Monday, July 2, 2007

Software Consultant Time Tracking with Google Calendar

One of the challenges facing someone with a small company is tracking where you spend your time. It gets more important and harder when you charge hourly. There are a lot of products out there that allow you assign hours to a client. They run the gamut from a handful of PHP pages to full-blown CRM systems. I found a better solution in an unlikely place, Google Calendar.

At first, I used vTiger CRM, a fork of SugarCRM, to track time. I have vTiger on my hosted server and I have populated all my clients in it. When I get new clients, I put them in as well. I don't have this automated because I have few, long-term, clients, so it's not more than 2 or 3 entries a month.


When I did work for a client, I would login to the CRM, navigate to the “Tasks” page, and add a new task. Every task had to be associated with a client, which meant I ended up adding new clients even for one-offs. Also, the calendar view was very inconvenient for me. It was near impossible for me to figure out what I did on a particular day.


In the end, what killed vTiger for me was simply that it was too slow. It's slow to load. It's dependencies on a lot of tables makes it slow to render. And, it takes way too many clicks to get something done, so it's slow to navigate.


After months of using vTiger, I was still unable to track what work I did for whom. So, I went looking for a new solution. My requirements were simple:

  1. It needs to allow me to enter a job title, a client, and a timespan

  2. I must be able to view a day in its entirety so I can see if I have any unaccounted for time

  3. It must be quick to load and require very few clicks to perform any task

  4. The storage must be more or less permanent, so I can review tasks for a minimum of 4 years

  5. It must have some way of exporting data, in case I need to migrate to another system


I found no time tracking package that met these requirements. The only real solution came from an unexpected quarter, Google Calendar. Since I've started using it, I've found it very easy to enter time records and very easy to examine my time spent. Google backs-up and maintains the database. Import and Export can be done with iCal or XML, both of which can be converted easily with Perl or Java.


Now, I can tell a client with easy assurance how many hours I spent on their project and what I worked on. This simple change has made billing and project management 100 times easier, and that's key for any software consultant.

21 comments:

J Nespodzany said...

Hi there, I am in a very similar boat and have tried going the google calendar route however the 1 thing I was not able to do with it was to get a simple 1 screen breakdown of client/project with total hrs spent and what days time was entered. Were you able to find a way to do this? I have done exhaustive searches for google calendar add ons that could do this but have found nothing.

thanks
-josh

brightbyte said...

I second the question of scott & josh... I too am looking for a calendar-based time tracking system that gives me easy access to totals (both, time spent and time planned).

I don't want a stop watch, and I don't want a teamscheduling system. I want a calendar that can count hours. Anyone?...

Unknown said...

Can you tell me how you took the google calendar data and got a total time spent for a specific project?

ToddZ said...

Yes! Please! I'm looking for the saem thing previous commenters want. Google seems to have the best online calendar, and the ability to categorize entries and report on cumulative time would be make it a truly killer app.

Unknown said...

Hi, I'm considering using google calendar for my time tracking as well. One question, your first requirement says: "It needs to allow me to enter a job title, a client, and a timespan" - I'm wondering which fields you used for those data items, since the nomenclature on the GCal event-edit form isn't really designed for time tracking. I think i have a solution, but wondering how you did it. Thanks.

alwayzambitious said...

Guy, you just have to manually add up on the hours once you create a calendar for each client. Yes it's a little work, but thats how I do it.

Unknown said...

hi,

i was looking for something like this article on the web. i've to made a time tracking application (i think a google widget) for my graduation.
i need to do also some admin function o it,to let him view reports, manage workgroups and users and more.

what kind of functions do you expect from a time tracking application as admin and as user?

thank you and sorry for my bad english, i'm trying to improve it1

Carl R said...

I think http://www.gtimereport.com solves what most of you (Scott & Josh, Daniel, Dangermark, Toddz) ask for. Especially if you like spreadheets.

/Carl

Ben Edmonds said...

I've just tested out GTimeReport and it's just the trick for me. It does require consistency in event titles when you are typing them in, but that's to be expected.

Nice straight forward UI too.

sebastien said...

Funny enough, I am developing a Time Tracking system using Google Calendar. It will be super simple. I am myself a freelancer and try the gazilions of product that exists. Some are very good (and a bit expensive), some are very bad (in term of design or functionality).

Let's not re-invent the wheel and use the tools that we know best.

I have made a small landing page at http://timetal.ly . Send us some love by clicking the +1 button so we can see that there is enough interest to put some real effort into it ! :-)

Unknown said...

Hello all,

Great post and find interesting information about Compensation Management, Web Based Timesheets provide great facility and Compensation management objectives are really helpful.

Unknown said...

I am working on same kind of project.I found it of great use. Thanks for blogging such an informative article.

Employee Time Attendance

Unknown said...

My question is that ca in modify this using emergency notification

Unknown said...

As a software professional, I often work on several projects at the same time. It means that during one day I may spend some time working on one project, then switch to another project.

At such situation, Replicon's ( http://www.replicon.com/time-tracking-softwares.aspx )software helps me alot to track time spent on each projects more efficiently. It has all the capabilities including time tracking, invoicing, and making payments. Now, tracking the time and transactions became a piece of cake.

Unknown said...

This is indeed an informative post. I appreciate your working spirit. Web time clock and employee time clock are used for the same purpose in many companies.

Unknown said...

David, is this still helping you? Am wondering if I can leverage this to a start up team of 13?

Unknown said...

I use www.timecamp.com and it works good for me. It's convenient as I can integrate it with project management tools and they work toghether. I save a lot of time working this way.

rahul.k.varma said...

Very informative blog, thanks for sharing this information.Really time tracking software useful for both personal and team level by providing a more accurate idea of ​​how people deal with their own time.

Joshua E. Bourne said...

What's more, with an online time following application, endorsements happen whenever progressively. Not any more holding up until just before pay day or finding workers attempting to get the straight scoop on what they were doing when. This application takes the mystery out on the grounds that it permits representatives to submit finished timesheets to chiefs for endorsement whenever. Besides, can rapidly and professionally support or dismiss the time spent on their task. Directors can get constant reports, and oversee work costs as they happen. best project management app

Richard C. Lambert said...

At first, I used vTiger CRM, a fork of SugarCRM, to track time. I have vTiger on my hosted server and I have populated all my clients in it. When I get new clients, I put them in as well. I don't have this automated because I have few, long-term, clients, so it's not more than 2 or 3 entries a month.best timesheet software

Unknown said...

I used google before but some guys in my company was afraid about their datas since they realized that google is using it. For me it wasn't bad but i don't want to argue since both of google and TimeCamp are similar. Now i'm using TimeCamp for tracking my work time http://timecamp.com.