Running a business solo can be an exciting endeavor – one that offers you a high level of flexibility and control over your business operations. But, managing everything on your own comes with some challenges, especially if you don’t use a time tracking solution.
From marketing, financial planning, and building customer/client relationships to managing a team of workers, things can easily get out of control. Without proper time tracking, you can’t pay employees correctly, you can’t bill clients accurately, and you won’t have insight into your team’s productivity.
In other words, time tracking software is a must-have for any solopreneur who’s serious about increasing their efficiency and productivity. In this post, we share the top time tracking tools that can help solopreneurs excel.
Toggl Track
Best simple time tracking app
Toggl Track is an easy-to-use tool for solopreneurs who are time-crunched. It lets you track the time you spend on various projects throughout the day in real-time, or you can manually add time after the fact.
With Toggl, you can:
- Capture time spent by you or your team across multiple projects
- Get a detailed overview of projects and task timelines with reports
- Export reports to clients or internally
- Set up tracking reminders
Toggl Track’s feature highlights
Toggl Track’s idle time detection feature ensures the accuracy of your time logs. If the timer is running, but your computer is idle, it offers ways to correct the time log.
Traqq
Best fully-featured time tracking app
One of the top challenges of remote work is proper time management. Traqq time tracker is one of the best time tracking apps for solopreneurs running their businesses remotely. The platform offers you visibility into how productive your teams really are, as well as how they spend their work hours.
With its stopwatch-like timer, you can start tracking time right away. No need to set up a client, project, or task to start tracking. Plus, you can identify the source of distractions with the app and web usage feature, so you can maximize efficiency.
With Traqq, you can:
- Monitor team members’ performance without interrupting their work
- Generate and schedule detailed reports that provide insights into time usage and activity levels, as well as billable time
- Calculate payroll for your team members and export invoices directly from the app to clients
- Assign managers to monitor their teams so they can plan resources efficiently
- Track work online and offline
- Get access to all premium features for free for up to three members
Traqq’s feature highlights:
The best thing about Traqq is ethical employee monitoring. While it takes random screenshots of employees as proof of work, the screenshots are blurred by default to protect sensitive information. Furthermore, users can choose to delete screenshots and the block of time attached to them.
TopTracker
Best free time tracking app
For a solopreneur who’s just starting out, you may want to check out TopTracker, a free time tracker that offers effortless time tracking from any device. The software provides a centralized view of all projects so you can find ways to strategize the performance and productivity of your remote teams.
With TopTracker, you can:
- Generate detailed reports with real-time summaries of your and your team’s productivity and performance
- Get full control over your privacy. You can control what to track and how often, including screenshots and webcam
TopTracker’s feature highlights:
This platform offers time tracking completely free of charge, and users have access to basic time tracking features like:
- Screenshots
- Activity level tracking
- Invoicing and payments
Harvest
Best invoicing features
As a solopreneur, you’ll have to deal with plenty of client billing and invoicing. Harvest offers robust features for just that, on top of being a time tracker. The tool keeps a record of every working hour and converts the data into professional invoices.
With Harvest you can:
- Sync with various online payment platforms for improved convenience
- Clearly see workload and ensure no one is overworked
- Track time offline
- Set it to automatically remind employees to track their time and submit timesheets
Harvest feature highlights:
Harvest integrates with other productivity apps like Basecamp, making it handy for remote work.
ATracker
Best for tracking daily tasks
As a solopreneur, your business isn’t the only thing you need to manage. Your personal life matters as well. ATracker lets you track everything from business-related tasks, such as research, work sessions, and writing to personal activities throughout your day.
It just takes one tap to start and stop a task. You can then analyze your time spending history via a list or calendar view for more clarity.
With ATracker, you can:
- Set daily or weekly goals based on tag or task
- Use the widget and watch to manage your tasks without unlocking your iOS device
- Track time from any device and create beautiful reports in a pie chart, goal progress, or bar chart view
ATracker feature highlights:
While you can’t track multiple apps simultaneously, the tool can be helpful if you want to get real insights into how every minute of your day is spent. To get the most out of ATracker, you’ll need to break your day into many smaller tasks and actively track each one.
Workstatus
Best for a fully customizable setup
Workstatus is a workforce management app that offers a myriad of solutions, including time tracking. It monitors employee time and URLs to help you improve system usage habits. Its online timesheets provide visibility into team members’ work patterns and automatically calculate worked hours.
With Workstatus you can:
- Automate clock in and clock out times
- Manage leaves more efficiently
- Use GPS tracking to know the whereabouts of employees
- Monitor employees to get proof of work and encourage transparency
Workstatus feature these highlights:
The app helps managers monitor employee performance and identify those who are putting extra effort to deliver quality work. This makes it easy to reward hard workers and motivate those dragging behind.
Wrap Up
To succeed as a solopreneur, you must implement time tracking in your business. Not only will this make your life easier but it will also improve your time management skills and increase your and your team’s overall productivity and efficiency.
