Ask HN: Freelancers, how do you track your time? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Freelancers, how do you track your time?

7 pointspsteinweber13 comments

Dear HN,

I've been on quite a journey finding a proper time tracking solution. I'm looking for a simple 'tool' (can be web based, but preferably with OSX client) which allows me to track time for several clients. Some kind of timesheet export would be good. But I don't need a whole business management software with it.

https://www.toggl.com doesn't look too bad, but recurring $5 for a start/stop button? I'm not sure. Maybe if the interface would be awesome.

http://www.flamebrain.com/download-watchme/ is a great little (!) windows app which I have been using a few years back. something like that with timesheets, and for OSX would be it.

http://www.getklok.com/ is horrible UI wise. the features are quite interesting though, but I don't wanna use it.

Aren't there some nice, contemporary open source projects out there? I couldn't find any...

What are you using?

I like http://freshbooks.com it can also track business expenses, invoice, etc. It's nothing ground breaking but I believe they are a strong company and will be around for a long time.

+1 for freshbooks, I use it for all my time tracking and invoicing.

I love Harvest because it takes that recorded time and pops it into an invoice. I wouldn't call it "a whole business management" solution, but it does a great job.

http://www.getharvest.com/ http://try.hrv.st/1nxt (ref link, $10 off first month)

I also use Harvest. The interface is a little clunky and unintuitive at times, but it's the best out there by far.

It'd be great if we could style our invoices with CSS though.

Harvest looks really great. Love the slickness of the invoicing feature. The credit card payments with Stripe are simply great.

It's not web based and has the xls export feature as a premium feature, but it's pretty flexible and unobstrusive. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rauscha.ap...

We implemented http://www.paymo.biz in our company and we're happy with it. They have mobile apps and desktop apps for Win and Mac.

The design is a little out dated, but they're launching a new version so that's sorted.

I like Freckle - http://letsfreckle.com/

I wonder about their site's conversion rate. They don't show much, at least not visually, before a credit card trial gate.

+1 for Freckle. I use it everyday for my time tracking.

'On the job' for OSX. Create clients, jobs for client and easily create invoices. Love it.

Billings from Market Circle - timekeeping and invoicing all in one. Has a companion iPhone app too.

Google selfspy on GitHub - tracks literally everything

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