6 Ways to Track Your Time
April 3rd, 2007 (12:00pm) Mike Gunderloy 37 Comments
Web workers do not live by tall Americanos alone. We need to eat too, and for many of us, that means billing clients for time spent on projects. But how do you keep track of that time? Here are half a dozen alternatives, each with their own pros and cons, for you to consider:
Don’t track it at all. At the end of the month, use your memory and your powers of deduction to figure out what you can get away with, and bill clients accordingly. Pros: No overhead or software expense for time-tracking. Cons: If clients figure out this is your system, they are likely to be crabby about it.
Pencil and paper. Armed with a watch (or the timer on your cell phone) and any notebook from a dimestore special to a Moleskine or a Circa, you can simply write down the time as you work it. Pros: No need to boot up a computer to record time spent in meetings or phone calls, and you can feed the office supply habit that many of us have. Cons: Wasted time transcribing all those paper records to some computer format so that you can do your billing at the end of the month.
Spreadsheet. Excel, Open Office, Google Docs & Spreadsheets - pretty much anyone can bang up a spreadsheet that takes hours times rate and then totals by client at the bottom. Pros: The least intrusive computer-based solution, and the easiest to “fudge” when you need to adjust hours so as to bill a client for more or less than actual hours worked. Cons: Ultimately, you’ll spend so much time adding bells and whistles that it would have been cheaper to buy a dedicated application in the first place.
Accounting Application. If you’re using something like QuickBooks or MYOB for your accounting, you can add on a payroll module to track time that should be billed to customers. Pros: Integration with customer billing, receivables, and taxes. It will make your accountant happy too. Cons: Likely to be the slowest solution, and you’ll spend time learning accounting software that you’d rather use for something else.
Time Tracking Application. There are a ton of these on the market. Wikipedia has a page comparing some of the alternatives; FindApp has another. Look for one that has a stopwatch that you can use to track what you’re doing as you do it, as well as export capabilities to your accounting or spreadsheet package. Pros: Single-purpose software is usually the best at what it does. Cons: Requires you to have the computer handy to track time, and most don’t store their data in an open format.
Spy on Yourself. Use an application like TimeSnapper to automatically track what you’re doing every time you turn your computer on. At the end of the day, use the automatic recording to figure out what’s billable. Pros: Nothing to remember; it’s like a flight recorder for your computer. Cons: Won’t record non-computer billable time, and it can be depressing to discover just how much time you waste cruising the web and playing games.
I’ve known successful web workers who have used each of these systems, and I’ve used most of them myself. The real key to success with time-based billing probably lies not so much in a ruthless accounting for every minute as in your attitude: are you delivering value to your clients? If you are, they’re far less likely to demand to see your detailed records.
37 Comments Post your own comment
Shefaly says: April 3rd, 2007 1:17pm
All valid. If I were billing clients according to the real time it takes to do some projects (esp European Commission projects) they would go bankrupt. Some clients like to negotiate on output, others tell you how much time they would like you to spend (trust me, policy clients are like that too). So pick and choose, like from a big colourful veggie salad buffet. :-)
Neal Watzman says: April 3rd, 2007 2:07pm
Call me old school, but I still use a paper time sheet for the 5-8 clients that I work with each month. Make an entry in their file and build an invoice from that sheet in QuickBooks at the end of the month.
Yes, I could probably improve on it, but it’s worked for 20 years, so why change?
Amy Serbonich says: April 3rd, 2007 2:57pm
I use Tick and it works great! Plus it keeps track of your budget as well.
matthew says: April 3rd, 2007 5:12pm
Slimtimer is an indispensable little online time tracking app for individuals or groups. Lightweight but flexible.
Kent Sharkey says: April 3rd, 2007 5:13pm
I’ve always had a problem tracking my time in the past, but SlimTimer has changed that. It stays in the browser sidebar, makes switching tasks incredibly easy, and gives me reports at the end of the week/month when I’m sending out invoices. (Tick looks pretty good as well)
Rex Dixon says: April 3rd, 2007 6:36pm
I use SlimTimer also. It is a great tool, and makes tracking as simple as clicking a mouse. That is how I do my billing for a company in France; they like it also as they know I am tracking accurately.
Rex
Evan says: April 3rd, 2007 8:20pm
Don’t forget that Basecamp has a time tracking feature in it as well. Integrated with Project Management or to-dos might be another category.
Ed says: April 3rd, 2007 9:03pm
I can’t say enough about ClickTime. It is a web based time keeping system. We’ve used it for years. It costs like $10/user/month, but if you use QuickBooks and you are in professional services, it is great. You can export your time into QB for billing. It also does expense reports.
ajaxus says: April 3rd, 2007 10:59pm
For the past 3 years I am using Time Tracking Application such as Netoffice. It suits me best for everyday small tasks as well as for tracking bigger projects which run for few months to an year.
And what is importnat gives nice reports so me and my clients are happy :)
literaryc says: April 3rd, 2007 11:12pm
Netoffice seems a good software to check out - if tracking time is essential.
Jon says: April 4th, 2007 12:53am
I would recommend some of Dave Seah’s work - very useful and well designed
http://davidseah.com/archives/2006/09/12/the-printable-ceo-vi-menu-of-the-day/
Phil Read says: April 4th, 2007 2:34pm
I’m a web designer / programmer and had trouble tracking time on client projects for a number of years. In the end I produced a software program to track time for internal use and over time built it into a product.
It doesn’t work like most Time Trackers, it records the exact day, hour, min, sec period you spent working on a project or activity so the client can see exactly when you worked on a specific task. It produces client time sheets to accompany your invoice via a built in wizard as oppose to trying to interface with accounts packages. Projects / clients and billing rates can all be setup in the software.
I know Activity Time Tracker will be useful to many other people out there: http://time_tracking_software.vizualweb.com/
WordPress Wednesday: New Security Release, Updated WordPressMU, More WordPress Plugins, and Time to Get Naked at The Blog Herald says: April 4th, 2007 3:57pm
[...] 6 Ways to Track Your Time [...]
Top Posts « WordPress.com says: April 4th, 2007 4:58pm
[...] 6 Ways to Track Your Time Web workers do not live by tall Americanos alone. We need to eat too, and for many of us, that means billing clients […] [...]
Nerd Guru says: April 4th, 2007 6:21pm
Call me crazy, but I use Outlook’s calendar to track my time. It doesn’t add up the way the spreadsheets do, but as I perform tasks, I mark what it was and how much time I spent on it using the Outlook appointments. I’ll have to check out some of these other tools above.
engtech says: April 4th, 2007 7:44pm
re: spreadsheets
Joel Spolsky’s Painless software estimation is a good read on tracking schedules with spreadsheets. I compared a couple of apps for time tracking using his system here.
I used TimeSnapper for a while but turned it off after I realized I was never checking the results.
and of course there’s the various web2.0 time tracking startups out there.
Word Angler says: April 5th, 2007 5:02am
I use Trax Time by Spud City (http://www.spudcity.com/). It’s simple, allows for multiple projects, and sits on my quick launch toolbar… True, it’s not Web based, but it works just fine for me.
WordPress Wednesday: New Security Release, Updated WordPressMU, More WordPress Plugins, and Time to Get Naked » TechAddress says: April 9th, 2007 7:43am
[...] 6 Ways to Track Your Time [...]
Track your time at BizTips says: April 9th, 2007 5:57pm
[...] If you are in a business that depends on the amount of time you spend on a given job then it is a really good idea to track the time you are spending. If you don’t, you risk not benefitting from that valuable time spent on the jobs concerned. My preferred method at the moment is to use a simple Excel spreadsheet that tracks time spent and gives me an indication of the value of that time. I have columns for the job reference, date, description of the activity and the time spent. It didn’t take long to set the spreadsheet up and I use it daily. For a couple other ideas, together with pros and cons of each, take a look at this post on Web Worker Daily. [...]
greenworld says: September 6th, 2007 2:42pm
We use Intervals for time tracking, keeping our budgets in check, generate paperless timesheets, streamline clients, projects and tasks, and upload documents to each task. Now they are coming with the invoicing feature which will make it even more complete. It keeps our team happy, focused and neatly organized.
I love it.
http://www.myintervals.com/
Birgitte says: September 18th, 2007 6:15pm
I love Intervals too, and so does my staff and external consultants. Literally, it has saved us money. I’m a producer and project manager. Seriously, I’d be lost without it. It’s made us money — by keeping fantastic track of time so that no billable shred of an hour can slip through the cracks the way it used to. No more of that. Ever. We’re well into the black now… what an elegant color that is too. :-)
Web Worker 101: Estimating Basics « Web Worker Daily says: September 28th, 2007 11:00am
[...] Track and correct. Make sure you track your time and, at the end of the job, compare it to your initial estimate. You can use this information to [...]
jshultz says: October 2nd, 2007 9:45am
freshbooks has a built in time tracker that’s fairly nifty.
Kolz Blog » Blog Archive » Web Worker 101: Estimating Basics says: November 1st, 2007 3:07pm
[...] it becomes impossible to estimate a total “finished” cost. 5. Track and correct. Make sure you track your time and, at the end of the job, compare it to your initial estimate. You can use this information to [...]
Web Worker 101: Estimating Basics « Graphicmotion’s Weblog says: November 11th, 2007 2:38pm
[...] Track and correct. Make sure you track your time and, at the end of the job, compare it to your initial estimate. You can use this information to [...]
303 Insanely Interesting Links From 2007 -- Jarkko Laine - Insanely interested says: December 26th, 2007 11:34am
[...] 6 Ways to Track Your Time, Web Worker Daily [...]
Dan Gebhardt says: January 31st, 2008 10:43am
We developed LiveTimer.com to be a very flexible yet easy to use online time tracking service. LiveTimer allows you to customize the classifications used for tracking your time. For instance, you could track your time against clients, projects and tasks, or opt to just use projects (these classifications can be renamed, too). There are multiple ways to track your time as well: use a timer to track time as you work, or enter your hours after the fact by the day or week. LiveTimer also includes advanced reports, user permissions, account backups and restores, and SSL security for all accounts.
Please take a look at LiveTimer.com. There’s a free 30 day trial, after which it’s just $5 a month per user.
BR says: February 15th, 2008 12:13am
I use Activity Tracker on my windows vista sidebar http://screeperzone.com/2007/11/25/activity-tracker-windows-vista-sidebar-time-managementtime-tracker-gadget/.
Web Worker Daily » Archive Obsolete Skills for Web Workers « says: February 18th, 2008 5:01am
[...] Punching a timeclock (though I still track my own time) [...]
Donna Chu says: March 24th, 2008 9:39am
We use Pacific Timesheet (http://www.pacifictimesheet.com) for time tracking because of its ease of use and strong payroll integration support. They understand the mission-critical nature of payroll time tracking software, and their online service has never let us down once in over two years!
D. Chu
Adam Bard says: April 22nd, 2008 12:21pm
I use Tasksy for time tracking and invoicing. It’s fast and easy, and once the time and expenses are tracked the invoice is basically ready to go. But to be fair, I’m a bit biased.
Before that, I used Toggle, which did great time-tracking but had a questionable interface for reporting.
Web Worker Daily » Archive PayCycle Offers Online Payroll for Small Business « says: May 5th, 2008 9:00am
[...] there an abundance of time tracking and invoicing solutions available, choices for online payroll processing have seemingly been [...]
Gijs Nelissen says: June 2nd, 2008 10:02am
I would recommend http://www.trackmypeople.com
Easy client (linux & windows), and good reporting !
Milla says: June 10th, 2008 4:56am
Hi Mike,
I’d like to suggest Fanurio which does both time tracking and invoicing.
Fanurio is a desktop application designed to help freelancers manage their work and be paid for it. It can do basic project management, time tracking and invoicing in order to have all the functionality in one place.
Jim Hong says: June 18th, 2008 4:31pm
Thanks everyone for sharing their experiences. I tried most of the applications recommended but ended up with clicktime . A lot of the time tracking applications recommended are pretty decent but clicktime was just easier for me. I am 54 years old so it is hard for me to learn something unless it is really intuitive.
Castle104 Blog» ブログアーカイブ » 在宅勤務（テレワーク）について：経験者からのアドバイス says: August 5th, 2008 10:47am
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Time Tracking says: August 11th, 2008 6:16am
There’s also TSheets.com for all your time tracking needs.