenges: R&D expense sorting, ledger retention, personnel time splitting, and XinChuang adaptation. Compliance rectification pressure is immense. Benchmarking against mature cases from similar SOEs, this video clarifies the full-process management of R&D projects, precise cost allocation, and XinChuang-compatible deployment, helping you quickly clear IPO compliance bottlenecks and efficiently complete pre-listing financial and internal control rectification. [Story Intro] Lao A, an employee at a state-owned enterprise, is entrusted with a critical task: the company is preparing for an IPO and needs to select an R&D project management software that must meet IPO compliance audits and respond to the XinChuang call—domestic OS, domestic database, and domestic middleware, none can be missing. Lao A scoured all options: SaaS products that cannot be deployed on-premises were immediately rejected; those that can be deployed on-premises are not XinChuang-compatible. The selection document was revised eight times, the boss called every day to urge progress, and Lao A was about to pull his hair out. On the verge of collapse, the boss sent a message: 'Go check out the sister company.' Lao A set off with a glimmer of hope and found that the sister company was using AceProject—on-premises deployment, full-stack XinChuang adaptation, IPO audit worry-free, and a bunch of successful SOE cases. Lao A almost cried on the spot: after three months, he finally found it!
Episode 13: Seamless DingTalk Attendance Integration + Smart API Quota Assessment to Avoid Post-Launch Pitfalls
In-house time tracking systems often lack proper records and data traceability, posing IPO compliance risks. Choosing a standardized, mature system can mitigate these risks. [Story Intro] The company purchased AceTimesheet, a R&D time tracking system, and wanted to sync attendance data from DingTalk to verify the accuracy of time entries. The pre-sales and implementation teams repeatedly warned that the free API call quota is limited and needs to be assessed in advance. But Lao A's team thought it was 'not a big deal' and decided to go live immediately. As soon as the system ran, the DingTalk API started throwing errors constantly—the daily check-in data volume far exceeded the free quota. Lao A had to approach the boss to request budget for the paid version, but got scolded: 'Why didn't you research in advance? Why wait until problems arise to solve them?' Lao A pulled out the reminder email he had ignored and was speechless.
Episode 12: All About MLPS Level 3 Certification
[Story Intro] Lao A's semiconductor R&D company is preparing for an IPO and needs to purchase an R&D project management system. The audit department explicitly requires the system to meet MLPS Level 3 standards and be deployed on-premises. Lao A consulted multiple software vendors with this requirement, but got a variety of answers: Company A said they had the certificate, Company B said it wasn't necessary, Company C said they would only provide certification if deployed in their environment... Lao A was completely confused. It wasn't until he met with an AceProject consultant that he understood that MLPS Level 3 certification is based on the user's deployment environment and network; the software vendor is responsible for designing the product according to specifications, and after deployment, a professional agency certifies it. AceProject was developed according to audit specifications, and after on-premises deployment, they fully cooperate with users to pass the certification, finally putting Lao A's mind at ease.
Episode 11: Who's to Blame for Hasty Project Approvals? His Today Could Be Your Tomorrow
Integrate DingTalk attendance data, intelligently estimate API call quotas, and avoid rate limiting, system crashes, and data disconnections. [Story Intro] At Monday's meeting, the boss excitedly announced a new project, bypassing all evaluation processes and making a snap decision. Lao A, with years of experience in fixing problems, raised an objection: "Shouldn't we do market research and technical review first?" — and was immediately overruled. After the project launched, the nightmare came true: requirements changed three times a day, the technical solution was unworkable, and resources were severely lacking. Lao A and the team spent days as firefighters and nights as fillers, working desperately for three months, paying for management's hasty decisions. It wasn't until Xiao Lin recommended AceProject's standardized project initiation process that, at the next project kickoff, the boss saw a data-driven evaluation report for the first time. Lao A no longer had to risk his life for a snap decision.