4 ms·

Cronsync - web based time tracking and invoicing

1 points by cronsync 16y ago

RiderOfGiraffes 16y ago
So, are you gong to tell us anything about this? Or is it just spam?
- cronsync 16y ago
  Hi RiderOfGiraffes, cronsync was actually developed for the internal use at Kontrollfeld. We wanted to improve our time tracking and accelerate invoicing procedures. To find an appropriate solution, we screened all existing time tracking and invoicing products and found out that they were either easy to use, but too superficial for what we needed, or way too comprehensive and complex. So we started to create our own solution which was supposed to be „just right“ for our purposes. Many of our business partners started to be interested in this solution and we made it available for them. As the feedback was very positive, we made the decision to offer it as a software as a service and call it cronsync. We have launched cronsync this year. I look forward to your feedback! Best, Jakob
  - RiderOfGiraffes 16y ago
    Cool, but you still sound like an advert. I've read the FAW, and I still have a few questions. I'm sure most readers of HN would be interested in these: What did you use to build it? How are you marketing it? What are you doing to try to get users? How has your usage been growing? What problems did you have? Are you doing A/B testing on your landing page? What's your conversion rate? When do you expect to start charging? How will you decide your price points? Will you have multiple account types? What have you left out? And why? Can you make available your analysis of the market? Why do you think you've hit the sweet spot? Can I get my data back out again? In what formats? Is it encrypted when it's stored? These are the sorts of things that I, as a reader of HN, want to know. In the interests of full disclosure I am unlikely to use the service, although if my circumstances change then I might. Regardless, I wish you the best of luck.
    - RiderOfGiraffes 16y ago
      Sorry, s/FAW/FAQ/
    - cronsync 16y ago
      Thanks for your interest and the questions. Hope you find all answers below: What did you use to build it? cronsync is built on CakePHP. How are you marketing it? Actually we developed cronsync for the use in our own agency while working for our clients. We are a small agency with 4 developers and do not have a marketing department. The main marketing tools are blogs and word of mouth. What are you doing to try to get users? We are constantly contacting blog writers and doing some PR related activities. We are screening the web for our competitors and our topics and try to make something out of this information. How has your usage been growing? We are just starting to promote cronsync and currently count approx. two new registrations per day. What problems did you have? The most challenging thing was actually finding the time to develop cronsync in addition to our normal work for our clients as a web agency. Are you doing A/B testing on your landing page? What's your conversion rate? No, we currently are using just one landing page. There are not enough users that an A/B testing would bring representative results. When do you expect to start charging? We plan to start charging once we have 10,000 registered users. ;-) This year will be the testing phase and we want to take the feedback from our users as well as the time to improve cronsync further. As we earn money with our current agency clients, we are not reliant on earning money with cronsync from scratch. How will you decide your price points? We want to be better and cheaper than our competitors. Will you have multiple account types? There will be a very simply system. One monthly fee per user. Depending on the future developments we might also offer other account types. What have you left out? And why? We have not developed any apps or widgets so far as we thought our time was better spent on the cronsync core features. Can you make available your analysis of the market? Why do you think you've hit the sweet spot? We are not the first to create a time tracking and invoicing app. But cronsync is very user friendly and supports essential features in combination we could not find elsewhere: Different hourly rates for different job roles/clients and different hourly rates for internal and external use Dashboard with transparent view on the real profitability of projects and clients Generates professional and nicely formatted invoices from the time tracking data, adjustable detail level of invoices Easy integration of internal and external staff such as freelancers or affiliates Can I get my data back out again? In what formats? Is it encrypted when it's stored? There is a csv and xml export available. The connection is save and there is an encryption for passwords but the other data is not additionally encrypted. Best, Jakob

1 points by cronsync 16y ago

RiderOfGiraffes 16y ago

So, are you gong to tell us anything about this? Or is it just spam?

cronsync 16y ago
Hi RiderOfGiraffes, cronsync was actually developed for the internal use at Kontrollfeld. We wanted to improve our time tracking and accelerate invoicing procedures. To find an appropriate solution, we screened all existing time tracking and invoicing products and found out that they were either easy to use, but too superficial for what we needed, or way too comprehensive and complex. So we started to create our own solution which was supposed to be „just right“ for our purposes. Many of our business partners started to be interested in this solution and we made it available for them. As the feedback was very positive, we made the decision to offer it as a software as a service and call it cronsync. We have launched cronsync this year. I look forward to your feedback! Best, Jakob
- RiderOfGiraffes 16y ago
  Cool, but you still sound like an advert. I've read the FAW, and I still have a few questions. I'm sure most readers of HN would be interested in these: What did you use to build it? How are you marketing it? What are you doing to try to get users? How has your usage been growing? What problems did you have? Are you doing A/B testing on your landing page? What's your conversion rate? When do you expect to start charging? How will you decide your price points? Will you have multiple account types? What have you left out? And why? Can you make available your analysis of the market? Why do you think you've hit the sweet spot? Can I get my data back out again? In what formats? Is it encrypted when it's stored? These are the sorts of things that I, as a reader of HN, want to know. In the interests of full disclosure I am unlikely to use the service, although if my circumstances change then I might. Regardless, I wish you the best of luck.
  - RiderOfGiraffes 16y ago
    Sorry, s/FAW/FAQ/
  - cronsync 16y ago
    Thanks for your interest and the questions. Hope you find all answers below: What did you use to build it? cronsync is built on CakePHP. How are you marketing it? Actually we developed cronsync for the use in our own agency while working for our clients. We are a small agency with 4 developers and do not have a marketing department. The main marketing tools are blogs and word of mouth. What are you doing to try to get users? We are constantly contacting blog writers and doing some PR related activities. We are screening the web for our competitors and our topics and try to make something out of this information. How has your usage been growing? We are just starting to promote cronsync and currently count approx. two new registrations per day. What problems did you have? The most challenging thing was actually finding the time to develop cronsync in addition to our normal work for our clients as a web agency. Are you doing A/B testing on your landing page? What's your conversion rate? No, we currently are using just one landing page. There are not enough users that an A/B testing would bring representative results. When do you expect to start charging? We plan to start charging once we have 10,000 registered users. ;-) This year will be the testing phase and we want to take the feedback from our users as well as the time to improve cronsync further. As we earn money with our current agency clients, we are not reliant on earning money with cronsync from scratch. How will you decide your price points? We want to be better and cheaper than our competitors. Will you have multiple account types? There will be a very simply system. One monthly fee per user. Depending on the future developments we might also offer other account types. What have you left out? And why? We have not developed any apps or widgets so far as we thought our time was better spent on the cronsync core features. Can you make available your analysis of the market? Why do you think you've hit the sweet spot? We are not the first to create a time tracking and invoicing app. But cronsync is very user friendly and supports essential features in combination we could not find elsewhere: Different hourly rates for different job roles/clients and different hourly rates for internal and external use Dashboard with transparent view on the real profitability of projects and clients Generates professional and nicely formatted invoices from the time tracking data, adjustable detail level of invoices Easy integration of internal and external staff such as freelancers or affiliates Can I get my data back out again? In what formats? Is it encrypted when it's stored? There is a csv and xml export available. The connection is save and there is an encryption for passwords but the other data is not additionally encrypted. Best, Jakob