April Update: Added 4 More to the List of Online Time Tracking Services Useful for Independent Contractors

(March 2011 Update: I’ve added 11 more to the raw list of possible tools to use for time tracking. These tools range from barebones time tracking to also including tons of other features including invoicing. Some are apps that you install, some are web based. This is merely a raw list and not a review of the tools.)

(April 2011 Update: A few more tools have been added that can track time, however these are more project management tools that also allow for time tracking. They’re not strict time tracking tools.)

Doing more independent contracting has caused me to need an elegant way of tracking my time usage for various clients and projects. I sent out a tweet requesting to learn how other independent contractors track their time for clients and received quite a bit of feedback. One of them included just using a simple Excel spreadsheet. That was actually encouraging to know that clients can be accepting of a simple spreadsheet and that I don’t necessarily have to “wow” them with pretty graphs and charts as well as offering 14 different ways to analyze my time.

Nonetheless, I think that it would be useful to have a range of metrics that can be analyzed as well as the opportunity to present the aforementioned pretty graphs. I’m not against eye candy if there’s at least some legitimate meaning to it. Making it easier for a client to see just what I’m doing for the money they pay me is certainly an added value.

I’ve collated the list of web based time tracking tools (some also have fat clients for PCs and phones) that many of my Twitter followers graciously suggested to me. I was hoping to write a full article about some of my findings on them, but I noticed that many of my online colleagues are also stepping out on their own into the indie contracting realm and were looking for these kinds of tools. As a result, I’m expediting things by simply dumping my current list of possibilities out for the benefit of those who may be looking for similar resources. A more thorough dissertation on one or more tools may be forthcoming.

Let’s Freckle (Seriously, what’s up with that name? Suggested by @weareanalog)
Fresh Books (As suggested and used by @rayners)
Market Circle’s Billings Pro for the iPhone (Suggested and used by @Xuff)
Get Harvest (Time tracking and invoicing tool. Suggested by @danielwanja)
1 Day Later (Suggested by @martiell)
Toggl (Suggested by @coachproellen)
Yanomo (Suggested by @YanomoApp)
Liquid Planner (Suggested by @bdha)
Mr. Tick Tock (Updated March 18 2011: Suggested by Jack in the comments below)
FreedCamp (Updated March 18 2011: Suggested by Tadd in the comments below)
Teamlab (Updated March 18 2011: Suggested by Tadd again)
Clocking IT (Updated March 18 2011: Tadd again!)
Project Hamster (Updated March 23, 2011)
Invoicera (Updated March 23, 2011)
Time Doctor (Updated March 23, 2011)
TickSpot (Updated March 23, 2011 – Recommended by @kit_plummer)
Paymo (Updated March 23, 2011)
kTimeTracker (Updated March 23, 2011)
Slife (Updated March 23, 2011)
My Client Spot (Updated April 18, 2011)
Desk Away (Updated April 18, 2011)
Base Camp (Updated April 18, 2011)
Time Camp (Updated April 28, 2011)

Did I overlook any other services worth mentioning? Let me know in the comments.

Comments

Karen
February 28, 2011

Thanks for looking into Harvest, and for mentioning us in your post. Do feel free to get in touch with us if you do have any questions – we’re constantly improving things here, and we love to hear from our users!
Karen, Harvest Community Manager

Reply
- Wesley David
  February 28, 2011
  
  Harvest looks like a great tool! I think I won’t be needing an invoicing tool, however, since I use QuickBooks and would like to keep as much paperwork within that ecosystem if possible. However, I just noticed that Harvest has an export tool to use with Quickbooks which seems awesome. And the Redmine tool… it’s like you’re reading my mind! Perhaps a Chiliproject add-on is in the making. Oh, and I wish the desktop widget had a Linux version. I think Harvest is near the top of my list for time tracking tools to trial.
  
  Reply
Karen
February 28, 2011

@Wesley Yes, our integration with QB may work well for you: http://www.getharvest.com/quickbooks-time-tracking

I’ll make a note of the Linux widget request, and while we don’t have Chillproject on our radar, I’ll add that to our notes as well. If you’d like to get our hands dirty, you can always take a crack at it with the Harvest API: http://www.getharvest.com/api

Have fun with your trial!

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- Wesley David
  February 28, 2011
  
  Chiliproject is the recently forked version of Redmine. Apparently the Redmine project wasn’t moving fast enough for some of the members so they forked it to remain up-to-date.
  
  Reply
Karen
March 1, 2011

Interesting – thanks for letting us know!

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Jack
March 12, 2011

MrTickTock 1.0 has just been released.

We improved UX significantly, mostly on the time sheet page. We use AJAX to make interaction with the page very natural. Time entries are saved automatically so there is no need for Save button and no chance to loose unsaved time entries.
It contains several other improvements which you may like.

The next release will bring vacation tracking.

http://MrTickTock.com

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Tadd
March 18, 2011

I use http://www.freedcamp.com as well as http://www.teamlab.com

I’ve also used http://www.clockingit.com

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Heather
March 24, 2011

Many independent contractors and freelancers find our time and expense tracking service, Syncd, to be full-featured and affordable. Syncd supports multiple time and expense tracking options, flexible client and project classifications, detailed reporting, and costs just $5 per active user per month. Syncd uses SSL to secure every account. Please take advantage of our free 30 day trial and see if Syncd is a good fit for your needs.

Reply
- Wesley David
  March 24, 2011
  
  Thanks Heather! I’ll add it to the list and check it out!
  
  Reply