Ask HN: How to report hours as a contractor? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How to report hours as a contractor?

7 pointsKluny10 comments

I just got my first "real" job as a contractor. They are pretty flexible about working from home, but if I do that I'll have to report my hours.

How do you do that? Apps? Techniques? Mistakes to avoid? Obvious things that everyone knows(except me)?

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If you use emacs, it has org-mode which is very capable. It'll handle task organization, prioritizing, time clock, scheduling, invoicing and more.

Look here at http://orgmode.org/ and http://doc.norang.ca/org-mode.html for brief and in-depth use information.

Good luck.

I've been using org-mode for the last few months to do my time tracking and it has worked out pretty well. You can use "clock tables" to get a report of all of the logged time within a certain window (e.g. february)

Works great, especially if you're using emacs for writing code too.

I wonder if there's something simliar for vim? That's the one I'm trying to master.

Be diligent in describing how the time you have spent has resulted in a benefit for your client.

I found that our clients are interested in quarter of day granularity. E.g

  Thursday 2nd Feb 2012, 4 hours, Installing and configuring Operations' Team new Wiki website.
  Thursday 2nd Feb 2012, 3.5 hours, Fixed problem where the CEO's iPhone wouldn't sign in to the reporting website.

To see what works for you, send your client your best effort on a time sheet for the first two days or so, and get their feedback. Its better than waiting an entire month to find out your reporting process isn't up to scratch.

I would do it accurately.

Sarcasm aside, is this the type of job where you will be working on a number of projects each with their own pot of money that has to be kept separate? Or do they just need a total figure?

Either way, pencil and paper work for me. Heck, I have to keep track of hours by project and I work on-site. Never done anything more complicated than notations on scrap paper for my own use, and the company timecard program at the end of the day.

I recently started using Toggl (https://toggl.com) and have been enjoying it a lot so far. Type in a description of what you are doing, hit start button. The usual features like multiple clients/projects, billable vs. nonbillable, reporting, etc.

Harvest and Freshbooks also get a lot of love. If you just need a really simple timer, SlimTimer is lightweight and easy.

When I work hourly, I like to use a bound weekly calendar and write in my time with a colored pencil.

I'll generally describe the task using contract language if there might be confusion.

When I invoice, I do the addition within the calendar in ink.

Then I file the calendar at the end of the year.

I don't need to do time tracking, but I've always wanted to use this -- http://letsfreckle.com/

The author is here on HN and an all-around cool person.

Harvest is great, and they have a "FREE FOREVER" plan available. http://www.getharvest.com/pricing

yast.com is pretty nice. I've been using it for 3 months and have no complains.

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