Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Show HN: Tock, a Time Tracking Tool by 18F

18f.gsa.gov

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 37 posts

Re: Show HN: Tock, a Time Tracking Tool by 18F

#11

Post by seanherron »

untog wrote: post #10
krapht wrote: post #7

I'm surprised that they developed a brand new time tracking tool. From my limited experience, it seems Deltek Time & Expense is the most popular time tracking application in the government / associated contractor space.

Given that there is no download link or price, I'm going to assume that 18F is not the kind of place that was going to pay top dollar for a cruddy, expensive third party service.

>>> Given that there is no download link or price

Like everything 18F produces, Tock is a work of the US Government and is in the public domain. There's a link to the GitHub repository in the blog post (https://github.com/18f/tock). We don't intend to launch Tock as a service, rather, it's something we made for internal use that is open for others if they find value in it.

Re: Show HN: Tock, a Time Tracking Tool by 18F

#12

Post by bovermyer »

krapht wrote: post #7

I'm surprised that they developed a brand new time tracking tool. From my limited experience, it seems Deltek Time & Expense is the most popular time tracking application in the government / associated contractor space.

As a former subcontractor that was forced to use Deltek for a couple years, I will agree that it's the most popular... but I haven't the faintest notion of why. It wasn't the worst option available, but that didn't stop it from being terrible regardless.

Time-tracking keeps getting reinvented because no one's solved it definitively yet. I don't think anyone ever will, either; time tracking relies too much on individual context for it to be wholly standardized.

Re: Show HN: Tock, a Time Tracking Tool by 18F

#13

Post by bovermyer »

seanherron wrote: post #11
untog wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given that there is no download link or price, I'm going to assume that 18F is not the kind of place that was going to pay top dollar for a cruddy, expensive third party service.

>>> Given that there is no download link or price Like everything 18F produces, Tock is a work of the US Government and is in the public domain. There's a link to the GitHub repository in the blog post ( https://github.com/18f/tock ). We don't intend to launch Tock as a service, rather, it's something we made for internal use that is open for others if they find value in it.

I think he was referring to Deltek, not Tock.

Re: Show HN: Tock, a Time Tracking Tool by 18F

#14

Post by seanherron »

lojack wrote: post #2

Time tracking is one of those things that I see constantly being reinvented. Whether it's spreadsheets that get emailed, completely custom solutions, or one of the numerous services available, few of them actually provide anything new. What I want is a product that tracks my time for me. WakaTime is probably the closest I've seen. If only it worked outside of my text editor and automatically submitted my timesheets f…

We looked at doing things like logging git commit frequency to try and provide realistic estimates to users of their time that they could then confirm or alter. Realistically, with the diversity of talent we have here (both technical and non-technical) and the time it would take to do well, it didn't really seem too practical.

It would be awesome if WakaTime and others provided some way of interfacing with an API, so that individuals could track time in a way that made sense for them while reporting in a relatively consistent standard to a central system used for accounting and billing.

Re: Show HN: Tock, a Time Tracking Tool by 18F

#15

Post by tomwrenn »

lojack wrote: post #2

Time tracking is one of those things that I see constantly being reinvented. Whether it's spreadsheets that get emailed, completely custom solutions, or one of the numerous services available, few of them actually provide anything new. What I want is a product that tracks my time for me. WakaTime is probably the closest I've seen. If only it worked outside of my text editor and automatically submitted my timesheets f…

TimeTracker is another great solution ( http://creativeworx.com/ ).

Re: Show HN: Tock, a Time Tracking Tool by 18F

#16

Post by GFunc »

danso wrote: post #4

Love the callout to the Chosen.js library...one of those fantastic plug-and-play interface libraries that makes it so less painful to add a nearly essential feature to forms/data-selection. edit: Added clickable link to chosen.js homepage http://harvesthq.github.io/chosen/

Nice! If only I had seen this last Wednesday.....

Re: Show HN: Tock, a Time Tracking Tool by 18F

#17

Post by phonon »

untog wrote: post #10
krapht wrote: post #7

I'm surprised that they developed a brand new time tracking tool. From my limited experience, it seems Deltek Time & Expense is the most popular time tracking application in the government / associated contractor space.

Given that there is no download link or price, I'm going to assume that 18F is not the kind of place that was going to pay top dollar for a cruddy, expensive third party service.

Here's Deltek's GSA schedule (price list page 20 and on), though I don't know which product includes "Time & Expense".

https://www.gsaadvantage.gov/ref_text/GS35F0004P/0NIRVO.31QO...

Re: Show HN: Tock, a Time Tracking Tool by 18F

#18

Post by colinhb »

danso wrote: post #4

Love the callout to the Chosen.js library...one of those fantastic plug-and-play interface libraries that makes it so less painful to add a nearly essential feature to forms/data-selection. edit: Added clickable link to chosen.js homepage http://harvesthq.github.io/chosen/

On the theme of constantly re-inventing time-tracking, it's interesting that 18F called out chosen in their write-up of their time-tracking solution, since chosen is developed and maintained by Harvest, which primarily sells a time-tracking solution.

https://www.getharvest.com/

Re: Show HN: Tock, a Time Tracking Tool by 18F

#19

Post by maaaats »

lojack wrote: post #2

Time tracking is one of those things that I see constantly being reinvented. Whether it's spreadsheets that get emailed, completely custom solutions, or one of the numerous services available, few of them actually provide anything new. What I want is a product that tracks my time for me. WakaTime is probably the closest I've seen. If only it worked outside of my text editor and automatically submitted my timesheets f…

> I have enough trouble remembering what I did yesterday, let alone last month.

I have started to write this down, for my own good. Writing what I did at the end of the day, makes it easy to pick up where I left it the next day.

Additionally, for reviews&stuff I now have a list of everything I've done I can check before the meeting. The list makes it easy to remember that I should bring up how I solved issue X promptly Y months ago.

Re: Show HN: Tock, a Time Tracking Tool by 18F

#20

Post by fi788 »

colinhb wrote: post #18
danso wrote: post #4

Love the callout to the Chosen.js library...one of those fantastic plug-and-play interface libraries that makes it so less painful to add a nearly essential feature to forms/data-selection. edit: Added clickable link to chosen.js homepage http://harvesthq.github.io/chosen/

On the theme of constantly re-inventing time-tracking, it's interesting that 18F called out chosen in their write-up of their time-tracking solution, since chosen is developed and maintained by Harvest, which primarily sells a time-tracking solution. https://www.getharvest.com/

As a long time user of Harvest, I have to say it is refreshing to see open source alternatives being developed.

Harvest is expensive for moderate-sized teams but their support is very fast to respond and the user experience is quite nice. Yet, after noticing a glaring flaw in Harvest considering non-billable hours as 'Budget', I'm stuck and have to live through never ending over-budget false alerts. Without an ETA, this is the time where I'd be happy to roll my sleeves up, get it fixed and submit a pull request...

Post reply on HN