5 Tools For Freelancers To Manage Their Time

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Time management is important part of a well-balanced life. Managing family and work at a same time is a big problem. But if we manage our time effectively and efficiently then both can have their time in spotlight. We wont get more or less than 24 hours a day. So you should be able to manage you time in such a way that you every stakeholder gets you attention they deserves.

You can have a happy family and successful business just by managing you time. Looking at the importance of time management, today we have collected 5 tools which can make your life easier be managing your time for you. They are not completely free but remember to get something productive you have to pay. Working as a freelancer is a hectic job which required time management first so have a looks on all these tools and select best tool for you.

1. Toggl

Toggl provide very easy time tracking and management. You can create tasks in fraction of a minute. This site is different from other sites because you can use it from website, from your computer’s desktop ( supports Windows, Linux and Mac) and even from your iPhone. Just download the application and it is ready to use.

You can sign-up by creating a new account or you can also use you GOOGLE account for sign-up purpose.
After signing up you will be taken to your task bar where you can create your first task by entering date, task description, project, and duration for the specific task.

You can view your all active projects, manage them, search projects and add new project in PROJECTS tab. You can also add/delete/modify clients in CLIENTS tab. Toggle also provide stats like performance charts and reports for the whole team, which you can filter by client, project, task and more. You can download all reports as PDF or CSV files.

Toggl offers Free as well as Pro features. Prices are listed below. They provide 30 days free trial for all pro accounts.

In the end, i may say it is very easy to use time management tool, the task-bar icon makes it easy to see whether you are timing tasks or not. I like the stats feature to see how you have spent you time. Very easy to operate because of its diversified accessibility.

2. Tick

Tick is one of the time tracking tools which I will be reviewing. It is web-based time tracking tool you can use it from any of your internet browser. Tick is very good site for is you just want to manage you time in simple fashion, because it considers time the most important part of business. It has very simplified user-interface having just 3 tabs which are Timecard, Projects, and Reporting.
To get started have a look at the following sample image for creating client, project and tasks.

In timecard tab you can create projects, add clients and make new tasks. If you already have created your 1st project, client, and task then you can also add “time to enter” and Notes to the desired client or project. Following screen-shot clears it all.

Under “Projects” tab you can find all of the projects you have created including Closed Projects, Open Projects etc. You can choose clients and see the time remaining for the project, you can also close the respective project or edit it.

Reporting is essential part of any activity, this tells what is our performance and how are we spending our precious time! You can print the report or export as CSV. If you want report of specific client or project then you can also do this by selecting/deselecting desired options and clicking on Update report button.

Tick offers pro as well as free services following are the tariff and characteristics of available accounts.

This can be a good choice for the individuals who just want to manage time for their projects. Tick also supports RSS tracking and widgets.  Very fast processing you have to configure it once then it is very easy to use. But this won’t help people who want to export their time sheets into invoices. Collectively we can say tick is a good pick for time tracking purpose !

3. Cashboard

Using Cashboard you can do Time tracking, expenses, invoicing, estimates, and online payments. Cashboard is a complete package for you online business. It can be easily integrated with the Basecamp and number of other invoicing tools, it can keep you receivables and time sheets organized and maintained.
After signing-up and loging-in, cashboard will take you to you dashboard and provide some tips on “ How To Get Started” and provides links to do the primary tasks like add clients and employees, configure the projects, task the time which can be done by dashboard widgets or iPhone clients etc. You will see many tabs and sub-tabs making navigation easy. You can set desired preferences like templates and color customization in setting tab. You can also export data in XML format and setup the integration into Basecamp, You can add clients, team members and subcontractors for the “companies and people” tab

Under Projects tab you can create projects and add tasks. Active and Closed projects are listed. You can click on any pre-created project to assign tasks, time, expenses and issue invoices. You can also create estimate from projects and copy items from another project.

Cashboard also offer many more functions but since our focus is on time tracking so we have reviewed Time Management Tool, only.

Cashboard offers free as well as dynamic accounts. In dynamic accounts you can configure you account by adding number of employees and clients and then calculate you price. Features of Free and Paid Accounts are shows in image below.

Finally, we may say the cashboard is a very easy tool to manage you precious time. It has all features that users want to be in the time tracking software like basic functionality and very easily understandable interface.

4. yaTimer

yaTimer is non-web based application. It is download-able software which will run on you desktop. It is very easy to use and specifically designer to track time. You can place a small window in corner of your desktop which will remind you the task to be done.
After you are done with downloading and installing yaTimer, clicking to new task button following window will open, in this window you can fill the details about the task such as Task Name, Add Clients and Project, You can select whether you want Timer or Countdown ( if you chooses countdown option then the Countdown Options became active and you can customize then according to your need). You can add Play Sound which yaTimer software will play when time for the task ends. Then click on Create button to create the task or choose Click& Run Button if you want the task timer to start immediately!

Once the task is created you can pause, start, and reset the timer. You can also delete the task, mark it as completed, edit it or adjust the queuing position of the task.

There are further options of “Create Running Task”, “Create task from template” (you would have to create a template before using this option), “Arrange task in groups”, pause and reset all tasks, “print reports” and “view help online”.

yaTimer offers 14days free trial, I think 14 days are enough to find the advantages and weaknesses of a software. Then you can upgrade to the pro package. They offer 30Days Money0Back Guarantee and offer installation up to 3 computers. Price of paid yaTimer is listed below.

Comments:
This tool is very handy for people who want to just manage their time effectively and efficiently. Using this software you don’t need to go online and check any website to manage time. It has very easy to use interface. If you pay for it, it will pay for itself in less that’s for sure!

5. FreshBooks

FreshBooks establish a strong relation between tracking hours, project management and invoicing or we can say that FreshBook is a management tool. It has every feature required by a freelancer to work efficiently. It supports automated invoicing in any currency, collect online payments. You can also use FreshBooks on you iPhone which is most important thing nowadays!
After signing-up you will get bunch of tabs for navigation through the website, including invoices, time tracking, estimates, team and reports. As you topic is time management so we will review only functions related to time management.

When we navigate on the Time Tracking tab Timesheet opens showing calendar, projects, task etc. If you haven’t created you 1st project then you can make one by clicking on the sub-tab named Projects, same in the case of tasks.

Many users also want report feature to judge their performance, FreshBooks have remedy for that, they provide “Reports” feature which can be accessed through navigation tabs. FreshBooks provides variety of reports like finance reports, invoice reports and time-sheet reports.

Following is the tariff of FreshBooks although it also offers free package but paid one has more functions and features.

Comments
FreshBooks is a complete management tool which can handle invoicing to time management, but 1 think we don’t like about FreshBooks, is its interface. It has many sub tabs which can only be accessed by visiting main tabs first. They should design the site where user can have access to all the features by a single click. But to me, it is the best choice for people who want to manage their whole business in one place. It has many options which other tools like Tick or Cashboard don’t have like Expense management or send email. Also its free plan project limit is unlimited means they don’t force you to pay to use their services.

There are many other sites and tools for time tracking but we found these 5 comparatively useful!
Which tool do you use for time tracking? Mention in comments.