You Got The Time? Toggl does!

So, the scourge of my existence has always been time sheets. As a strategist in digital, the financial realities of the industry mean that I have, in the past, had to serve enormous numbers of companies in the same week. My record was spending at least 15 minutes each on 19 clients in one week.

When you have a schedule like that, time sheets are more than a drag.

Then there was the fact that many time systems require log-in, then selection of one of typically over 100 jobs that I was on, then inputting the time. Which would just be a drag except that the log-in on these systems often times out, meaning that I was (or would have been, of this more later) logging in 12 times a day.

The other problem, and this is a personal defect, is that I hate having more than two open windows. That is absurd, I know, but I am a Baby Boomer, with the commensurate characteristics of an enormous capacity for focus and an inability to work amid distractions.

So my "solution" was to bill clients paying based upon time spent by the minute -- meaning an extremely exact accounting because I owed them that -- but billing all retainer jobs by guestimating my daily minutes used. And doing so once a week in the 5 minutes before the weekly deadline. Meaning that the info I provided the agency on ITS profitability by job was wildly inaccurate.

Thing is, I know that accurate accounting of hours is an important internal control. But something had to give.

So when a friend told me to check out Toggl, a web based time tracking and collaboration system, my stomach audibly turned. Oh great I thought, I get all the joy of time sheets with Internet page load delay!

And the reality is I have used several web based versions -- an improvement over ones where I had to use a limited seat network solution, but not exactly a joy to use.



But now I am smiling about a time tracking system. Because Toggl is pretty nifty. The feature set can be summarized as follows:

* Web based real time tracking
* Collaborative work spaces
* Platform that allows you to customize views
* Prefab customizable job, client, and company wide reports
* Easy ways to form team and invite participants

And the magical widget -- Toggl Desktop -- that lets you input your hours by job in a unit without opening a browser and having a window open all the time.



One thing I liked a lot is that you choose a job BEFORE you do the work, and a timer records your time spent rather than you having to remember after the fact. That is tasty!

There's a free version with a reasonable feature set. To get nice prefab reports and an ability to add in billable rates, you pay $19 per seat. Cards on the table that is a chunk MORE than most of these small business oriented soltuions charge, but I found it far easier to use than the cheaper web based things I have used before. And being easier to use makes up for the cost difference in my book because the reports generated might actually be accurate. I'm guessing $19 a seat a little pricey for enterprise, but I am also guessing (so no guarantee on this) that if GE wanted to put its 316,000 employees on it, they'd work out a discount. ;-)

Toggl is developed by an Estonian company called Apprise. You can tell from the website that these are developery people, and I mean that in a very positive way. One of the things I noticed on the site was their blog, which eschews the typical SV puffery in favor of just the facts Ma'am info.

I liked it and them. I suggest you check it out! Only you can decide if the cost differential would be worth it for you.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

NOTE: AFTER I POSTED THIS, TOGGL WROTE TO TELL ME THAT THERE IS AN ERROR IN THE INFO ABOVE. THE COST OF THE PREMIUM SERVICE IS $19 A TEAM, NOT A SEAT. I REGRET THE ERROR.