All types of businesses can benefit from a time tracking app, no matter how large or small a business is. These apps are well worth the money because they can track all team activity, handle expenses, etc. Business owners who use this technology find increased productivity, which ultimately leads to increased profits, obviously the bottom line of any business.

Nothing scares employees and businesses more than time. It’s the one thing that everyone seeks in abundance, but we all have only a limited amount of time in a day.

So, what do we do? It’s simple – we make the best use of what we have.

Have you ever heard of the term “time management”? Of course, you have. There are 24 hours in a day. When managed effectively, these 24 hours can be used to get many things done. 

However, if wasted, time runs out of your hands fast, and nothing worthy is being accomplished. This is where using a time management or time tracking app becomes necessary.

Need help understanding what the time management app does and why it is essential? Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered. This post will find out everything you need to know about using a time tracking app before you start using one. We’ve also outlined a list of the best time tracking apps and tools so that it’s easier for you to find out what’s best for you and your business.

What is a time tracking app?

A time tracking app is a software solution that helps people keep track of the time they spend on different tasks and activities in a day. Time is an indispensable resource in today’s business world, and professionals and freelancers are working and billing their customers by the hour. Time tracking apps are used stand-alone or in integration with other business productivity applications like a project management software or business accounting software for better efficiency.

In simple words, it’s an automated, electronic version of timesheets that businesses and individuals can use to track time spent on projects/tasks and get a better understanding of what wastes most of their time, allowing them to enhance accountability and productivity.

Benefits of a Time Tracking App

Time tracking has massive benefits for your organization. And, when done right, it doesn’t lead to micromanagement or suffocation of creative thinking. Many organizations utilize time tracking software to evaluate team performance and on-the-job efficiency.

A robust time tracking application helps teams keep a better check on projects and individual activities. Let us discuss the major benefits of time tracking and how it helps boost performance.

1.  Improved productivity

Employees can use time tracking to know exactly how much time they spend on each project, effectively managing their workload and staying productive while completing the tasks allocated to them. 

A time monitoring software enables employees to examine their work processes in-depth and identify areas for improvement, resulting in increased productivity. Employees can rate every aspect of their day, from the hour spent conducting research to the 20-minute break that turned into a brief conference call. The individual can track which tasks took longer than expected and make adjustments to their work-life balance accordingly.

Furthermore, when employees work on projects or tasks that are not part of their job description, they frequently are unaware of how long the task takes. Time tracking allows you to maximize your time on various task categories while also increasing accountability.

2. Measuring billable hours

Clients must get billed correctly and promptly, which does not always occur without using time tracking tools. For example, if your company bills clients by the hour rather than by the project, a time tracking software will verify if they are charged the correct amount. 

A time management application thus makes it easy to invoice clients. You’ll be able to earn what you deserve for the work you put in if you precisely track each employee’s time. There is a link between time tracking and increased business profits. The actual reason for this excellent performance is not simply the activity tracking but also the possibilities for correct billing.

3. Streamlining the payroll process

Payroll is handled for you by time tracking software. Enter employee information, such as their hourly wage, and the system will do the rest. However, you can still alter their weekly earnings by manually entering data. 

Because time trackers automatically keep track of the employees’ time, a firm can lower the cost of the payroll process by employing time tracking software. It is more accurate and reliable since it is error-free, as opposed to the manual tracking system, which has the potential to make mistakes.

There will be fewer rejected timesheets, which will result in payroll processing delays and issues. HR benefits from time tracking since it allows them to observe where each employee spends their time so they can assign work based on the company’s priorities.

4. Prioritizing work

Prioritization is a crucial skill for getting the most out of your own and your team’s work. A time management tool aids job prioritization by distributing time to where it is most required and enables team members to concentrate on high-priority tasks.

A time-management tool allows teams to focus on achieving your goals while reducing distractions rapidly. The advantages of time tracking in this arena are obvious to everyone who has ever been held accountable for their time.

Knowing how you allocate your time daily is critical in a corporate setting. This data can assist you in increasing your productivity, improving your workflows, and ensuring that nothing falls through the gaps.

5. More accountability

Monitoring employee work hours is one of the most popular time tracking software features. You can virtually see when they arrive and leave for the day. What’s more, you’ll be able to evaluate their work while they’re on the payroll. Thanks to the software, they have control over their work hours and are held accountable for their conduct.

Furthermore, these tools create more transparency by giving managers access to detailed timesheets which in turn help measure employee performance. Recording daily timesheets increase employee accountability and, as a result, improves overall team productivity. You indicate a willingness to keep aware of how much time your team members spend on tasks by encouraging them to report their working hours regularly.

6. Monetary control

Time tracking apps provide a high-level perspective of how much you spend on human resources against how much you bring in through client billing. You’ll also better grasp how individual contributions affect team results and will be able to allocate resources better. 

There is a link between time tracking and increased business profits. If we look closely, we can see that the underlying reason for this excellent performance is the activity tracking and the possibilities for proper billing.

Top 14 Time Tracking Applications 2022

1. ProofHub

ProofHub is an all-in-one project management and team collaboration solution that assists managers and teams with planning, organizing, managing, tracking, and delivering projects. It’s a scalable software solution for project management, task management, team collaboration, time tracking, process automation, etc. Due to its intuitive design, strong feature list, and excellent support services, this web-based project management system is currently being utilized by top businesses such as NASA, Disney, Taco Bell, and others and is witnessing a constant growth in demand.

Key Highlights: Focuses on making project management and time management less stressful. Provides a quick visual picture of projects via Gantt charts. Helps to create more fun, engaging workplace via white labeling. Saves a lot of time during the feedback-sharing process via online proofing software. Offers useful project insights via project reports. Provides an intuitive mobile application for Android and iOS users.

Time Management in ProofHub

Users can add timesheets, configure time estimates, track time manually or with timers, export timesheets, and archive them using ProofHub. To aid teams in managing time better, ProofHub allows you to create time reports and centralize all of your time data, enhancing accessibility and team management.

Let’s look at some of ProofHub’s time management features in detail to see how they can help you, your team, and your company get more done in less time.

Timesheets and an automatic timer

Timesheets are one of the essential tools for businesses because they allow you to properly manage time and employees inside the company using precise time data.

Manual time tracking

You can learn how to track time manually or with timers using ProofHub’s timesheets feature. You can manually enter the time it takes to complete the task and keep track of billable and non-billable hours. When you stop working on projects, you can start and stop automated timers.

Time Reports

Individuals and projects can have their time reports created by project managers. Timesheet reports are created using data collected over some time. They can help you spot potential performance faults and figure out how to fix them.

Marking timesheets as private

You can limit who can see your timesheets by allowing certain people to see them. Limit access to information and keep people out of your timesheets who you don’t want to see.

The following are some examples of how you can use ProofHub’s time tracking features:

• Make a lot of timesheets to keep track of your time.
• Establish time estimates to determine how long the task will take to complete.
• View all billable and non-billable project time statistics and project progress.
• You can track how long it takes to finish activities using timers.
• You can use them for client billing, payroll, estimating, and even time management by exporting timesheets.
• Save and reuse timesheets from the Time section as needed.
• Make individualized time reports for individuals and projects.
• Only the persons you want to share timesheets with can have access to them.

Pricing:

• The Essential plan is priced at $45/month, billed annually
• The Ultimate Control plan is priced at $89/month, billed annually

Review:

ProofHub makes my work a hundred times easier. Keeping tabs of all team members and the multiple tasks assigned to each direct report used to be very daunting. ProofHub fixes all of that and makes my job much easier.

Take care of your time at work and your work will take care of itself. Let ProofHub help you make the best use of your working hours. Try it now!

2. When I Work

When I work is at the second spot on our list for a reason. It’s a time tracking application that enables professionals to effortlessly automate the process of monitoring and tracking their clock-in and attendance. The application allows teams to track each member’s productivity by seamlessly monitoring clock-ins which are later reflected in their payroll report. It’s an intuitive tool that makes real-time monitoring possible so that employees can easily adjust shifts and schedules without wasting any time.

Key Highlights: Mobile check-in that allows users to clock in for work from anywhere. Check-in locks that allow users to check in during scheduled shifts and avoid any overages. Mobile alerts and notifications to keep everyone on top of their schedule. Offers Geo Pins for verification of check-ins by employees for payroll purposes. It is free for businesses with only 75 employees or less.

Review: “Great option for keeping schedules organized. We have many events so this app is perfect to help keep everything organized.”

Pricing:

• Essentials Plan: $4 per user
• Advanced Plan: $6 per user
• Complete Plan: $8 per user

3. Timely

Timely is a fully automated time tracking app that monitors and logs time spent on work without the need of starting a timer. It keeps all your time tracking data in a highly-secure private timeline that you can easily access from any location and device. With Timely, project managers and teams can view their progress, budget use and direction of projects effortlessly, all in real time. Automatic time tracking, live activity feed, quick reporting, shareable report links, budget tracking, etc are some of the key features that the app provides. One thing is sure, choosing Timely is a decision that no manager or business would regret.

Key Highlights: Automatically tracks and records your working hours (no manual labor). Integrated well with your to-do lists and work schedule. Display all your project details, milestones, progress, and schedules in a centralized location via real-time project dashboards.  Supports customized reports and generate visualizations that are easy to understand.

Review: “It’s been a blessing to use timely to help me stay on top of tracking my personal hours for work. I also love their business developments and rebranding.”

Pricing: 

• Build: $20 USD/MO
• Elevate: $30 USD/MO
• Innovate: $35 USD/MO

4. Paymo

Paymo is a modern day project management solution that is designed to help small and medium-sized businesses manage their projects from end to end. The solution ensures a seamless flow through the project until its completion. It is equipped with a range of tools and features that simplify task management, team communication, resource management, project invoicing, Gantt chart, Kanban boards, timesheet reporting, time tracking, and much more. With Paymo, project managers and team members can accurately track every second they spent on projects or tasks, and explore ways to become more productive.

Key Highlights: Records time spent on projects or tasks in your browser via web timer. Saves all time entries with start and end times for accurate time reports. Provides a desktop time tracker that lets you track work time easily. Has a rule filtering system that automatically links time spent to the right projects/tasks. Visualizes timesheet data in a calendar style with days, weeks, months and agenda views.

Review: “Paymo is very easy to learn and use. We use it to track clients and projects and for all of our time tracking. We can track both and view our performance either way. It manages teams well so I can see what other users are doing. The interface is clean and efficient. It is easy to create and save various reports which I run regularly.”

Pricing: 

• Free: Maximum one user
• Starter: $4.95 per user per month (Maximum one user)
• Small Office: $9.95 per user per month (No user limit)
• Business: $20.79 per user per month (No user limit)

5. Toggl

Toggle is an easy-to-use time tracking app. It is one of the top 500 project management software products in the market that works well for both small and large teams. Toggle offers a handy overview of how your working hours are being spent across various tasks and activities in a day. The app provides multi-device support and can be used both online and offline. It also generates detailed reports and time graphs that provide more transparency over your (and your team’s) everyday productivity. 

Key Highlights: Starts and stops tracking time with a single click. Works both online and offline (all tracking data syncs to the cloud after you are back online). Allows users to build different third party integrations. No sign-up or termination fees.

Review: “I use Toggl Track for tracking just about everything from volunteer projects that I work on to my accounting business – I love how easy it is and the reporting is terrific for my needs.”

Pricing: 

• Team: $8 per user per month 
• Business: $13.35 per user per month

6. My Hours

My Hours is a cloud-based time tracking software designed for small teams and freelancers. Track time on projects with tasks, generate insightful reports, export them or send them directly to your clients. You can add custom billing methods to specific projects as it best fits your needs. After finishing your project, customize and send invoices directly to your clients via email. My Hours also offers free mobile apps for Android and iOS so you can track time anywhere anytime. “Easy to use time tracker” is the most frequent phrase customers describe My Hours with since 2002.

Key Highlights: Has simple time tracking with a low learning curve. Offers unlimited projects and tasks without changing the price. Generates insightful reports that can be exported and sent to clients instantly. Customizable reports make invoicing accurate and fast. Offers mobile time tracking for free for iOS and Android devices. Allows you to manage billing rates (task, project and team member-based rate). Features approval workflow for easy team management.

Review: “Easy to maintain control on activities and TS entry, very easy to upload from excel the TS. Native integration to download files in Excel format.”

Pricing:

• Free: Unlimited team members and projects
• Pro: $6 billed annually $7 billed monthly

7. Clarizen

Clarizen is an enterprise-grade solution that is designed to offer teams robust project management and high-quality social collaboration experience. This cloud-based software ensures project managers and teams to manage, execute, and deliver projects successfully, every time. It gives them a well-defined work structure from where they can manage their tasks, projects, and project conversations faster, more efficiently. If you are looking for a faster way to manage work, share project data, and track work progress in real time? Clarizen will definitely help.

Key Highlights: Allows automated time tracking and real-time project reporting. Provides configurable custom field for time entries. Allows automatic association of work hours with the correct task. Helps to streamline reporting and time approval. Automatically assigning timesheets to the correct departments.

Review: “This software’s ability to handle the processing of resource time allocations and rate management is impressive. The reporting feature is handy, and once the data schema is fully understood, you can generate valuable reports.”

Pricing:

• Enterprise: $45 per user per month 
• Unlimited: $60 per user per month

8. Zoho Projects

Zoho Projects is a popular PM system for teams. The solution is designed to help teams make their work process more efficient so that they can execute and deliver projects within the desired time frame. It provides features that simplify processes like team collaboration, project monitoring, time tracking, and enhancing overall work productivity. Getting projects delivered is easier than ever with Zoho Projects. The platform is intuitive and it’s loaded with a variety of tools that ensure the smooth progress of your projects, no matter what.

Key Highlights: Has a timer for tasks that automatically log data in your timesheet and helps to calculate actual working hours in a project. Provides timesheets that include a detailed breakdown of active and accomplished tasks throughout the project. Allows users to export timesheet in various formats and share them with clients, managers, and stakeholders for billing purposes. Allows you to record billing hours and choose reports on the basis of users, billing, or period. Helps to establish a process for approval and billing status for project timesheets.

Review: “Zoho Projects has been an easy-to-use tool, we have used their services to manage all our projects and follow up on tasks, pending tasks, and their completion date. We can also have a record of the hours dedicated to the project, which is ideal when delivering reports.”

Pricing:

• Free: 3 users and 2 projects
• Premium Plan: $4/user/month (billed annually), $5/user/month (billed monthly)
• Enterprise Plan – $9/user/month (billed annually), $10/user/month (billed monthly)

9. ProWorkflow

ProWorkflow is a software solution that is known for its ability to offer better visibility and control over projects. The solution comes packed with features and tools that are scalable to meet the requirements of remote employees, freelancers, small businesses and large enterprises. With ProWorkflow, you can get a quick overview of all your active, finished, and upcoming tasks, as well as a global view of your complete project via a Gantt style timeline. It keeps all the project related information organized so that everyone is updated and manage their work easily.

Key Highlights: Offers multiple methods for tracking time. Has a built-in timer so that you can start or stop or add a new entry easily. Offers editable and movable timesheets with drag & drop or traditional entry. Has a mobile app that offers you full access to your time, projects, tasks, and reports on the go. Allows you to create quotes and invoices based on budgeted and actual time spent on projects/tasks.

Review: “Fantastic search function. Dashboard overview is comprehensive and informative.”

Pricing:

• Solo: $10/user/month
• Professional: $20/user/month
• Advanced: $30/user/month

10. Basecamp

Basecamp is one of the widely used online project management software solutions. It’s a solution that offers simple setup and lets teams organize projects, delegate tasks, and monitor progress from one place. The software provides an array of features and tools to help teams monitor projects and get things done on time and within the desired budget. The user-friendliness of this platform makes it even more reliable for tracking projects and keeping team members connected throughout the project management process, even if they are sitting oceans apart from each other.

Key Highlights: Enables time tracking functionality for to-do lists. Offers integration with over a dozen time tracking apps and widgets. Allows you to produce time tracking reports up to 6-month date ranges. Provides you the ability to enter time tracking data for every project.

Review: “Fantastic search function. Dashboard overview is comprehensive and informative.”

Pricing:

• Basecamp personal: Free with limited features
• Basecamp Business: $99/month(unlimited users & unlimited projects)

11. Harvest

Harvest is a web-based business productivity application that offers extremely useful time management and time tracking tool to help you monitor productivity and send invoices more accurately. The application simply streamlines and smoothen the process of time tracking, allowing individuals and teams to stay on top of their projects and processes. It gives you a better understanding of where your time is going and how you can improve your time management strategy for good. Additionally, it provides a powerful project reporting tool that gives you real-time access to all the critical information related to time, projects, and budget. Need reliable and actionable insights? Use Harvest.

Key Highlights: Provides complete control over time tracking process with just one click. Eases the process of monitoring and updating time data on the timesheet. Offers mobile compatibility so that you can track time anywhere at any time from any device. Helps to manage and distribute hours efficiently across your projects. Simplifies the process of generating and sending invoices, thereby boosting revenue.

Review: “I really like the ease of being able to record my time and generate an invoice for it. It has several settings you can pre-setup to make invoicing really fast at the end of each week.”

Pricing:

• Free: One seat & two projects
• Pro: $12 per seat per month

12. Mavenlink

Mavenlink is an online project management system that brings together advanced project management, resource planning, collaboration, and financial tools in one intuitive space. With Mavenlink, you can manage and track all team/project activities in one convenient location. The software offers task management capabilities that let you track time spent on tasks, create sub-tasks and integrate with Google Apps for seamless file management. It integrates well with many popular business productivity systems and applications, creating a fully extendable and scalable platform that matches the needs of companies of all types and sizes. Mavenlink is a great tool for project management, team management, team conversations, time and expenses tracking, project invoicing, file management, and financial reporting.

Key Highlights: Online timesheets that ease the process of tracking billable and non-billable time. Ability to record time as you work or log hours at the end of the day/week. A mobile app that allows users to log time and expenses on the go and give managers instant visibility into where work hours are being spent. Real-time reports let teams analyze time and expenses tracked across the organization.

Review: “My overall experience from the get go has been very positive. When first getting started the product implementation and deployment started very seamlessly and allowed our technology group to accomplish our project management and tracking goals successfully.”

Pricing:

• Enterprise: $79 per user/month
• Premier: Free

13. TimeCamp

Timecamp is a time management software, that will meet for companies and freelancers. It offers automatic time tracking that logs hours in the background, assigning time entries to tasks by keywords. What’s unique among the competitors, its complex tree structure allows creating unlimited numbers of tasks for each project at any level.  Single users can get Timecamp for free, for teams the affordable pricing plans were prepared. The tool is available for the web, as a desktop app for Windows, Mac, Linux, and Ubuntu, and as a mobile app for iOS and Android devices. As you can see, it’s not just another ordinary time tracker, it’s a comprehensive time management suite!

Key Highlights: The project tree structure helps you organize time spent on working for different clients. The billing feature allows you to set an individual income/cost rate for projects and users. You can and customize an invoice based the time gathered for a specific project or fill the blank one. Tracks the activities in the background, so users can easily fill their timesheets. Serves also as an attendance management tool, offering vacation hours/holidays, breaks, remote work and leaves monitoring. Combining attendance and billing rates for each employee. Gives you a payroll system inside Timecamp. Extensive reports allow tracking the team’s workflow, productivity, and efficiency.

Review: “This is such great software that I had to purchase it after the 30 day trial. Integrates well with most of the other popular project management software on the market today.”

Pricing

• Free: Forever free plan
• Basic: $6.3/user/month
• Pro: $9/user/month

14. TMetric

TMetric is a feature-rich time tracking application that smooths out your business process for higher profits, fulfilled customers and more cohesive teams. TMetric provides a wide opportunities spector for accurate time tracking, tasks and projects scope management, real-time reports for the in-depth analysis, payrolling, billing and invoicing. Additional control of the work process can be achieved by screenshots capturing and detailed information about your activity levels, apps and sites you use and visit at work. If you want to obtain a suitable business companion TMetric will be the best fit.

Key Highlights: Has a Free Plan and fully functional 30-days Trial Provides accurate time tracking Syncs your teams’ work and improves efficiency Manage teams’ attendance and vacation policy with PTO module n-depth reporting to understand how your business works Integration with 50+ popular services

Review: “The ease of tracking consultants time by project and activity through great reporting capabilities.”

Pricing

• Business: $7month/month
• Professional: $5/month
• Free plan

You can’t make up for lost time, but you can start managing it better with ProofHub. Sign up today!

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Vartika Kashyap

Vartika Kashyap is the Chief Marketing Officer at ProofHub and has been one of the LinkedIn Top Voices in 2018. Her articles are inspired by office situations and work-related events. She likes to write about productivity, team building, work culture, leadership, entrepreneurship among others and contributing to a better workplace is what makes her click.

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