Tracking Time for Developers: The Most Efficient Professional Time Trackers

Is it really needed to use specialized software and track the developers’ working hours?

Many developers oppose the entire idea. Others have mixed feelings. Tracking time often seems dubious, mostly because of a complete misunderstanding of its purposes. Some software developers consider using the time trackers to be a kind of intrusion into their personal spaces. Besides, not-so-effective managers frequently view these tools as means of control, only raising conflicts in teams. But it is not the role of time tracking.

For software developers, tracking time is a helpful practice that brings a lot of good when used appropriately. Just have a look at its noticeable benefits:

Simpler reporting. There is no need to keep separate sheets, register tasks, and check through the notes to prepare a report. An efficient time tracker will mark each specific duty and its duration.

Simpler managing employees’ attendance – work hours, overtimes, vacations, sick leaves, etc. You can place time off requests through the tracker and get them approved, thus saving time.

Simpler calculation of the developers’ salaries. You know billable and non-billable hours, keep track of overtime work, and so on. With hourly rates, you can be sure of getting paid correctly.

Simpler managing teams. The leader can assign tasks to performers according to their load and effectiveness, and adjust working schedules according to the results.

Simpler project management. You can see how long a particular project or task took versus the planned time, analyze the performance, define the bottlenecks, and resolve the problems.

The question is, which time tracking software suits the software developers best of all. Let us research the most popular time tracking apps and decide which of them are worth your attention.

TMetric

TMetric is a powerful, multi-purpose time tracking solution. It is suitable for personal and team usage, and it is one of the most convenient time trackers for developers. Its primary goals concern measuring the project (and separate tasks) progress, calculating budgets and fees, reporting, and invoicing.

The time tracker monitors each project and its tasks precisely, with a detailed breakdown for all activities and pitfalls. It integrates with popular task management systems and working areas (50+ resources, including Jira, Trello, Asana, Google Documents, Google Sheets, Outlook, etc.). You can start tasks directly from those areas, and TMetric will add and track them automatedly.

This solution makes it easy to track billable and non-billable time and budgets. Financial reports include all activities of even one-minute-long. You can invoice clients and analyze your revenues and losses regarding the budget. Similarly, it calculates the developer’s salaries for the precise number of working hours.

The tool is helpful for monitoring and management distributed teams. You can check a load of all employees and their productiveness, as TMetric shows their tasks, the time used, and progress.

7pace

7pace is a specialized tool designed to work and track time in Azure DevOps. It is adjusted perfectly to this area, and it allows for efficient project and time management at any stage of the software development process. The solution is available in the cloud (for Azure DevOps Services) and on-premise (for Axure DevOps Server).

The 7pace time tracker for developers delivers a comprehensive overview of all tasks, sub-tasks, and plans. The tool tracks all the activities. When users switch between different applications and tasks, the time tracker registers it automatically and updates the information, including the new task IDs, titles, and specific keywords.

The data can be easily filtered and sorted for easier processing. Developers can submit their time logs and work logs to managers directly.

On the other hand, the 7pace interface is quite complicated. It provides a lot of information and metrics for in-depth analysis. Such solutions are more suitable for large teams and sophisticated products. Smaller teams of developers would hardly need so much data. They would benefit more from simpler time trackers. One more disadvantage of 7pace is the absence of the users' computer activities tracking. The software is adjusted for the Azure DevOps environments only. Thus, other professional jobs and responsibilities may not get tracked and registered at all.

Tempo

Tempo is another popular time tracker for developers. The distinctive feature of the product is complete integration with Jira – this tracker targets this system only.

Tempo gets incorporated into Jira and allows the users to track time, create reports, and calculate fees and revenues.

The tracker collects the information on the recorded time overall and all details of the work processes. This way, users can analyze the data in-depth, group it, sort, and apply filters for examination.

Tempo also integrates with Google and Microsoft calendars, letting the users track various events. However, the primary purpose of this software is to tie Jira and Tempo and automate the work. Users can plan their work and resource allocation along with managing budgets.

To track the activity in real-time, you should access the Tempo panel incorporated in Jira. You can launch the time tracker with one click for any specific task, record the time, and log the work hours automatically. It is worth mentioning the possibility to apply different categories for tracking time, which helps in reporting.

Tempo is efficient for those who work with Jira, but it is less convenient for those preferring other project management systems.

Timing

Timing is a software time tracker for developers and other users working on Mac. It collects the data and records the time used for different tasks while working in the background and doing its job automatically. Timing compiles informative timelines for works in process and applications and websites used.

This time tracker lets the users categorize their activities. Detailed reports and calendar views help them review and analyze the time and efficiency. It is a suitable time tracker for software development teams, where members work on shared projects and report their hours to the manager. A manager can evaluate the overall project time and get a breakdown for each user.

Timing registers the tasks and their duration automatically. It eliminates the need for noting them and assigning categories to them manually. However, Timing lacks the business administration module. It allows for tracking work hours and particular jobs, but it won't calculate the salaries or issue invoices.

TrackingTime

TrackingTime is a well-known solution that helps developers monitor their work in real-time and manage tasks. The team member of any level can monitor their progress and analyze work hours spent doing projects and separate assignments.

The tool presents an overview of all clients, projects, and employees. It also allows for exploring any such category for detailed information. Managers can check the performance of the entire team and each particular employee. Besides, with the help of TrackingTime, managers can monitor, manage, and report the employees' attendance.

TrackingTime also covers budget management and invoicing. You can check every client and review all their projects and services provided for them. The process of tracking time is simple. The reporting is based on time logs.

TrackingTime is integrated with popular repositories, project management software, Google Docs, Sheets, and Calendar, customer support, work communication systems, etc. (40+ solutions overall).

Conclusion

The above-mentioned time trackers have different priorities and specificities. Some of them are targeted towards one specific system only, others lack essential functionality. Still, such solutions as TMetric and TrackingTime are universal, robust in functionality, and help the software developers improve their productivity, get paid quickly and fairly, and manage both their individual work and the entire team’s performance efficiently.