Accurate Project Time Tracking? 64
Uhh-I-think-I'll-stay-anonymous-this-once asks: "I'm really rubbish at tracking the time I spend on things. That's bad for me, because I bill clients by the hour and almost always have to under-bill. I've tried a few bits of software for tracking, but none of them have suited me. What do you use? And why do you like it? If you've got suggestions, I'd love to hear them. I can't give a spec of what I want, but I can describe my habits and hardware. I use several computers, sometimes I don't use my own. I've got a short attention span when I'm not programming, and hop from task to task like an insane jack-rabbit. I'm not always on my network. I've got a couple of servers that could be used to run a web-based system. Mining my e-mail is often a good way of finding out what I've been working on. I'm rubbish at adhering to routines. I like OSS, but it's not an absolute-must-have. I'm comfortable with both Linux and Windows, but spend most my client life in Windows."
Overcharge (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Overcharge (Score:3, Interesting)
What's so funny about this?
I estimate my architecture [studioequis.com], web development [studioequis.com], and print graphic design [studioequis.com] projects by multiplying my hourly rate by the time I think it's going to take. Then I add a contingency (common in building construction), because it always takes longer than you think. I also mark up my consultants a bit--I have to spend my time managing them, too.
If you go over your estimated time, you have a bit to spare. If not, you get a bit of a bonus. If you need to go over your estimate and contin
uhm, a stopwatch? (Score:3, Informative)
On the corner of my desktop I have a little stopwatch program called Watch It [coldpizzasoftware.com] (actually I'm still using v0.5, I just realized). Nothing particular special about it, you could probably find a different one that you like.
When I start some work, I start the stopwatch, and when I stop working? RIGHT, YOU GUESSED IT!
Sure, I often forget, and have to check my shell history or whatever to come up with an estimate (I'm a unix consultant) but over the years I've gotten good at remembering.
I enter the time into the appropriate project and task in Basecamp, and then each month I use a Perl script to download the CSV from Basecamp and import into my ancient (as in, pre-web!) time tracking app and take it from there.
If I'm not near a web browser, I just scribble the time in a special green sheet (green == MONEY) in my hipster PDA and then enter it in basecamp later (don't do this often though, best thing is to enter the time ASAP or it becomes a chore).
You could probably use a spreadsheet or something instead of basecamp or a dedicated time-tracking app (but I really recommend basecamp, it's super-simple and responsive via Ajax goodness). Or you could use a real physical stopwatch instead of a computer program. Etc.
Re:uhm, a stopwatch? (Score:2)
dotProject has a Todo list which filters everything down to your tasks, and has a "start" and "stop" button which tracks things by the minute. For some customers, I simply hand them the tasklog with the total hours (default report), but for others I give them a detailed invoice broken down by costcodes/billing rates (invoice module).
dotProject
Spherical Timesheet (Score:5, Interesting)
A couple of mates of mine wrote a software product that addresses this problem. So feel free to take this post with a grain of NaCl.
http://www.spherical.com.au/timesheet-software.asIt's a Windows app that runs in your system tray, watching what you do (browsing, email, word processing) and tracks the application and document name. You can then review the log of what you've been doing and assign applications + individual documents to projects and clients - obviously it learns as it goes so you only have to tell it about each thing once. You then set up hourly rates and stuff so that can come up with the numbers for your invoices.
If you're constantly on other machines it may be a problem, but I would note that it can sync with a Pocket PC Outlook calendar - you log time spent in meetings, etc in the calendar and sync up when you're at your 'master' PC.
Undoubtedly not a 100% fit for what you ask for, but it sounds like it could be a reasonable fit.
Re:Spherical Timesheet (Score:2)
Info from Spherical Technology (Score:1)
Re:Spherical Timesheet (Score:2)
Re:Spherical Timesheet (Score:2)
Re:Spherical Timesheet (Score:2)
3:08pm - 3:49
Yeah, that's a great idea.
Re:Spherical Timesheet (Score:1)
"A Windows app... watching what you do..." Sounds like Spyware! Watch for rootkits!
Outlook Journal (Score:3, Informative)
There's one feature of Outlook, though, that I used to use: the Journal. If you're in Microsoft Office, it automatically tracks the time every document opens and closes in a little timeline. If you're not in Office and you remember to use the feature, you can add arbitrary items to the Journal much like you would add address book entries. It's a great way of watching how much time you spend on documents.
Re:Outlook Journal (Score:1)
Nice... I like the default to mailx. Nice to see Slashdotters street-credit conscious.
Standard Time (Score:2)
Don't bill actual hours (Score:3, Insightful)
As for a way to keep track of how you're using your time, I don't think there's any software that can possibly help you. You just need to discipline yourself to stay on task for a given period of time. If you don't like working in an 8-hour block then do an hour on and 20 minutes off or something like that, and just note your start and stop times.
All that said, I find looking through the svn (or cvs) log is frequently the best way to get a record of what you've done. If you see an entry in the log for Nov 18th that says "rewrote the entire shopping cart module" it will do a lot to spark your memory and you'll likely recall that it took you 6 hours to make that change. Between that and your email history you can probably piece together your work on a project pretty well.
Re:Don't bill actual hours (Score:1)
Unless the projects or milestones are pretty small and the clients are pretty sane and experienced, this is a dangerous approach. Estimates get proportionally more wrong as the scale goes up; programmers are notorious for saying that any given thing would take them two weeks to make. By working to fixed bid you are taking
Me too! (Score:1)
At the company I work for, we also bill everything by the hour and our time-logging software is the bane of my existence. It was hacked together, in house, by several of our employees. You'd think it would at least have all the billing options we need, but it doesn't, and the user interface is just ridiculous. (Of course, I imagine that has at least a little to do with the fact that it was written in Databus, the worst programming language ev
If you have a Palm... (Score:1)
Another app I've tried is Titrax (no URL for that one, sorry).
Ultra-low tech solution (Score:5, Insightful)
PalmOS Timesheet Program (Score:2)
I use this timesheet program [freewarepalm.com] on my Palm Pilot. The main screen has clock in and out buttons, and a drop down to select the current task that you are working on. It can report your time in a number of useful ways, and it can export to CSV.
If you're okay with .net, (Score:2)
simple approach (Score:1)
Put a value to your 1 hour, say $50. Now, assume that you are doing 3 projects for a week. A week is 8*5 hrs or whatever. Now, distribute the $$ across the three projects such that their sum is greater than 8*5*50 [Use commonsense to allocate the share to each projects]
There you go. You will never under-bill.
btw, if clients are happy, time to increase your $$/hr. If they are not then it is time to decrease it.
go to staples (Score:3, Insightful)
punch in, punch out, per job.
3 Solutions. (Score:1)
But for you I would suggest:
1. Get time tracking software for you phone. (Or PDA)
2. Buy an iBook 12". They are pretty portable and the Mac apps are good at doing things like this.
3. Buy a book and use pen and paper... some of my colleagues use it, so don't knock it... it works.
just in case (Score:1)
Time Matters is popular (Score:2)
http://www.timematters.com/ [timematters.com]
too much coffee? (Score:4, Funny)
Switch to decaf. Meanwhile, I'd hate to see your code..
myhours.com (Score:2)
ConsultComm (Score:2)
I was looking for that a while ago and I found ConsultComm [sourceforge.net].
You can define a number of projects and groups and you switch between them by clicking on the one you want.
A different approach (Score:4, Insightful)
As someone who sells their time, your ability to succeed (beyond your technical skills, of course!) comes down to:
- Your ability to win work;
- Your ability to price work; and
- Your ability to manage projects.
Going to flat-rate pricing or retainer models introduces risk, but it also dramatically lowers your overhead and increases your inventory of time available to sell. You get back the time you currently spend tracking time, tallying it up for billing purposes, etc. You'll find that customers like both flat-rate pricing and (for extended work) retainers because they give them solid numbers to budget against.Re:A different approach (Score:1, Insightful)
I do light, user-based consulting as a side job and I bill strictly by the hour. That puts control of how much to
David Seah's task trackers (Score:2)
It seems like he has now put up some new versions of it. Other versions and comments are found under "The printable CEO" on that site. I though it was a pr
gtimelog (Score:2, Insightful)
Theres lots of ways (Score:1)
At the end of each day I typed up what I did in each invoice and every two weeks sent off the invoices.
Also I write detailed descriptions of what I did.
Every now and then I did have disputes with clients regarding the totals of invoices.
Having the details was great - one time having all the details added up to $8000 and another time a days work was only reduced by 1 hour.
The guy who I shared an office
This is not rocket science... (Score:1)
Dude [dell.com], buy a PDA.
Really. Pick one you like (Palm or PocketPC/Windows Mobile/whatever it's called now) and just carry it with you. There are dozens [handango.com] of time-tracking apps for both platforms, as well as others (Symbian, Smartphone, etc.).
This must be common (Score:2)
I tried quite a few digital solutions, my best success is a Hipster PDA [43folders.com] Get 3x5 cards, punch a hole in them and use a binding ring. Each project gets its own card. Write down start and stop times (and task description if you like), and that's it. I aggressively avoided paper for so long, it's amazing how much better it can capture wh
The best thing I found? A paper pad (really)! (Score:1)
Get your stuff together (Score:2)
Mechanics do similar things. When your car dealer does warranty work, they bill based on a database that contains the average repair time for a particular problem on a particular car. The manufacturer will only pay the standardized repair time... so if a doufus mechanic takes 3 hours to do a job that "should" take 45 mi
Advanced Pen & Paper - Calendar (Score:1)
Anyway, the day started at 7AM and ended at 7PM. It had one hour blocks in there for appointments. I used it to keep track of what I was doing at the time. You can get these things from Staples or OD, which ever. They are called appointment books.
What is really nice about them, is that if you talk to some du
Titrax on a Palm PDA (Score:1)
Dovico Track IT (Score:2)
There is a demo available. It has a web and PC applications for the tracking and management interfaces. It syncs with MS Project, has great reporting, and allows you to print invoices, etc.
Best of all, it has a developer API available (it's written in C#).
how about a physical timer? (Score:2)
When you sit down to work, hit 'Start'. If you get up to get coffee, or decide to take a
Warning: I used this approach for telecommuting-- it results in a great bargain for employers. Stuff that counts as 'on the clock' if you're onsite at work (watercooler
Hire somebody (Score:1)
Two books
checkout dotproject (Score:1)
Journyx Timesheet - free for 10 users or less (Score:1)
It is free of cost for 10 users or less. It's a web application and the server runs under Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, and others, or you can pay Journyx to host the application for you.
I admit that I might be biased, I am a senior developer for Journyx.
I use this (Score:1)
Logging + egg timer = happiness (Score:2)
The solution that I use now is a combination of an egg timer and a time log. I have entered the various projects that I work on, and when I start a task I select the appropriate line and start the clock ticking. Then, every so often it pops up, saying "are you still working on X?", or "You're not time tr
Journal (Score:1)
Desktop calendar - Jot down calls, meetings, "what I did" for each day. In your face, but can be tough to carry.
Text file/spreadsheet - Needs to be available. I work in multiple locations, desktop/laptop/customer
OSS Hours for Palm (Score:2)
Eclipse and TimeTrack plugin (Score:2)
I try to use Eclipse [eclipse.org] for all my project/documentation work, whether it's a Java project, Visual Studio.NET or whatever. From within Eclipse, I use the TimeTrack [eclipse-plugins.info] plugin (I'm using an older one for Eclipse 3.0).
It tracks your usage relating to the project and the file you're working on, with a resolution of about 2 minutes. You do have to remember to use Ecilpse to select/open the file (so it knows what y
Where do you track appointments? (Score:3, Informative)
The timer thing is not a bad idea, but it still has to be recorded somewhere, so it's not necessarily a good answer if you can't just say "eight hours billed between four clients, 2 hrs/client".
Paper can work great. I used a notebook and followed a methodology more or less laid out in a software engineering textbook that I took at Uni. Essentially, list out tasks and assign some identifier (i.e., as a penetration tester & computer forensics consultant, I have a code for Googling/researching/footprinting my client, and a separate one for port scanning, etc.) A few pages farther back, I have a listing of client/project identifiers. A few pages behind that, I have a slot to tally project/time expenditures and begin to get a feel for time spent on each client/type of task. A few pages behind that, I record start time, end time, a column to indicate breaks (i.e. 5, 10 mins for coffee or something), a delta, client number/indicator, task number/indicator, a description, and a checkbox to see if I've aggragated that item, recorded it in my billing system, etc.
I omitted the breaks/delta columns because every break tended to be a different client or project; coffee breaks waited until some other distraction broke me away from what I was doing. This worked fairly well, and eliminated having to mess with another software interface. Of course, the system I use dictates this time be entered manually, so a CSV export or something akin to it doesn't really help.
Now though, I track my time where I track my appointments, vacation, etc. by creating appointments for each client or job I work on. It's a little more time consuming to enter, but my PDA supports this time tracking method inherently, and I can use the Categories listings to indicate the client, I can summarize my work in the subject, I can track the task type in the location, and I can include notes or comments (say, if it's a phone call) all in the same spot. When I have to enter my time, I can just open my calendar and go back a few days. I can also (as someone else mentioned) use the Journal function in Outlook to augment this.
For me and my work habits, this seems to work out well, plus it's a little comforting when I have a good day and it's a solid block of blue (the label color I use for billable work).
Accurate planning and overestimation. (Score:1)
If you establish working habits that effectively use tools, you may very well be able to use tho
Hardware and software... (Score:1)
I use a combination of hardware and software.
I picked up a Black N' Red [officedepot.com] journal from Office Depot and I write down my immediate activities in it when I'm onsite. A Hipster PDA isn't quite the right format for me to use for this. Too impermanent what with all of its little index cards and such. :) I like using a bound journal. Later, when I have some time, I transcribe it (with times noted) into a scheduled "meeting" in SugarCRM [sugarcrm.org] which I have installed on my laptop. When it comes time for billing I
Text Files (Score:1)
I hop around a lot as well when I'm at work. Some days I'm in meetings all day (not good!) or coding in my home office for a solid 8-10 hours. I find I'm almost always near my PowerBook, on which I generally have a text editor open (don't ask which one, since I don't want to stir up a text editor debate!). I simply enter my entries in a single line like this:
Not a software problem (Score:2)
Figure out a way to start tracking your time then work on finding software to make it easier.