You’re working at home or the coffee shop and have access to the Internet, so it’s easy to get distracted on Facebook or watching YouTube videos of cats. But as a freelancer, lack of time management can cause all kinds of havoc. You might get behind on a project, staying up nights (and mornings) just to catch up and your client may even question your ability to complete the project in a timely manner if you cannot get milestones done.
If you can learn to manage your time well and develop a good work ethic, you’ll be able to handle more clients and finish projects faster. Time tracking tools can help you accomplish exactly this.
What’s great about this list of time tracking tools is that they can be accessed from anywhere, so whether you’re at home working or you’re out of town and still have a couple of projects that are nearing completion, you can use these tools to track and manage your time, as opposed to time tracking software which can only be used on one computer. Web based time tracking tools are superior to time tracking software in that regard.
Google Calendar
Google Calendar is a great place to start if your calendar isn’t that full yet. You can set up daily task lists and separate calendars for each client or project that you’re working on. You can also integrate this with your iPhone or Android to receive notifications and reminders on your phone.
Toggl Time Tracking
If you regularly work with or sub-contract work out to other freelancers, Toggl is the time tracking tool for you. It allows for teams of five people or more (the Pro account allows hundreds of team members) to work on the same project. Its time management tool lets you view how you actually spend your time, and other tools allow for time-tracking and accurate invoicing. You can also import projects from Quickbooks and FreshBooks.
Function Fox
Specifically geared towards small businesses and uniquely suited to the timesheet and billing needs of creative agencies, Function Fox is a simple and easy to use time tracking tool. Each timesheet includes a stopwatch timer and instant reporting on projects, while more advanced features offer dashboards, iCalendar integration, project calendars/scheduling and to-do lists with built-in stopwatches.
Rescue Time
If you do have a problem with time management, this may be the time tracking tool for you. Rescue Time claims to recover nearly 4 hours worth of productive time per week, per person. How could it possibly do that, you ask? Well, in addition to offering a Focus Mode, as well as automated time tracking, you can voluntarily block the sites you know you waste time on. At the end of the day, you’ll get a report that shows how you spend your time and attention.
My Hours
My Hours is a simple time management, timesheet and time-tracking tool. You can track your projects in real-time or enter time based on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. For the moment, this time tracking tool is free.
Paymo.biz
Paymo is a web app with many features, including invoicing and project management features, but it has time-tracking features that are more robust than most other options on the market, with web-based and desktop versions, and iPhone and Android apps all available. Paymo has free and premium plans but its time-tracking features are free.
Harvest
Harvest lets you track time and send invoices from one application. This includes a simple timesheet and timesheet approval, so both you and your client will save time tracking yours.
Klok
Klok offers true time tracking; drop the app into your workspace and when you start working on a separate project or task, that timer stops and another one starts. This is a great tool for working on multiple tasks or projects at the same time. You can also connect Klok to other time tracking systems like Harvest and FreshBooks.
Knowable
Knowable a project management tool that allows others to keep track of projects that you’re doing for them. For a minuscule monthly fee, you can set up boards, add tasks to those boards and share them with your clients. You can even export these as RSS feeds to your client’s email address. It’s a great way to keep your client up-to-date on how you’re progressing on a particular project.
Slimtimer
Track your time and leave the time sheets to someone else with Slimtimer. It works sort of like a countdown timer; you create a task in the Slimtimer, click on the task to start the clock, and again once that task is finished. You can even run reports that reveal how much time you’re spending on tasks.
Ronni
Deceptively simple, Ronni allows for invoicing, estimates, project management and payment integration. Time-tracking is built-in and you can generate invoices directly from active projects.
Curd Bee
In addition to a time tracking and invoicing tool, you can use Curd Bee to brand your invoices and profile. Upload your company logo and modify the colors to fit your brand to stand out. This tool is also great because you can accept payments online through Google Checkout or PayPal.
The wonderful thing about using tools like these is that, if you’re not that great at managing your time now, you’ll learn to be. Many of these tools show you how much time it takes to complete a project or task and a handful of them will show you how much time you’re wasting — important information for any freelancer who struggles to stick to the task at hand.
Hi Lindsey,
Nice post! You might also like to have a look at Yanomo. We have build it around an online calendar where you can track your time plan your to-do’s and best of all, sync with Google calendar with a simple “convert to worked time” link. Since we developed it ourselves I will leave rating it to others but feel free to have a look.
– Time tracking
– Flexible rates per user/client/project
– Task scheduling
– Google calendar and iCal sync
– Accurate progress estimation though “Team sourcing”
– Project budgets, estimates and timelines
– Reporting by user, client, project, phase and task
– Every report exportable to csv
– It’s free for small companies up to 3 users (unlimited projects) and for 8 EUR/user/month you’ll get invoicing with it as well.
Kind regards,
Joost Schouten
Yanomo – Time tracking and Invoicing
I’m not a freelancer, but in our office we use Toggl, and it works great, we can crate projects for our clients, and at the end of each month our accounts team just looks at the reports to arrange the invoices. Works well in an office environment too.
Hello.
I would like to recommend to take a look at ADIOS Software Cloud. Here’s the description from their site:
ADIOS is a software cloud solution with a bunch of well-designed products for various segments of business. Does not matter which type of business you run, ADIOS can help you. You can install any available software in your ADIOS account or we can create a software tailored exactly for your business.
They have products for:
– Project Management & invoicing – Manitoo
– CRM – SalesHero
– Email Marketing – Courier
– or they can build an on-demand solution for you to cover your specific needs (they get out from the fact that completely universal solution is not doable – each company has some special processes)
Another important note – ADIOS is currently completely free.
Some useful links:
http://www.adioscloud.com
http://www.adioscloud.com/en/project-management-team-collaboration
http://www.adioscloud.com/blog/2011/09/manitoo-feature-list/
http://www.adioscloud.com/blog/2011/09/adios-products-installation-options/
http://www.adioscloud.com/blog/2011/09/products-and-packages-in-adios-software-cloud/
Hi Lindsey,
I am a big fan of Fanurio http://www.fanuriotimetracking.com . It helps with the less appealing aspects of freelancing like invoicing and keeping track of time. It’s a useful application, with a user-friendly interface.
There are some excellent time tracking tools mentioned in this list. I’d also like to throw Intervals into the list of online time tracking apps to consider. Our web design agency developed and uses it, so it is ideal for those in the creative industry.
This is very much true that Youtube and Facebook consume a lot of valuable time. Keeping a track of time is very important for freelancers. I am using Replicon Time tracking software and is very much helpful for managing time.
I could recommend Curdbee, they were only an invoicing app until recent times but introduced time tracking and expenses along with a mobile app, which makes it really awesome.
I am a software tester and do a couple of ratings too whether it pass the standards or needs to be edited before we start doing a global market. My current task is to rate time tracking software mainly use in monitoring hours worked and websites visited when a person is working on his computer. Basically, this is more for outsourcing businesses around the world. And if I were to rate a product I tested I would give a number “1” spot for “Time Doctor”. Why? Because this software is way better than the others.
I read your post, it is interesting. Time tracking tools help us to accomplish the projects in timeline. But you might also like to have a look at Talygen. It is very flexible and also available on your iPhone, iPad, or Android smartphones. Talygen has user-friendly interface and it is easy to use.
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Use these strategies to make sure that your internet site is rating nicely and therefore everyone is seeing your website in search results. Because you want individuals to visit your internet site, or you’re just wasting your time. Use Search engine optimisation to aid your site becomes noticed, and you’ll be able to talk about your internet site with anyone.
Hi Lindsey,
Great to see that you mentioned Toggl too. I would just like to let you know that Toggl also has a “little brother” TeamWeek. It’s basically a weekly team calendar that makes scheduling staff’s tasks really easy and quick. TeamWeek integrates with Toggl and Basecamp and it’s very flexible.
Really, I’m not just saying this. TeamWeek actually works best for teams that always have plans and tasks changing. Dragging and dropping tasks will give that flexibility.
I think that this information goes out to all the people who use time tracking with a bigger team and would also need something to plan the weekly chores. If you should be interested in reviewing this tool too, let us know and we will give you all the information!
All the best!