Accurate time tracking is essential to be able to bill efficiently. Yet more than30 percent of professionalssay manual time entries and data adjustments are two of the most time-consuming processes.
Some contractors and agency managers believe projects should be scoped in advance and based on a flat rate (known as value-based pricing), while others charge by the hour for their services. However you prefer to work, you’ll need to diligently track the time spent on each project, client, and task throughout the day.
Manually tracking hours is a highly ineffective use of employee time and can result in inaccurate timekeeping. To avoid wasting time, say goodbye to lengthy spreadsheets and invest in a robust time tracking app.
We’ve rounded up the best time tracking apps so you can track your billable hours, monitor your team’s progress, or boost your personal productivity.
What makes a great time tracking app?
A good time tracking app helps maintain productivity and make better business decisions. When you understand how people are spending their time, you can build better processes and help teams further develop their skills.
The best part? You know exactly how much to bill clients at the end of the month. Whether you’re an agency or a freelancer, you want to know you’re being paid for all your work. Without a way to stay organized, you could easily miss an hour here and there, which over time results in less income.
Key features to look for in time tracking software include:
- Automated time tracking:It’s easy to forget to stop and start time tracking apps. Automatic trackers monitor your work in the background so you don’t need to remember to do anything. Some apps work offline, too.
- Integrations:Look for integrations with your favorite project management tools likeTrelloand accounting software likeQuickBooks.
- Invoice creation:If you bill by the hour, see if your time tracking app can generate an invoice with your hours.
- Intuitive features:没有人想要一个陡峭的学习曲线。寻找拖-and-drop functions and color-coded menus to keep it simple.
13 best apps to track your billable hours
Manually tracking your working hours is an outdated and time-consuming way to cover compensation—not to mention it distracts from the actual work itself. Automate your tracking process with one of these 13 apps:
- Harvest
- Toggl Track
- Hours
- Tick
- Timely
- TrackingTime
- Paydirt
- ATracker
- Clockify
- Timeular
- Timing
- MyHours
- HourStack
1. Harvest
Best for integrating time tracking with invoicing
Harvestis an expense and time tracking app. It provides a full set-up from tracking time to invoicing and is suitable for both teams and freelancers.
Key features include:
- 70+ integrations:Harvest currently integrates withmore than 70business management services like QuickBooks, Slack, Stripe, Trello, and Asana.
- Cross-functional interface:直观的界面作用于所有桌面nd mobile operating systems. There’s even an Apple Watch app for easier tracking on the go.
- Itemized invoices:When you’re ready to close the project, Harvest produces an itemized invoice ready for delivery to clients.
Pricing:The free plan is perfect if you’re a freelancer working on no more than two projects simultaneously. However, if you require the comfort of unlimited clients/projects, a Pro plan is $12/person per month.
2. Toggl Track
Best simple time tracking app
Toggl Track’s simple one-click tracking style effectively tracks time without other distracting advanced features.
Key features include:
- Core functionality:Perform both time tracking and invoice generation within the app. Once a job is complete or an invoice is needed, export reports to Excel, CSV, or PDF formats to share with clients.
- Intuitive organization:Organize timesheets by projects, clients, or other unique tags.
- Cross-functionality:Like Harvest, Toggl works well on all mobile and desktop operating systems and even includes a Google Chrome app.
- Team-friendly features:团队成员划分为特定的用户组。Choose to limit accessibility privileges of team members based on their role—a necessary configuration if you’re working in an agency with designers, account managers, and developers on the same project. Toggl is best suited for team-based environments.
Pricing:Toggl’s free plan offers basic tracking and reporting and unlimited projects for teams up to five. A Starter plan is $10/user per month and offers billable rates and time rounding for reports. A Premium plan is $20/user per month and provides time tracking audits and priority customer support.
Opt for the Enterprise plan for priority support and training (contact Toggl for pricing).
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3. Hours
Best time tracking app for Apple product users
Hoursis an elegantly designed time tracking app built for Apple users. It offers frictionless project tracking and tasks across all your iOS devices, including web, iPhone, and Apple Watch. Hours’ invoicing feature also makes it easy to get paid. You can easily customize your invoices, add your hours, and include timer notes from the interface.
Key features include:
- Intuitive user interface:It’s easy to open the app and start tracking. Manage various projects or tasks by color-coding them, while timestamps are easy to edit if needed.
- Simple reporting:View reports in app or download and email them to clients in CSV or PDF formats.
Pricing: Hours Pro, at $8/user per month, comes with data backup, advanced timer options, multiple reporting options, timesheets, and more.
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4. Tick
Best time tracking app for boosting productivity
As well as time tracking,Tickincludes a strong focus on time management optimization. With timecards, you can keep projects on track with consistent reminders about whether you’re exceeding or lagging your estimated schedule. Plus, receive real-time updates on how much time remains to complete a certain task or project.
Key features include:
- Monitor your workflow:Set monetary or time budgets for individual tasks within a project, so you’re able to catch workflow problem areas early on. Set automatic resets for recurring jobs or retainers.
- Easy labeling:Organize timecards by project or client, and subcategorize each one to track time for specific tasks (say, design vs. development).
- 400+ integrations:Connect with third-party platforms and web apps, like the project management software Basecamp and accounting tool QuickBooks. And if you own an Apple Watch, Tick has a simple app for tracking time on the go, too.
Pricing:Plans range from free one-project trial accounts to unlimited plans priced at $149 per month. All plans allow for unlimited team members and go up on a sliding scale based on how many projects you’re tracking each month.
5. Timely
Best visual time tracking app
Timelyis a visual time tracking software with a simple interface resembling a standard calendar app, giving you the ability to proactively schedule the flow of your workday. An AI-powered app, Timely helps you learn more about how you manage and schedule projects.
Key features include:
- Solid team management features:Assign projects or tasks to specific team members, check on their individual workloads, and reorganize as needed. Assess logged time against forecasted time to make sure your project is on the right track.
- Calendar integrations:Sync your existing Apple and Google Calendar schedules with your timesheets. This means that whatever you put in your calendar will automatically patch over to Timely, making this tool’s adoption undisruptive for your workflow.
Pricing:A Starter plan for 50 projects and three teams is $10/month. A Premium plan for unlimited projects and teams is $18/user per month. An Unlimited plan for unlimited features and capacity is $26/user per month.
6. TrackingTime
Best value for money time tracking app
TrackingTimeis a simple, one-click time tracking tool with a completely free plan that’s robust enough for most users.
Key features include:
- Detailed reporting:Track time spent on all customers, projects, and employees with business-wide timesheets.
- Cross-functionality:The app works well across all devices and desktop operating systems and, like Toggl, includes a Chrome app.
- Strong project management features:To-do lists, task notes, comments, attachments, and real-time updates to keep teams on track.
Sticking to their target of small teams and freelancers, TrackingTime doesn’t stray into enterprise features like single sign-on or approval workflow. It’s also worth keeping in mind that TrackingTime isn’t that suited to budgeting tasks, as it doesn’t have monetary budgets, only time estimates.
Pricing:A free plan allows up to three users and basic task and time tracking. A Pro plan enables unlimited collaboration, advanced reporting, and time management and is $7/user per month.
7. Paydirt
Best time tracker for managing freelance client projects
Paydirtis an automatic time tracking solution for juggling multiple client projects. Like other apps on this list, you can track your time by client and manage your budget.
Key features include:
- Chrome extension:Automatically detects which client you’re doing work for and reminds you to start a timer.
- Solid invoice features:Clients can pay you with a credit card or through PayPal, and the system automatically records payments.
- 750+ integrations:Paydirt integrates with apps like Basecamp, Trello, and Redbooth so you can track your time directly from these project management apps.
With team management, analytics, and project proposal quoting features, Paydirt can help you project manage and boost your productivity across the board.
Pricing:Paydirt has six pricing tiers, starting at $8 per month for a single user with three clients and goes up to $149 per month for 20 team members, unlimited clients, and access to all features.
8. ATracker
Best intuitive time tracking app
Atrackeris an easy-to-use alternative to Toggl, as there’s minimal setup needed to get going. Choose to only add a task name and an icon or take advantage of advanced customizable settings to better organize tasks.
Key features include:
- Visual dashboard:View a complete user-defined task list, a summary of the day’s time spending, and goal progress. Here, you can start and stop a task by simply tapping it.
- Color-coded reporting:See how much time you’re spending on different work tasks and activities through reports presented as pie charts, bar charts, and goal progress diagrams. Share these reports with clients via email or exported in a CSV format.
- Task switching capabilities:ATracker identifies when you’re task switching and accurately tracks time for each task individually. For instance, if you’re working on a blog post and then click on a new task like your invoicing software, the tracking app will automatically pause your time on the blog post task.
- iCal sync:Compare your planned activities with actual time usage. View these tasks in both list and calendar view, and set alarms for specific tasks and events.
Pricing:ATracker has four pricing tiers, geared toward iOS and Android users. A free plan provides all of the platform’s basic features.
To access unlimited tasks, advanced settings, and data exports, purchase an Upgraded plan. An Upgraded plan (with fewer features) for Android is $2.99, while an Upgraded plan for iOS is $4.99. A monthly subscription to the Pro plan, which includes all the bells and whistles, is $2.99.
9. Clockify
Best free time tracking app
If you’ve searched for time tracking apps before, chances areClockifypopped up in your search results. It’s a popular, user-friendly app that uses a timesheet and timer to track billable hours, productivity, and attendance for remote teams.
Key features include:
- Easy-to-use timer:Start and stop the timer as you clock in for work or manually input your hours. Later, mark which hours are billable and issue invoices based on logged expenses, tracked time, and hourly rates.
- Team-friendly features:Create timesheet templates that you or other members can fill in each week. Allow easy approval workflow systems so sheets can be submitted for review. You can also set reminders for when timesheets are due. A scheduling tool helps you visualize your team’s capacity and plan projects to match it.
- Centralized dashboard:See where you spend your time and what other team members are working on.
Price:As it’s free, all you need to get started with Clockify is to download the desktop app.
10. Timeular
Best time tracking app for achieving goals
Timeularaims to help you take back control of your time by working smarter, not harder. Use the app to see where you spend your time, set new goals, and track your progress.
Key features include:
- User-friendly features:It’s simple to drag and drop time tracking app entries so you don’t forget to start or stop tracking. Add colors to tasks and activities to keep your schedule color-coordinated and visual. Timeular’s keyboard shortcut feature permits you to track time with the least interruption to your workflow.
- Monitor your progress:The unique “Goals” feature helps you set time-based goals, like “work no more than 40 hours per week” or “spend 30 minutes exercising.” Make any necessary changes to your daily work schedule so you can hit these goals.
The big disadvantage of Timeular is that it doesn’t offer budget or hourly rate settings.
Pricing:A Basic plan is $5/month and enables time tracking on desktop and mobile apps, provides tracking notifications, and lets you visualize your time with charts. A Pro plan has more features, like unlimited goal tracking and data exporting, and is $9/user per month.
11. Timing
Best for monitoring personal productivity
If boosting your own work productivity is a priority,Timingcould be the time tracking option for you. Timing monitors your time in the background as you work throughout the day.
Key features include:
- Smart task identification:时间确定在会议和显示时间your calendar events in a color-coded timeline. This helps you compare how you planned your schedule against how it actually played out. At the end of the workday, review, approve, and edit your time logs.
- Detailed reporting:See what you accomplished on any given day or week. A plug-in allows you to automatically import tracked hours as billable items in the GrandTotal invoicing app for Mac.
- Time analysis:See exactly where you’re spending the hours of your workday. See how long you spend in each app, on deep work, in meetings, or away from your computer.
The downside is that Timing is only available for Mac users—there’s no version for Linux or Windows—and has to be downloaded.
Pricing:A professional plan is $8.90/user per month and includes both automatic and manual time tracking on three Macs. An expert plan is $11.90/user per month and enables time tracking for meetings on four Macs. A Connect plan is $16.90/user per month and allows team creation and sharing on up to four Macs.
12. MyHours
Best time tracking app for boosting profits
Time tracking can be a clunky and inefficient process.MyHoursis a user-friendly time tracking app that makes it easier to better manage projects and boost your profitability.
Key features include:
- Advanced customization:Include styled notes on your logs, attach files, add custom keywords, and enter expenses.
- Break down large projects:Prioritize smaller tasks, assign them to team members, and set up estimated budgets on tasks or large projects.
- Detailed user dashboard:View where your time goes and how it impacts your bottom line from every angle. Calculate your profit, create real-time pivot tables, and download your weekly timesheets.
- Customizable reports:Include client-relevant details like billable rates, expenses, and the cost. Automatically schedule these client reports to be sent out on a monthly or weekly basis.
Pricing:There’s a Free plan for individuals just getting started with the platform, and it enables unlimited projects and team members, along with detailed reporting. A Pro plan is $7/month and includes more features, like client invoice generation.
13. HourStack
Best time tracking app that uses a calendar
HourStackis an intuitive time tracking app with a simple calendar interface. When you integrate HourStack with other apps, all you need to do is drag your tasks from other platforms into the calendar. Currently, there are integrations with apps like Asana, Trello, and Zapier to help you streamline your project time tracking.
不同ent workspaces mean you can keep clients or teams separate while using only one log-in to access them all. Monitor and analyze your team’s workload with team views so you can create optimized schedules to suit your team’s capacity.
The app’s report feature lets you get granular to analyze your productivity levels. Add the actual hours you spend working against the hours you scheduled for each task or project. Change the visualization and include different filters to spot your working trends and any inefficiencies holding you back.
Compared to other apps on this list, HourStack can’t compete with more customizable features. For instance, it doesn’t include billable projects, budgets, or hourly rates.
Pricing:A personal plan for one member is $12 per month and includes the full-time tracking system. A Team plan is $15/user per month and includes additional features like customizable team member availability and unlimited guests.
Choosing the best time tracking app for you
The best time tracking software foryouis determined by your work style and goals. Freelancers might only want a time and expense tracking app that automates invoices. Alternatively, if you’re managing a team of contractors, you might need an app with task management features that allows unlimited users.
Reflect on your specific work goals and which features are most important to your business or team. Once you know what you want out of this tool, it’s a case of trying out a few free versions of different platforms before committing to a paid plan that works for your business.