What Applications do you use for time tracking.

I have used hamster-applet on Ubuntu. The Rescue time uploader doesn't seem to work well.

In each of the platforms (Windows/*nix/Max/iPhone/Symbian) what are the various time tracking applications you use and have come across.

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Could you please specify which operating system(s) it works for (or if it is web based) in your answer? Thanks. – Evan Jul 17 '09 at 4:57
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21 Answers

up vote 4 down vote accepted

I second Freshbooks. They have FANTASTIC timesheet functionality but they also are the best invoicing service I've found yet. As a contract developer I use them to track all of my time on projects and invoice my clients (you can send invoices by email or snail mail!)

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I use ManicTime (for Windows). Its kind of similar to RescueTime but its desktop based, instead of online. It gives quite detailed info on what you've been running. Only downside is you need .NET 3.5 installed.

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RescueTime is cool and very useful. I spend way more of my day in Outlook than I ever imagined. – sestocker Jul 15 '09 at 12:03
Yep, same for me. The stats they come back with can be pretty scary! – Pauk Jul 15 '09 at 12:13
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I've research this extensively when my company wanted a time tracking solution. From memory, here were some of the best ones I found:

Harvest - Web based with a really slick interface. There is a companion iPhone application that proved to be a killer feature.

Freshbooks - Online accounting software that also has a nice iPhone application.

Toggl - Seems fairly nice. Note nearly as many features as the ones previously mentioned (at least not when I looking into it a few months back)

Tick - Another really nice interface. They also have an iPhone application.

Pen and Paper - My favorite because its easiest. Lets you go back and enter your time when its convenient for you.

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I'm using a simple spreadsheet.

It works really really well. I have a quick access to it and opens really fast. Mmhh I don't really think I need something else ( as of now )

All the other tools I've used always got in the middle of something.

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I have been trying out "On the Job" for OS X lately. Works nice.

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My favorite too. – SeniorShizzle Jan 8 '11 at 23:49
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I have been using a Google Docs spreadsheet. The nice thing with that particular setup is that you can access it online pretty much everywhere and you can share it with people if you need to.

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I really like using Google Calendar to keep track of my time at work. Once a project manager came and asked me why I did not have any time in the internal tracking system for a certain week two months back and I was able to pull this up and show what I'd been doing.

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ATM, I use the Java based TTT.

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Unix: Quozl's gfocustimer is very basic and hasn't been updated in a while but it's available under GPL.

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I use Djime, the main reason being I made about half of it myself. Not 100% done yet, but I got a working prototype I use.

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I use a Yahoo widget called TimeTracker. It's very small and simple (enough that I can hack the javascript to suit my needs better), and just drops a summary of the tasks and their start and end times to a CSV file.

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The company I work for has developed it's own time tracking tool (in Air), I won't post it in case it counts as advertisement?

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If you clearly state your affiliation with the company and the tool is relevant, then your answer is not spam. Check on meta.stackoverflow.com if in doubt. – Robert Munteanu Jul 15 '09 at 11:39
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I use SlimTimer - very basic but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Generates simple reports, tracks multiple tasks and it's online.

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Hour Guard Very simple and free

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For my Linux-based time tracking needs, I'm using a combination of ktimetracker (aka KArm) and Gnotime. I prefer Gnotime in general, because of the Diary interface which I use to track individual projects per week, but I keep ktimetracker going as a backup.

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EasyTimeTracker

It does a great job of allow customization and report creation. I use it when I make invoices for billing customers. It's windows and .NET based.

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I used TimeTool on Windows for years when I had to track time for my work projects and customer support. Features I like:

  • Export to CSV. Makes it very easy to parse via script for generating management reports.
  • Simple interface - click the start/stop button with a project selected. Easy.
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For people who actively use Microsoft's Team Foundation Server for work item tracking etc., TFS Working On can be pretty useful.

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Definitely Freckle time tracking. It's simple with cool design and friendly features.

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I use TraxTime which is a little commercial program for Windows that suits me. It's simple punch-clock metaphor plus being able to easily tweak your in/out history for when you forget when you swap tasks just works the best for me.

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I don't like web-based because I don't want it sitting in a tab I have to keep open all the time. Much prefer desktop.

None of the many others I've tried I find as comfortable to use. (Unfortunately it doesn't work under WINE for Linux... sigh.)

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