Time Tracking Tools for Online Workers

In the world of distributed digital economies, time is money. No matter whether you are a freelancer managing multiple retainer clients, a remote employee protecting your focus time, or a manager tracking productivity metrics of cross-functional engineering squadrons – proper time tracking is simply a must-have tool. Leaving the whole process purely on your human memory, spreadsheets, or “on your honor” logging systems means leaving tons of money on the table.

Fortunately, time tracking software of modernity goes far beyond simplistic stopwatch. In order to help you manage complex projects and protect your time efficiently, leading software products are designed as data engines which automate project billing, streamline client invoicing, ensure employee privacy, and provide valuable insights into your mental focus and productivity. Categorizing different software solutions based on their principal design makes building a fool-proof technical stack much easier.

1. Light & Trust First Timers (Freelancers & Creative Teams)

Not every online freelancer needs sophisticated time management software with all bells and whistles built-in. Some users prefer elegant, yet simple tools to monitor the time which are completely not intrusive to the creative execution process. This category of software is based on trust philosophy and works solely on the basis of your manually started timers or later-on entered time blocks. Beautiful reports will help you justify your fee structures for clients.

Toggl Track: Best in the class manual timer which operates on zero-friction principle. It offers a simple, one-click UI interface, integrates browser extensions into over 100 popular project management systems (from Asana to Todoist), and features an advanced smart idle detection which alerts you about stopping the timer during your breaks.

TrackingTime: An excellent choice for small and mid-size companies. TrackingTime presents time blocks on the calendar to allow effortless shift scheduling, attendance tracking, and simultaneous management of multiple projects from one dashboard. Its generously free tier allows limitless use of unlimited number of users and tasks, becoming a favorite choice among growing agencies.

2. All-In-One Invoicing & Billing Hub (Agencies)

Sometimes it is vital for you to transform your tracked time into paid invoices immediately. For such purposes, you’ll need to pick up the software solution which seamlessly integrates time tracking with your accounting processes. These programs remove administrative friction by passing tracked time automatically to your ledger.

Harvest: Highly efficient tool for billing your clients’ consultants and agencies. Harvest allows you to log time with respect to client project codes, keeps track of your team’s capacity in real time, and instantly generates your paid invoices for client payment via digital transfer.

Clockify: Internationally famous time tracker known for its highly innovative approach towards pricing strategy. It provides an incredible free-for-ever tier including unlimited users and projects tracking. It has not only basic timers but also timesheet tracking, expense reports, and invoicing features you can customize according to your budget.

3. Completely Automated & AI-Driven Time Trackers (For “Timer Forgetters”)

The major problem many people face while working with manual timer is their own memory. Sometimes you may simply forget to launch it at the start of a client’s call or turn it off while having lunch. With the help of passive automatic trackers you can avoid the need of clicking the start and stop buttons every minute. This type of software runs completely silent in the background of your computer and uses powerful machine learning algorithms to automatically track your activities.

Memtime: Fully automated and privacy-friendly desktop application. It tracks every single second of your interaction with all apps, websites, tabs and URLs. The information about your activities stored in local storage on your hard drive is completely safe from any employer who tries to access it. You’ll be able to analyze your days afterwards and easily allocate time blocks according to clients.

Timely (powered by Memory): An innovative platform based on intelligent machine learning engine called Memory. It automatically tracks your daily activities and categorizes them by client project pipelines based on machine learning. Such technology helps to reduce your weekly time sheet preparation process to a couple of clicks.

4. Workforce Performance Intelligence Platforms (Remote Enterprises)

Larger enterprises, especially those which are operated remotely, need not just a reliable way to manage and track time. Workforce analytics platforms provide an important bridge between tracked time and performance analytics to find out what is wrong or right within the team and how you can improve the efficiency. This kind of software analyzes metadata trends to optimize performance and prevent unsustainability in team’s work.

Intelogos: Innovative AI-based performance intelligence platform. Intelogos does not track any screenshots or keystrokes like some other software products do. The software collects metadata and patterns of usage of apps and transforms them into a five-dimensional analysis engine consisting of Time, Engagement, Productivity, Contribution, and Activity dimensions. Moreover, the software allows detecting early signs of burnout on the team member basis.

Apploye: A balanced choice for SMBs which requires accountability of their remote workers. Apploye provides standard timesheet tracking, screenshotting if necessary, app usage report with URL breakdown, project cost prediction, and even direct payroll integration – all for a very reasonable price.

FAQs

1. Does the installation of an automatic time tracker increase PC’s processing time?

Absolutely no. Automatic trackers like Memtime or DeskTrack are specially designed to become a part of OS background services. Their resource consumption (CPU power and RAM) is minimal thus you can safely continue rendering, compiling or any other activity that requires lots of computational resources.

2. Are there any ways of tracking the time spent on working without being under constant surveillance?

To foster trust culture within a company, you’d better pick up time-tracking tool that guarantees privacy protection like Toggl Track, TrackingTime or Memtime. Never opt for software that performs random video capturing, tracks your keystrokes or even launches camera. Such invasive technologies create unnecessary anxiety and encourage “present theater” among the employees. Focus on result-oriented tools.

3. Can I track my time on mobile devices and tablets?

Certainly yes. Best-in-class software solutions provide full ecosystem which includes both native apps for mobile (iOS and Android), desktop (Windows and macOS) computers, and browser plugins. If you change the device or switch from computer to mobile phone in case of urgent client meeting, you can immediately change your status.

4. What is the difference between billable and non-billable hours and how to deal with them?

The concept of billable time refers to paid hours spent on performing your job (coding, designing, creating copywriting briefs etc). Non-billable time is related to the process of handling administrative activities necessary to run your business or personal affairs. Tracing both parameters with time tracking tool becomes a must. It will help you figure out how much time you spend on non-paying things thus stealing your earning time.