Advanced time counting

Independents in the services sector often keep track of their work hours to charge them to their customers at an hourly rate. On the other hand it’s also interesting on a personal note to know how long it takes to complete a specific task and, therefore, know exactly how much money your time brings in. If you don’t work according to hourly rates and charged a lump sum for a time-consuming task this may be disadvantageous for you.

Hypothetically you could be investing more time - and money - into a project than it will ultimately generate. This is also the reason to measure the time you spend on your business: an automatic time tracker of current projects is the most accurate method to log that time. By the way, time trackers are not only suited for freelancers and SMEs, you can also use them for personal purposes.

Accurate registration of your hours worked ensure accurate billing when the job is done. No more guessing how many hours you spent on a particular task, let alone having to dig into the wastepaper basket to recover those Post-its you used to keep tally. The more accurate you can assess the time spent, the more professional the impression you make on customers (take care not to exaggerate though, no one likes to be billed down to the second). It’s also useful for yourself: knowing how you spend your time will help you make more informed business decisions.

Almost all tracking apps register time in real time. It’s like a chess clock really: just press the button as you start a task and you can take a break or stop anytime you like. The best apps allow you to make corrections afterwards. Surely you don’t expect your customers to pay for your lunch break or the toilet break you forgot to deduct? And although most counters are designed for individual use some of these trackers can also monitor the performance of your team.

1. Toggl

If you need a time tracker but prefer not to pay for it then this is your No. 1 choice. If you are willing to pay for it, which is also an option, you get access to truly unprecedented possibilities e.g. you can work together with teammates and receive time reports in your mailbox.

Toggl is practical because you can start the meter right away without entering a whole catalogue of information first. You can always do so afterwards. You can install this program as a browser extension, on other platforms or even in apps such as Google Docs or G Suite. The red Toggle button gladly reminds you that you’re on the clock.

Discover more on: toggl.com

2. Harvest

Harvest is highly recommended for teams. You can also use it individually but the tool truly comes into its own when analysing and monitoring a collective task. Every member on your team can install as many instances of Harvest as they like - on their desktop, as a browser extension, in mobile apps - and all the information is forwarded to the administrator’s control panel. Even when team members are not online Harvest simply keeps tracking.

Discover more on: Harvest

3. Desktime

Another handy tool to track the time usage of your team is Desktime. You can monitor daily activities, absences, leave days and overtime, and you get a clear picture of the workflow in your organisation. You can fully customise the reporting of hours worked so your customers are perfectly aware of the amount of work completed within a specific time frame.

Discover more on: Desktime

Here’s to losing as little time as possible!