Best way to track time spent working on a project as a consultant on many projects?

Question

I have been a consultant for many years now and find myself crossing the barriers of being at client A while working on client B...then taking part in a meeting over the phone for client C, etc.

I was curious what methods other people in my shoes used to track the time across many clients, projects, and tasks. Preferably something that worked with an iPhone so that it would be accessible at all times..but all ideas are welcome!

Answer 1

The PSP Dashboard is a handy desktop app that will track time spend on your projects with a single click. It can also export data for scheduling.

Answer 2

Amicus: http://www.amicusattorney.com/products/prod_overview-attorney.html and http://www.amicusattorney.com/products/prod_overview-mobile.html

Answer 3

Tick! I've really enjoyed using it in the past, and they have an official iPhone app to compliment their web offering. You can take a free trial to see if the service suits you, very functional and to the point.

Answer 4

Harvest is a great app:

http:/ /www.g etharvest.com/freelancers (SO won't let me link)

They have some killer iphone support:

http://www.getharvest.com/features/iphone

Plus, Iridesco is a great company with it's feet firmly on the ground. Their software is the product of creatively incorporating their customer's feedback into design.

You can track time, expenses, projects, track estimates, and create invoices.

Answer 5

I like Rememberthemilk.com for this type of thing, you can use it as a task manager, time manager, and use queries to generate time estimates for the collection of tasks you create. RTM is a very handy tool!

I use the G1 phone, and it has an app called Astrid which I can connect to my RTM account. I'm a huge fan of Astrid, and it's only getting better with each release. Both RTM and Astrid are free to subscribe and use..

http://www.rememberthemilk.com

https://launchpad.net/astrid

Answer 6

I use notepad

Answer 7

Toggl is a minimalist web-based time tracker that supports grouping time by Client/Project. It has a free plan with a lot of features like reporting and charting, as well as a subscription plan with automatic billing and other nifty features. We use it at our small company with about 10 employees, and it works like a charm.

Answer 8

I recently started using YaTimer and it works great. Not sure about its iPhone support though.

Answer 9

I'd recommend clicktime.com, they meet all the requirements you've stated and offer very useful reporting to boot. They don't really have a dedicated iphone app yet, but they do have a handy mobile site that works well with safari. Also customer support is extremely helpful.

Answer 10

thanks for all these information i got all.much apperchited.

i am insearch of a good name for my consulting company.i just need your helps

thanks rohani

Answer 11

Not sure if you do most of your client work on your PC. If you do, you might find Chrometa helpful.

In a sentence, it's an automatic time tracker that captures PC activities (time on emails, web sites, applications, documents, etc). At the end of the day/week/month, you can categorize the time entries into client/project folders and export the data to Excel. Disclaimer: I'm one of the co-founders of Chrometa.