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Show HN: Timestrap – Self-hosted online time tracking

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Re: Show HN: Timestrap – Self-hosted online time tracking

#71
post #62

Ah, what I really miss about time tracking software isn't necessarily something where I manually type in what I've been working on, as much as it's something like a self-hosted RescueTime[0]. Instead of manually adding things to it, it allows you to mark certain applications and websites as you doing something productive (for example, if you're running Atom and visiting StackOverflow and GitHub, you're probably doing…

If you're on the Mac, Timing might be similar to what you're looking for (one of their selling points is that your data is stored locally and never leaves your Mac): http://timingapp.com/ And on Windows, Mac & Linux, it looks like ManicTime will also store data locally if you don't use the Server component: http://www.manictime.com/

Ah, I'm on Ubuntu, and ManicTime would be an awesome choice, but their Ubuntu version is for tracking only, and requires a server to actually view the reports[0].

Seems like the same thing applies for macOS, so I would call it Windows-only solution in the serverless mode. Alternatively, you could run the server[1] on some always-on Windows machine, pay for the license(s) and use the server under your control to store the data.

[0] http://www.manictime.com/linux

[1] http://www.manictime.com/teams/download

Re: Show HN: Timestrap – Self-hosted online time tracking

#72

Hello HN, developer here. I started this Friday night because I wanted something much simpler than all the options I was given and something that I could host myself. There is a lot to do on this project still and I wanted to see what the reception was for the start. Timestrap currently does fully support time tracking and CSV exports for multiple projects and tasks. It has a full REST API and admin panel. Invoicing…

I work with a lot of time tracking data in my job (calculating the R&D tax credit). I like this tool a lot. It's simple, responsive, fast, and covers nearly all the relevant data points without any obfuscating clutter.

There are a couple items we look for that might be worth including in the CSV exports, depending on what kind of scale you want to plan for. Specifically:

  1. Project name,
  2. Project ID or number, 
  3. Employee name, 
  4. Employee ID or number, 
  5. Employee email, 
  6. Supervisor name, 
  7. Supervisor employee ID or number, 
  8. Supervisor email, 
  9. Task or activity code, and 
  10. Task or activity description. 
It's important for us to be able to line up time tracking data to W2 data from a payroll system, which is frequently hosted separately with different data standards. So employee numbers (not SSNs obviously) really help when dealing with larger companies where a significant number of employee names may change (e.g. due to marriage) or may be formatted with slight variations (e.g. nicknames instead of full legal), or where the odds of a name collision are high. We also like to see departments, cost centers, legal entities, locations, lines of business, etc. where applicable, but we can usually layer those on from other data sources if we can join on a unique identifier, whether it's at the project, task, or employee level.

If I can get that data in a single CSV export for all employees at a company, I'm like 70% done with the calculation.

And while this sounds like an odd use case, pretty much any profitable company doing software development in the US should be claiming the credit (and actually in pretty much any developed country, because most have a credit that was modeled on the US's). Even smaller shops with only a handful of employees usually see substantial benefit. Having the data formatted like this up front reduces the costs of doing an R&D credit study and dramatically reduces the odds of an adverse adjustment in exam or audit. Especially when the employees have been diligent about recording their time and the associated activity/project/task data. It's also worth noting that this is one area of the tax code that does not seem likely to be affected by tax reform as both the Ryan and Trump plans propose to leave the credit as it is.

Edit: oh and I forgot because this doesn't relate to my work, but having an option for charge codes is nice. So something like [client ID].[project ID]. It will improve interoperability with third-party invoicing tools.

Re: Show HN: Timestrap – Self-hosted online time tracking

#73
post #72

Hello HN, developer here. I started this Friday night because I wanted something much simpler than all the options I was given and something that I could host myself. There is a lot to do on this project still and I wanted to see what the reception was for the start. Timestrap currently does fully support time tracking and CSV exports for multiple projects and tasks. It has a full REST API and admin panel. Invoicing…

I work with a lot of time tracking data in my job (calculating the R&D tax credit). I like this tool a lot. It's simple, responsive, fast, and covers nearly all the relevant data points without any obfuscating clutter. There are a couple items we look for that might be worth including in the CSV exports, depending on what kind of scale you want to plan for. Specifically: 1. Project name, 2. Project ID or number, 3. E…

I'll definitely keep this in mind while improving the export part of Timestrap. All of this would be easy to add via a couple extra fields on the admin panel.

Re: Show HN: Timestrap – Self-hosted online time tracking

#75

Hello HN, developer here. I started this Friday night because I wanted something much simpler than all the options I was given and something that I could host myself. There is a lot to do on this project still and I wanted to see what the reception was for the start. Timestrap currently does fully support time tracking and CSV exports for multiple projects and tasks. It has a full REST API and admin panel. Invoicing…

I don't know if I speak for other users, but rather than focusing on invoicing, why not tie into Quickbooks? Or similar services. i.e. There's already invoicing software. If the integration between the timesheets is the only differentiator, why rewrite the invoicing part?

Shameless plug time.

I'm a Front End Web Developer at a startup offering a time tracking app with QuickBooks integration. QuickBooks is a premium feature, but we have a 30 day free trial so you can give it a spin.

Our focus is on construction companies, who love our offline support, but it works great for time keeping for anyone and everyone here dogfoods the app every day.

We recently had a big investment come in from CAT: http://www.caterpillar.com/en/company/innovation/caterpillar...

Check us out at https://busybusy.com

Available for Android, iOS and Web

Welcome to the niche, I've only been here for a year and I've been amazed at just how deep and complex a time tracking application really is.

Re: Show HN: Timestrap – Self-hosted online time tracking

#76

We also tried to create a super simple time tracking app. We will give it for free (also biz version) very soon. https://tokkapp.com/

Moving between days seems to be broken; I moved from April 23rd to 22nd and then tried to go back to the 23rd and didn't work. I couldn't advance beyond that either.

Despite this; great idea and looks beautiful. Seems to fill a bit of a void among task trackers I've used.

Re: Show HN: Timestrap – Self-hosted online time tracking

#78
post #62

Ah, what I really miss about time tracking software isn't necessarily something where I manually type in what I've been working on, as much as it's something like a self-hosted RescueTime[0]. Instead of manually adding things to it, it allows you to mark certain applications and websites as you doing something productive (for example, if you're running Atom and visiting StackOverflow and GitHub, you're probably doing…

If you're on the Mac, Timing might be similar to what you're looking for (one of their selling points is that your data is stored locally and never leaves your Mac): http://timingapp.com/ And on Windows, Mac & Linux, it looks like ManicTime will also store data locally if you don't use the Server component: http://www.manictime.com/

Hi, Daniel, developer of Timing here. Thanks for the mention! FYI, we will be releasing a new version soon, with a completely revamped interface, productivity tracking, easier task creation, better reports, and more. You can check it out at https://2.timingapp.com
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