Choosing the Best Timer Software for Solopreneurs by:Garth Catterall-Heart
Time billing software has become more and more abundant because businesses
, whether big or small, have increased in number and are a adding time tracking tool.
If you have a business that needs business financial software for just time and expense billing, what is the best way to select the best time tracking software for your business? How can you know if the task tracking software or time billing software you are going to buy is worth your money?
This article discusses how to pick the best time and expense tracking software for your small business. First, you must know your needs. What are you looking for in a time billing software? Second, do you need a desktop application or a web-based program? Third, is the employee time tracking software user-friendly? Fourth, how affordable is the time recording software?
Common features that we can find in time billing software are:
Activity Timer that accurately tracks time spent on tasks or activities for any number of clients or projects throughout your day.
A way to keep track of billable expenses that are to be reimbursed by the client.
Record an estimated time for a task or activity and see how close you came to your estimate.
View all records for a single client or project or task and get totals.
Record the estimated time for a project or task and see how close you came to that estimate.
Flexible rates that can be based on a client, project or hourly basis.
Activity and expense notes wherein you could add unlimited amount of text describing your activities and billable expenses.
The best billing software allows you to view an editable timer log that shows when you started and stopped the timer during the day.
Ability to enter start and stop times or even the total time directly.
Generate invoices and reports for any or all clients, projects or activities, for any range of dates. The ability to round off times and print an invoice with a custom header would be important for many people looking for complete billing or invoicing software.
Keep track of all invoices and know who has paid and who has not with time and expense invoicing software.
The ability to collapse the timer into a very small window and run multiple timers.
Notes on the activities or tasks performed.
Create reports with totals for each expense category with easy income tax preparation software.
Other features you might consider are:
Keep track of travel miles (or kilometers) that you can add to your invoices or tax reports.
Some time management software will also keep track of schedules, generate form letters to be mailed or emailed, and provide other tools to help you streamline your business. Consider these additional features:
Send promotional materials or other form letters to all of your clients, vendors, family, friends or any other contacts via contact manager software.
Display your appointments, deadlines and other important events in Daily, Weekly or Monthly Calendar formats in scheduling software.
Create To Do Lists with room for notes, deadlines, priorities, etc. with project management software.
The best time management software also includes tools which allow you to look up where area codes are, calculate time zone differences, and has a universal calculator that adds or subtracts numbers, dates and times, converts length, volume and weight measurements, computes discounts, sales tax, foreign money exchanges and loan payment amounts.
One major thing to consider is, should it be a desktop application or a web-based application? Here are some differences between the two:
A web-based application, which includes any software you log on to a web site to access, requires a fast, reliable internet connection. A desktop application is an application that runs without the need of an internet connection.
Desktop software is generally much faster and easier to use than web-based software. If you do not have a very fast internet connection, it could take you several times longer to get the same amount of work done.
If your web connection goes down, or the company's website were to go down, or the company went out of business, you will no longer have access to your data if using web-based applications. A desktop application, if backed-up regularly, is more secure and reliable than a web-based application.
With web-based applications you rent the software, paying monthly fees and often get only email support. With desktop applications, you generally pay just once, and technical support is often included.
The next thing to consider is how easy is the software to use? Is it easy to understand? Are you comfortable using the software? Can you get technical support easily and quickly, both by phone and by email? Does that support cost extra?
The final question is, how much are you willing to spend for this software? Would you rather pay less on a monthly basis for web-based software, which will add up to much more over time, or pay one reasonable amount up front and get the features, speed and reliability of a desktop application?
As a solopreneur, I'm sure you would rather find ways to save money and at the same time have the features and capabilities you are looking for in time management software?
With these things in mind, you can now determine what would be the time accounting software for your needs. One of the best time billing software in my opinion is Activity & Expense Tracker Plus. It is a reasonably priced desktop application that is easy to use and is available for most Mac and Windows computers.
To better understand its ease, comfort and productivity, and to download a free trial today, visit Activity and Expense Tracker Plus for more details.
About the author
Garth Catterall-Heart has been creating productivity software for self-employed professionals and rental property management software since 1999. Download your free trial for Mac or Windows.
Jonathan Victolero assisted in the writing of this article.
You may reprint this article only in its entirety with this bio.
2010 Garth Catterall-Heart
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