Thanks for thoughtful post, JeffH. I am still thinking how to include time tracking into MLO. Just do not want to make the application "heavy" because of this feature. I will use this information when/if design the feature.
Andrey. On May 16, 3:23 pm, JeffH <[email protected]> wrote: > Using MLO to plan and execute projects and tasks is fantastic. Having > to use a separate app to track time spent is frustrating, involving > duplicate data entry, inconsistencies, etc. I believe time tracking > could be integrated into MLO cleanly and unobtrusively, so as not to > bother those who don't want or need it. I recently looked at over a > dozen time-tracking apps, listed below, with brief comments. First, > some design ideas. Throughout, when I say project, I mean any non-leaf > node of the hierarchy. > > - Maintain a list of task or activity types (eg Administration, > Coding, Maintenance, Documentation, etc.) > > - Maintain a list of clients. > > - Maintain a log of activities. Each entry includes a start date/time, > end date/time, associated task id. Give the task log a separate tab > next to Task Notes and Properties. By default, show the current date. > Allow filtering by date; maybe show a calendar or drop-down calendar. > > - Provide a timer to accumulate time to a task. Select the task, right > click, and start the timer. Maintain a MRU list of tasks; show on > right-clicking the tray icon. > > - Provide a properties pane (or tab?) to capture expenses. Associate > each expense with a project. Capture date, amount, vendor, > description, paid (bool). > > - Provide reporting options: Summary by date (today, week, month), > Detail by date, Summary by project, detail by project, projects by > client (detail/summary, Client billing (paid, unpaid, all), Activity > per time unit (detail/summary) (eg this week 20 hours coding, 10.5 > hours admin, etc.), ... > > - Don't need detailed financial accounting of billing. > > Products I reviewed: > > Maybe > - Easy Time Tracking - sluggish ui, but pretty functional. Allows > customized statuses for projects and tasks; task categories; does > invoicing. Tray window is informative but a intrusuve. > > - Timeless Time & Expense - Seems to have everything, but pretty > awkward. Version 3 coming soon, free upgrade, Allows expense tracking. > UI seems sluggish here too. Tray control but no window. > > Almost > - AllNeticWorkingTimeTracker: very clean ui. has tray app for start/ > stop. Doesn't have task categories (activities). Reporting not great. > > - TimePanic - interesting. activity centric. Allows projects + > subprojects; no expense support; > > Definitely not > - FruitFul > > - Office Time - has projects and categories, but no tasks. Multiple > windows confusing. > > - Responsive Time Logger - pretty rich feature set. Expensive. Tray > app doesn't allow task switching (per screen shot). > > - Complete Time Tracking - kind of cool, compact ui; no activities; > > - Time Shadow > > - Time Tracker > > - ya Timer -http://www.nbdtech.com/yaTimer/Help/- kind of cool, no > task notes > > - WHID - sourceforge > > - TimeSheets MTS - pretty heavy duty - requires manually entered > project and task ids - > > - Fanurio -http://www.fanuriotimetracking.com/- Java based. no tasks > > That just scratches the surface. There are TONS of tools out there, > none with an MLO's highly tuned look and feel, most very awkward, > heavy, sluggish. AllNetic comes closest, but lacks functionality. I > would easily fork over more $ for an integrated MLO implementation. > > Anybody else? --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MyLifeOrganized" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/myLifeOrganized?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
