Ask HN: What do you use for time tracking

8 points by tronathan 14 years ago | 13 comments

As a freelancer, its important that I accurately track and bill my time. I think a lot of us end up guessing about time on projects and tend to under-bill.

What do you use for time tracking?

(I am writing an app that 'solves' time tracking in a new way and am trying to determine which services I should target for integration. Currently supporting Harvest, what else is important?)

Please post the name of your time tracking weapon of choice so we can see whats popular.

brudgers 14 years ago |

When I track time, I like to use half days.

A half day is the most meaningful chunk of work progress and, of course, it is flexible - I hate keeping track of quarter hours or worrying about remembering that I stopped to talk to the UPS driver.

I've even written contracts with half days as the basic billing unit - and once I explain to clients that it means I may not bill them for a quick email, they pretty much get it.

I track half days with a pencil and calendar, and write a short description of what I did.

timgluz 14 years ago |

I'm using Yast, cool startup from Norway. I picked this one because it works on desktop and Iphone, possible to add subprojects with different pricing model, share data with another team-members/freelancers, comprehensive reports and has very good API. URL: http://www.yast.com/

b3b0p 14 years ago |

I've been using this. Print them out every week. I find them easy to keep track with since I switch tasks often.

http://davidseah.com/blog/node/the-emergent-task-timer/

kroger 14 years ago |

I love Hamster [1], but since I switched from Linux to the Mac I haven't found anything like it.

[1] http://projecthamster.wordpress.com/about/

christocracy 14 years ago |

I've been giving freshbooks $20/month for the last couple years http://freshbooks.com

iworkforthem 14 years ago |

http://www.tickspot.com/ is also pretty good. Paid version sync to Basecamp.

Todd 14 years ago |

I've been pretty happy with toggl.

https://www.toggl.com/

olegious 14 years ago |

freshbooks.com - time tracking and invoicing in one package.

MattBearman 14 years ago | |

I use Freshbooks as well, so far it's been well worth $20 / month, but if you don't have many clients/projects you can use it for free.

dangrossman 14 years ago |

A pen and notepad

superchink 14 years ago |

Harvest here

damoncali 14 years ago |

a spreadsheet

ilcavero 14 years ago |

manic time