04.23.2008 / Time Tracking Solutions
I mentioned a few days ago that I started using Punchy Time to track time. Nick left a comment with links to additional sites which made me curious to know what else was out there. I did some more digging and have compiled a short list of theses solutions. If you’ve got more please feel free to leave them in the comments. Cheers! (Note, if you google “time tracking solutions” you’ll find hundreds of sites so please try to avoid linking to crappy solutions.)
Labeled “the essential small business companion” Harvest lets you and your staff track time, log expenses, and create invoices in one simple, integrated workflow.” They give away one free account a month as part of their New Founders Program.
(As far as I can tell) The only application I found that isn’t web based, Klok, “is a tool intended to be used by individuals, like myself, who have a need to track the time they spend on projects, tasks or anything else for that matter. ” It was developed as part of the Adobe AIR Developer Derby.
“Lightweight and Smart. Toggl provides you the most basic features needed for fast and effective time management.”
I kind of forgot that Basecamp added time tracking. You have to upgrade to their $49/month plan to activate it, but if you’re already using this for project management then it is probably a good solution.
Tick appears to have one of the stronger “time is money” marketing pitches. From their site: “Tick gives you the information you need, when you need it. Nail your mark, every time.”
ClickTime caught my eye because of its big name clients - Target, Visa & Xerox. Granted that probably means it’s expensive. Especially considering that I couldn’t find pricing on the site. UPDATE: Morgan just left a comment with a link to pricing - clicktime.com/pricing.
“Eliminate Stress. Manage Success.” That’s activeCollab’s tagline. Not only does it look like a decent alternative to Basecamp, it’s open source and you can install it on your own server. Pretty cool.
Thanks to David for mentioning FreshBooks in the comments. I’ve never heard of this solution before but I love one of their taglines “Escape the tyranny of accounting software.” If you’ve ever tried to use QuickBooks (yeah, because my accounting classes from college sure prepared me for all of the functions in QuickBooks - whatever) you know how true that statement is.
John from Pelago just added Intervals to the list. Thanks John!
Hi - Thanks for mentioning our product. And I’m sorry you missed our pricing page — it’s at www.clicktime.com/pricing. We post all of our prices clearly and we offer an extraordinary value when compared with other enterprise-class products. ClickTime is also competitive with “web 2.0″ tools when used in groups of 20 or more people. What makes us different is that we’ve been tracking time on the web (24/7/365) for almost 10 years. That’s why the big firms trust us. I’d be happy to answer any questions you have about our product. Contact sales at clicktime dot com for any additional info. Thanks!
you left out the one i use.
freshbooks.
like basecamp if youre already using this for project/client management and quotes/invoicing its the perfect one. actually i would say its the best period bc of the branding you can do, the client log in, the payment methods. almost everything under one roof. and if youre sending invoices to a client might as well have it come from the same place you track your time right? not to mention the pc widget you can buy and the mac one thats free so you dont have to log into use the time manager
Hi Morgan - thanks for the comment. I updated the post to include the link to your pricing.
Hey David - thanks for the suggestion. I just added Freshbooks to the list.
Question for everyone: is there a solution that does project management AND invoicing all in one? It seems that Basecamp or activeCollab might be the closest but I’m not sure if they do invoicing as part of their time tracking. I guess that’s what plugins (like Freshbooks’ Basecamp plugin) are for?
You’ve got a nice-looking blog! Kudos!
Here’s another addition to your list - Wrike. We use it for project management. They’ve added time-tracking feature about a couple of months ago. Works great!
From a fellow cold caller and diaper changer…..understandably, you missed the gem of the Time and Attandance world. Can’t blame you as there are quite a few out there.
HourDoc offers a Web Based Time and Attendance Solution that is inexpensive and easy to use.
All you need is a PC or MAC with Internet access.
$2.50 per employee per month with a one time $10 per employee set up fee gets you everything the Small to Med size company could want in Time and Attendance.
You have a 1-100 employee company? We’ll have you up and running in one business week.
Time Tracking, One line Day Off requests and accruals, Reports, Scheduling, PAYROLL INTEGRATION!, Job Tracking, etc, etc….at no extra cost, no contracts.
We believe it should be easy to make a decision and you don’t need to be a Rocket Scientist to use and implement a system.
Just like buying diapers and wipes at Costco, time tracking should be easy, effective and affordable.
Thanks for the opportunity to post Brandon.
www.hourdoc.com
Nice list, but you left off Intervals. It is a time tracking service with task management and reporting, so you can better organize and analyze your time.
[…] from Pelago just added Intervals to the list. Thanks […]
Hi Brandon,
Another option is Fanurio which is a time tracking application designed for freelancers.
Fanurio has a few reminders to help you start, resume or stop the timer. It also uses idle time detection for more accuracy.
For a small biz / agency, http://www.tsheets.com is a very good deal and is very user friendly. We started using today and it’s very intuitive and easy to use. Pricing is cheap:
5 users = $9.95, 30 users = $19.95, 50 users = $29.95
http://www.tsheets.com/online-time-clock-software-pricing.php
Nice interface and responsive support.
I was looking at time tracking solutions recently (I work as a consultant and in several different .
businesses). I found Clicktime too “big”, although I’d recommend it to bigger companies.
I eventually settled on Tempo (www.keeptempo.com), which is very flexible and gives me loads of different ways to enter time