Ask HN: How do you track your billable working hours?

Hi, I'm curious to know what are the tools that agencies/freelancers/startups use to measure the billable working hours ?

Also, what are some downsides of your tool ?

Thanks!

JamesGriffin · 4 years ago

I run a custom software development firm for fast-growing HealthTech companies. From 1 to 3 people, we utilized Excel. After 3 people we started utilizing Toggl Track as it was becoming a nightmare to record all our billable hours. Toggl has a feature-rich, free version up to 5 people that gives you a good idea if you like the platform. We're now a 14 person company on Toggl's paid plan (I think it's called team). Well worth the investment from my perspective. Eventually, I feel like we will outgrow Toggl, but I think it should scale to at least 25 or 30 people.

hashkb · 4 years ago

Harvest (and the hcl gem). Bonsai is supposed to be pretty good, too.

hamzakc · 4 years ago

When I used to bill per hour, I used Harvest - https://www.getharvest.com/ and their mac app https://www.getharvest.com/apps/mac.

The great thing about the app is that if your computer is idle for a while it stops the timer. That was the most annoying thing that used to happen to me. When I went to pick up the kids or something I would forget to stop the timer. But the app automatically stops the timer and asks you to confirm.

I still use harvest to bill my clients using the invoice feature. Their free plan is all I have ever needed.

mitchbob · 4 years ago

I've used Harvest, and I really like it. They have a free tier for 1 seat and up to 2 projects: https://www.getharvest.com/pricing

derefnull · 4 years ago

I am also a happy customer of Harvest (https://getharvest.com/)

unearth3d · 4 years ago

I have a script called nagme that pops up once an hour

set logfile="%USERPROFILE%\My Documents\What have you been doing.txt" echo %DATE% %TIME% >>%logfile% notepad %logfile%

and I put my current job code, task etc, and then search and sort at billing time. If I'm on the road I keep a paper journal, and or a note in my phone in the same note as my vehicle log for the day.

All a bit time consuming but it captures enough.

desertraven · 4 years ago

I recently self-hosted a NextCloud instanced and was surprised by the timer app.

You set your clients and projects. When you do work on a project you just start the timer and when you press stop, assign the time to a project along with a description.

freelancealot · 4 years ago

Google Sheets. One spreadsheet per client, per year. Each spreadsheet tracks start time, end time, adjustments (like for coffee breaks), and then totals for day, week, month. A comments column summarizes what work was done for that period.

mzfr · 4 years ago

Quickbook - https://quickbooks.intuit.com/in/

They have a decent interface, press the "clock in" button and the time starts. Whenever you want you can "clock out". You can see the "total time" report as well as the invoices or payout made.

The only downside I see is that when you "clock in" you get a small input box in which you can choose to write whatever work you've done or you are doing. The issue is that box is super small and you can't really see that much in it. So there is lot of scrolling involved.

akcreek · 4 years ago

The team and I are building HourStack - https://hourstack.com. We are focused on scheduling and tracking time at the task level, which works well with billable hours. We also integrate with task, event, and issue platforms so you can drag existing tasks onto your calendar to schedule and track time against them.

This can be quite nice when working with clients across different platforms like Asana, Trello, and GitHub.

As for downsides, we are a young company and don’t have the full feature set built yet. We are working hard though and making great progress.

firmgently · 4 years ago

I use an app I made for myself:

[link redacted]

The main downside is probably that it doesn't automatically share data between devices, but it's fine for me as I just use it on my main work PC.

It can save/load data to files so I have an `inotifywait` script watching my Downloads folder. When I save/download a file from the app it automatically gets backed up to cloud storage.

I'm not sure how usable it might be for people. I've made a start on hints/instructions but that part of it is pretty threadbare as I've not got around to sharing it with others yet.

vladsanchez · 4 years ago

Cool! The wheel is already invented!

https://timewarrior.net/