Whether you’re a solopreneur or head a staff of 50, keeping track of time is an ongoing headache for most small business owners. Without accurate time tracking, you can’t bill clients properly—or pay your employees correctly. Fortunately, time tracking has come a long way since old-fashioned punch time clocks.
Here are 5 cool time tracking apps to help small business owners manage time.
Toggl
Toggl offers the ultimate in simplicity, letting you track time with literally two clicks. Create an account and connect the Toggl timer to more than 100 web apps. Just click to start the timer when you begin a task and click again to stop it when you end or take a break. Advanced features in the paid version send employees automated reminders when they haven’t tracked time. Toggl also creates visual reports that show you how you and your employees are actually using your time and which projects are the most profitable.
Toggl integrates with popular project management apps such as Asana, Basecamp, and GitHub. It works with one-person businesses or teams, and is a good solution if you want simplicity and are primarily interested in time and project management. Paid versions start at $9/user/month.
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Timesheets.com
Timesheets.com works for both hourly employees and salaried workers who need to track billable hours or time spent on projects. It can also track employee time, mileage, and expenses on the road via its mobile app. Timesheets.com works with popular payroll companies including QuickBooks, SurePayroll and ADP; you can also export the data into a wide variety of formats. There are even HR tools including standardized documents and the ability to store documents privately so only relevant managers can see them. This is a good solution if you have both hourly and salaried workers. Plans start at $99/year.
TSheets
TSheets is a time tracking and scheduling solution that focuses on mobility (although there’s also a desktop app). Employees can clock in on their smartphone via text, email, voice call or even Twitter. Crew features let you send an entire crew alerts at once, or clock them all in and out at the same time. The drag-and-drop schedule creator makes it easy to schedule employees for shifts, such as retail or restaurant work, or particular jobs, such as landscaping or construction. Employees can use the app to request time off or ask to trade shifts; managers can make or approve schedule changes on the fly and quickly alert employees.
TSheets is well suited for businesses with hourly workers, work crews, or mobile employees, such as field services or construction. It integrates with most popular accounting and payroll software. Paid plans start at $4/user/month.
Harvest
Planning for the future is a strong point of Harvest. This time tracking app creates visual reports that show you how much time your team is spending on each project. Employees can use the app’s timers to track their time or input it manually. With the mobile app, it’s easy to track time and billable hours anywhere. You can also track expenses by simply snapping pictures of receipts, and automatically pull data from Harvest into invoices.