Designers - how do you keep track of hours?

reflux · 14 May 2009 at 11:16

I work for a small design firm, only a year or so old. We need to keep track of how long people spend on what, so how do you guys do it? Or don't you bother?

At the moment we're using the Lightning plugin for Mozilla Thunderbird but it's a bit of a pain and half us can't really be bothered with it. Is there anything easier (and free...?

)

tsinc80697 · 14 May 2009 at 11:39

mac or pc?

reflux · 14 May 2009 at 11:46

We're using one Mac, one PC (Vista x64) and one PC with SuSE Linux on it. So this could be a bit of a problem.

philjohn · 14 May 2009 at 11:58

We use Harvest which is an online time tracker

http://www.getharvest.com/

Dj_Jestar · 14 May 2009 at 12:48

Just ask? Time-sheets or something?

Craig R · 14 May 2009 at 13:53

Tripnologist · 14 May 2009 at 14:23

We've been using Paymo for the last couple months and it's great.
One signed up, you can enter time via a web interface or a desktop widget (for mac or pc).

http://www.paymo.biz/

tsinc80697 · 14 May 2009 at 15:55

theres a great mac app I use at home but can't tell you until I get home from work

PaulB · 14 May 2009 at 17:30

I found this freebie one a while ago...

http://time.onrails.org/

reflux · 20 May 2009 at 10:20

Alright, cheers for the sensible suggestions chaps, we'll check 'em out

GravyMonster · 20 May 2009 at 12:35

Not free, but my place use streamtime

p-chan · 20 May 2009 at 14:55

http://www.timmyontime.com/ is pretty cool. Works with Gtalk, and Msn messager so there is no need to install anything.
I think it is free, although i haven't used it in a while.

Edit:
"Sign up to get a free access to TimmyOnTime and create up to two projects".
So you can at least try it out for free.

Mint_Sauce · 20 May 2009 at 16:14

I use Jobs on the Iphone, it does the job!

Sagalout · 20 May 2009 at 18:20

Another vote for Harvest. We have 5 people in our studio and it's been perfect for us. Been using it for about 18 months now.

lsg1r · 20 May 2009 at 23:07

Excel usually but then I am a one man band

MS Office Project is another option

Smoke-Alot · 21 May 2009 at 09:59

i have to go with Craig_R

good old fashioned clock on the wall, (or even in your task bar)

Tripnologist · 21 May 2009 at 12:40

Why why why are there people not using an actual solution?

Seriously take 5 minutes to sign up for paymo and take a quick look around. It's free for 3 employees or less, does clients, projects, time tracking, invoicing and offers some nice reports. It's also very easy to use.