Web 2.0 Time Tracker: 14Dayz
by Michael Arrington on March 18, 2006

14Dayz is a Netherlands based company that is still in private beta, although I’ve had a chance to test it out. It does one thing, and well: time tracking. It allows multiple project, categories and subcategories, and multiple users. Reports can be viewed in the browser, or exported in excel or pdf format.

Pricing isn’t cheap. There is a free unlimited version that is restricted to a single project, which isn’t much help for people with multiple clients they are tracking. Pricing for the premium plans ranges up to $99 per month.

The site is still in beta and needs some work before they launch. Saul Weiner, another beta tester, has posted a couple of helpful suggestions and I agree with him - navigation is poor, and I don’t like having to leave the main screen for things like new category creation. The back end seems solid, though.

One other feature that is really needed is billing. The report has total time, but there is no way to associate a project or hourly fee to that time, nor is there an invoicing function. Building something like Blinksale into this would make it significantly more useful.

Comments

There has been an opening in this space for some time. I have to say, I’ve used some terrible time tracking applications over the years. If FourteenDayz works as well as it looks, I expect it will do very well.

 

Wow, at $99 here’s real proof that time is money :-)

 

I really dont like that name at all. Maybe it’s just the “z” but it puts me off already.

This application could be useful for me but only if it is really good. (ie: if 37signals released this I know I’d take the time to actually look it over and see if it fits my needs)

You’re right about invoicing too, something for these guys to think about.

 

Nothing that phprojekt,phpgroupware,Tutos,phpcollab and tens of similar OS projects do for free(and much better) for years.
Ok, they are not ASP applications and doesn´t use Ajax…

Apart from that, the tag is pretty silly: “Time tracking that is easy and fun to use”
Fun ?????

 

These guys really think people will pay $99/month for a simple time tracking? They are probably watching old re-runs of Dallas and who shot J.R. and think people in the USA just have $$$ to burn and pay a Netherlands company $99/month.

 

I agree with Jack Straw. Maybe they must look at their pricing again.

 

New York City-based Iridesco, Inc. recently released a time tracking and reporting application aimed directly to simplify things in this space. The app, Harvest, is available for the public right now and is reasonably priced. It’s worth a look for any small business or team that needs a quick-to-set-up, no hassle, time-tracking solution.

 

This harvest seems to certainly offer now what 14dayz plans to offer when they launch at much better prices.

What I’m wondering though is whatever happened to the powerful solutions that did a lot of things??? So many websites are launching doing something very simple like time tracking, or invoice, or calendaring, … all for some fairly high monthly fee.

What’s missing are the all powerful solutions that do all of the above and much more under one roof? Salesforce perhaps is one company that seems to offer a complete suite of packages as part of one solution. I don’t think users want to have to go to 5 separate sites to track various things, rather, they would like a comprehensive solution that covers all of these items.

 

How is this better than / different from 37signal’s basecamp? Unless it offers something that they don’t why would anyone choose this webapp?

 

My overall impression is that the space has a little wiggling room. They’re trying to monetize their offering, which is good. We’ll see whether they make headway before releasing it to the public. The big difference with services that charge is that they’re forced to remove the ‘beta’ tag failry quickly and consumers tend to place a premium on non-beta products.

 

This new company seems like it does what TimeFox (http://www.functionfox.com/) has been doing very well for a few years now. Incredibly easy to use and bug-free. Their niche is graphic design firms but the software is functional across industies.

PS: i am user of timefox.

~ mel

 

For people interested in Time Tracking:

A Danish company in the same vertical business category:
http://www.timelog.com/home/home.asp

It’s fairly high-end, 100% customizable, and very robust. From what I know it’s not that ajax’ed etc. It’s probably in the “expensive” category - but what the hell: “Time is Money!!!”. And my experience is that many companies do want to pay for security, scalability, up-time, 1:1 customization etc.

 

Simplybill (http://www.simplybill.com) is an invoicing app we’re currently running in beta - and we’ve done the exact opposite of what Mike suggested - we’ve put time tracking into an invoice service.

It’s a pretty simple time-tracker but you can run multiple projects and go straight to building an invoice from the timesheet.

We’re currently rolling out more features to the beta guys (this one isn’t under test yet but will be very soon).. we’d be happy to hear from anyone wanting a beta account - visit the site or email us (beta at simplybill dot com).

 

So first there was TimeSlips, then there was ClickTime, which put timesheets on the web. You think just adding AJAX goodness is going to displace solid, incredibly reliable players who already own this market? How about uptime? Tell me about integration!! Don’t hype something that was already solved ten years ago!

 

I’ve taken the time to evaluate both, and here’s what I found.

Overall, both are very flid in their workflow, and set up is extremely easy. I was all for sticking with Harvest until I tried 14dayz which filled in some gaps for me.

With 14dayz, the customization and labeling of categories/sub categories is brilliant and the best move they could’ve made. Until now I had been using a small software program called Complete-Time-Tracking by Backslash which works this way, and this method customizes to almost anybody’s tracking requirements. So basically, you could customize categories and re-label them to multiple degress and report time by Client > Customer > Project > Task > Sub Task. Harvest cannot do that. Here has been my experience after a couple days of regular use:

o Set-up was fairly easy (just like Harvest)
o The site runs smoothly and seems intuitive (like Harvest)
o The interface is clean, although a couple images used are a little cliché
o The ability to configure & label categories, & configure billing rates makes it more flexible than Harvest.
o I like that I can set up Admin users and “Workers”, apply different default rates to each, and alter rates as necessary by Project or Category (or what I’ve now re-labeled, Client and Project).

Delray man… take a pill and chill. There’s a certain elegance that Ajax brings to making online web applications more fluid and call more attention to usability. Until now, I used a local software program because I found waiting around for web pages to load my entires to be incredibly annoying, as I HATE anything that keeps me from doing the core of my work. (Administration) I think that’s why we’re seeing so many online applications coming out that do that for us.

 

1time is time tracking application in the same space and its really easy to use as well. The main feature is daily reminders for employees on working days so managers don’t have to micro manage collecting timesheets. The reporting is really flexible as well. Check it out its free for the next two months before the pricing kicks in similar to the packages above. Each app above may suit one type of client better than another it depends what way you use it. 1time will defo fit a lot of people’s process.

 

Just to add another into the realm — 88 Miles takes a similar approach by focussing on time tracking. What make 88 miles different is the focus on recording time quickly, you punch-in then you punch out. Although a number of products that have been mentioned in the post and the other comments use this method, it seems to be an after thought that has been tacked on. It really is simple time tracking.

88 miles also supports WAP, making time tracking for people out on the road a breeze.

 

Perhaps it’s a little bit late to the game, and is still in beta, but it’s something I put together for use at work with the chief requirement being that it be very simple and to keep out of the way. Take a look, at http://stufftodo.dedasys.com/

 

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