Trello Time Tracking
April 6, 2018 8:12 PM Subscribe
I use Trello as a personal productivity tool and flexible to-do list. I love it. I want to add time tracking to Trello cards, without paying anything monthly.
Basically I'm just looking for something simple: you can start and stop timers associated with different cards (tasks). Then you can look at what times you've spent on different tasks for different days. A total time spent on a given task should be visible too. Not really looking for anything fancier. Things I DON'T need: anything related to invoices, expenses, expense reports, teams, co-worker collaborations, projects, budgets, scrums. Just a timer integrated into trello, and a report of time spent.
What completely free options do I have for doing so?
I'm on the free/non-paid trello route, which allows for 1 'power-up' for trello 1st party and 3rd party add-ons. Currently that power-up slot is available for time tracking, if needed.
At the moment I'm on a free trial of Harvest, where I'm experimenting with Trello integration via a Chrome add-on. That does everything I need, but I only have 8 days left in the trial. After that, it's $12 a month. I'll be paying for corporate functions I don't plan to use. There must be some javascript someone's cooked up that requires no paid subscription, right? ....right?
Basically I'm just looking for something simple: you can start and stop timers associated with different cards (tasks). Then you can look at what times you've spent on different tasks for different days. A total time spent on a given task should be visible too. Not really looking for anything fancier. Things I DON'T need: anything related to invoices, expenses, expense reports, teams, co-worker collaborations, projects, budgets, scrums. Just a timer integrated into trello, and a report of time spent.
What completely free options do I have for doing so?
I'm on the free/non-paid trello route, which allows for 1 'power-up' for trello 1st party and 3rd party add-ons. Currently that power-up slot is available for time tracking, if needed.
At the moment I'm on a free trial of Harvest, where I'm experimenting with Trello integration via a Chrome add-on. That does everything I need, but I only have 8 days left in the trial. After that, it's $12 a month. I'll be paying for corporate functions I don't plan to use. There must be some javascript someone's cooked up that requires no paid subscription, right? ....right?
Best answer: OK, it was super fiddly and time-consuming, but I just used Zapier to set up my own Toggl integration with Trello (phew - it's like I'm speaking a foreign language). Basically, whenever I add a 'Track Time' label to a card in Trello, a timer starts in Toggl for that card. In practice it's really simple and painless, but setting it up was a hassle. I think it's free, but it's hard to say. I haven't been stopped from doing it and it works for now, at least.
posted by naju at 10:37 PM on April 6, 2018
posted by naju at 10:37 PM on April 6, 2018
Did you just look at the Chrome extension for Toggl? It might be a little simpler, but I don't know.
posted by Sequence at 10:48 PM on April 6, 2018
posted by Sequence at 10:48 PM on April 6, 2018
Response by poster: IIRC last month I had tried both the Toggl Chrome extension and the Toggle power-up, and both of them required a paid account. It's funny that Zapier allows for a workaround that's free, but I'm not complaining.
posted by naju at 12:42 AM on April 7, 2018
posted by naju at 12:42 AM on April 7, 2018
Best answer: Harvest actually has a completely free non-trial plan - as long as you're a single user with a maximum of 2 projects. Assuming that fits your bill, then you're good to keep using it ; I use Harvest in free mode to track my own personal stuff.
https://help.getharvest.com/harvest/faqs/overview/is-there-a-free-version-of-harvest/
posted by sektah at 11:50 AM on April 8, 2018 [1 favorite]
https://help.getharvest.com/harvest/faqs/overview/is-there-a-free-version-of-harvest/
posted by sektah at 11:50 AM on April 8, 2018 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: That's really good to know. I switched from the trial to the free plan, and nothing seems to have changed, so it looks like that works. Now that I've set up Toggl, though, it's easier and works with my desktop app, so that might be what I'm going with. Thanks all!
posted by naju at 7:41 PM on April 11, 2018
posted by naju at 7:41 PM on April 11, 2018
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by naju at 9:20 PM on April 6, 2018