Software to track time?

February 3, 2004 10:01 PM

A timekeeping application? I'm looking for an application which makes tracking time spent on something easier. Think something you'd use to record billable hours when you have more than a score of clients and are doing things for them in 15-30 minute slices (not necessarily contiguous) throughout the day.
posted by namespan to computers & internet (9 comments total)

There isn't really a good one... they exist, but they're kludgy. I'm working on one, give me a few weeks and I'll have a beta.
posted by SpecialK at 10:04 PM on February 3, 2004

Vakcer Project Tracker.

Let me know if it works for you. I've tried the demo a few times, and keep on abandoning it before I've given a fair chance. (I think I'm contagious to organization.)
posted by five fresh fish at 10:10 PM on February 3, 2004

My problem with Vacker is has you specify too many things.
posted by SpecialK at 10:18 PM on February 3, 2004

I keep trying to write one of these too, but they never work out for me. The problem is I'll be developing something, get pulled onto something else and forget to change the costing centre in the charging Application. Come the end of the day I've forgotten about half the things I've done, so updating then is a problem.

What I need is something that'll take a picture of my desktop every 15 mins or so, so I can at least remind myself what I was doing throughout the day.
Also something that tells me how long I was on the phone, and who I was talking to would be nice as well.
posted by seanyboy at 12:11 AM on February 4, 2004

Have you considered using a clock and a notepad? Sometimes the old ways are the best. Remember the Astronaut Pen?

With regard to your phonecalls, does your company already track calls? (probably depends on the size of your company) - is there no way you could access the company record for the calls specific to your phone?
(If so maybe you could suggest that they make this facility available to co-workers also)
posted by biffa at 1:53 AM on February 4, 2004

we bill in 6 minute intervals in my litigation group, which is thoroughly unnatural. though we use the standard carpe diem to report our time to the big billing mechanism in the sky, the only thing that keeps my time straight is the notepad ap that comes with windows and the pretty little antique clock on my desk.

when i start a task, i write the start time, the billing code and a title, when i stop the task, i put the end time & add things like phone calls i took during that time period. i'm sure, at the end of the month/week/whatever, when i report the time, there's some fudging, but it's mostly accurate.
posted by crush-onastick at 7:38 AM on February 4, 2004

We use DTE for SQL, and although I'm not entirely happy with it, it does a pretty good job.
posted by monju_bosatsu at 8:02 AM on February 4, 2004

Our company uses Vertabase.
posted by dhoyt at 8:19 AM on February 4, 2004

My organization is piloting a modified version of asp.net's time tracking starter kit.
posted by smcniven at 12:45 PM on February 4, 2004