Time Tracking Software: 5 Time Trackers to Manage Your Time

Managing your time well is imperative to be productive at work. Everyone knows the expression “time is money” and nobody likes to waste it.

The best way to know if you and your team are profitable is by timing the time spent on your tasks. In this way, you can optimize your days by organizing your time more wisely. For example, delegate tasks that take up too much of your time to more competent people, automate some tasks, outsource others, or even eliminate them altogether if they are not profitable.

Today, there are many solutions that are much more effective than the timer on your phone to know how much time you spend doing this or that task. These software called time trackers offer several advantages:

• identify the time required to complete a task;
• analyze how you use your time;
• simplify time tracking and avoid using an Excel spreadsheet;
• compare planned work with actual work;
• analyze the ratio between costs and revenues;
• optimize your hourly rate;
• identify the most profitable projects;
• accounting for time for billing the customer;
• improve your productivity and that of your team

Top 5 time tracking software

• RescueTime
• Timely App
• Toggl
• Harvest
• Tick

Here is a selection of 5 time tracking software to get you started without waiting.

RescueTime

Launch RescueTime and work as you normally do. The software measures the time you spend on a software, website, or application, and provides you with a detailed report at the end of the day. So you can improve your productivity every day.

Among the options available, you can block websites (such as social networks) to avoid temptation, set alarms when you exceed a certain amount of time on an activity, set daily productivity goals, and get detailed graphs on how you managed your time during the day.

On the price side, two formulas are available to you:

• RescueTime Lite: basic and free;
• RescueTime Premium: $9/month or $72/year (4 months free) with additional options and the option to try it free for 14 days.

Timely App

Available on any type of device and platform (web, Mac, Windows, etc.), Timely helps you accurately time the time spent on each of your missions and provides you with detailed timesheets.

This time tracking software allows you to improve your time and budget estimates, to increase the profitability of your projects and to optimize the performance of your team and your business.

Everything you do is recorded: the meetings that are getting longer, the phone calls, the trips, the sending of emails, etc.

The application is also ideal for self-employed individuals who can indicate their hourly cost and get a direct estimate of the rate to be charged to the customer.

Timely offers three packages that can be paid monthly or annually (cheaper):

• Solo: $8/month for individual use;
• Essential: $15/month for teams;
• Company: $23/month for teams and with additional features.

Toggl

Simple and effective, Toggl is aimed at companies and agencies as well as freelancers. Available in desktop, mobile or online versions, you can use it anywhere and anytime. Get detailed reports on how you use your time to improve productivity and the profitability of your business projects.

You can try Toggl free for 30 days and the Basic version is free indefinitely. If you want more features, you can choose from three solutions that are payable monthly or annually (the cheapest option):

• Starter: $9/user/month;
• Premium: $18/user/month;
• Enterprise: contact Toggl for a personalized quote.

Harvest

How much do my projects really cost? What do I do with my time? Is my team overloaded or underloaded? Harvest helps you answer all of these questions easily.

Thanks to this software, time tracking is no longer a constraint. You know what your projects really bring you, you know the workload of your collaborators and you can even create your invoices, send them directly to your customers and follow up on them. Finally, Harvest works on any device and integrates with dozens of applications.

Like a lot of time trackers, you can try Harvest free for 30 days. Then, three types of pricing are available to you:

• Free: free for one person and two projects;
• Solo: $12/month for one person and an unlimited number of projects;
• Team: $12/person/month for two users and for an unlimited number of projects.

Tick

Here is a simple and effective time tracking tool that can be used on both iOS, Android, Apple Watch and on your desktop computer.

Thanks to Tick, your data is updated in real time so you can identify problems immediately and act on them, before you even start wasting time and money.

Get accurate reports, bill customers directly through Tick, be more productive and profitable, and complete projects on budget and on time.

You can choose between 5 monthly packages depending on the number of projects:

• 1 project: free;
• 10 projects: $19/month;
• 30 projects: $49/month;
• 60 projects: $79/month;
• unlimited: $149/month.

Goodbye doubts and approximations, hello productivity and precision! Thanks to your time tracking software, you and your team will better manage your working days and ensure the profitability of your projects.

And for even more efficiency, do not hesitate to adopt a project management software which will allow you, among other things, to organize the work of your team, to centralize all your data and to communicate effectively. In short, an essential tool to succeed in your projects and to make people happy within your team.