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As for baking your time tracking / billing into "the bread," I couldn't agree more. You might like my app, Freckle, which makes it not only dead simple to use a

As for baking your time tracking / billing into "the bread," I couldn't agree more. You might like my app, Freckle, which makes it not only dead simple to use a timer or enter time by hand, but also has integration points for github & beanstalk: http://letsfreckle.com/startups http://letsfreckle.com/startups (Not mentioned on the startup-oriented page: we also have budgeting, budget alerts, invoicing, etc. An iPhone-friendly mobile web UI and also native apps coming.)

j45 15y ago
For software development / consulting work there's just one thing. You simply must use one case per task to keep it all straight and have a searchable, documented history looking back. I recommend tracking time directly in something like Fogbugz and letting it feed the time directly into your time-tracking / invoicing solution. Why? - I touch 50-100 cases in reasonable detail a day. Features, Analysis, designs, inquiries, bugs, etc. Hopping between a case manager screen where the technical details are and a time tracking / project management screen can get a bit loopy. My time is different than my contractors time. I assign my contractors a task as a project. They only report or see those items. Freshbooks lets me give them their own interface where they send and bill me directly what I've approved. My own time goes into Fogbugz which carries into Freshbooks via API.
- ahoyhere 15y ago
  Did you miss the part where I said Freckle has integration points for github & beanstalk? You can log time from your commit messages.
  - j45 15y ago
    I didn't miss it. I'm just not sure what you said fits the context of my original post. Freckle looks nice. I'm not sure if Freckle has a similar contractor mechanism to Freshbooks to create a funnel to collect hours from multiple internal and external sources, but keep them separate. And that, is one of the key integration points to save management and admin time for freelancing, contracting, consulting and startups, especially when you have a flood of projects and bill out on each one individually. I'm not super hot on Freshbooks, but it does a few things that are critical better than anything I've found. I've worked with almost every major accounting package in the last 15 years, integrating many of them with many systems. Right from a basic to Enterprise ERP level. Accpac, SAP, quicken, quickbooks, myob, Peachtree, Simply, BusinessVision and more. I'm that guy who gets thrown down many accounting integration wells working both in manufacturing and service industries. What's the point? My post was about a working system where my business has projects, and time put on those projects for by internal employees and outside contractors, a common setup for programming shops, and startups. A subtle, but huge difference. I get invoices from my contractors. I get time sheets from employees. I need to collect and tracking time both as an aggregate and separately. Lots of small issues pop up though. My contractor bills me at one rate, I manage his time and the project and bill that same time at a higher rate to the customer. Things get a little more complex than a straight billing system. Adding to the fun, quite often startups do some consulting work on the side to supplement / customize their software. Committing time from a command line doesn't do it for my business. It probably would be a feature that's very, super convenient and sweet for just myself, though. I love stuff like that! Since I am out to own a business, and not a job I can't quit (A business is something that runs without us), it's what's behind my thought, decisions, and direction. I hope this clears it up a little. :)

j45 15y ago

For software development / consulting work there's just one thing. You simply must use one case per task to keep it all straight and have a searchable, documented history looking back. I recommend tracking time directly in something like Fogbugz and letting it feed the time directly into your time-tracking / invoicing solution. Why? - I touch 50-100 cases in reasonable detail a day. Features, Analysis, designs, inquiries, bugs, etc. Hopping between a case manager screen where the technical details are and a time tracking / project management screen can get a bit loopy. My time is different than my contractors time. I assign my contractors a task as a project. They only report or see those items. Freshbooks lets me give them their own interface where they send and bill me directly what I've approved. My own time goes into Fogbugz which carries into Freshbooks via API.

ahoyhere 15y ago
Did you miss the part where I said Freckle has integration points for github & beanstalk? You can log time from your commit messages.
- j45 15y ago
  I didn't miss it. I'm just not sure what you said fits the context of my original post. Freckle looks nice. I'm not sure if Freckle has a similar contractor mechanism to Freshbooks to create a funnel to collect hours from multiple internal and external sources, but keep them separate. And that, is one of the key integration points to save management and admin time for freelancing, contracting, consulting and startups, especially when you have a flood of projects and bill out on each one individually. I'm not super hot on Freshbooks, but it does a few things that are critical better than anything I've found. I've worked with almost every major accounting package in the last 15 years, integrating many of them with many systems. Right from a basic to Enterprise ERP level. Accpac, SAP, quicken, quickbooks, myob, Peachtree, Simply, BusinessVision and more. I'm that guy who gets thrown down many accounting integration wells working both in manufacturing and service industries. What's the point? My post was about a working system where my business has projects, and time put on those projects for by internal employees and outside contractors, a common setup for programming shops, and startups. A subtle, but huge difference. I get invoices from my contractors. I get time sheets from employees. I need to collect and tracking time both as an aggregate and separately. Lots of small issues pop up though. My contractor bills me at one rate, I manage his time and the project and bill that same time at a higher rate to the customer. Things get a little more complex than a straight billing system. Adding to the fun, quite often startups do some consulting work on the side to supplement / customize their software. Committing time from a command line doesn't do it for my business. It probably would be a feature that's very, super convenient and sweet for just myself, though. I love stuff like that! Since I am out to own a business, and not a job I can't quit (A business is something that runs without us), it's what's behind my thought, decisions, and direction. I hope this clears it up a little. :)