App for tracking time and jobs

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sw_ross said:
I’m a one man shop, so only myself as an employee.

Some days I’m working the whole day on a specific project. It might be a larger project where I’m logging multiple days in a row.

Some days I’m doing service work and bouncing around to as many tasks (locations) as I can to take care of customers.

Tracking my hours usually begins when I start the vehicle in the morning and a pad of paper writing down my start time.
At the end of that tasks/job I write down my finish time. Sometimes I’ll forget to write my time down so I have to guess at the end of the day.
Then when I finish my day I spend 20-30 minutes transferring the time over to paperwork that I use for each job.
This end of day paperwork is ultimately what I use for invoicing.

I’m wondering about a phone app that might log my hours and jobs. I probably wouldn’t use it for invoicing because I already use quickbooks.
im just thinking about something that I could enter a job name, then date and hours, and maybe an brief summary of what I did (tasks) during that time.

Any suggestions?
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I am working in a 10 employees company (a small consulting firm) and we are using time tracking software from Replicon. It has been 4 years Since I am using this time tracking software to track my project working hours, for attendance and scheduling, manage my leaves, resource allocation, etc.

Looking at your nature of work I believe Replicon will meet your needs as it's also available on mobile (both android & iPhone).
 
I use Jobber, it can also be integrated with QuickBooks if you go with the higher plan. The one problem is it’s cloud based, so if you don’t have an internet connection, you can’t enter material or bill from it. So if your in a rural area with poor cell service, it may not be for you. Monthly fee starting at $39. Parts picker is easy and quick, unlike the one at my old corporate job, so I can add parts at anytime during the job quickly. I can even add the material immediately after picking it up at the supply house even if I’m not on that job at the moment.
 
This may sound too rudimentary for some, but if you are in the service business, certainly you keep a calendar of when you are scheduled to visit or remotely service a client, and the client's name, right? Why not just add a note there, indicating how many hours you actually spent, the actual date if it's not the originally specified date, what you did, and how much the charge will be. That way, you have just ONE place to record your billing notes instead of two. Occam' s razor works.
 
caribconsult said:
This may sound too rudimentary for some, but if you are in the service business, certainly you keep a calendar of when you are scheduled to visit or remotely service a client, and the client's name, right? Why not just add a note there, indicating how many hours you actually spent, the actual date if it's not the originally specified date, what you did, and how much the charge will be. That way, you have just ONE place to record your billing notes instead of two. Occam' s razor works.
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bottom line whether you use electronic apps, hand written notes, you still need to record information if you want to keep better track of it.

an app can be a useful tool, but it still doesn't do everything for you without you putting something into it.
 
kwired said:
bottom line whether you use electronic apps, hand written notes, you still need to record information if you want to keep better track of it.

an app can be a useful tool, but it still doesn't do everything for you without you putting something into it.
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I used to have such a hard time convincing clients of this simple fact. I'd get questions like "Will it keep track of X?" or "Can I make a report of Y?" and when I told them they had to put the data in I'd get these sad-faced looks. Garbage in, garbage out, nothing in, nothing out. It's not that complicated! Hillbilly1 makes a good point...if you're using a cloud based whatever and you have no internet at a particular location, then what? Probably the most significant reason I can think of to keep your data local. Back it up to the cloud if you want, but keep the current data set local
 
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