LaoA Diary
Real stories from nine-to-fivers
Episode 25: Don't Let "Non-Standard Project Management Processes" Cost You Business Opportunities
The certification auditor finally arrives. Lao A thought surviving the document-gathering hell meant he could relax—but the moment the auditor sits down, problems surface: no standard approval process for project initiation, requirement review records based only on memory, deliverables scattered everywhere, and customer acceptance reports missing signatures and dates. The verdict is blunt: non-standard processes, no approval trail, incomplete data—rectification is mandatory. Rectification means the certificate date gets pushed back, and a delayed certificate could mean missing an ongoing bid. Old A's anxiety begins right here—the certificate isn't in hand yet, but the bid countdown has already started. So he cooperates with rectification by day and lies awake with anxiety at night. In the end, it happens exactly as he feared: the certificate arrives, but the bid is already over. His boss says nothing—but that silence hurts more than any scolding. Back home, he sits alone on the sofa, his mood at rock bottom.
Episode 24: From "Where Are the Files?" to "Here They Are" — The Power of One-Stop Project Management
A bright, sunny day — tomorrow is Lao A 's day to become a full-time employee. He has already made dinner and movie plans with his girlfriend, and for once he is in a great mood. In the afternoon, sales rep Xiao Yi suddenly appears — and Lao A 's mind reflexively flashes a string of ominous premonitions. But Xiao Yi brings mixed news: a major project has made a breakthrough, and the client has approved the product and solution. The bad news? The project value is too large and requires multi-party bidding — with a hard requirement for ISO9001 quality system certification. The company's certification has expired and must be re-certified. The certification agency's auditor arrives in one week — requiring R&D policies plus complete documentation for finished and ongoing projects. And here's the problem: with no system in place, project files are scattered across different places and different people's hands. Lao A looks at Xiao Yi, then at the calendar — tomorrow is his confirmation day. He has no choice but to take it on.
Episode 23: Customer Requirement Management: From One-on-One Verbal to One-to-Many Real-Time Sharing
Xiao Yi hurriedly pulls Lao A away—the customer wants a second on-site meeting. By experience, second meetings have a high success rate, and both are in good spirits. The sky is overcast but not yet raining. At the customer site, mid-discussion, the customer suddenly asks about a requirement mentioned before— Lao A is completely unprepared, because Xiao Yi never told him. In that flash of realization, Lao A understands: Xiao Yi just wrote it in her notebook but forgot to report it back. The customer abruptly ends the meeting—"You're wasting everyone's time. Go back for now, we'll work together when there's a chance." Walking out of the building, their mood hits rock bottom. Xiao Yi apologizes repeatedly, but she still has another client to visit, so they part ways. Lao A walks back to the office alone—and then the rain begins. The rain washes over his face, and he can't tell whether it's rain or tears.
Episode 22: Managing Customers Starts with Managing Information
Lao 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 Lao A's help comes at the last minute, shredding his daily work. Lao 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. Lao 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
Lao 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 Lao 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." Lao 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, Lao 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?
Lao 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. Lao 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
Lao 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. Lao 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
Lao 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." Lao 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." Lao 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!