Ask HN: What do you use for time tracking

[tronathan]

As a freelancer, its important that I accurately track and bill my time. I think a lot of us end up guessing about time on projects and tend to under-bill.

What do you use for time tracking?

(I am writing an app that 'solves' time tracking in a new way and am trying to determine which services I should target for integration. Currently supporting Harvest, what else is important?)

Please post the name of your time tracking weapon of choice so we can see whats popular.

[brudgers]

When I track time, I like to use half days.

A half day is the most meaningful chunk of work progress and, of course, it is flexible - I hate keeping track of quarter hours or worrying about remembering that I stopped to talk to the UPS driver.

I've even written contracts with half days as the basic billing unit - and once I explain to clients that it means I may not bill them for a quick email, they pretty much get it.

I track half days with a pencil and calendar, and write a short description of what I did.

[timgluz]

I'm using Yast, cool startup from Norway. I picked this one because it works on desktop and Iphone, possible to add subprojects with different pricing model, share data with another team-members/freelancers, comprehensive reports and has very good API. URL: http://www.yast.com/

[b3b0p]

I've been using this. Print them out every week. I find them easy to keep track with since I switch tasks often.

http://davidseah.com/blog/node/the-emergent-task-timer/

[kroger]

I love Hamster [1], but since I switched from Linux to the Mac I haven't found anything like it.

[1] http://projecthamster.wordpress.com/about/

[christocracy]

I've been giving freshbooks $20/month for the last couple years http://freshbooks.com

[iworkforthem]

http://www.tickspot.com/ is also pretty good. Paid version sync to Basecamp.

[Todd]

I've been pretty happy with toggl.

https://www.toggl.com/

[olegious]

freshbooks.com - time tracking and invoicing in one package.

[MattBearman]

I use Freshbooks as well, so far it's been well worth $20 / month, but if you don't have many clients/projects you can use it for free.

[dangrossman]

A pen and notepad

[superchink]

Harvest here

[damoncali]

a spreadsheet

[ilcavero]

manic time