Time and expense tracking tasks are definitely not what a web designer or creative would like to do. Yet, they are essential part of operating a business and keeping it running smoothly.
There is a perfect solution for those, who do not want to waste time on the project management tasks. Special tools that can partially automate these activities can free up the time. As a result, you can concentrate on your core business activities.
These tools will help you avoid mistakes, improve your planning and estimating activities. Moreover, they will boost your productivity and your business’s overall health. It’s a win-win situation!
You should find that at least one of the apps described below will help you run your business. All of the presented apps can give you greater peace of mind and make your working life a little less stressful. Take one or more of these software solutions for a free trial run to find out for yourself what they’ll do for you.
FreshBooks
FreshBooks is an invoicing and accounting app that will enable you to take the time you normally lose while attempting to manually track time, send invoices, and manage your expenses, and invest it in performing your business’s core activity. As more than 10 million uses have already discovered, this cloud-based app will help you run your business in a way you’ve always hoped to be able to.
Since you’ll be working online, there’s nothing to install. It’s simply a matter of signing up and getting started. Getting used to FreshBooks takes no time at all. In fact, you can send your first invoice in a matter of a few seconds, complete with your logo and your brand’s color scheme.
FreshBooks lets your clients make their payments online; a feature they will appreciate as much as you do. If you have a question, or encounter a problem (unlikely), you can talk to a live, professional, and courteous support person. You won’t be placed on hold waiting for “the next available agent”, or listening to background music that was cool back in the 80s.
Memory by Timely
Keeping a log of present and past activities, and tracking the time it takes or has taken to accomplish them, requires excessive manual effort. If you are struggling to get your time sheets done, what you need, is a tool that does much of the work for you, and Memory by Timely is that tool.
In a timeline format, Memory by Timely presents what you’ve done, when you did it, and how much time you spent doing it, no matter the file you work on, website you visit, or e-mail you send. It does all this automatically. If you want to track your meetings or other activities done in Github, Asana, Trello, etc., you can do so by connecting them in Timely’s integrations settings.
Invest in Memory by Timely and let your timesheets create themselves. All you need to do is confirm.
Futuramo Time Tracker
Do you want to know how many hours a project has consumed so far this month, or whether the project will be completed on time and within budget?
Futuramo Time Tracker can tell you. This cloud-based time tracking app lets you put guesswork and making faulty estimates behind you. It helps you analyze your work, and provides insights into the daily work habits of you or your team.
The information Futuramo Time Tracker gathers and presents can be invaluable when you’re looking for ways to improve time and cost estimates in future projects. You can sort results by date range, by project, by assignee, and more. Information you capture can be presented in custom overview and timesheet views.
Client management and multiple project management features are included in the package. Futuramo Time Tracker is free for up to 3 users; a good reason to sign up now!
Elorus
Elorus provides an ideal invoicing and billing software solution for freelancers and small business owners. It’s adaptable for use on all standard devices, so you can start working at one location, and finish at another.
Among other features, it accepts multiple user accounts so you can collaborate with business partners and clients. With Elorus, you can deliver invoices in any currency; an important feature if you have a global clientele. Clients can access a dedicated client area to view their transaction history and make their payments online.
If you have 3 or fewer clients per month, Elorus is yours to use for free.
Avaza
Avaza was designed to help users run their creative, client-focused businesses. This software tool assists you with your time tracking, expense reporting, invoicing, and general project management. Used by more than 15,000 businesses worldwide, Avaza provides flexible project budgeting and billing methodology, assists you in managing your project files and tasks, and serves as a powerful collaboration tool.
Avaza Timesheets provides an easy to use online time tracking capability, while Avaza Expenses, with its mobile device photo-sharing feature, offers one of the better ways to manage staff expenses. Sign up for free, and give Avaza a try.
Timing
Manual start and stop timers have their place, but it’s often easy to forget to do one or the other. The Timing app (a native Mac time tracker) does things differently. It automatically tracks the apps you are using, the websites you are visiting, and the documents you are working with. Timing also takes the data it compiles and uses it to measure your productivity.
You can add your own categories to be time tracked; meetings and phone calls for example, and you have the option to track a task manually. Time tracking data can be exported to create invoices.
Trigger
If you hate invoicing, and find it a nightmare to know which clients to bill at month end, try the time tracking and project management solution called Trigger. With Trigger, you can click “Unbilled Invoices” and instantly know which clients your team have tracked time against that month, and who needs to be billed. The ability to invoice directly to Xero, Saasu or FreshBooks also means you never have to worry about losing invoices again.
ClickTime – Easy Online Timesheets
The overhead involved in installing your own software to build your own time tracking and time sheet solutions can be stressful and expensive. With ClickTime Easy Online Timesheets, these solutions are right at your fingertips, and you can start tracking time and expenses right away. ClickTime Easy Online Timesheets offers 3 plans, any of which you can try for 30 days for free; and it can be customized to fit the needs of virtually any business.
Paymo
Paymo is an online project management app designed to help you simplify your workflow by keeping all your task and task management information in one place, and on one platform. Used by businesses all over the world, Paymo provides Kanban boards and Gantt charts to help you organize your tasks, and provides timelines to help you manage people, resources, and expenses.
Free Invoice Generator
Free Invoice Generator provides the basic features you need to create an invoice in PDF format that you can forward to your client. All that’s involved is to insert standard information, plus your logo design, review it, and download the PDF invoice.
As the name implies, this service is free. If you would prefer to take advantage of advanced client management and billing features, simply sign up for a Hivage account.
Summary
Whether you a web designer or a business person, any of the described apps can be your best companion in work. If you need some project management assistance, just go ahead and choose the perfect app.
Some of the apps described offer either time tracking capabilities or invoicing services. Several other provide additional project management, expense tracking, and resource management capabilities.
A few freebies are included, and the apps that do require a fee for their use offer free trials ranging from 14 to 30 days.
