Employee time tracking software for agencies and professional services

AVAILABLE TODAY

Time tracking that lands on the right project

Each person records hours against a task. The task already belongs to a project and the project to a client, so every hour is counted in the right place without a separate spreadsheet. Manual time tracking is included in every plan.

Timesheets and approval

From the Core plan, a manager reviews each person’s week and approves the timesheet. Project cost counts every hour logged against the project’s tasks. Approval locks each submitted week, so the hours behind a report can be checked and do not change afterwards.

From hours to cost

A loaded hourly cost is held for each person and is visible to leadership only. Logged hours at that cost, plus direct expenses, are set against the project value. That is project profitability in PLYNTUM, shown on the finance side of the same record.

Free timesheet template Work out your cost per hour

How weekly approval works, and what it costs next to other tools: timesheet approval software.

Agencies and professional services firms sell time, so their time tracking software has one job above the rest: every hour has to land on the client work it belongs to. An entry that says “Tuesday, 8 hours” does not tell you which client, project or task it went to.

In PLYNTUM, hours are logged against a client task. The task belongs to a project and the project to a client, so billable and non-billable time, cost per client and hours against a fixed fee all come from the same entries.

• On every plan: a manual timer, weekly timesheets, attendance and leave. Not ready to move yet? Start with the free timesheet template.
• From Core: managers approve timesheets, and billable rates put a value on approved billable hours. See what counts as billable hours.
• In development: automatic desktop and browser capture. It is not available today, so hours are entered by hand; a short entry each day beats a Friday reconstruction, and the hours that never get logged shows what the gap costs.

Comparing tools first? The best time tracking software guide compares time trackers on their published prices and features.

The time tracker and the time tracking app: timer, manual entry, weekly timesheet

PLYNTUM’s time tracker is on every plan and works two ways. Start the timer on the task you are working on and stop it when you switch, or type the hours into the weekly timesheet at the end of the day. Both land on the same task, so the project and the client get the hours either way. The time tracking app is the same workspace opened in the phone’s browser: there is no App Store or Google Play app, so a person on site starts the timer or enters the hours from a phone without installing anything.

• Timer. Started and stopped on the task; the time lands on that task’s project and client.
• Manual entry. Hours typed against a task for a day, for work done away from the screen or forgotten yesterday.
• Weekly timesheet. Each person’s week on one screen. From Core the week is submitted and approved, and approval locks it.
• Attendance and leave. On every plan, next to the hours, so a half day of leave does not look like a missing half day of work.

Not in the tracker: automatic desktop or browser capture, which is in development, and screenshots or keystroke logging, which the capture policy below excludes. Comparing time trackers first? The cheapest time tracking software ranks 12 time trackers by real team cost, and the timesheet software guide explains what timesheets add to a tracker.

IN DEVELOPMENT: PRIVATE TIME CAPTURE

Capture, personal review and approved work time are separate steps. Application names, domains and duration help a person reconstruct their working day. Reviewed entries can then be linked to the relevant work. Confirm device support and the workspace review process before introducing capture to a team.

Read about access boundaries Connect time and cost

App names, domains and duration

The capture policy covers application names, domains and duration. It excludes screenshots, keystrokes, page contents and document titles.

The person controls capture

The planned capture experience includes consent, pause, exclusions and deletion. Managers do not receive a raw browsing-history feed.

Private activity becomes approved time

Time Intelligence is being developed to suggest task and client allocations. A person reviews each suggestion; approved time can then inform management and finance.

Also in the system

Desktop and browser capture, private timeline, task allocation, timesheets and capacity. Desktop distribution and AI allocation are release-dependent.

Further reading: What an hour of your team actually costs and timesheet software: how it works and which to choose.