Filed under: Business, Utilities, Macintosh, Productivity, Freeware
Timeous: Simple Time Tracking in OS X
by Todd Ritter Dec 9th 2008 at 1:00PM
Timeous is a simple and effective time-tracking app for Mac OS 10.4 or later. It allows you to track time on multiple projects ("tabs") and set independent hourly rates and tax percentages. Each time you start the Timeous timer, an entry is created in your current project tab. These entries are then sorted by day and time. When you stop the timer, you will see the total time of that chunk of work, and you can add notes to the entry to explain what work was performed.Data is automatically saved, and the program's status bar shows the total time and cost associated with the project. You can export the time entries to a text file (useful for providing to a client when you send them an invoice). Timeous is a free download and a Universal binary.
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Let's start with the premise itself: Groundhog Day meets Memento. The game experience revolves around 'days': you explore the world and the clock slowly ticks towards the evening. You bounce around picking up gems and talking to the denizens of 'Level Upland'. Eventually you feel tired and head back to ...
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
TSheets said 4:22AM on 12-10-2008
Looks pretty handy - will be sure to check it out.
Also don't forget about TSheets. Our new FreshBooks integration is already receiving a number of kudos and we're not done yet - plenty more in store...stay tuned!
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Derek said 10:14AM on 12-10-2008
Looks interesting, could be good to try integrate this with an online time tracking app like 1time (http://1timetracking.com ) for those people working in teams. hmmm
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Tim Perrin said 11:45AM on 12-10-2008
These are all interesting, but as a former lawyer and sometime programmer, I can tell you that what is needed is software that tracks your work with absolutely NO input on the part of the user. People are lazy buggers and forget to track their time, I don't care how easy you make it. As a result, they lose a LOT of billable time.
I did managed to create an MS Word macro that logged whatever was the current active Window in Word, and since my system automatically put every file in a client directory, it also was therefore automatically keeping track of who I was working for when I was working in Word. But it only was good when I was in Word. I'm not a sufficiently good programmer to do the same thing at the system level--and I'm new to the Mac so I'd be hopeless to do it on this system. With a lot of work, I might be able to figure out how to do it in Windows.
Basically, you need to log every time the focus changes. For example, right now, it should know that I'm on a screen titled: "Firefox: Timeous: Simple Time Tracking in OS X - Download Squad." When I leave this window, it should calculate the time I've been here and log it and start tracking time on the next screen. If I've been working on a file that is in a client directory/folder, it should just log the thing in my time logs (integrated into my accounting software, preferably so it doesn't have to be re-entered by anyone). If I'm not working on a client file, it should pop-up a dialog asking me for a client/file identifier. I can quickly hit return if it's not billable time.
Now, THAT would be a saleable product to the legal community, for one. Why no one has done it, I don't know, but they haven't, at least not that I know of, and I practiced law for nine years while writing a technology column so I would think I would have run across it.
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Derek Organ said 12:32PM on 12-10-2008
I understand the solution you are looking for and in some ways there are applications that do this already for example http://www.rescuetime.com
But I don't think it can work for billing clients for example. It can be a very useful guide but there are way to many exceptions when doing this automatically to depend on it completely. For example what do you do when you are on the phone or go into a meeting or researching new websites or go to the bathroom.
The best method currently to micro manage this is by the use of timers. So you start a timer when your are working on a particular project and you stop it when you're finished or changing to unbillable work.
I do think maybe you could tie some timers to specific applications alright which would be useful at the end of the day. E.g. you finish up at the end of the day and you have a List of finished timers. Some automatic timers attached to specific applications/files and manual ones. You convert and edit where appropriate to timesheets after that.
I know we have been researching this particular problem for a while now in 1time and hopefully in 2009 we will have a more advanced solution that is one more step towards the ideal solution. It will take time because the use of a computer through out the day has a lot of variables at the moment that aren't easily categorized.
The alternative is hire someone to sit beside you with a stopwatch and notepad all day ;)
Tim Perrin said 8:59PM on 12-10-2008
Derek -
Being on the phone was never a problem for me as I had a telephone note template that was one of the MS Word documents that started a new timer on a client file. As soon as I clicked on the button to start open that template, it turned off whatever was currently timing and started paying attention to the phone notes, even if I didn't fill in the details until later in the day, and even if I switched away from it before filling in the details as often happens. For example, the phone rings, I click on the phone note button and up pops the phone note template and it asks me for a file number/name. I don't know because I don't know who's on the phone so I just hit esc and answer the phone. The time the template opened is recorded and I start taking my notes. If I switch away from that still unnamed, unsaved template, the time it has been the focus is recorded in a custom properties field in the document. When I later switch back, any new editing time is added. It's similar to the Word "time edited" field but a bit more oriented to "time as focus" rather than "time open." When I finally save, name, and eventually close the file, it is logged as being closed with the total time it was the focus.
But you are right about dead time and bathroom time. You do have to account for those, but you have to now as well. However, I found that using this system, I increased my billable time from about 6.5 out of 8 to 7.5 out of 8 per day. That was about 22 hours more a month, 176 hours a year. At $250/hr, that's an increase of $44,000 in billable time, enough to pay for a support person or, perhaps in these rather less lucrative days, simply the difference between keeping the doors open and not.
For you non lawyers reading this, I know that sounds like a lot, and I know that $250/hr sounds like a lot, but it gets split so many ways that, in the end, the average lawyer, at least in Canada, where I live, earns about $109,000/yr. That's better than sacking groceries, yes, and a bit better than my wife makes as a teacher (mid 70s) but less than the average doctor (mid 120s) or even accountant (110s). Out of that $250, we are usually paying at least two and probably three support personnel, a share of general support staff (reception, bookkeeping, etc.), shared services like a boardroom and library, rent, utilities, insurance, etc. In the end, we see about $50 of it... if we're lucky and diligent about collections.