fourteenDayz | Time Tracking and Billing from your Browser
Tim March 3rd, 2007
I do a bit of freelance web design on the side and one of the things I’m always looking for is a good way of tracking time for billing purposes. Basecamp offers this functionality, but for a price. I’m cheap to try something out without paying for it. Enter 14Dayz which, despite a really cheesy name that sounds more like a rapper, is actually a very nifty service for keeping track of time.
14Dayz allows you to manage multiple members on a team with multiple projects. You can add clients and separate different projects with different billing categories. All of the math is done in the background based on rates set by you and reports can be printed and (in the paid options) exported to Excel and PDF. It seems like the perfect product for one-man and small businesses who need to keep track of time for billing so I’m testing it out today.
1. If first impressions count the most, mine is “Meh.” The homepage is quite busy and I’m not sure how the dark blue really ties into their brand that much. One thing that I do notice is that they’re advertising a free trial which immediately tells me that there is some sort of pricing model behind this product. I’m headed over to the pricing tab to find out more.
2. A lot of companies are realizing that one paid plan doesn’t fit all needs and starting to offer multiple options for varying price. 14Dayz is no exception and here we have 6(!) different options split up into Personal and Professional categories. The pricing seems quite fair and with the Personal plans being $12/month on the high end this is a service that anyone could afford.
3. Signing up is simple and I even get to setup a subdomain under the 14days website for easy access to my information. I absolutely love this feature because it’s much easier to remember (and bookmark) demomarks.14days.com than some long drawn out address or even worse having to navigate through multiple pages to get to the main account each time. I’ll also note that the design seems much more streamlined with the header on this page than on the homepage, quite a shift but a pleasant one.
4. After signing up I’m automatically logged in and taken to the main account. We’ve come a long way from the homepage and now the design is perfectly fit into the rest of the site. As for functionality this main page does everything I need to by giving me a broad overview of current projects and categories as well as the ability to immediately enter time information and create reports.
5. One excellent feature that immediately stood out was the ability to import iCal data. Though it mentions still being in beta-testing, putting these features out will really help them compete in the professional realm.
6. Another option in the settings for customizing the interface is the ability to upload your company logo. Branding is always helpful when you’ve got multiple team members going to the same page (remind them who’s boss!).
7. Ok, I’m done fooling around with the settings, lets get to the meat and bones of the program. Here we can start tracking our times for different projects. Because I’m the only member of my team that’s who I’ll be adding time for. The inteface above the form fields allows me to go to specific dates to add information in.
8. When I go to start entering information I have to choose a category to put the time under. Since I haven’t made one yet I create a new one and this window pops up. Categories help you with billing by deciding how you bill your time for specific things, whether that be an hourly rate or a flat fee for a service.
9. If you typically have set topics that you bill for you could input all of these in the beginning. Entering your hours is one thing but wouldn’t it be great if you could tell 14Dayz to start tracking your time and then come back and “clock out” so to speak? Well you can, using the triangular “Play” button next to each topic you can start tracking time and a clock will animate to show active work. You can only work on one topic at a time so no multitasking with the time tracker device.
10. After entering in all my time I can view a report and see what those hours equates to in actually money made. Perfect for billing your customers. You can even specify specific projects and create reports for exact dates and client work. If I had a paid account I could also export to Excel and PDF which they remind me at the bottom of the screen.
11. Perhaps you’re not the only one in your company and you’d like to set up a team to work on projects. You can create new members and assign them specific roles and duties. If they’re not assigned to a project they won’t see it come up on their list of projects to clock time for.
12. If you’re like me you’re not working with one client at a time, you’ve got a few irons in the fire. Here you can add more projects depending on your account type. 14Dayz will tell you how many projects you’ve used and how many are in your quota based on your account. You can even assign a budget to the project so you don’t go billing for too many hours without fair warning.
13. Adding new customers is just as easy as adding new projects, and finding old ones is made simpler by the search feature where you can type in a name or search by letter.
14. What do you do if you decide you want to move away from 14Dayz but you’ve been using for a long time and don’t want to lose all that data? Normally you’d be screwed and have to start over, but 14Dayz has built in an export feature that will allow you to grab an XML file of your entire account (projects, clients, reports, etc) to have on hand for posterity.
Well if first impressions count there’s also the saying “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” 14Dayz has managed to seriously impress me with a robust product packed full of useful features for small-medium businesses as well as one-man shows. I found the interface easy to use and easy on the eyes. With fair pricing (you can’t beat free!) and the ability to export all of your data, there’s little to lose by giving 14Dayz a shot for your time tracking and billing needs.
