What Is the Best Time Tracking App?

Unfortunately, there isn't an easy answer for this one, ask online and you'll find a hundred people with a hundred different answers. The best time tracking app is the one that fits how you actually work, and that's going to look different depending on whether you're a solo designer billing a handful of clients or a company with dozens of employees spread across multiple projects. But even across the diverse set of possible situations, there are a number of key considerations before committing to a tool.

A lot of people start with spreadsheets, and that's fine, so did we. Starting out we weren't sure of all our needs, what information was important for us to track, and how we wanted to invoice, so cobbling together Excel and Word documents worked well, as manual as it was. Soon things started going a bit sideways, we would forget to log a time entry or remember how many hours went into a project, and by the time we sat down to ultimately assemble the invoice we were piecing things together from memory, both hours worked and the details of the task. Combine that with invoices that weren't complete, manual processes to track both the bills sent and payments received, and soon we were at the point of looking for a purpose-driven tool.

If you're like us, you'll find in looking for that inexpensive tool, particularly if you're just tracking time and don't need much else, that there are a vast number of basic time tracking tools with a free tier, and for simple use cases that's probably all you need. But take your time and review at least a few of these tools, make sure that the company that created the app has the resources to maintain and develop it over time, provide support as needed, and allows the user to extract all the information they've entered. The last thing you want is to start using a new tool only to find months down the road that someone built it on a lark, doesn't maintain it, and there is no way to extract your information.

Cost. As mentioned, there are a number of free tools that exist, and many may provide all the functionality your business needs. Do keep in mind that even for tools that are free, there will be fees for payment processing to enable clients to pay invoices, as there are real costs for tool providers to offer that service. Credit card fees typically run around 3.5%, and ACH bank transfers are lower, around 1%, often with a maximum per transaction, be absolutely sure there is a cap on ACH fees. We recommend never using a service that has a bank transfer fee with no cap, unless you intend to pass those fees on to clients. More advanced tools will let you choose whether to absorb payment fees, pass fees through to the client, or even both, you may wish to cover the lower capped ACH fees but pass through the higher credit card fees. Always review the fee structures for payments closely.

Ease of use. If it takes you a minute to figure out how to log a time entry, you've spent a minute longer than necessary. You should be able to start tracking immediately upon signing up, no documentation required, no onboarding call, no tutorials. If the interface feels complicated when first using it, it's going to feel even more complicated when you're busy. It may seem like a bother, but spending even a bit of time with a number of free offerings, or at least those that offer a free trial, to get a sense for the user interface will be well worth it. Compare how long it takes to sign up, create a client and a time entry, and walk through the process to send an invoice. This will quickly give you a sense for how the vendor thinks about the service they provide and their target customer.

Simplicity over features. Many tools have a variety of features that most small businesses will never use, consider that most Microsoft Word users only access less than 15% of the features. You don't need, nor should you invest in, a CRM, project management system, and time tracker all jammed into one tool unless your business necessitates it. The complexity that comes with navigating tools with a host of unused features will in the end cost you time, and the whole point of tracking time is to save it.

Easy to leave. Make sure you can export your data, and ensure that the vendor does as well. Before you settle into any tool and start building up history, clients, projects, time entries, confirm and test that you can get that information out if you ever decide to switch. Getting locked in is real, and it's worth thinking about how you can make a shift before it becomes a problem.

Security. If you're storing client information and billing data in a web app, make sure the vendor takes that seriously. Look for well-known payment processors (Stripe being one of the obvious ones), and make sure the vendor has taken necessary steps to protect your data. Surprisingly many small businesses don't dig deeper into the security provided, and instead willingly dive into considering a number of simple home-grown tools for their business.

If you need something enterprise-grade, large teams, CRM integration, accounting software sync, there are tools built exactly for that, and exceptional ones at that. They can run $50, $100 a month or more, often priced per user, and for the right organization it can be completely worth the cost.

But if you're a small service business, what you likely need is something on a much smaller and less expensive scale, a tool that lets you log time quickly, ties it to a client and a project, and makes it easy to turn into an invoice. And if you can't find an app without too much complexity, or you find you're spending more time managing your billing system than actually billing, continue the search for the right solution. In our case, we originally built Track and Invoice because we needed something straightforward that provided time tracking and invoicing together, without the overhead and subscription costs, and then expanded it to the robust solution it is today.

At the very least, do yourself a favor and track your time in a purpose-built tool rather than a spreadsheet. It might seem daunting to make that first step, but the sooner you do it, the sooner you'll be glad you did. Don't hesitate to look for something cheap or free to start, easy enough to use without a manual, and simple enough that it doesn't require pouring through documentation and instructional videos. Make sure you can get your data out at any time and as often as needed, and that the environment is secure.

The best time tracking app isn't the one with the most features, it's the one you'll use consistently, with the features and flexibility you need to track your time, and the reliability and security that your business deserves.