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Accurate Project Time Tracking?
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."
The simple solution is to estimate how much you're undercharging using standard estimation techniques and then overcharge for that amount.
-73, de n1ywb
www.n1ywb.com
I use basecamp for my project management. It has a simple and fast time entry feature with CSV export.
:-)
On the corner of my desktop I have a little stopwatch program called Watch It (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.
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.
Before I get started, let me say that I use mailx more than I use Outlook.
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.
I'm happy using Standard Time. The data is stored in Access by default so I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop, but since I use it as a single user it has been very stable. The PocketPC version synchronizes so I can keep track of time while out and about on the PDA and while in the office use the full client. With the ability to dump to a file format compatible with QuickBooks and the cycle is complete.
Sig under construction since 1998.
You're probably better off coming up with better up-front estimates on how long a project will take and then billing against that, or just billing on a per-project or per-milestone project.
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.
rooooar
Wow, if I didn't know better, I'd swear I had written this myself.
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 ever designed. Never heard of it? Neither had I.) Every month, I have to argue with my management about my time and, every month, my management has to argue with our customers.
Personally, I don't think we should even be billing by the hour. We're a software company and we should have the standard flat-rate support contracts, like a real software company.
Anyway, I'd love to hear about time-logging software, too. Pretty much anything would be an improvement.
Sit, Ubuntu, sit. Good dog.
If you can't stay on one task for long enough to track it, and can't remember to start/stop a clock then you might need some meds to calm you down.
Seriously though, it's amazing what you can keep track of with a notepad and pen. A table of start/stop times would tell you all you need to know.
However, if you are jumping from task to task (client to client) so often that it's hard to track then even if you did track the elapsed hours per client/task you'd probably want to underbill them anyway because you'll be wasting significant time readjusting to each task. I think I've seen published figures like every interuption wastes 20 minutes getting back into the groove.
I don't know how much you're underbilling by, but if it's any large amount then you might want to hire some help. Let's say you're underbilling just 5 hours per week and you bill at $100/hr. That's $2K/month. For that kind of money, you can easily hire a secretary to help you record your time. You'll get the added benefit of someone to do the actual billing (so that you can work more), and get other things done as well (filing, messages, answering phones, collecting on deadbeat accounts, running errands, etc.) It's well worth the cash to have someone around to help.
If you don't want crime to pay, let the government run it.
I use this timesheet program 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.
try the Time Tracker starter kit. Not saying it's necessarily useful, but I started off in .net with this, so. :-D
More than mere navel gazing.
None of these hifi tools are required.
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.
I think that's absurd. You're a contractor. It's your JOB. Do you do your job? If so, then you record your time, and "suitability" of a little time tracker be damned.
Jesus, next we're going to hear about a writer who can't write, because all the little niggles in MS Word make it "unsuitable" to him, so he can't write anything with it.
Fascism trolls keeping me up every night. When I starts a preachin', he HITS ME WITH HIS REICH!
I use a very inexpensive but functional Palm App called HourzPro (www.zoskware.com) - very easy to use, syncs to CVS. This is one of the few Palm Add-ons that I have paid for and use regularly.
There is a nice timer function. Everything is easily editable.
Also includes an Expense feature which I really never use.
One very handy feature is that the database is searchable (using the Palm search.
aloha,
dave
buy a cheap timeclock, and some time cards... set it on your desk.
punch in, punch out, per job.
every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
For my case there are program out there that can monitor the active program, but this only works if you are working on the same PC.
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.
maybe if you quit smoking weed...
http://www.timematters.com/
If you don't know where you are going, you will wind up somewhere else.
Switch to decaf. Meanwhile, I'd hate to see your code..
I use myhours.com. It's nice and simple, and has a couple of good features. I especially like the fact that you can click "continue" next to an item, and it'll create a new item starting now. They're in beta now, so you can get a free account, but expect them to start charging for the "advanced features" soon.
Training monkeys for world domination since 1439
I was looking for that a while ago and I found ConsultComm.
You can define a number of projects and groups and you switch between them by clicking on the one you want.
WWTTD?
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."It was a summer's tale: Just a boy, his Linux, and a head full of dreams..."
A few weeks ago my stumplings on the net brought me to the site of David Seah. Among other things he had designed a simple sheet which you print out and can use for basic time tracking. The central idea is really that you should reward yourself for getting something done (good for all of us procrastinators) but it also works as a rudimentary time tracker.
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 pretty neat concept, although I haven't gotten around to testing it (yeah, I'm a hardcore procrastinator).
For more complete tips on time managing he also comments on his own methods (in Excel) for tracking his own time.
A *very* simple program i use myself is gtimelog (http://mg.pov.lt/gtimelog/). Your main problem doesn't seem to be lack of programs but rather lack of discipline though...
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 with had a paper clip board with a standard week split into 15 minute intervals.
Each day he used a pen to write down the clients name. Usually he worked on one client in the morning and another one in the afternoon.
Each month his wife took the clip board and created invoices.
PART OF RUNNING YOUR OWN BUSINESS IS ORGANISING THE CASH FLOW!!
If you don't like it - maybe you should go back to working for the man?
Dude, 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 of time-tracking apps for both platforms, as well as others (Symbian, Smartphone, etc.).
Sillaj : A PHP/MySQL application to track time on projects and tasks. No billing though.
Reading your comment and a number of others, I had to keep checking the names to see if I accidentally posted this. Weird. Looks like quite a few of us have this problem.
I tried quite a few digital solutions, my best success is a Hipster PDA 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 what I need.
To me the advantages are a) you only have one task in front of you (top of the stack) so it's not as easy to get distracted. b) You can do all the math later, and write it on the side of the card c) when you invoice for the card, void the card somehow (I use another hole on the next line down). Use another card if you're not done. This prevents double-billing and (worse) forgetting to bill.
SYS 64738 NO CARRIER
I had pretty much the exact problem you did. I started my SMB lan service business a few years back, ran into the same problem. I tried many software solutions, web-based databases, etc etc etc. My solution: Pre-printed, carbonless, two-copy order forms I buy at the local Office Depot, along with "Big Clock" for my treo phone. (any "timer" application for any phone/handheld should be fine - you could also just look at the clock). It works MUCH better than any of the multitude of more technical solutions I found. You do, however, have to keep up with the pad... Losing one that has a lot of jobs written on it can be a bad, bad thing. I have this metal box/clipboard thing with the forms on it(I am sure you have seen service people carrying these around). I put my keys in it as soon as I exit my vehicle. It really works well.
Styrofoam IS biodegradable, you're just impatient!
If you are underbilling -- bill more. Instead of recording how long you spend doing every task, figure out how long it takes on average to do a particular kind of task and take it from there.
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 minutes, the dealership eats the difference.
Conformity is the jailer of freedom and enemy of growth. -JFK
I used to have this problem too. I'd get to the end of the week not knowing what the heck I had done. Then for some reason, I got this appointment calendar. I think the first one was the far side.
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 dude on Tuesday, and a week later, you recall, hey, they guy never called me back, you just flip back a page, and there you are, you probably (if you are like me) scribbled down his phone number, and you know exactly when you called.
All sorts of notes are handy this way. Especially because you can scribble them down. Something computers haven't exactly reproduced with any great flexibility.
So you don't have a calendar right now, or you want to try out this method before plunking down the hard $10 for the calendar?
Go into MS Outlook, select the work week, print it out daily style. It's the same deal.
It is also helpful when you need to schedule something in advance, or when you need a notebook to scribble notes.
Cheers & good luck.
P.S. One of the other comments, that if you are switching tasks faster than 2 per hour (or so), you might be wasting more time task switching, than task performing. Take an operating systems class and tell your boss your internal page file isn't large enough. You either need more swap space (employees to work for you), larger paging size (bigger office), or a faster cpu (more cash).
--B
I use a Palm - I've used one for many years now and I have to put my time on a timecard. I also occasionally look at where my time is going (something you need to do to make sure time management is working for you). Those two requirements caused me to look for a time measurement program in which I could just tap a line and start a timer, tap another line to start a different timer while saving the previous time (start and stop times) in a memo for that particular project/discussion/person/etc. Later I can come back and annotate what I did in each time period - when I have some breathing room. It also helps when you print out the memo as you can go over what you did during the day. I don't know about you but I've got meetings, demonstrations for customers, presentations, discussions in the bathroom/hallway on various topics, and interruptions from my fellow workers/bosses besides sitting in front of my computer typing code or producing documentation. My program of choice is Titrax (not currently being updated) on a Palm at http://www.titrax.com/. LW
http://www.dovico.com/
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#).
Go to Target or similar general store. Buy one of those little kitchen electronic timers that can count up (not just countdown) and has a 'Start' and 'Stop' button.
/. break, hit 'Stop'. At the end of the day, look at the time tallied and bill for it.
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 stuff or walking around to take an RSI break) doesn't count when you use the Timer method. Instead, you're only tracking actual work time.
If you're really compulsive, you can carry the timer with you and track time spent just thinking on projects while driving, at the park, et cetera. But I don't recommend this-- micromanaging yourself kind of defeats the work-at-home benefits.
So don't be surprised if you only rack up 5 hours of 'work' over an 8-hour period. Just accept it as the downside of telecommuting or contract work.
A.
If you respond well to people, then hire somebody you know and like to bug you at the end of every day to send him or her a summary of the time you've worked that day. Give them carte blanche to bug you by any means necessary until they get that email. You should be able to remember things adequately at the end of every day. Anyhow, it'll be better than trying to remember weeks later. And having regular feedback will give you an incentive to develop the disciplne needed to use a time-tracking tool.
Two books that have helped me in this regard are Organizing from the Inside Out and Time Management from the Inside Out.
checkout http://www.dotproject.net/ while basic tracking can be accomplished with a pencil and paper if you wish to use a tool, then you might as well consider this opensource php based product. It's easy to use, not intrusive, so you can focus on programming and if you get in the habit of using it you end up with a nice trail of documents and notes which might come in handy. Works best for me when i have to juggle a few projects and don't want to lose track of where I left off on anything. -ali
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.
Timeless Time and Expense http://www.magsoftwrx.com/. It's not terribly painful.
You and I are in the same boat. I must register my time on a weekly basis (ie. divide my work hours between lots of separate projects/tasks), but come Friday I've all but forgotten what I spent Monday doing!
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 tracking!", whatever the case may be. This last thing is really more useful than you'd think -- but being a developer, you know how easy it is to immerse yourself so deeply that you forget the time.
This is an in-house tool made as a standalone Windows app. Meaning that it doesn't integrate with the system I eventually need to register my hours in, but also that this is a loose thing that I just may be allowed to give to you, if you want it (I'll need to check first, though -- this is not a promise).
Alternatively, there are tons of similar tools on SourceForge, and for all platforms. Unfortunately, none manage to quite do the trick for me. I am in the first stages of developing my own (basically a remake of our in-house tool, fixing some annoyances and much-needed omissions, and doing it in Java so it's cross-platform).
"Good news, everyone!"
Advanced Time Reports is what I use. Very simple Excel-spreadsheet design, little to no configuration, report generation and there's a free version.
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 systems/internal servers on different networks. Not a fan.
PDA - a shade better, not as in your face. Needs batteries & synch plan. I prefer the steno pad approach. No batteries and easy to carry about, tucks nicely in my travel bag. We bill customers in 15 minute slices.
Try Hours for Palm: http://hours.sourceforge.net/ .
I try to use Eclipse for all my project/documentation work, whether it's a Java project, Visual Studio.NET or whatever. From within Eclipse, I use the TimeTrack 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 you're working on).
It's certainly not perfect, but is functional, and it's XML output is easy to manipulate and filter on (I use Excel for tabulation).
Give a hand, not a hand-out.
Parent touched on something very insightful and then mostly dismissed it.
... don't be surprised if you only rack up 5 hours of 'work' over an 8-hour period
> [the timer method] results in a great bargain for employers
Most engineers working on-site only work about 2-4 hours of the 8 hour shift, yet because they're exempt they bill the employer for the full 8 hours. If you use the timer method, multiply your hourly rate by about 2.5. Note howeer that if you use a scaled hourly rate, you should not attempt to bill for travel time, checking and replying to email, talking on the phone, "researching," or scratching your backside.
If you're honest about your abilities and your time spent, you'll make the same amount as an exempt employee but you'll have a lot more free time. You can either use that free time to relax, do research, or to work on other jobs for extra income.
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).
Linux: The world's best text-adventure game.
Thanks everyone for your comments; I'll go through the list of software that my question generated, and have a look. I'll try some of the paper methods for a few days and see if I can form a new habit.
Thanks again.
I'm from Spherical, so here's the scoop. Good spotting too (I didn't think anyone would notice...). Timesheet Standard Edition has been discontinued as most people bought professional, and those who did buy standard usually ended up upgrading anyway. By supporting just one versions, we can bring out updates more quickly (hard to do because we are only a very small company). On the subject of updates (shameless plug to follow...), I may as well mention that we have a new version coming out early January with heaps of extra features, we are going through beta testing now. Here's what to expect, if you are interested: http://www.sphericaltech.com/NewVersion.asp
Use the above. If you feel you _must_ provide 15-minute-accuracy, keep a logbook: either paper, an email address you target, or something similar. It's mostly a question of developing a habit that's relatively uninvasive and that works for you. If you can't remember what you did at the end of the week, use a shorter interval: last 10 minutes of the day, or twice (just before lunch and just at the end of the day).
If you establish working habits that effectively use tools, you may very well be able to use those tools to help track your time. Eg, keep everything (design notes to finished products) under source-code control. Then a simple habit (eg, an update at the start of a session) before you work lets you use pretty simple scripts to extract details of what you were working on (to a project level or finer) which can augment (or possibly replace) your logbook.
Finally, it's worthwhile reviewing your log after you finish a project. Try to understand where your time is going; compare how long you spent no an area against your initial estimates. That can drastically improve your technical estimation skills, which are important as a contractor.
Summary: make it low impact; make it a habit; review the results regularly.
I use a combination of hardware and software.
I picked up a Black N' Red 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 which I have installed on my laptop. When it comes time for billing I just copy the text from all of my meetings and send it off to my supervisor. I could probably whip something up with OpenOffice and hax together my hours automatically, but I haven't been so inclined to figure out how to do that yet. :)
I prefer a void in conversation to a vacuous one.
I use TimeWhiz (http://www.timewhiz.st/) on my PDA. Works great.
Another app I've tried is Titrax (no URL for that one, sorry).
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:
If the line wraps, I let it wrap. I don't try to do paragraphs, since what I'm writing should be just a simple summary of what I did for the time slice.
If I'm travelling to a client site, I enter this for mileage:
If the Powerbook's not around, I have a smartphone, and I email myself a line similar to these, which I can just filter and process with a nice little script, followed with '>> log.txt'.
And of course I can use the usual *nix text processing tools to do all sorts of nice things. Tax time sees something like
the results of which get fed into a spreadsheet for the accountant. Plain text and *nix tools are our friends!This is not a problem you can fix in software. You have to fix you. If you can't discipline yourself to track your time, then no software package is going to do it for you.
Figure out a way to start tracking your time then work on finding software to make it easier.