6 Cool Tools to Track Your Time
If you’re a freelancer, chances are you need to track your time in order to bill your clients. And that can be a major hassle.
You might also be a mobile freelancer, like me, who uses multiple computers and wants to be able to work from anywhere. In that case, a web-based time tracker might be the way to go. You want something easy to use, cheap, with a nice interface. Preferably even fun to use.
Whatever your needs, here are 6 of the coolest tools for tracking your time. Most of them aren’t free, but then the best tools often aren’t.
1. Toggl. Nice interface, simple to use, and there’s both a web version and now a downloadable version (Windows only). And it’s free. Nuff said.
2. Tick. Very slick interface. A simple web-based interface, easy to use (after configuration), and fast. Pretty much all you’re looking for.
3. Harvest. One of the nicest interfaces around, Harvest is definitely a professional package. It works well for teams, it has project estimates, some great reports, and as a web app it’s available from anywhere. Like most of these apps, it has a pricing plan from free to premium.
4. Cashboard. The interface isn’t as slick as the first three on this list, but it does have some very useful and detailed features that go beyond tracking time, including producing and tracking invoices, keeping track of accounts and clients, producing estimates, and more.
5. FreshBooks. A slightly older-looking interface, when compared to the first few items on this list, but it’s a basic product that definitely gets the job done. If integrates with invoicing software which is useful when you’re billing by the hour.
6. yaTimer. The only app on this list that’s not available for the web, yaTimer is a downloadable desktop app. It’s also probably the simplest of the apps on this list, doing simple time tracking and not much else. For those with basic needs, it’s perfect.
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This review is great but I prefer desktop applications like Toggl though it has a few disadvantages I’ve already found after using it for 2 minutes. Online registration is not what I’m looking for. My list of user names are a way big to add a new line their
There are two applications you can be interested in reviewing too. This is not spam but just quick googling: GI Time tracker and TimeCult
My favorite is Slim Timer – very simple, very easy.
I second Binny VA on Slim Timer
I’ve started using simple and free Google Spreadsheets to track client time. Why? My current client likes to keep tabs on his project and Google Spreadsheets allows me to share a read only version. My client can “check in” anytime. Plus, I can get to my timesheet for that project from anywhere. Not its original intent I know, but it’s a simple little hack.
Keep up the great work.
Would you be willing to share the template for your time tracker?
Did you ever give out a template to your timesheet?
I can recommend http://www.xperttimer.com/ (its a desktop application).
+1 for slimtimer.com
I use the donationware downloadable ap called TimeStamp. http://www.syntap.com/products_timestamp.htm
It’s easy to use, exports, tracks as many clients as you wish, and more. I save a separate time file for each client in a separate folder for each month and then when I do my invoicing, I simply enter the time into my accounting software (Microsoft Office Accounting Express, free) and I done.
Easy deal.
Lance
For an all out client management system, including time tracking.. I am a big fan of Billings. I believe it’s a Mac only app (not sure) but it’s excellent in keeping track of everything. It’s not web based but my laptop is strapped to my back at all times anyways.
Another vote for SlimTimer – suprised it wasn’t on this list. I couldn’t live without it. So easy to use and kicks out all the reports I need, whether detailed or aggregate.
Yesterday I started to use Work Timer (for mac users): http://www.gersh.no/projects/worktimer
So far I think it’s very nice and handy (and free!).
Håkan from Sweden
I’m actually involved with creating a project management system for my current employer. These are excellent sources of motivation. I love their look and feel way more than the boring suit-n-tie feel of Microsoft Project. Thanks for putting together the list!
I use SlimTimer too, and I learned about it here, so I was also surprised not to see it on the list.
I am surprised to see only Windows based applications – this is not Windows-only site does it? There are a lot of freelancers working on a Mac. It would be nice to see tools for the Mac also…
I exclusively use Taskcapture ($79) http://www.captureworks.com/taskcapture.html
Can be installed on 2 PC’s (ie desktop and laptop)
It paid for itself the same day. I track everything from 5 minute conversations to email replies. All that stuff adds up quick and keeps you honest. I’ll check these other tools, too.
I have been using Fanurio. It’s free if you maintain less than 20 clients.
http://www.fanuriotimetracking.com/
It is available for windows and OSX.
I too am shocked that so far, it’s been mostly Windows. I thought that the majority of designers are Mac based.
Keep the (freeware) apps coming! I’ve coincidently been searching for time managements apps all day yesterday. This one really isn’t for projects, but it keeps track of your internet browsing time to keep you in check. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/5168
Some stopwatch type programs I’ve been using…
Multi Timer:
http://www.programming.de/freeware_windows.php
Mini Timer:
http://soucek.clearwire.net/filetrac.html
Please keep the links coming for what you use, I’ll try all the free ones out when I have some time. haaahaha
I may sound like an old stick in a mud here, but I use good old QuickBooks for all aspects of managing my business (from sales to invoices and taxes) and it has a time tracker built in. Makes it easier for me to have it all in one place.
If you rely on iCal, the following application works very well in tandem with it, it uses your iCal data to tally time spent on projects and then you can associate rates with that time and use that data to calculate billings: TimeLog http://www.mediaatelier.com/TimeLog/
OfficeTime for Mac is the way to go; been using it for years. Also generates nice reports as well as invoices (though I use QuickBooks for that). Worth more than the $40.00 price.
http://www.officetime.net/download.html
One of the greater features of Harvest is the widgets, provided for Mac and Windows. Brings time tracking to a brand new level funkiness
As the rare Linux user, I use Stopwatch which is both cross platform, open source and uses templates for reports. I’ve made a few minor modifications myself, and intend to customize the interface to my needs…but it gets the job done as is so I’ve never really found the time to get started:)
https://stopwatch.dev.java.net/
I would add mite. But it’s German. I love it!
Great overview!
In the past I have been using On the Job (http://www.stuntsoftware.com/OnTheJob/)
It doesn’t do all the bells and whistles, but it is enough for the average freelance. And most importantly, the interface is usable and not completely cluttered up like in so many other time-tracking-applications.
I would never used something web-based for time tracking, I use on the job. It is very simple but also has useful cool extras such as asking if you want to subtract the time when your computer goes idle with a clock running.
I’ve been using Fanurio. $49 one-time fee with free upgrades. Invoicing, time-tracking, and client management. It’s simple and I love that there isn’t a subscription fee like a lot of the stuff out there.
http://www.fanuriotimetracking.com/
Hey Leo,
A one-stop-shop for the freelancer is oDesk (http://www.odesk.com). For those of you not familiar with the site, oDesk is a global marketplace for remote work. The best part is that once you find a job on oDesk (there are thousands of jobs posted there each month), oDesk’s Team software keeps track of your time and automatically sends your logged time to the oDesk site. Through oDesk, your client’s credit card is charged every week and you can get your paycheck automatically deposited into your account. There are no membership fees and no fees to download any of their software. For more information on their time-keeping tools or how oDesk works, check out http://www.odesk.com.
~Michelle, oDesk
I wrote about this topic on August 27 — my list contains some other apps that do timetracking as well:
http://julianschrader.de/20070827-keep-track-of-what-youre-doing-3-applications-to-further-efficient-working/
Here’s another vote for slimtimer! I use it all day, every day.
Harvest is great but definately to expensive. Due to the 30 days test period it’s worthless for me.
I used “On The Job” (OS X) untill I found SlimTimer.
We’re looking for a time tracking application that integrates well with Basecamp (http://www.basecamphq.com). We tried Cashboard but would be interested to see if there are any others to try.
I can really recommend 14dayz.com
In a free version you can have up to 4 projects and 10 categories (activities like designing, programming, meeting, etc.).
It is web-based and easy to use.
I’ve used free TraxTime from SpudCity.com for ages and it’s fantastic. My new favorite that I think will go great with TraxTime is the beta of RescueTime.com which was profiled on TechCrunch.
I use slimtimer.com and it does an awesome job, gives good spreadsheets to download, ect. might be a good addition to the list.
I highly recommend actiTIME (http://www.actitime.com) – extremely comprehensive.
It`s free and very simple time tracking software providing good online support.
Been using Billings as well, found it more than worth its price with the time tracking and the (gasp) billing. So far it has saved me a lot of time and kept me fairly organized.
Complete Time Tracking is another awesome tool. I’ve been using it since about June last year. I specifically did *not* want a web based time tracking system – they suck (clunky, slow, sometimes not available). I looked at several desktop programs and settled on complete time tracking.
http://www.complete-time-tracking.com
There’s a standard version for freelancers and a pro version for companies. Great support too.
Rick
After looking at several options, I decided on Office Timesheets (www.officetimesheets.com)
The excellent interface, integration with Quickbooks and price ($9.95 per user) were the deciding factors. It also works with Mac AND Windows in the same envirmonment. You can also import/export from a variety of different applications in .csv or xml format.
For the price, it can’t be beat.
http://www.time59.com
$19.95 per year for unlimited use.
Time and expense tracking, online invoicing, payment processing.
I’ve used TraxTime for 5 or more years and love it’s ease of use!
May I mention my own offering ? Something I’ve been fine tuning for years as a freelancer
http://www.adderuppa.com
We use Pacific Timesheet (http://www.pacifictimesheet.com) to track time in our company not because of a whizzy interface (though it has that) but because it does what we need really well – time tracking, time off requests, custom reporting and integration into our payroll system. Don’t be fooled by a lot of the products out there that seem nice on the surface but have no depth. We’ve been burned before. Pacific Timesheet really understood our business space and that time payroll sheet software is mission-critical to a company like ours.
D. Chu
If I may throw my own hat on the pile, my own offering is called Tasksy (http://www.tasksy.com).
Instead of competing on features, which has been done in spades, we’re trying to compete on simplicity and utility to meet the needs of independent types.
Up until I started using Tasksy I used Toggl, which to be fair did a damn good job of tracking time in its own right.
I’ve started using http://www.rescuetime.com a few days back, finally an app that records what you’re doing without you fixing it.
you also see how much crap you do with your time..
This review is missing a few real good candidates, Make sure to try
– trackmypeople.com
– rescuetime.com
– xperttimer.com
All good, and missing in the “6 cool tools to track your time” post.
I’m also voting for xperttimer.com
Another good candidate to add to the list is Intervals, a web-based time tracking tool that includes some very useful reports for analyzing where your time is going.
+1 for slimtimer.com, for me its the most simple and helpful, since I am really bad calculating my time this tool has help me a lot.
I’ve started trying some of the web based tools, but I keep coming back to Rachota. It’s got a nice interface, and some really good reporting tools. Best of all it’s free, and since it’s Java, it’s cross platform.
http://rachota.sourceforge.net
Thanks again for this list Leo. I’ve been searching Google for something similar but to no avail. Nice one!
We use FreeTime for our design agency and tracking the time we spend on each project. It’s a web-app but it has a nifty desktop widget that’s like a stopwatch for timing yourself, that then gets saved directly into the web-app online. It’s so much easier than hand-writing timesheets, and transferring your times onto job sheets for billing.
I’ve always used Timepost a desktop time tracking widget that has the added bonus of integrating with our online accounting software FreeAgent.
Thanks, those are great tools.
You may also check out http://www.GoalsOnTrack.com, a very nicely built web app designed for tracking goals and todo lists, and has time tracking. It’s clear, focused, easy to navigate, worth a try.
I use an app called Plock. It minimizes neatly into the system tray. I click to tell it what I’m working on, click again when I’m done.
http://www.clockwithplock.com
Just a quick update on Christoph Hörl’s comment: mite is now available in English as well – and a pretty good alternative to Harvest or Tick, if I may add that.
The web-based tools are surely good for those who’re always on the move. On the desktop though, I use KTimeTracker
It’s a KDE application and KTimeTracker coupled with other KDE PIM apps make up an awesome package. Of course it works best for me on Linux platform.
…might as well what we use to this long list, because it’s free (yes, we’re cheap): http://xpunch.com
Anyone using http://www.creativeprooffice.com/?
just want to thank everyone for leaving their own suggestions as well!!! I think I might be going with Toggl, SlimTimer, or Fanurio….we’ll see.
+1 for resque time. I love the desktop client
Life-log.com – free online tool (Java agent is available for cells phones) for those who’d like to track time/anything else from everywhere. It enables to use template of work/life activities, immediately helps to change to very conscious life, gives complete picture of work/life priorities. Number of advanced features for analytics, creating important life events history etc.
Take a look to this one, we just launched it I think it will rock your world. http://tracking-time.com. Is a desktop application for mac, pc and linux in the user side and in the backend you have a strong dashboard with all the details that you need to evaluate your or your team performance.
Tracking-time is great! I’m a linux user, and this far surpassed my expectations. I’m not a big fan of the web-app timers in general because I have the habit of closing them mid-way through a project, and because of their inherent “set it and forget it” feeling, I often don’t realise until I go for a break some time later. Tracking-time was a happy medium – its web based so that the data can be updated across many machines – by different users – and it has a desktop air app (hence linux integration) that allows me to close all my web browsers and not face-palm several hours later when I realise what I’ve done. And to top it all off, tracking-time is free.
All-in-all 10/10 for tracking-time.com
We have just developed a new kind of time tracking tool it’s desktop based.
And it offers you the functionality to look back into time.
So you don’t have to keep track of your tasks during the day but you can enter them at the end of the day or week.
Check it out at hesiodsoftware.com
I used Mite for a couple of month, but switched to TimeWhale since Mite now costs per user. Love web interfaces, dont do much on the desktop since Gmail is around.
ktimetracker has a feature that totally makes time tracking effortless. What you do is set up a virtual workspace for each task, and set ktimetracker to track the amount of time you spend on each workspace.
I am trying Worktime (http://www.nestersoft.com/worktime – “fully automated PC usage and Project tracking software surveys time spent on PCs”) – so far looks very promising.
). Hopefully my boss would not find it…
Nice feature – it shows which web-sites I spent time (while pretending to be working on the projects
Wonderful Article ! Thank you for the links (and other commentors for their referrals) !
I’ve created a widget for Basecamp that tracks your time on projects, so if you’re already using Basecamp, why not just keep using it?
http://bitbucket.org/seph/basecamp-time-widget/
Regards
Seph
check Time Edition, simple and powerful app…and yes it is free.
Check out iClockr.
http://www.kedisoft.com/iclockr/
Pros: Free. Simple and easy to use.
Cons: Not web-based. Mac only.
Nice article! I’ve used Klok (http://klok.mcgraphix.com/klok/index.htm) for a while now.
It’s a free desktop app. You do need Adobe Air installed though.
For invoicing and billing, I love Harvest. It has a lovely, well thought out interface that gets out of my way.
For more reporting type stuff, I’m also a fan of Mite – http://mite.yo.lk/en/ – it too has a nice interface.
I’ve heard many people raving about Freshbooks and their customer service is excellent.
If you’re on the Mac, Billings from Market Circle is absolutely amazing too.
Hi there!
I had a look at most of the apps, but none of them really convinced me. I like some others, dislike web based time trackers.
I have found the following app quite useful and unobtrusive, win only:
Timetracker by 0xFF.net
-> http://0xff.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=16&Itemid=47
I too use OfficeTime but for the PC and it’s great. I used to just chuck all my hours in an Excel spreadsheet but that was a nightmare. OfficeTime helps me keep track of multiple tasks and clients with ease.
Fully automated PC usage/Project time tracking software that surveys the time spent on the PC.
I used to track all my work an billing using an excel sheet. But I guess things have changed a lot recently. I am trying Toggl for a while but I am looking into others that can track Hourly billable rates for free. I am going to check out the others now.
I always use online based to do list. I like rememberthemilk.com that is best for me. Thank you for nice post.
Nice selection, haven’t come across all of these before, but I think iGTD is worth a mention. Mac Only though. http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/24288
Try my (mac only) timer! http://www.chronosx.com.
If you are on Snow Leopard and if you like things minimal check out Minco.
http://www.celmaro.com/minco
There’s a lot already, but let me add to all these great tools: Timint.
I’m developing it and it should be released very soon. You can read the blog here http://timint.wordpress.com or go directly to timint.com
Hope you like it when it’ll be launched
HourDoc is tool for Time Tracking. http://www.HourDoc.com is right treatment for time and labor management processes has to be an easy-to-administer and affordable solution for Freelancers, supervisors, employees and HR and payroll managers. They offer free application to companies less than 50 employees.
opentempus (opentempus.org), very simple, not human intervention, full reports, working on windows (and in a future in linux and mac according the webpage)
It’s like manictime but free open source
Check out Chrometa (Windows only) — lawyers use it to track their billable time down to the second… so can you
http://www.chrometa.com
Features:
- Automated time tracking ( records what you do on your PC automatically)
- Responsive desktop interface. Drag and drop time entries to client categories
- Captures your time away from the PC too (i.e. phone calls, meetings, lunch)
Now thats what I was looking for. Thanls for the list I really liked the first one.
Timint has just opened today. It’s an everyday online time tracker.
http://www.timint.com/
It was made to be simple and generic.
I hope that it’ll save you time and you’ll like it.
Feel free to ask questions or give feedback.
PS: it’s in beta, expect enhancements over time.
I’m building a time tracker without timers for the Mac called Lapsus.
It’s aimed at Ruby on Rails developers initially, but long term it’ll be suitable for any freelancer using a Mac.
It runs in the background and watches what documents you work on. At the end of a day or month you approve the assignments then get back to work.
You can find out more at http://lapsusapp.co.uk
I’d love to hear what people think!
I personally like using an online service, StickyPaper.ca it seems to be the most useful, as you get more than what a desktop app can do.
Another one to add to the list for Windows users is Qlockwork (full disclosure: I’m working on it!) It’s an Outlook plug-in that writes all your activities to an Outlook calendar, and then it’s very easy to generate reports showing where your time has been spent, and how much time you’ve spent on different projects. There’s a free trial available from http://www.qlockwork.com.
My favorite is tahometer.com Good alternative to odesk.
My favorite is http://www.e-tim.org Project Time Tracker its very simple and more important its totally FREE.
I am a Freelance Graphic Designer , i was searching for a time tracker and landed at this page, I was really benefited with this post.. Thanks a lot
There is also Timetrack, available at http://www.timetrackonline.be
You can also use Google spreadsheet to track your time. I use Activity Tracker Plus and this tool uses Google spreadsheet to save time tracking details and generates reports.. a must see tool and its FREE. http://screeperzone.com/2009/06/05/activity-tracker-plus-track-all-your-life-activities-with-just-a-single-click/
I would also suggest you look at timeEdition – http://bit.ly/cSAZzE It’s a great free tool that work on Mac or Windows based computers and links to Google Calendar.
I am using tahometer time tracking tool http://tahometer.com for a while. The main advanture for me it’s completely free and works under different operation systems. I have tried wakoopa but actually it has a lot of disadvantages. I prefer to see the display screenshots instead of just app titles. You have missed rescue time also. This is great time tracker.
Tahometer is awesome and runs on Linux! Since writing this post, I’ve written an article about recommended linux apps for freelancers. Check it out here: http://www.johnhamelink.com/2010/07/linux-apps-freelancers/
At personal level, I love the iPhone app called “more than time log”
I find it is portable, easy to use, and actually quite robust.
It not only tracks my time but also tracks my energy level fluctuation so I also have a feedback on how I should re-plan my day. Typical time log software just tell me the percentage, but they never tell me what I can do to improve the use of my time.
Anyway, check it out here http://consciousanalytics.com
http://consciousanalytics.com/
These are great list. Especially the tools in comments are better than the six time tracking tools mentioned in the blog. I find free time tracking tool “Activity Tracker Plus” mentioned in the comments very interesting and fun to work with tool. Thanks
TrackTime (http://nimbleworks.co.uk/tracktime) has just been taken over, and is again in active development. It sits back and tracks everything that you are doing lets you retrospectively look at it later. Projects also supported.