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Show HN: Tiempo – The fastest way to track time and get paid

tiempoapp.com

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Re: Show HN: Tiempo – The fastest way to track time and get paid

#31

Post by jprince »

Currently, I use On The Job, which works really well at invoicing and time tracking. What I do is I PDF the invoice and email it to clients, and have them pay me via Square Cash. As long as I don't do more than 2500$ of work for any particular client in a given week, they can easily use that.

It costs them nothing and it costs me nothing to do this, and there is no percentages taken. Also, we both understand when payment is due, and normally the client pays on the due date. If they don't pay on the due date no amount of pretty software is going to make them more likely to, for obvious reasons. How do you plan to get me to give away 3.9% of my income to use a more integrated service?

Re: Show HN: Tiempo – The fastest way to track time and get paid

#32

Post by tadmilbourn »

davedx wrote: post #22
tijs wrote: post #20

Is it normal in the US to pay supplier invoices through credit card payments? Nobody would pay 3,9% on amounts of more than a few hundred dollars right? A normal project invoice for say a web studio would usually be well over 10k which means you're regularly paying more than $400 to get a single invoice processed? Am i missing something or do people actually do this? Not trying to be snarky, truly curious.

In my limited experience, it's not usual. My US clients have paid with Paypal, bank transfer and check.

Those are all payment methods we plan to support in the future. Bank Transfer and Check don't have the same kind of processing costs, so that will allow us to do the payments for something more like 1% instead of 3.9%. We also hope to make the process of setting up and verifying those accounts less of a pain.

Re: Show HN: Tiempo – The fastest way to track time and get paid

#33

Post by tadmilbourn »

jprince wrote: post #31

Currently, I use On The Job, which works really well at invoicing and time tracking. What I do is I PDF the invoice and email it to clients, and have them pay me via Square Cash. As long as I don't do more than 2500$ of work for any particular client in a given week, they can easily use that. It costs them nothing and it costs me nothing to do this, and there is no percentages taken. Also, we both understand when pay…

Jprince, that's a nice setup. You've manually put together many of the core components Tiempo offers. It sounds like you're getting paid quickly, at low cost, and its a good experience for both you and your customers.

In fact, what you could do is use Tiempo for your time tracking and use the result to create your PDF invoice and continue with your Square Cash payment process. Compared to On the Job, Tiempo's time tracking is free and available on mobile devices. So you wouldn't have to be attached to your computer to track time.

But, what Tiempo Instant Invoices does is allow folks that aren't as technical to get all of that benefit that you've already wired together in one place. And, as I've said elsewhere in the comments, we'll add more payment options (that are lower cost) in the future.

Re: Show HN: Tiempo – The fastest way to track time and get paid

#34

Post by cheez »

CodeJackalope wrote: post #10
cheez wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I use Toggl's API, I use it for creating time entries and getting project info. If your app is RESTful, then you wouldn't need to do anything further.

cheez, we have a RESTful API that drives our site and mobile apps. But data security is a top priority for us and we have not yet built the authorization systems to open up access beyond our own clients. That said, an API is high on our list and we want to make it as easy as possible for our users to enter time in whatever ways make sense for their workflows. Thanks for checking us out!

Yep, looks like you guys use XSRF which would make it a little more difficult I think.

Re: Show HN: Tiempo – The fastest way to track time and get paid

#35

Post by tomasien »

jprince wrote: post #31

Currently, I use On The Job, which works really well at invoicing and time tracking. What I do is I PDF the invoice and email it to clients, and have them pay me via Square Cash. As long as I don't do more than 2500$ of work for any particular client in a given week, they can easily use that. It costs them nothing and it costs me nothing to do this, and there is no percentages taken. Also, we both understand when pay…

If you guys are interested in getting these costs down, my company KnoxPayments.com could help. Without credit card fees, it's easier to charge way less and still have a solid system.

Re: Show HN: Tiempo – The fastest way to track time and get paid

#36

Post by jetro223 »

I also run a time tracking service (http://www.spiketime.net I really like the idea of instant invoices and the approval process (just the fee is a little bit high, I think).

Some random thoughts: - What's the difference between an employee and contractor - is it just the label or do they have different rights in your app?

- When you start the mobile app for the first time without using the website before you don't know the meaning of the icons for draft, submitted and approved (I thought the icon for approved was the save-button).

- When using the timer I can't select a customer/service when the timer runs as you do this when you click stop timer. Also it isn't possible to make any notes on a running timer

Re: Show HN: Tiempo – The fastest way to track time and get paid

#37

Post by notahacker »

tadmilbourn wrote: post #25
tijs wrote: post #20

Is it normal in the US to pay supplier invoices through credit card payments? Nobody would pay 3,9% on amounts of more than a few hundred dollars right? A normal project invoice for say a web studio would usually be well over 10k which means you're regularly paying more than $400 to get a single invoice processed? Am i missing something or do people actually do this? Not trying to be snarky, truly curious.

Great points. We've actually talked to folks whose total fees were about 6% after all was said and done. It's crazy, but it does happen. In your example, what I'd ask is if the web studio would be willing to pay $400 to get that $10k weeks earlier than they otherwise would have. That might be a good cash flow outcome for them. All that being said, you're exactly right, the fee structure makes transactions of a certai…

If they're willing to pay $400 to get that $10k in they really ought to be bothered to spend 5 man minutes creating an invoice the old fashioned way, and maybe another 5 man minutes chasing the payment if it's not made on schedule.

Re: Show HN: Tiempo – The fastest way to track time and get paid

#38

Post by pw »

This looks like a fine product and kudos to its creators, but I hate that products like this encourage bad practices for freelancers/consultants. Basically, if you're charging in way that requires software to track how much clients owe you, you're doing it wrong. Take the advice of tptacek and patio11 and charge by the day or the week, not the hour.

Re: Show HN: Tiempo – The fastest way to track time and get paid

#40

Post by tadmilbourn »

jetro223 wrote: post #36

I also run a time tracking service ( http://www.spiketime.net I really like the idea of instant invoices and the approval process (just the fee is a little bit high, I think). Some random thoughts: - What's the difference between an employee and contractor - is it just the label or do they have different rights in your app? - When you start the mobile app for the first time without using the website before you don't…

Thanks for the feedback! And there's no shame in that plug.

Employee and Contractor don't have much difference within Tiempo in terms of rights. But, they have profound differences with how they're treated once you integrate with accounting software like QuickBooks Online.

We plan to get rid of the "Draft" status as it's underused and will allow us to simplify the design further (just Submitted and Approved status).

The timer not allowing for details until it's stopped is something we'll address shortly.

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