Tracking your time as an independent consultant
Billing for time spent means knowing how much time you actually spent.
For an independent consultant it comes down to three things: starting the timer without thinking about it, finding your time again by engagement and by client, and producing a summary the client accepts without argument. Time Tracking does those three things on the web, iPhone, iPad, Mac and Android, from €5.40 incl. VAT per month after a free 2-month trial with no credit card.
The problem: the time you never write down
Time that is not recorded is not half lost, it is lost entirely. Half an hour on the phone, two email exchanges, a review on Sunday evening: taken one by one, each looks too short to be worth an entry. Added up over a month, they often come to a full day.
Reconstructing those hours from memory at the end of the month always produces the same result: you round down, out of caution, because you are no longer sure. It is the quietest loss in a business billed by time, and the only one that never shows up in the accounts.
What it looks like day to day
One project per engagement or per client, sub-tasks if the engagement calls for them, and a timer that starts in one gesture. It keeps running when the app is closed, and a notification reminds you that it is still going: that is what prevents the counter left running all night, which skews an entire week.
Started on your phone on the train, finished on your computer at the office: the timer follows. There is no main device to designate, and nothing to re-enter from one device to another.
And when an entry has been forgotten anyway, you add it by hand, on the right date.
Fixed-price engagements
A project can carry a sold budget, in hours or in days, and the app shows how much of it has been used. On a fixed price the useful question is not "how long have I spent" but "how much is left" — and it comes up during the engagement, not at the end.
The unit, hours or days, is chosen when the project is created and does not change afterwards: a history whose unit changed midway would mean nothing.
The summary you send your client
At the end of the month each project produces a summary — by category, by period or day by day — sent by email or as a CSV file, in a readable, reusable format.
The suggested email explicitly asks the client to confirm by reply. That is not a pleasantry: it is that written agreement, obtained before the invoice, that makes a later dispute difficult.
What this tool does not do
Better said up front: if one of these is your main need, another tool will serve you better.
- It does not issue your invoices. It prepares the summary for approval; the invoice happens in your invoicing or accounting tool.
- It does not track your activity automatically: no watching of your windows, your files or your calendar. Time comes from the timer or from manual entry.
- It connects to no third-party tool: no public API, no integrations. Output is by email and CSV.
- It does not import your history from another time-tracking tool.
- It is not HR time-and-attendance software: no clocking in, no leave, no absences, no overtime calculation.
- It needs a connection. Syncing across devices is the heart of the product; extended offline use is not supported.
What it costs
Free 2-month trial, no credit card. Then €5.40 incl. VAT per month from the website, with no minimum term. See full pricing .