Choose a time tracker by the question you need answered.
Start with how you charge. If clients pay by the hour, a quick timer, clear totals, and a reliable export may be enough. If you agree a fixed price before the work starts, look for budgets and effective hourly rates by phase. They show whether each part of the fee still covers the time it is taking.
The right tool depends on how you get paid.
Almost any tracker can tell you that a task took three hours. If you bill by the hour, accurate time totals and a reliable export may be all you need.
Fixed-price work needs one more comparison: the agreed price against the hours it is taking to deliver. Decide which question you need answered before comparing products, because that determines whether a simple tracker is enough.
What should you decide before comparing tools?
Write down the business question the tool must answer. This keeps a long feature list from distracting you with functions that do not help the way you charge.
Hourly work usually needs accurate time by project and an export you trust. Fixed-price work also needs the agreed amount, which part of the job it covers, and the effective rate that amount is earning as hours are added.
- How long did the task or project take?
- How was the week divided across projects and clients?
- Has this phase used more hours than its share of the fixed price allows?
- What is the current effective hourly rate for this project or phase?
What kinds of tool are there?
Time-tracking setups for solo work usually fall into four groups. Each can be the right choice, depending on what you need to know:
- A plain tracker records time, totals it by project, and exports it. For hourly work, this may be everything you need at a low or free price.
- A tracker plus a spreadsheet keeps hours in one place and fixed prices in another. It can calculate the right result, but only when both files are kept up to date.
- A firm-scale suite adds staff planning, approvals, billing, and accounting. It suits a team that needs those workflows, but can bring more setup and per-seat cost than one person needs.
- A phase-aware tracker keeps each part of the fee beside the hours for that same part of the job. It can show budget use and effective rate without a separate spreadsheet.
What should you test before committing?
Use the trial to test the daily workflow and the results, not only the settings page. Check these points before you build up a large history:
- Time entry should be quick enough that you will still use it on a busy day. Missing hours make every profitability result look better than reality.
- Open the project total and check whether you can see which phase or task used the time.
- Create a client document, then edit the project. The saved document should keep the figures it had when you created it.
- Check the arithmetic. Line amounts and totals should agree to the cent.
- Go over a budget. The tool should keep accepting time and show the overrun without deciding that the work changed scope.
- Confirm the real price for one person, including any minimum number of seats or required add-ons.
How should you run the trial?
Use a real project rather than a sample. Track a normal week, including non-billable work, and see whether entry remains quick when you are busy.
At the end of the week, return to the question you wrote down. The product should answer it clearly on screen. If you still need to rebuild the answer in a spreadsheet, decide whether that extra work is acceptable.
Finally, export the data and open the files. Knowing that you can take a complete copy with you makes it safer to commit to the tool.
Common questions
Is a spreadsheet good enough?
Yes, if you keep it updated. A spreadsheet can store the price and calculate budget use or effective rate from imported hours. The trade-off is the maintenance: the hours and money live in separate places, so the result is current only after you update and check both.
Do I need any of this if I bill by the hour?
Probably not. When clients pay for every recorded hour, accurate totals and a reliable export may answer the main question. Phase budgets and effective rates become useful when you agree the amount before you know the final number of hours.
What is an effective hourly rate?
For fixed-price work, effective hourly rate is the agreed amount divided by the hours spent delivering the agreement. A €3,000 phase earns €60 per hour at 50 hours. At 70 hours, it earns just under €43. This compares price with time; it does not subtract expenses or calculate net profit.
Should the tool handle billing and accounting too?
Not necessarily. Billing and accounting have legal and tax requirements that vary by country, and many solo practices already use dedicated tools for them. A focused tracker can handle time, budgets, and supporting reports while your existing accounting tool handles payment and tax records.
How long should a trial actually take?
Five working days on a real project are enough to test the daily workflow. The goal is to learn whether time entry stays quick and whether the product can answer your main question from the records you naturally create.
What does Phased do out of this list?
Phased keeps each phase's share of the fixed price beside the hours logged to it. It shows budget use and effective hourly rate while the work is active, separates added requests, and creates client-ready reports. It has no accounting, payment collection, staff planning, or seats. Free supports three active projects; Pro costs €7 a month or €66 a year.