Suggestions for Time Tracking Software

[gep13]

Hey,

I am looking for some ideas of which application to use.

Basically, I am looking for an application (doesn't really matter if I need to pay for it) that can track my day to day work in a manner that won't take up too much time.

At the minute, I keep a handwritten note book of what I am doing on any given day, this is great, but I can't search through it easily. The software application that I am looking for has to be able to fit the following requirements:

• ability to create new tasks
• record time against a particular task
• web based or windows form based
• ability to create notes against a particular task, including text, screen shots, and other necessary attachments
• ability to search through tasks to find a particular entry

I am not fussed about the creation of fancy reports or anything like that, we have a separate corporate application that I have to enter my time into, this is more for writing useful notes and information about what I have been doing so that I can refer back to it.

Anyone got any suggestions?

Thanks

Gary

[Hack]

Why not just write your own?

[gep13]

Hey,

Well I thought about that, but I wanted to see what there was available first, people's recommendations etc, before I went to the extent of writing my own.

Gary

[gep13]

Hey,

Has nobody got any suggestions?

Gary

[techgnome]

I've used this in the past:
http://www.axosoft.com/ontime
They have both a web and a VS Addin version.

-tg

[gep13]

Hey,

That looks quite interesting. Thanks for that!!

I think it might have a few two many features, i.e. more geared towards a team environment, but I will check it out.

Gary

[gep13]

Hey,



Thank you for the suggestion, I will take a look!

Gary

[ntg]

Basically, I am looking for an application (doesn't really matter if I need to pay for it) that can track my day to day work in a manner that won't take up too much time.

Define "too much time".

[gep13]

Hey,

What I was getting at was I don't want to have to take up too much time administering/recording the time that I have spent on something. I have seen applications that require you to input the time you start and finish something, but I have seen others, like kimai:

http://www.kimai.org/en/

Where you simply hit a "play" button and the time starts recording for you.

The problem with kimai is that there isn't much scope for recording notes/screenshots/file attachments with a given task.

I am yet to find an application that ticks all the boxes.

Do you have any suggestions?

Gary

[Siddharth Rout]

Gary, I know you are good with coding and hence I believe that you should code your own software. The best part is that you will feel very proud every time you use it

I required, I can also help you write part of it. Shucks, even I would like to use one

Anyways that's just my opinion/suggestion.

[gep13]

Hey,

That is really the idea that I am coming round to, but it is just a matter of finding the time, no pun intended. I will give this some thought and see what I can come up with. Thank you for the offer of help!!

Gary

[ntg]

Since you want something simple, I second the idea of writing it yourself. Budget one day for it and keep it simple enough so that development fits into one day. That's what I did anyway.

[gep13]

Hey,

So does that mean that you have already created such an application?

Gary

[Pradeep1210]

Buy/Get/code a mobile application. See what languages your mobile phone OS supports and decide accordingly. If you don't find anything fitting your needs, buy a mobile phone first that can run the app, preferably with a touchscreen and handwriting features.
A desktop/web app is really a pain to handle personal time tracking. More often than not you would miss updating it on your PC due to one or the other reasons.

[gep13]

Hey,

A mobile application is definitely a possibility, however, the overriding feature that I was hoping for was the ability to store a "brain dump" about a particular task, i.e. a short paragraph, a block of code, a screen shot, an attachment. That way, when I need to remember what I did to fix a problem I can look this up.

Gary

[Pradeep1210]

hmm. Good Idea

[ntg]

So does that mean that you have already created such an application?
Gary

Yes. Had to, I needed it to keep track of a few things.

[gep13]

Hey,

So to pre-empt some of the questions that I have going to face if I go down the route of creating my own application, can you post some of the features and requirements that your application had?

Thanks

Gary

[ntg]

There is just one small winforms application sitting on the tray and it connects to an SQL server to get its data. All access is done using the windows user name. Some users are admins while others are plain users. Admins can create tasks while plain users can only register their time. Any user can select a task from a menu and can start the clock. When done, they just stop the clock and the total time for the task is registered in SQL server. Any user can optionally add a note to the time entry.

There is no provision for view/search nor to attach files of any kind to a time entry. Users are defined in a data table which is edited through management studio. Cummulative reports are created in Excel which connects to SQL directly. In short, the admin side of things is non-existent.

[gep13]

Hey,

Thanks for the update.

Will take all that into consideration.

Thanks

Gary

[DeanMc]

Wow, how weird, I am currently working on a prototype application for just this purpose. I find that most task managers have one feature too many. I simply want to be able to create tasks that can have and be subtasks and also that can be moved around so if a task turns out to be related to the GUI and not the Database it can be moved. I am also working on the ability to import XPS docs as tasks, that way I can work in office 07 and get all those fancy editing features of they are needed.


No time to finish though as it needs a DB and I am head first in SQL (can you believe I have never learned to use databases)

[DeanMc]

As you can see I have painstakingly constructed the documentation for the actual task window!

[gep13]

Ha ha, love the design documentation

As yet, I have not had a chance to look into this yet, but I will, someday....

[DeanMc]

Ha ha, I find it the best way to actually implement a feature quickly. I have tried to write documentation but I never end up referring to it. That is why I want a task application as it will be one step closer to structure without spending ages on documentation for the sake of it!