Re: OT: Tracking billable time

On Wed, 24 Aug 2005, Ask Bjørn Hansen wrote:

> On Aug 24, 2005, at 4:14 PM, Chris Devers wrote:
> 
> > > I'm looking for recommendations for a time tracking tool/software to
> > > keep track of billable time for multiple projects/clients.
> > > 
> > 
> > What, something simpler than keeping it on a PDA and syncing it?
> 
> Text files!  A file per client and a format not unlike:
> 
> $date $hours $task
 
Yes, but I'd consider that premature optimization.

True, it gets no simpler than the format you show. No argument there.

On the other hand, that's a hell of a lot less useful than using tools 
that can seamlessly keep track of this sort of thing on your PDA, your 
desktop, your laptop, your phone, your web site, and any other devices 
that can store such information (mp3 player, etc). 

To get that kind of functionality out of your text file, you'll have to 
start hand-rolling a lot of code, and on a lot of platforms. No thanks.

Yes, having everything in a flat file is dirt-simple, but once you get 
used to it, so is a Palm Pilot, and so is much of the software that can 
interface with such a PDA. Once you get used to such things magically 
taking care organizing & coordinating this kind of data, it can be hard 
to go back to crude approaches like that. 

Or at least, that's been my experience. YMMV. :-)


-- 
Chris Devers