Jun 19th, 2008
Klok - Time Tracking Made Easy(ier)
HEY! If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
Today I spotted a cool application. Called Klok, this application is great for freelancers or anyone who wants to keep track of how they are spending their time. Klok uses the new Adobe AIR platform and should run on Mac, most flavors of linux and Windows. Its pretty easy to setup different categories/projects and even several levels of subprojects. You can easily add time already spent on a project or run realtime tracking. The only compliant that I have is the drag and drop feature lags. In order to schedule a block of time for say a meeting, you merely grab the project that you want and drag it over to the week view. My problem is that I have to hold on to the project for a few seconds before the application realizes that I am trying to drag something and responds by giving me a visual reference of the project. The same issue occurs when using the timer function. The timer function required me having to actually read the documentation (shock!) where I discovered that you can’t click the drop down box to select a project to begin timing but you must drag the project there. Overall a great utility and the flexibility of Adobe AIR makes it really awesome. Did I mention that this app is completely free? No paying for graphs and charts, no time limitations, it just works. If they fix the drag and drop issue this app will be great. Things I’d like to see added:
- Google Calendar integration
- CSV export
- Online Sync, I want to be able to use the same data set on multiple computers.
Perhaps they’ll add some of these features as pay features. Overall, nice to see a free app with no strings attached that runs great and gets the job done. Now I have to go stop the timer and start back to work!
I don’t charge by the hour, since a leap of creativity for me could take 5 minutes or 5 days. I prefer flat fees, retainers, or some model based on results…
By the way, what is Commentluv?
Freddy Nagers last blog post..The Worldwide Scoop: Video Episode 1 - Freaks of Nature
I don’t necessarily use it for charging fees. I very frequently accept flat rate projects. But its really nice to keep track of how many hours I am putting in on certain projects.
Howdy Doug:
I keep track of everything, so I know where I spend my time - even when I am working on a flat fee. It helps to give the client an invoice showing what I did and when.
I use OfficeTime.net and love it!!! It has this feature where it works, even if I close the laptop.
So, if I take a phone call and come back to the computer, it tells me how long I was gone. Then it asks if I want to keep those minutes in that project, delete them or move them to another category. Very cool feature, which I can’t live without. It keeps everything straight for me.
Oh, it has most of what you asked for, though instead of Google calendar, it has iCal integration (but bet Google is coming), invoicing and exporting features, and it let’s you share with other computers - Mac and PC can talk with each other!!!
Just a heads up, OT ended up becoming one of my clients after I emailed them and asked for a feature request (which they added to the next release, a week later). By the way, they tend to add features for client requests all the time (so ask about the Google Calendar).
It’s only $47 and it paid for itself the first week I had it, because before that I’d always forget to track phone calls and meetings.
Let me know if you have a question.
And, as Freddy asked, what is Commentluv?
Bethany
I’m still a big fan of FREE
Commentluv is a plugin that parses your blog for the last post you made and then drops a link in here for it. Its pretty cool.
Yeah, I love Free, but when I found OfficeTime there was no free that was even slightly in the running - especially for Macs.
And they give free upgrades all the time. Plus a free 21-day trial.
And, it did literally pay for itself that first week: One phone call, that would not have been billed otherwise, was tracked!
How about this, I’ll give you (and anyone reading this who has an appropriate blog) a free copy of OfficeTime, if you then share the experience on your blog. One free app for one post reviewing what you really thought of it. What do you say?
You know where to find me…
Bethany - who can be found @ http://UniqueThink.com
(If you can’t figure out my email address from that, you aren’t trying - I’m sure the spammers have)
P.S. Doug, I’ll leave it up to you whether you want to post this comment, but either way, the app is yours for one review…