There are to-do lists, tasks, projects, and time-tracking. To-do lists are easy. Apps are plentiful and cheap.
Task management requires more effort, resources, time. Many complex tasks make up projects. Time-tracking is a whole different ball game. Think Clients, time, and money. OMG.
Clients, Time, And Money, Oh My!
Most of us at Mac360 agree on what constitutes a good Mac application. The good ones are almost intuitive, even if complex. Half of our staff work for clients and bill by the hour.
Of those who track time and expenses, half prefer one app, half prefer another.
OfficeTime has a big following at Mac360. It’s an elegant, powerful time and expense tracking app that makes it easier to focus on the work, and not the tracking.
Time and expense reporting is done real time, no waiting. Grab a template, alter it to fit your business, and you’re good to go with invoices made easy.
Add people to track; employees, co-workers, partners, and keep track of what everyone does for one client or different clients. What I like about OfficeTime is that it’s Mac and PC, iPhone and iPad.
But there’s more. OfficeTime also does iCal. Appointments in iCal get entered into the appropriate project in OfficeTime. If billable hours are what you’re after, you need to track the time you spend on tasks and relate them to projects and assign them to clients. OfficeTime, in my humble free lance opinion, does it best.
Not The Only Game In Town
A different approach yields similar results. TaskTime4 costs substantially less, has a lower learning curve, and does the same thing without so many bells and whistles.
It tracks your time on specific tasks and projects and assigns them to clients for later invoicing. Create a project, add clients, produce invoices from the time you devote to tasks. Team projects are supported, too, and invoices reflect totals from multiple team members (good when you need to bring in others to help on a project).
What’s missing in TaskTime4 is a Windows PC version. It’s Mac only so it doesn’t run on iPhone or iPad, either. Or, does it? TeamViewer is a remote access app that lets you use your Mac from your iPad or iPhone.
I’ve used my iPad as a remote control for my Mac and that works quite well. On the iPhone, the lack of screen real estate gets in the way, so a native iPhone app would be welcome.
After all, much of my work is done out of my home office and my Mac doesn’t go everywhere I go. The iPhone does. Still, if you need to track your time on projects and bill a client, TaskTime4 is a good, easy-to-setup choice, that’s competitively priced.
About Bambi Brannan
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