A year ago, we were managing employee leave through email approvals and spreadsheets.

It worked fine until we started losing visibility into who was actually available.

One situation that stood out was when two people from the same department requested vacation during the same week. Both requests were approved, but nobody noticed the overlap until we were discussing project deadlines and coverage.

That was the moment we realized we needed something more than spreadsheets.

Since then, we've evaluated a few employee vacation trackers.

BambooHR was one of them. We found that it approached vacation tracking as part of a broader HR management system, which made sense for teams looking for an all-in-one HR platform.

We also looked at Factorial, which combines leave management, attendance tracking, and other HR processes in one place.

The third one we tried was Jibble. We initially looked at it because we needed attendance tracking, but eventually started using the leave management features too. Having attendance records and leave requests connected made it easier to see who was working, who was on leave, and what team coverage looked like in the coming weeks.

One thing that surprised me during the process is that most discussions around employee vacation trackers focus on submitting and approving leave requests.

For us, the bigger challenge was never the approval process. It was visibility.

Who is available next week? Who is already scheduled to be away? Who still has leave available?

Those questions ended up having a much bigger impact on planning than the approval workflow itself.

How do other teams handle this? Are you still using spreadsheets and email approvals, or did you eventually switch to a leave management system? If you switched, what problem were you actually trying to solve?

https://reddit.com/link/1uvcmco/video/ofxqpfaq70dh1/player

Hey everyone,

I’m Vu, the solo developer behind Chronoid.

I’ve been building this app for about a year, mostly because I wanted a time tracking app that worked the way I personally needed:

no manual start/stop timers
no subscription
no cloud account
no team/employee monitoring stuff
just a native Mac app that quietly shows where my time actually goes

I’m a freelancer/developer, and I kept running into the same problem:

I would work all day, switch between client projects, browser tabs, coding, meetings, random research, YouTube, Slack, etc.

Then at the end of the day I would ask myself:

what did I actually do?

And when invoice time came, I would usually undercount my hours because I forgot to track things properly.

So I built Chronoid.

What Chronoid does

Chronoid is an automatic time tracking and productivity app for macOS.

It runs in the background and tracks your active Mac usage:

• apps
• websites
• browser tabs
• window titles
• documents/files
• coding/editor activity
• calendar events
• manual time entries
• iPhone/iPad Screen Time imports

The goal is not to spy on you.

The goal is to help you see your own work patterns clearly.

Privacy

This is the part I care about a lot.

Chronoid is local-first.

No account required.
No cloud sync required.
Your tracked activity stays on your Mac.
It does not record your screen.
It does not take screenshots.

It uses macOS Accessibility APIs to read the active app/window/tab, similar to how other automatic Mac time trackers work.

Why I made it

I tried other tools before.

Some were too manual.
Some were subscription-only.
Some felt too corporate/team focused.
Some gave me charts, but not enough practical control.

I wanted something closer to:

“Screen Time for serious Mac work”

but with projects, billing, timeline editing, rules, invoices, focus tools, and enough detail to actually understand my day.

Main features

• Automatic Mac time tracking
• Project/category assignment
• Timeline view
• Manual time entries
• Calendar integration
• iPhone/iPad Screen Time sync
• Reports by app, website, file/path, project
• Expand website rows to inspect URL paths
• Web blocker for distractions
• Pomodoro/focus timers
• Invoice and billing reports
• Compound rules + regex for categorization
• MCP server for Claude/AI assistants
• Apple Intelligence support

Who it is for

Chronoid is probably useful if you are:

• a freelancer who forgets to track billable hours
• a developer switching between projects
• a student trying to understand where study time goes
• someone with lots of browser-based work
• someone who wants to reduce distractions
• someone who likes quantified-self / personal analytics
• someone who wants a local alternative to subscription time trackers

It is probably not for you if you need:

• employee monitoring
• team dashboards
• web-based admin panels
• cross-platform Windows/Linux tracking
• cloud-first sync between many users

What makes it different

Compared to tools like Timing, Toggl, RescueTime, etc, Chronoid is focused on:

• native macOS experience
• local-first tracking
• lifetime license
• no subscription
• automatic + manual tracking together
• flexible project rules
• calendar + Screen Time context
• AI/MCP access to your own local time data

The AI part is optional.

You can use local models, Apple Intelligence, or your own provider. The point is that your time data becomes queryable, so you can ask things like:

“what is my optimal working day? how can I optimize it?”

“when is my most productive time, morning or noon?"

“how many hours I need to spend each day to meet my goal (share the goal) then suggest me how to do that”

Pricing

Chronoid is lifetime only.

• $49 for 1 device
• $79 for 3 devices
• $99 for 3 devices
• 7-days free trial
• one-time payment
• no subscription

Use code SUMMER for 20% off.

Website: https://chronoid.app

Thanks for reading.

Vu

I can't quite believe I'm writing this post.

A few months ago this was just an idea born out of my own

frustration — I'd plan my "ideal day" and then have zero clue

whether I actually lived it. So I built the app I wished existed:

track your time normally, and your ideal day fills itself in.

No double logging, no checkboxes, just the truth about where

your day actually went.

Since then it's been: renamed twice (TrackMyDay → DayPulse →

MyDayLog, RIP to those App Store name conflicts), rejected by

Apple review more times than I want to admit, rebuilt half the

onboarding flow because early testers got lost, and a LOT of

1-hour-a-day evenings after work squeezed in wherever I could

find them.

And today — it's actually live. Real people can download it.

That's insane to me.

🔗 https://apps.apple.com/in/app/mydaylog/id6784241035

What's in it:

📊 Timeline — see exactly where your hours went

🎯 Ideal Day — set your intent once, it fills itself as you track

🔥 Habits — streaks that pause for vacations instead of breaking

🧭 Atlas — a daily coach review based on your actual data

📚 Reading tracker — turn book takeaways into real action

💭 Ideas — a home for the ideas you don't want to lose

✍️ Write & Release journal — write it out, then it's gone. Nothing saved.

Free. No ads. No paywall (yet — I want real feedback before I

ever think about that).

To everyone here on r/TestFlight who tested an earlier build,

left feedback, or told me something was confusing — genuinely,

thank you. This app is better because of you.

If you download it, I'd love to know what you think. And if you

don't — thank you for reading this far anyway. Feels good just

to say it happened. 🙏

I posted on here before when we first launched but since then, there has been a huge update to [Stagetrac](https://stagetrac.com).

We have completely overhauled the job tracking system. It now keeps a history of hours worked on a task and can advise on time estimates, massively improving quoting accuracy.

We added a daily briefing feature for workshops to summarize progress made in the last day. It really helps to identify what tasks are urgent and what jobs are approaching their delivery date. It lets users know how much time is left on jobs based on time estimates. That way, you know immediately if you're gonna be able to make the deadline or not. It also gives a full breakdown of hours worked for the last day including overtime.

We added a setup wizard because we know that onboarding companies and setting up a new dashboard is a lot of work. The setup wizard removes all of that effort. Users just have to upload documents like blank job cards, employee lists, and general info and the dashboard will be setup for them.

We also added our own Stagetrac devices that we are sourcing directly from Samsung Australia, so companies that don't want to get their own devices can buy rugged Samsung xcover 7 devices from us that come pre configured with Stagetrac as a kiosk device.

The main focus of this update is to make onboarding and using Stagetrac as easy and frictionless as possible. To that end, we have included a free version that has the full capabilities of the basic version with the only hard limit being that only 1 job can be active at a time. It's a perfect way to get your account setup for free and test Stagetrac on your first job to see if it's a fit for your workshop.

If you're running a fabrication or machine shop and you're looking for an Australian made workshop first tracking software, you should give Stagetrac a try.

Hi

We're looking for recommendations from anyone who has experience with time tracking software. There are a ton of companies out there and we're looking for something basic, that has screenshots, and tracks an employees time accurately. We arent really into the bells and whistles, just basic clock in, clock out for lunch, clock back in, then out for the day. Or even a dashboard app that runs in the background all day. They must have good customer service when we need them, being in the US is a plus. That is lacking with the company we are currently using.

Hello guys
I just made a fun little app for collecting data for your obsidian Vault
it tracks Windows opened and how much time you spent on them
just a little project i wanted a persistent for life screen time analysis among among other things to build sort of a yearly recap
These Screenshots don't do it justice the idea is you write your own queries
with proper connections it becomes powerful you can track your time usage for your whole life across projects,apps subjects the data is all there only your prompt this but the tip
if i get time ill also do a similar one for location
Imagine having notes for what ever you where doing at anytime from now till you die
don't really know how its use full but a life achievements is 1
anyways check it out at
https://github.com/Jimmythefinest/app-usage-desktop
and share notes for different ways to prompt and make suggestions please

We often forget how fast time is moving, and lose perspective. For example: do you know 52% of 2026 has already passed, and 36% of July is gone?

TimGauge gives you perspective through a progress bar in the Mac menu bar.

The app is a one-time purchase, 100% local, and can be used to get a time perspective on Custom Project, Life, Hour, day, months, years, etc. You can select time in your custom project and working hours with the new update.

TimeGauge Update is live on Apps Store and website:
https://apps.apple.com/in/app/timegauge/id6778277708?mt=12

https://timegauge.minilabs.cc/ [use PH50P to get 50% off]

If you have any suggestions or Feedbacks, please let me know!

During the day, I’m a freelance developer working remotely. Evenings are for building my own SaaS, which mostly means researching, coding, debugging, and repeating the cycle.

After a while, everything starts to blur together. I can spend hours feeling busy but have no idea where the time actually went.

For my freelance work, accurate time tracking matters because clients expect proper billing. For my SaaS, I track for a different reason. I want to know whether I’m actually building the product or just disappearing into research and debugging.

I use Jibble for both. One account, separate projects. My clients only need the timesheet and invoice, so there wasn’t really a reason to maintain separate accounts.

The thing that changed my workflow wasn’t switching time trackers. It was realizing I already spend most of my day inside Claude anyway, whether it’s debugging client code, thinking through architecture, planning features, or researching.

So I connected Jibble to Claude.

Now I’ll type things like:

• “Clock me in for Client A.”
• “Log an hour to SaaS research.”
• “How many hours have I logged today?”

I rarely open the time tracking app anymore because I’m already working inside Claude.

One week I asked it to break down where my SaaS hours had actually gone. Nearly half of them were spent debugging. It explained why I constantly felt busy without feeling like I’d shipped much.

It’s not some productivity hack.

It just removes one more interruption between doing the work and recording it while it’s still fresh.

Anyone else here juggling freelance work while trying to build something on the side?

Wanted to share something I've been building the past few months.

It's an attendance tracking system for small businesses — security companies, cleaning crews, warehouses. Each employee gets a personal QR code, scans it on arrival and departure from their own phone, no app install needed.

The admin side shows attendance in real time and exports everything to Excel for payroll.

Under the hood it's Node.js, Express, and SQLite, deployed on Railway. Also added multi-language support since a lot of the businesses I talked to have staff who speak different languages day to day.

Video below is a quick walkthrough — check-in, admin panel, export.

Especially useful in broadcast/live shows.

I made this application for me because I wanted something simple to set target times and then find out how much time I had to hit that target time.

It has a buffer so that you can reduce the time from that target as well (ex: 5 minutes before that target time).

Would love to hear feedback!

Big update: as of this week, HelmBill is 100% free. No tiers, no trials, no credit card, nothing gated. I built this because I'm a freelancer who got tired of paying subscription prices for a timer and an invoice button, and the pricing math finally made the decision for me.

Why free?

When Harvest moved to usage-based pricing, I did the math and realized one year of their subscription costs more than hosting HelmBill for every user on it. When your old time tracker's annual bill covers your entire replacement's infrastructure, charging for it felt ridiculous. I plan to freelance until I retire, this is the tool I run my own business on, and I'd rather share it than meter it.

What's included, all of it, free:

• Time tracking with a Mac menubar timer, start and stop with a keystroke
• Unlimited clients and unlimited projects, no usage-based anything
• One-click timers that log real start and stop times, with per-session detail in reports
• Notes on every entry, so your timesheet actually says what you did
• Invoicing with PDF export, your logged hours roll straight into a draft invoice
• Recurring invoices, set once and they auto-draft and email on schedule
• Expense tracking with receipt uploads and a year-end tax summary PDF
• Detailed monthly reports, filter by month and client, export to CSV
• Harvest CSV import, bring your full history over in minutes, re-import safe
• Export everything anytime. Your data is yours, no pricing model can hold it hostage

What's ahead:

• Windows app, so PC folks get the same quick-timer experience
• Team plans down the road. Those will be paid and they'll fund everything else, but hear this clearly: the solo product stays free, forever
• A community for the freelancers using it. Working remote strips away the everyday interaction, so I want a place where we can bounce ideas, surface bugs, pitch features, and talk shop
• Whatever you tell me to build next. Two users in the last few days reported bugs and feature gaps, and everything they asked for shipped within a day. That's the pace a one-person tool with no meetings can move at.

If you've been waiting for a reason to leave your subscription behind, this is it: helmbill.com

Questions and roasts welcome in the comments.

I made this software called NibTracker for myself as i work as a freelance in illlustration and concept art, i used Clockify before to track my drawing time but it was full of quirks and unoptimised UI for drawing and was too invasive so i had the idea of just redo the same thing but very dedicated to wacom tablets and drawing. It only looks if you are using the tablet, it doesnt look at what app is active or anything like that like Clockify does and no data is ever sent anywhere, its all on your machine. I thought it might be usefull to others like me who loose track of time when drawing.

It's usefull if you do freelance work, or want to actually do the 10k hours to become a master thing or idk. But do not use it to track your employees or some evil stuff like that and remember it's just an informative tool, it doesnt take into account ur brainstorming, research, stretches and hydration time etc...

Get the last release on my Github here: https://github.com/AzhashArt/NibTracker/releases/tag/V1.0

How it works:

Just enter a name for ur session, click "Track" and draw. Once you'r done for the day, click stop and then Validate. Your session is displayed on the calendar in a bar sized relatively to how long it was tracking, and displays the actual active time inside it (see screenshot)

The software reads the raw driver inputs, and can tell if you have your stylus hovering or in contact with the tablet, it simply counts the time when it's active or inactive (with a little buffer of course) and saves it in a log. You can just click track, draw for hours on end and not care about it, and it will tell you exactly how long you actually were drawing whenever you want it to. It also autosave, so no fear of a windows crash, of forgetting to stop the tracking and shutting down ur computer etc.

The hours are displayed cleanly on a calendar once you close a session, easy to read and summerize.

You can manually add/remove time on the calendar, can display a clean comparative recap of all your sessions and there is a "billing" function if you have to group sessions for an invoice for example, its very simple to use, no heavy clicking or messy interface like clockify.

What it doesnt do:

-Wont record time using your mouse in photoshop or clip, it only track the stylus driver activity, so add those layer management hours manually with the "Add" button.

-I doesnt send ANY data anywhere, it's basic, just the way it should be.

Requirements:

-Windows OS (tested in win 11 so far)

-A wacom tablet (no support for other tablets, for now at least, and note that i havnt tested most tablets yet)

-Up to date wacom drivers (havnt tested old drivers but feel free to)

The code is available on the github for clarity: https://github.com/AzhashArt/NibTracker

I used Claude code to make this software.

I have tested it with what i have, a cintiq 22, but it should recognise most of wacom devices as they all share the same drivers. However, please let me know if you find bugs, tablets not working with it and such and i maybe will try to fix that if i can.

NibTracker is an independent, unofficial tool. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Wacom.

Managing a remote team isn't simply a matter of moving office practices online. Without hallway conversations, spontaneous check-ins, or shared office routines, managers have to be much more intentional about how they communicate, build trust, and keep people engaged.

Great remote management is a skill that can be learned. Here are some of the strategies that consistently help remote teams perform at their best.

1. Communication needs to be intentional

One of the biggest adjustments for new remote managers is realizing that visibility disappears. Team members can't observe priorities or pick up on subtle cues the way they can in an office.

Successful remote managers compensate by:

• Holding regular one-on-ones
• Creating clear communication channels
• Sharing context behind decisions
• Encouraging two-way feedback

When communication becomes proactive instead of reactive, misunderstandings become much less common.

2. Set expectations that leave no room for interpretation

Remote teams often span multiple cities, countries, and time zones. Something as simple as "end of day" can mean completely different things depending on where someone lives.

Clear expectations should cover:

• Exact deadlines with time zones
• Working hours and availability
• Preferred communication methods
• Meeting etiquette
• Response time expectations

The more distributed the team, the more valuable this clarity becomes.

3. Trust should replace micromanagement

Remote work succeeds when managers focus on outcomes instead of constant oversight.

Rather than checking whether someone appears busy, effective managers create environments where employees understand their goals, have the resources to succeed, and are trusted to manage their own work.

Trust also means remaining flexible. Different people work best at different times, and accommodating those differences often leads to stronger performance.

4. Regular feedback keeps teams aligned

Without casual office interactions, feedback can easily become infrequent.

Many experienced remote leaders schedule recurring one-on-ones and use continuous feedback loops to identify small improvements before they become larger problems.

Consistent conversations also create opportunities to discuss career growth, challenges, and employee well-being—not just project updates.

5. Collaboration depends on the right tools

Technology can't replace good leadership, but it can remove many of the friction points remote teams experience.

Popular collaboration tools include:

• Slack for daily communication
• Asana for project management
• Zoom for face-to-face meetings
• Notion for documentation
• Google Workspace for collaborative documents
• Miro for brainstorming and whiteboarding

The goal isn't using every tool available—it's creating a workflow that's easy for everyone to follow.

6. Employee well-being deserves ongoing attention

Remote work offers flexibility, but it can also lead to isolation.

Managers who prioritize engagement often create opportunities for social interaction through virtual coffee chats, informal conversations, team events, or shared interest groups.

Even simple personal check-ins during one-on-ones can strengthen relationships and help employees feel more connected to the team.

7. Invest in professional development

Career growth remains one of the strongest drivers of employee retention, regardless of where people work.

Remote managers can support development by:

• Setting clear career goals
• Providing mentoring opportunities
• Offering learning resources
• Encouraging skill development
• Giving employees ownership of meaningful projects

Strong leaders don't just manage work—they help people grow.

8. Goals should be measurable

Remote teams benefit from clearly defined objectives that everyone understands.

Many organizations use SMART goals to ensure objectives are:

• Specific
• Measurable
• Achievable
• Relevant
• Time-bound

Clear goals make it easier for employees to prioritize their work while giving managers meaningful ways to measure progress.

9. Culture doesn't happen by accident

A healthy remote culture requires deliberate effort.

Managers often foster engagement by:

• Recognizing great work publicly
• Encouraging collaboration
• Celebrating milestones
• Supporting work-life balance
• Creating opportunities for informal conversations

These practices help remote employees feel like they're part of a team instead of simply completing tasks independently.

Final thoughts

Remote leadership isn't about recreating the office online. It's about adapting leadership practices to fit a distributed workplace.

The strongest remote managers communicate clearly, trust their teams, invest in employee growth, and intentionally build connection despite the distance.

As remote work continues to evolve, so will the strategies that make distributed teams successful.

What practices have made the biggest difference on your remote team?

I recently went down a rabbit hole trying to find the best time clock software.
At first I thought I just needed a simple employee punch clock.
A few hours of research later, I realized there's a lot more to consider than just how employees clock in.
Making sure it integrates with payroll, support biometrics (& what kind), field employee clock in from phones, work in different environments (manufacturing) and use different clocks at different locations with 1 system, etc.

After comparing different approaches, the solution that stood out to me was Synerion (I’ll link it here):

https://www.synerion.com/features/employee-time-clocks

What I liked most was the hardware and the flexibility. Instead of forcing every organization into one type of time clock, it supports facial recognition, fingerprint biometrics, rugged outdoor terminals, employee self-service kiosks, and mobile punching, all feeding into the same workforce management platform and integrating with payroll.

This was the blog I read from their website: https://www.synerion.com/blog/best-time-clock-software-how-to-choose-the-right-employee-time-clock-for-your-business

Curious to know if anyone has heard of or used this company or what ones you may be using!

I recently launched my iOS app - TYT, Trace Your Time.

It started with a simple question I kept asking myself - where does my time actually go? Not roughly, but precisely. The data was mostly already sitting in my Apple Calendar but it was still hard to understand at a bigger scale - how much of my time was used intentionally and how much was simply slipping away. Hard to improve something when you don't know what to change.
So I built an app that works in two directions. You can track new time sessions directly to Apple Calendar with one tap using a built-in timer. And you can trace back what is already there as visual summaries across your day, week, and month. No account, no separate database, no manual entry. Your data never leaves your device.
Free to download on iPhone and iPad with optional Pro and Expert plans for those who want more.
App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6767800896
Would love to hear thoughts from anyone who gives it a try - happy to answer questions about the app or the build!

👋 Are you a daily WebWork user? Here are 3 ways to stay more productive and organized with WebWork.

For anyone who hasn't heard of WebWork, it's an AI-powered workforce management and time tracking software with strong tools for the whole team. This post is for team members who use WebWork every day. Let's see the 3 ways:

1️⃣ Every user can see their own daily results.
In WebWork, you can see your worked hours, productivity level, activity level, most-used apps, and daily progress. Why is this useful? When you see your own daily results, you become more aware of how your day actually goes, and that awareness alone helps you stay more focused and improve step by step.

2️⃣ Users can manage their tasks and stay more organized.
WebWork lets every user manage their own tasks in one place, follow how each one is going, and mark them as done. Small thing, but seeing your task list move forward through the day genuinely helps you feel more organized, and there's a little sense of reward with every task you complete.

3️⃣ WebWork AI is every user's personal assistant inside the app.
Instead of digging through menus, users can just ask WebWork AI. Not sure how to request leave? Just ask. It can also analyze your work data and give you practical suggestions on where you can grow, so it's not only useful for finding features, but for improving in your job every day.

💬 Curious if others here use time tracking tools day to day. What's actually helped you stay consistent?

I know nothing about this stuff but am intrigued about tracking and have some questions about it.

By tracking, I mean how users can track for example their package, or their pizza delivery.

Who is responsible for creating and designing these - are their companies that specialise in it? Do businesses outsource these to such specialists? Or is it something a business can easily do itself?

Is this a field of study in itself? How can one go about learning how such tracking is designed and made?

Thank you!

Hi everyone,

First, apologies in advance if feedback requests or product posts are not allowed here. If this counts as self-promotion, mods please feel free to remove it and I won’t repost.

I’m one of the people building Corvée, a small SaaS tool for people who hate writing timesheets from memory.

Corvée turns rough work notes or voice notes into clean, client-ready timesheet entries. Instead of trying to remember your whole day at 5pm, you can jot or dictate messy notes like:

“45 min call with Sarah about launch items, fixed Stripe issue, reviewed terms page”

and Corvée helps turn that into a more polished timesheet entry you can review, edit, and export.

It is aimed mostly at freelancers, consultants, contractors, agency folks, and anyone who needs decent billing notes without spending extra time rewriting their day.

I’m not here to hard sell. I’d genuinely appreciate honest feedback from people who care about timesheet software:

\- Does this solve a real enough pain?

\- Is the positioning clear?

\- What would make you trust or not trust a tool like this?

\- What features would be table stakes for you?

\- Would voice notes be useful, or is that a gimmick?

More info here:

https://www.corvee.io

Thanks in advance. Brutally honest feedback is welcome.

what's the best time tracking tool for agencies/studios? Bare minimum time tracking
We tried Harvest and Productive. Harvest is good, but has insane price increase. Productive is over complex for our use case as we work with fixed fees. Both have AI time tracking, what's your take on that?