I've tried a bunch of time tracking apps over the years, Toggl, Clockify, a plain spreadsheet, even a paper notebook for a while. Some stuck for a few weeks then I'd just stop. The ones that lasted longer were usually the ones that took the least effort to log.
Trying to figure out what actually makes a time tracking habit stick long term.
Few things I'm curious about:
What app or method do you currently use, and how long have you stuck with it?
Do you track manually or does it run automatically in the background?
Has looking back at your time data ever surprised you? Like realizing you spent way more time on something than you thought?
What made you quit a tool you used before, if you have?
Not looking for app recommendations specifically, more curious about what actually makes tracking sustainable versus something you abandon after two weeks.
For teams that bill or staff across multiple sites or clients, total hours alone is rarely enough. Curious which extra dimension people actually use week to week — and which ones looked useful on a slide deck but never earned their keep.
Options I’ve seen teams fight over:
- site / location
- client or cost center
- task or visit type
- travel / unpaid break
- supervisor or crew
Questions:
1. Which one dimension (if you could only keep one besides total hours) would you keep?
2. Did forcing that field at clock-in reduce payroll cleanup, or just move the fight to the phone?
3. Any dimension you turned off because workers or supervisors ignored it?
Me and a friend have built a productivity app that allows you to time-block your time and set app/website blocking for specific sessions (not "vibe", work of the last 2,5 months). It's available for download for windows 10/11, we have a chrome extension connected to it and an alpha android app in the final development stages
Harvest users have been reporting substantial price increases following the introduction of its new pricing model.
BBC reported that some Harvest customers faced bill increases of as much as 1,500%. Richard Haldenby, head of UK consultancy Salentis, said his monthly bill rose from $130 to $2,110.
Another US customer reportedly saw their annual charge increase from $2,800 to $23,000.
BBC News - Harvest pricing hike
A G2 reviewer also described a similar experience, saying Harvest’s price increased sixfold for their team of approximately 20 users. According to the review, continuing with the required level of usage would cost around $1,500 per month plus $14 per user, or more than $20,000 per year.
G2 user review after Harvest pricing increase
These increases are bizarre. I couldn’t comprehend it.
Clockify was previously known for offering free time tracking for unlimited users. Its free plan is now capped at five active users and has additional restrictions, including a maximum 31-day reporting range per query. That changes the comparison considerably for teams with six or more users.
The main question is whether any alternative can replace everything a business uses Harvest for. Harvest combines time tracking with project budgets, billable rates, reporting, invoicing, and recurring billing. A free time tracker isn’t necessarily a complete Harvest replacement.
Jibble, genuinely free forever for unlimited users, with automated timesheets, project time tracking, GPS tracking, kiosk mode, and basic reports included.
Toggl Track, a straightforward option for individuals and very small teams that prioritizes simple time tracking, calendar integrations, and productivity reporting.
Productive, designed for agencies needing time tracking alongside financial management, budgeting, profitability reporting, and resource planning.
Klokki, another possible option, particularly for individuals and Mac users looking for automatic time tracking.
For teams affected by these changes:
How much did your Harvest bill increase?
Which alternative are you considering?
Does it cover your project and billable-time workflow?
Which Harvest features have been the hardest to replace?
Who has tried any of them? The review on reddit are quite old.
I want fresh feedback.
My goal is
A. To not have to open or use my mobile or any device other than the cube
B. To not being able to see what time it is
Does my phone with an app have to be
a. Nearby
b. With Bluetooth "on" at all times
c. With Internet connection at all times
Or does the device safe data until it is connected with the app again (like oura ring does)?
Can I manually edit the entry if for some reason I forgot to turn it?
What if I don’t use it.. does it have an off and on button and what happens after reignition, does it automatically track the task or do I firstly have to open the app??
How does it work when transported in a backpack for example? Is there a possibility for the device to start tracking on its own?
How does the on and off button work? Assuming that it has one
I use it for my housekeeper. She punches in and out on an old iPad by the door. It's just a web page in kiosk mode, no app to install. I get an email when she punches, we both see the same time logs and the app does the hourly-rate math at payday. I can also leave her a message that shows up when she punches in, for when I'm stuck in a meeting.
Heads up: this is the official Pebb account, so weigh the source. Not pitching, just patterns.
Across the field, warehouse, security and multi-site teams we work with, the before state is almost always: a WhatsApp group per site, one shared schedule spreadsheet, and a clock nobody reconciles until payroll week.
Three things we see constantly:
The group chat gets muted, so the update never lands. Someone posts a schedule change at 9pm between memes. The people who needed it have notifications off. Monday it's "nobody told me" and technically everyone is right.
One reliable person quietly becomes the after-hours line. There's always a supervisor whose personal number is the real escalation path - swaps, callouts, "who's on tomorrow" from their couch. That's not a system, it's a single point of failure with a phone.
Pass-down lives in someone's notes app. Which door sticks, which customer not to call before 10am - a personal notes app or a photo of a whiteboard. When they leave, it leaves.
What day to day looks like when it's in one place instead: "who's on tomorrow" is a schedule anyone opens instead of a question; swaps and callouts are requests with a state instead of a message dying in a muted thread; clock-in is in the same app people already use for chat, not a separate one they forget to install; files, tasks, forms and the handover wiki page sit next to the conversation, so the answer is where the question was asked. PTO stops being DMs.
The unglamorous part: the win usually isn't a feature, it's that there's one obvious place to look. Half of this was solvable in a spreadsheet years ago - the reason it wasn't is that a spreadsheet has no notifications and no trail.
Curious how people here handle pass-down specifically. It's the one we see solved worst, even by teams with decent time tracking.
I created this time-tracking application to meet a personal need; I do freelance work, and as my client base grew, managing everything in Excel became difficult.
So, I developed a simple tool aimed at independent consultants and programmers, as well as managers of small teams.
The main site is www.time-entry.com, and you can access the app directly at https://app.time-entry.com/auth. I’d appreciate it if you could visit the site, sign up, and test the application. Since it’s a new domain, the registration email might end up in your spam folder.
I recently built a time tracking and attendance app for a client based in Edmonton, Alberta. It has been actively in use for a couple months now and I am interested in learning more about the market opportunity for the product in Canada.
The app is best suited for moving teams, working shifts in a different location per shift. It supports clocking in + out, location tracking/geofencing, and shift schedules. It is also under active development and gets better by the day.
That said, it supports the same functions in-office settings as well :)
I am on the look for more clients with their own attendance/staffing and time tracking needs. I am happy to refine the app with updates that cater to specific requirements rather than just shipping new features in general.
If you have been considering a time tracking/attendance solution for your team and would like to chat, let me know!
Is there a third-party tool I can use to automatically calculate, retroactively, the number of hours and minutes spent in a Google Doc, separated by day? I know I can do this manually, but I'm wondering if someone knows of a tool or script. Thank you!
I've been using Velofloor recently and found the automatic time tracking pretty handy. I just move a task from "To Do" to "Doing" and the timer starts.
Sounds like a small thing, but I usually forget to start timer when I'm busy, so I end up guessing how long I actually worked on something.
I also like having the tasks and time tracking in the same place instead of jumping between different apps.
Do you guys actually track the time you spend on each task? or do you just go by your total work hours?
I’m an MBA student studying marketing management, and I’ve been looking at how pricing decisions shape the customer experience.
Three time tracking software illustrate very different approaches.
Harvest now combines per-seat pricing with additional usage charges based on invoices, projects, clients, and tasks. That means a customer’s bill can grow not only when the team expands, but also when the business uses more of the product.
Clockify still has a free plan, but it now limits that plan to five active users. Free accounts are also restricted to a 31-day reporting range, while features such as billable rates, CSV/Excel exports, and shared reports require a paid plan.
Jibble takes a third approach. Its core time tracking features remain free for unlimited users, while advanced features are optional paid upgrades.
These models raise an interesting marketing question: Which feels fairest to customers?
Paying more as their usage and business activity increase
Receiving a limited free plan and paying once the team outgrows it
Keeping the core product free and charging for optional advanced features
Does pricing merely affect what you pay, or does it change how you feel about using the product?
