How to Use the Meeting Miser Tool to Track Meeting Costs

Meeting Miser is a free internet-based tool that will help you calculate the cost of your meetings based on the location of the meeting, the job category of the meeting attendees, and the start and end time entered by you. The job categories and approximate hourly costs available in the tool are based on data loaded into www.Payscale.com by other users or yourself.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

1. To get the Meeting Miser tool, you will need to access http://www.payscale.com/calculators-and-tools on the internet. This should place you on the tools and calculators tab. Then scroll through all the free tools to select Meeting Miser.

2. 
    
   Meeting Miser Launch

   After clicking on the Meeting Miser link to go to the tool page, click the Launch Meeting Miser button to begin using the tool.

3. After staring the Meeting Miser tool, pick the primary meeting location as the place where the most meeting attendees are physically located. The system will save this as the primary location for the user.
   NOTE: To change the location for future meetings, click on the saved location and it will allow the location to be edited.

4. 
    
   Meeting City and Attendee Job Cats

   After a location is set, select the job category of each meeting attendee. If there are multiple attendees in the same job category, the job will have to be selected multiple times as the tool assumes one person per job category.
   
   OPTION A: If a job category is not already in Payscale for the location desired, it can be entered during the add attendee process by typing the new job category. The tool will prompt for an hourly rate or a monthly salary to use for calculations. If desiring to change the rate for any attendee, click on their title to edit the rate as well by moving the scale.
   
   OPTION B: To delete an attendee from the meeting, click on their job category and choose Delete to remove them, or choose Out and In to indicate if they have left or entered the meeting.

5. Click the Start button to begin recording time and costs, when you are ready for meeting to begin. Once the meeting starts, the Start button becomes a Pause button so users can stop the clock for breaks.

6. Click the End button when the meeting is adjourned so the final cost and time can be captured. The amount of time spent in the meeting is displayed next to the End button.
   NOTE: A report of this data may be saved for later reference. If a report is desired, click the Save button. Payscale.com will require the user to login in order to save the data.

Tips & Warnings

• A nice feature in the Meeting Miser tool is the ability to set an alarm to notify the user when the meeting has gone on for a specified time or has cost a certain dollar amount. To set the alarm, click on the Bell button next to where the meeting cost is displayed and enter desired data then click the Set Alarm button. A warning message when the alarm specifications have been met will display on top of the End button at that point. The warning message should be closed to continue.
• Consider utilizing the internet-based Meeting Miser tool to help you estimate the cost of your meetings. However, keep in mind that costs and time are not the only way to measure a meeting. The best value measurement for your meetings may be to review the written meeting records against the proposed agenda. This way you can see what activities were accomplished and what future actions were assigned.

Resources

• Payscale.com-Calculators/Tools
• Meeting Tips
• Use the Meeting Miser Tool to Report Meeting Costs
• Create a Meeting Agenda That Works

[MyJB]

on 1/13/2009 Interesting article and nice writing.