This blog discusses time tracking with a chrome extension.
We have found that our clients don’t always complete their own time tracking.
Often, this is because it is not top of mind for them to do so daily or weekly.
We have found that the best way to get people to commit to this important task is to put it in front of their face each day.
One of the easiest ways to do this is by creating a chrome extension that will ask them to record their time before they close out their browser. This article will walk you through how we implemented such an extension within our organization and provide a code example.
Chrome Extension For Time Tracking
The sooner you record your work time, the more accurate is your timesheet data. Ideally, time should be recorded immediately upon completion of each task, but in reality, people tend to forget about filling in timesheets or are just reluctant to do so.
Besides, manual systems, which are mostly used for timekeeping in office environments, are not always the best solution when high accuracy is in question. The good news is that you can use time tracking Chrome extensions in your browser that will count working hours for you.Contents
- How Browser Extensions Work
- Time Tracking Extensions for Chrome
- actiTIME
- TrackingTime
- Simple Time Tracker
- Elorus
- Clockify
How Browser Extensions Work
Browser extensions and plugins are additional components built in the web browser that perform specific tasks of work routine. Time tracking Chrome extensions are basically timers that count how many hours and minutes have been spent on websites, pages, and web applications.
Mostly, browser time logging extensions are a part of time tracking systems with more robust functionality than just tracking work time. Accurate data on how much time has been spent on a specific work assignment is synced with the system and used for reporting, billing, and productivity analysis.
Some project management solutions also include time tracking Chrome extensions for recording time spent on work. The recorded data can be used for monitoring work progress, identifying possible delays and other issues, analyzing the proportion between estimated and actually spent time, detecting whether changes are necessary, and many other project management steps. The degree of accuracy of this data defines the relevance of decisions made on its basis.
Speaking of accuracy, time log errors are possible even with the timer recording method. For example, forgetting about stopping the timer is a common thing in a hectic routine. To prevent inaccurate records from getting logged into the system, timer extensions are usually provided with the ability to edit the counted time manually.
Tools with Time Tracking Chrome Extensions
There are various tools for timekeeping, work management and project management that include time tracking Chrome extensions. Mostly, extensions are offered for Google Chrome as one of the most popular web browsers. Here’s a list of some helpful Chrome extensions that allow employees to track time directly from the websites and apps they are using at work:
1. actiTIME
actiTIME Timer is a time tracking Chrome extension that simplifies the timekeeping process. It is a part of a robust work management solution designed to help you track work hours from the web browser and web apps you’re using at work. It is a convenient tool to automatically count work time and sync it with your actiTIME account.
For example, if you’re working on an issue in Jira, just start the timer when you take on the assignment, and stop it when work is done. Adjust recorded time if necessary, and log it for a task in actiTIME.
actiTIME enables us to better workload balance
I found in actiTIME all the requirements I was looking for. We are getting a lot of benefits – the tool enables us to better balance workload, and have a constant view of what people are doing. I really recommend it, I evaluated a lot of tools, also had an in-house development before which demanded a lot of maintenance, and actiTIME solved all problems with no hassle.Try actiTIME
2. TrackingTime
This time tracking Chrome extension is also a part of a timekeeping tool that helps collect accurate work time data. This data is synced with the user’s TrackingTime account and used for calculating work time and billable amounts, preparing reports on how time is allocated within teams, analyzing the most time-consuming parts of work, etc.
3. Simple Time Tracker
This time tracking Chrome extension is an autonomous tool that helps individuals analyze their productivity. It works for office employees, self-employed individuals, freelancers, students, and anyone who is working on their performance and needs accurate data on how time is spent. The extension can track time for specific tasks and summarize the results – its functionality is very basic, as its name suggests.
4. Elorus
Elorus extension is a component of an online invoicing software tool. It counts work time that can be later used for calculating billable amounts, keeps time tracking history, and allows to monitor team results. This tool works for small teams, freelancers, and self-employed professionals who bill their customers on the basis of time tracking data.
5. Clockify
Clockify timer for Chrome works as part of the time tracking system and helps improve performance at work. It allows to keep track of work hours, detects idle time, includes reminders, and has a Pomodoro timer designed for working on productivity and defeating distractions. Automatic start/ stop and reminders help reduce the inaccuracy of time logs.
| actiTIME | TrackingTime | Simple Time Tracker | Elorus | Clockify | |
| Part of time tracking solution | |||||
| Logged time adjustments | |||||
| Time reports | |||||
| Automated time tracking | |||||
| Integrations |
best time tracking chrome extension
Most project management apps either don’t offer time tracking or provide very limited functionality. To be as productive as possible, you’ll want an app that does both well. And while there are some integrations that will help, the best solution might be: Chrome time tracking.
They’re some of the best productivity extensions out there, and they can make a big difference in how you manage your projects. Let’s take a look.
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What doesn’t work: relying on project management apps
Project management apps are great. We love ’em. But there are a few places where they fall short. Most project management apps fall short by lacking in the following areas:
Time tracking. Some of the project management frontrunners like Trello and Clickup don’t even offer time tracking. This forces you to use two apps when you could be using one. And like too many cooks in the kitchen, multiple apps can cause trouble.
Super basic tracking. Some apps, like Wrike, offer time tracking, but it’s only a timer. Just like a simple kitchen timer, you turn it on at the start of a task and off once complete. Which isn’t nearly as useful as it could be.
The honor system. Most time tracking methods rely on a person’s integrity. But, consciously or unconsciously, most people will record their time inaccurately.
Technology. Ah yes, some project management approaches rely on paper time sheets. Most people wait until the end of the day or even the week and scramble. You’ll try to recall what you did on Tuesday for three hours. Maybe you’ll piece together billable hours for multiple clients. But the estimates will always be off.
Your best bet, then, is to use a project management app and a separate time tracking app. But that’s a pain; you need to switch back and forth all the time, and splitting up your time between different projects is up to you. It can be done, but there has to be an easier way.
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Enter integrations: better, but not great
Using separate time tracking and project management apps can solve the problem. But it’s certainly not optimal. Using a project management tool that integrates with a time tracker is better. Both Trello and Clickup have some helpful time tracking integrations.
Here’s how these integrations work:
Your project manager tasks are synced to the time tracking tools
You track time on those tasks from the timer
Time gets synced back to your project management app
Problem solved, right? Unfortunately not; there’s still a glaring issue. Let’s say you communicate a lot through Trello. There’s no record of this in your time tracking software. To create an accurate record, you need to jump back and forth between your time management and project management apps.
This becomes very inefficient. Especially if, like me, you get five or six Trello notifications every hour.
So what’s the solution? How can you track your time in a project management app with all the advanced time tracking functionality you need?
Enter Chrome timer extensions.
Finding the best solution
Some time tracking apps have Chrome timer extensions that allow you to track time from your favorite web-based project management app without leaving the app itself.
But there are a gazillion Chrome time trackers on the marketplace. How do you choose? I did some research and test drove the three below. But before we get into specifics, here are some reasons why these Chrome time trackers take the prize:
They integrate with various project management apps. If, for example, you need to switch from Basecamp to Trello, or your team wants to go from Trello to Asana, you don’t have to change your time tracking application.
They’re available across devices. If you’re traveling and need to track time from a mobile phone (where Chrome extensions are not available) or a co-worker’s laptop, these tools give you other options. Specifically, they work on Mac, Windows, Linux, Android, iPhone, and as a Chrome extension. Whatever you have with you will work.
They’re user-friendly. Obviously. Why would you use a tool that’s difficult and thus make you more inefficient?
They’re economical. Again, obvious. You wouldn’t use a tool that would cost thousands of dollars every month. Everyone and every company has a budget.
The best Chrome timer extensions
- Hubstaff
Hubstaff extension for Chrome makes it easy to record your work hours. This easy-to-use time tracker allows you to track hours by task or client so you can see where your day goes.
Its time-saving features are a big stand-out, and the Chrome timer extension gives you the data you need to improve productivity over time.
hubstaff chrome time trackerBetter yet, you can use tracked hours to create invoices, generate reports, and even pay your team.
Working with a distributed team? Check out the excellent employee productivity features that help you see where your team’s time goes.
Managers and business owners can set weekly hours limits for their team members so that you’ll never go over budget. Get automatic alerts as hours and budget limits are approached.
Other features:
Set time limits for each team member weekly
Pay your team automatically at whatever rate you agree to
Track time on the go with GPS-based location reporting
See what applications your team members are using most
Get email alerts to track your team’s schedule and see any changes
Manage project costs with project budgets and alerts
Integrations:
Asana
Clickup
GitHub
JIRA
QuickBooks
Trello
and more
Price:
Plans include a 14-day free trial. See full pricing details here.
Solo: Hubstaff Time is free for one user.
Starter: for only $7 per user per month, you’ll get time tracking, automated timesheets, robust reports, and more.
Premium: $10 per user per month. Everything from the first two plans, but you also get scheduling tools, time off and holidays, client and project budgets, and more powerful tools to manage your team.
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- Harvest
Harvest is one of the most popular time tracking tools on the market today. It offers time tracking across a wide range of platforms, including (unbelievably) Apple watches.
Harvest’s Chrome time tracker
Also, they get a +1 for their invoicing capabilities. And if you have multiple clients, you can pull your tracked time into a customized invoice and save on manually entering time.
Other features:
Analyze data with a built-in reporting system
Set hourly and fee-based budgets to track projects
Run reports on billable and non-billable time for specific employees, tasks, clients, or projects
View and approve your team’s time and expenses
Send automated reminders to people who forget to submit time sheets
Integrations:
Asana
Basecamp
Breeze
Brightspot
Flow
Jira
and more
Price:
There is a free 30-day trial for all plans, and the pricing structure is super easy:
Free: one person, two projects.
Solo: $12 per month, one person, unlimited projects.
Team: $12 per month per person, unlimited projects and unlimited people.
- Toggl
Toggl’s Chrome extension tracks in real time, so you never lose a minute of billable hours—even if you’re offline. If you forget to switch it on, you can enter time later. And you can organize your time by projects or tags to keep everything easy to access.
Toggl Chrome extension
A large list of integrations and the ability to mark specific chunks of time as billable are very convenient. But both of these features are unavailable on the free plan.
Other features:
Get an instant overview of your billable time and team progress
Export timesheets
Have an unlimited number of projects or clients
View the dashboard to compare current tracking data with the previous week
Divide teams into groups (this is great if you have different departments and teams)
Set billable rates for employees who bill higher or lower rates than others
Integrations:
Asana
Basecamp
Freshbooks
GitHub
iCal feed
Teamweek
and more
Price:
Each plan below includes a 30-day trial.
Free: You get most of the time tracking, but very little of the project management functions.
Starter: $9 per user per month. Upgrade to this level and you’ll get many reporting functions, like billable rates, exporting and detailed weekly reports. You also get project management functions: alerts for estimates, project dashboards and project time estimates.
Premium: $18 per user per month. At this level, you’ll get more of a customized experience. You can also choose one special feature to add to your plan.
Enterprise: $49 per user per month. This level comes with priority support and unlimited access to special features.
- TrackingTime
TrackingTime
TrackingTime is designed to help track time, analyze how it’s being spent, and report work to your company. The Chrome time tracking extension displays a navigation bar and shows your recent activity, a timer, and a notifications tab. You can also use multiple accounts. The layout is very clean and easy to navigate.
Other Features:
Create, edit, and collaborate on tasks from the main screen
View calendar for a weekly overview of projects and team members
Manage team members and control system access
Create timesheets and reports, and export them to Excel
Integrate TrackingTime in your own apps or online services with the public API
Integrations:
Any.do
Basecamp
GitHub
Gmail
JIRA
Producteev
and more
Price:
All plans come with a 14-day free trial that includes the PRO version.
Basic: free. Track time, add time manually and import entries for teams of up to three people and up to 100 tasks.
Pro: $5 per user per month. Get a calendar feature, custom reports, add notes to time entries, and create time audits.
Business: $9 per user per month. This plan is “coming soon” according to the TrackingTime website, but will include everything in Pro plus time audits and user logs.
- ZipBooks
ZipBooks is accounting software that offers a time tracking add-on for Chrome. You can track billable time through the extension, and then ZipBooks pulls that information into an invoice. It’s time tracking that’s focused on bookkeeping and accounting for small businesses.
ZipBooks time tracking chrome extension
Other features:
Since ZipBooks is primarily an accounting tool with time tracking as an add-on, the features are focused on small business accounting, such as:
Unlimited recurring invoices
Add new clients without having to use web app
Automatically imports time and expenses into invoices
Integrations:
None mentioned.
Price:
ZipBooks offers a 30-day free trial of their Smarter and Sophisticated Plans.
Starter: free, but doesn’t include time tracking.
Smarter: $15/month. To get time tracking as a feature, you’ll have to opt for the $15/month plan.
Sophisticated: $35/month. More accounting features such as bank reconciliation and secure document sharing, along with advanced reporting.
Your guide to increased productivity
- CloudTimr
cloudtimr
No one likes logins and passwords these days. CloudTimr lets you log in using your Google account for convenience. Creating tasks and tracking time on them is easy; as a plus, cloud storage of your information means it can be used across multiple platforms. The tour of the key features is great for learning the program quickly.
Other features:
Create numerous tasks
Group tasks using hashtags
Create tasks with goals if needed
Desktop notifications
Statistics page with graphs
Integrations:
None
Price: free.
- Tick
tick
Tick works on many devices, from your laptop and desktop to your phone and Apple Watch. Tasks are assigned time, and the timecard keeps track of project budgets. Just enter a budgeted amount and once you start entering time, see how many billable hours are left per project.
Other features:
Organize projects by client
Enter notes on each project
Choose a single timer or multiple timers if working on more than one project at a time
Assign team members to projects
See a snapshot of all current projects and budgets with the company overview
Integrations:
Apple Watch
Asana
Basecamp
QuickBooks
Freshbooks
Trello
Price:
Free 30-day trial. All plans include unlimited people and Basecamp integration.
One project: free.
10 projects: $19 per month.
30 projects: $49 per month. Includes recurring projects.
60 projects: $79 per month. Includes recurring projects.
Unlimited projects: $149 per month. Includes recurring projects.
- TMetric
tmetric
TMetric is a time tracking service for IT professionals and companies. You can track tasks from multiple project management systems within the extension. Other features include categorizing time, creating reports and monitoring your team online. Time is viewed as a timeline and can be edited from TMetric.
Other features:
Switch to team mode and see what your co-workers are doing
Works for any management style
Download a server-based version
Use filters to decipher reports
Add tags to group your time by activities
Integrations:
Asana
Github
Trello
Producteev
Visual Studio
Wrike
and more
Price:
All paid plans start with a 30-day free trial.
Free for up to five users.
Professional: $4 per user per month if billed annually ($5/user if billed monthly).
Business: $6 per user per month if billed annually ($7/user if billed monthly).
- Everhour
For a very simple time tracking solution, Everhour offers a Chrome extension. Priding itself on a variety of integrations and ease-of-use, Everhour offers time tracking, reporting, invoicing and more.
Integrations:
Asana
Basecamp
Github
Jira
Pivotal Tracker
Trello
Quickbooks
And more
Price:
Instead of offering plans with different features, Everhour is priced based on how big your team is.
Solo: $8 per user per month if paid annually. Limited to one user.
Team: $5 per user per month if paid annually ($7/user/month if paid monthly).
Try the #1 Chrome time tracker now
Track time and boost productivity with Hubstaff Time.
- FreshBooks
Like ZipBooks, FreshBooks is focused on small business accounting. The app’s features are focused on that, but the company does offer a Chrome extension for tracking billable time. The whole purpose is to track time more accurately so that billing and invoicing can be automated and seamless.freshbooks chrome extension
Integrations:
Asana
Basecamp
Trello
PayPal
Hubspot
Square
and more
Price:
Users get a free 30-day trial.
Lite: $15 per month for up to 5 clients.
Plus: $20 per month for up to 50 clients. With automatic payment reminders, late fees for overdue payments and scheduling of recurring invoices.
Premium: $50 per month for up to 500 clients.
- SCREENish
screenish
With the ability to assign projects on phone or computer tracking systems, SCREENish is good for distributed or partially distributed teams. You can create, assign, and monitor both your own and your team’s projects. And the extension offers a simple step-by-step process for getting started.
Other features:
Configure projects with distraction filters, idle time, and user reports
Share progress reports with current clients
Approve time worked from the app
Analyze time sheets, screenshots, and activity levels
View payroll and productivity graphs
Integrations:
None
Price:
$5 per user per month up to 20 users. Beyond 20 users, you’ll need to get in touch with SCREENish.
- Time Track Turbo
timetrackturbo
Time Track Turbo uses a central dashboard to track time both online and off. Besides tracking time, you can edit projects, oversee time sheets, and jump between different clients.
Other features:
Create invoices for clients from project time sheets
Add, edit or delete time from daily, weekly, or monthly time sheets
Use charts and summaries to see where time is being spent
User international currency and tax structures
Enter time manually and edit time sheets in CSV format
Integrations:
None
Price:
Basic: free. Ten projects, five clients, five services, five invoices and unlimited time tracking.
Pro subscription: $6 per user per month. Unlimited everything except employees.
Business subscription: coming soon. Tracks time for multiple workers.
- Awesome Timesheet
awesometimesheet
Awesome Timesheet is quick and easy to learn. The timer gives you statistics on your work, and you can bill and schedule work to be done to stay more organized. Plus, it synchronizes across devices: desktop, mobile app, Chrome app and more.
Other features:
Record time before or after your project
One-click time tracking
Get statistics on a daily or weekly basis to see where your time is being spent
Track time offline and sync when you connect again
Monitor productivity by project
Integrations:
Odoo
Price:
Free. Get one app, free billing, and cloud hosting.
Online: $24 per user per month if paid annually. Pay for apps as you use them. Includes monthly billing, customization, and support. Price goes up for each user added.
Conclusion
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