Whenever I go to trade shows or conferences, or when I know I'll be working away from the office, I need a good way to keep track of the time I spend working on various projects.
Before PDAs, I relied on a stack of printed timesheets, on which I'd record the dates, job information, and amount of time spent on any given project. But now that I have my trusty Palm handheld with me at all times, I can use it instead. The key: time-keeping apps that let me track my billable hours by client and project, letting me do away with the scraps of paper and messy timesheets.
Here are my three favourite Palm apps for tracking my work time:
Times for Palm is a free product that's great for tracking time spent on multiple clients and jobs. It's fine as far as it goes, but if you want full functionality (including 2-way synching and analysis of your project-tracking data), you'll need to purchase the desktop version at the developer's site. (Free/Palm OS)
TimeCompanion offers up both the Palm and desktop client in one download and can track multiple employees, clients, and projects. Time reports can then be exported to Excel for full reporting and analysis. (Shareware/Palm OS)
TimeWhiz is my favourite of the bunch because it includes all the project and billable-time tools you need, plus some useful extras, while remaining free. This one offers project, client, and activity tracking on Palm and desktop PCs, and you can also record job-related expenses and mileage. (Free/Palm OS)
If you're a consultant or need to record time spent on offsite jobs, forget the pen and paper: Use your Palm handheld and one of these useful programs.
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Slightly behind the times. Why bother with another program to drag down your PDA? Check out www.timetag.com They let you use your EXISTING calendar to do time tracking! They also work with any of the popular PDA's AND wireless technologies like Blackberry, Goodlink, Treo or Smartphones.
Melody