Ask HN: What are good self hosted time tracking software for consultants?

Not a fanatic about it and only posting because I didn't see it mentioned but Asana and Harvest time have a free integration and it's sufficient for my single person general contractor business. i like the suggestions more about git/terminal/emacs etc so happy to read this thread

I’ve been using Kimai [1] for a bit over a year to track my freelancing work for various clients as well as the work I do for my own projects. I can definitely recommend it!

It's easy to install and very pleasant to use for tracking time.

Entries have an "exported" flag to mark if you've already billed for a certain hour or not. You could also generate invoices directly from Kimai but I'm not using that feature because I'm creating my invoices in another program.

[1] https://www.kimai.org

Long time ago I used a little windows program called TraxTime by SpudCity Software. Both seem to have passed into antiquity, but I really liked the punch-clock model it used. It was also really easy to go back and edit your in/out times when needed.

Geophysicist. I handled quite a few things for one client including 24-hour support to field operations, remote processing of data, real-time QC of data processed by others, briefing of client contacts about hardware and software capabilities, demonstrations of data processing situations, presentation of data in various slideshows or interactive formats. On any given day I could work on one project or a half-dozen.

I tracked my time so that I could accurately assign time to each of their projects. Since I worked with personnel from field ops, software development, hardware testing, and was a point of contact for their external clients I needed to bill the correct project. I was on call 24/7/365 to deal with personnel who were could be working anywhere on earth.

In addition to using this software for job-related tasks it is super useful for recording all the inputs when you fill out online order forms. I use junk mail accounts for things I only want to see or buy from once and it helps to have all the fields filled as I actually filled them for my records. Some things offer one rate for a short period and flip to a higher rate later with an option to cancel. I screenshot all the offer terms for my records so I can verify charges to my accounts and cancel things I don't care about.

I have done a lot of online cross-training in other things and having screenshots of relevant slide shows can help jog a memory.

As far as employers requiring this level of documentation it was recommended when I began working with one client that I use time-tracking software to manage invoicing and project billing. The person who made that recommendation was also a consultant who understood the nature of the work I would be doing. I was free to choose software, etc since I was a consultant and not an employee. I tested several offerings and settled on this one.

I was only asked once to provide documentation for time invoiced. I had invoiced more than 20 consecutive hours of time on one project, a lot longer than your standard 8-hour day. It was one of those things that began with a phone call and came standard with a tight deadline and multiple data format issues to sort before it could be completed. Using the one minute screenshots I assembled a gif of the time period subsampling to 5 minute screenshots, included copies of my hand-written notes from that part of the project, and printed all the notes added during and after the work period and submitted that along with an offer to produce similar documentation for any other entries for the time that I had contracted with their company. I made a follow-up call to the contact and was told that they didn't need to see anything else, ever.

Basically, for more than a decade I screenshotted my work life at one minute intervals and generated invoices from the screenshots and database entries. It was super easy and a huge time saver since it was all in one place and easy to generate reports.

It was without a doubt top 5 most useful software I have ever purchased.

I didn’t mean to imply that your clients had red flags. What I meant is that the only reason I would want that level of precision is if I was covering my ass legally, and I wouldn’t want a contract where I needed that level of granularity.

It is better to charge by the day anyway. If you’re needed even an hour on a day, they get the daily rate. An interruption in your day for even an hour has context shifting and sucks away a lot more time than that implicitly. Alternatively, weekly prepaid hours work as well. As long as the client is getting value delivered and all their requirements are met or exceeded, and the time is spent to make sure that is always the case, contracting can be a vehicle to escape mundanities like exact timekeeping and enable better use of time.

I would also argue in general for prepaid hours, as this is much more palatable for a business anyway. It gives them a predictable budget with no guesswork, and you a predictable income. That stability is better for both parties as long as you’re delivering.

But everyone’s got their method of operating. Screenshotting a day like that is impressive legally but does make my skin crawl as a dev & creative. I like to just zone out and enter the universe of my work.