Review: TimeTracker Full 14
We took a look at the Timebits time tracking app a few months ago, and found that the program wasn’t quite up to snuff for folks serious about the detailed tracking and analysis of their time. Since then, other options have began to appear in the time tracking space, and TimeTracker Full ($9.99 in the App Catalog) does an excellent job of tracking your time and logging your data, all while automatically starting tasks by WiFi SSID or GPS location.
Freelancers: be excited.
Features and use
The user interface of TimeTracker is well done throughout the program. The main screen displays your list of projects, and has a persistent “weekly summary” bar graph that details how many hours per day you’re spending on each project. It’s easy for programs like this to be heavily laden with layer upon layer of menu structure, but the folks behind TimeTracker keep things simple: you’ll find 3 persistent on-screen UI buttons that get you to your data in graph form, a toggle for manual or automatic mode, and a new project creation button.
Project creation is as simple as tapping the “new project” button. From here, you can set the project name, rate of pay, and currency. Unlike any other program currently in this category, you can set tasks to automatically begin whenever you’re connected to a defined WiFi SSID (the program automatically grabs the SSID from your currently connected WiFi hotspot to make things easier), and GPS. You can also edit project details at any point, allowing you to modify recorded time periods and any other detail you’d like.
The program has two modes of operation: manual and automatic. In manual mode, each task has to be started and terminated by hand, and closing the application doesn’t terminate any currently active tasks. This has led to projects displaying humorously inaccurate time (well, I guess 345 hours worth of reading PreCentral isn’t that far off). In automatic mode, every task that has a predefined WiFi SSID or GPS location will automatically start and end as you enter and leave range of those predefined areas.
TimeTracker allows you to view your data in several different graph forms. You can view charts per project, and with all projects combined. In this area of the program, you can see you’re daily utilization in hours, distribution over time, distribution over money, and the details of when each project was started and stopped. This data can all be viewed in day, week, month, and year view.
Topping everything off is the programs ability to email, in rich HTML, all of your logged data for use in spreadsheet programs like Excel. The emailed data also acts as a database backup of the program itself, so in the event your data gets wiped, phone gets stolen, or some other event preventing you from getting to your data, you can easily import it back in. It would be nice if everything were exported in .csv format, but copying and pasting from any HTML capable e-mail client to most spreadsheet programs works just fine.
Gmail, however, appears to be out of the question - when you copy the data to the clipboard, the tables are not included, so you end up with a rather useless single line of data. I can report, though, that the copy and paste method does work when using a desktop client like Outlook.
Summary
TimeTracker Pro is easily the most feature rich and easy to use time tracking application in the App Catalog. Being able to set tasks to automatically start based on your location is a smart feature, and the detailed analytics of your time are sure to make you optimally productive and, and ensure that you're properly paid for your time. The $10 asking price isn't inexpensive to be sure, but its a good price for a solid program for those who need the utility this program offers.
14 Comments
Interesting Program.
"TimeTracker Pro is easily the most feature rich and easy to use time tracking application in the App Catalog."
-- PreCentral / Robert Werlinger --
I couldn't agree more! I've been a huge fan of this app since it's early days as a Homebrew beta. I paid for the full version the minute (and I mean the minute) it hit as a paid app in the Palm app catalog.
TimeTracker is one of the few apps that feels like an actual program and not just some html coding. Too many webOS apps feel like fill-in-the-blank web pages that do little more than store and regurgitate data. This program does what is says and then some. I've purchased 4 time tracking apps and this is the only one I use.
It would be much more interesting if it could sync with Basecamp or Harvest. It is nice that I can track my own time but often times my bosses and clients need to know where I spend my time also.
Great program. I originally got it in preware and then upgraded via paypal, so unfortunately the app catalog doesn't think I own the full version, so I can't rate it. If I could, I would give it five stars, which is saying something considering the price.
I am a graduate student and a teaching assistant. I am currently working with two professors for three classes, so this is incredibly helpful for keeping track of what I do for whom. It also allows me to subcategorize projects. So under one professor I have "quiz grading," "lecture," "office hours," etc. It works out really well.
Since the entire campus is a single SSID, that doesn't help me much. GPS reception in most of the places I work (classroms, my office) is pretty poor and where I am doesn't necessarily correspond to what I am doing, so I do everything manually.
Great application, I highly recommend it for anyone that wants to keep track of complex projects. The developer keeps the updates coming (wifi and gps were mere promises when I got it a few months ago). They also respond to issues and feature requests quickly and favorably.
How did you upgrade via paypal? I have no acces to the app catalog! I would like to know of other options!
Just open the app's main menu by tapping on the Time Tracker tab at the top and the upgrade option should be there as far as I remember. It disappears when you upgrade, and I upgraded it by Paypal long before I could buy any app from the App Catalog due to location restrictions.
I actually prefer the app Time Spent because of its "reminder that you have a timer running" feature. To me, that's more helpful in keeping the timings accurate than something location-based would be.
I agree. Time Tracker Pro is too expensive and far more complicated than the average person really needs. Time Spent is much more affordable and does the job well enough for most people.
Time Spent can be used to track more than freelance projects too. I actually use it to keep track of how much time I spend with my son, how much time I spend job searching, and how much time I waste on video games and bodily functions. It gives you an interesting look at your life and helps you manage your time better.
I'll be writing an app spotlight about it soon. Even if it doesn't appear on Precentral, I'll post it in the forums or on my personal blog. Check on this page http://www.nathanmylott.com/precentral-articles.html later to look for it if you don't see it here.
Let me begin with praise for this app, since I'm using it since the early days and its my only paid app up till now. It's decent and does the job well.
That said, I must disagree with this review regarding the automatic check in/out features. These do _not_ work properly in the current versions and a more in depth review should have revealed this.
Also, I do greatly miss the feature to be able to define a certain amount of free time to be automatically subtracted from my work time. That simple, and would be much more usefull than GPS and WLAN automatics, which do not work for me.
The automatic check in/out feature actually worked great in the version of the software I reviewed, both while using GPS and WiFi SSID.
I haven't used the Wi-Fi feature, but I've never had issues with the GPS tracking feature. I'd say that any problems are probably related to the area you're in not giving you an accurate GPS reading...
I tried this app when it was still in homebrew and thought it was OK. I've since tried others and have liked Time Spent the best. The GPS and WiFi features aren't meaningful as I work on many different projects form one location. One feature that I've found missing or cumbersome is the ability to define tasks within a project and easily record time against those. So far I've had to define unique project for each project/task combination.
Really? I've been able to define tasks within a project with ease. Just click on the information i icon next to the project name to open its entry, then click on the tab at the top left and choose "Add Subproject."
Now, my only real issue with the app is that once you have defined subprojects there is no way to collapse them so you only see the main projects when you use the app. All of the project's nodes are open, so you get a really long list of projects and subprojects. I've contacted the developer about this and he said he's planning to add that feature, but so far it's just not there.
a few more updates and this could be that Mojo Messaging substitute :)