Tick: Time Management Ready Made Easy
Time management doesn’t have to hard. Enter the time, track it, and apply it to a project. Time management application Tick does just that, offering an easy to use online interface to manage time around a project.
One of the first things you notice about Tick is how streamlined it is — there are only three tabs (Timecard, Projects, Reporting) — and how the page is laid out with plenty of space around items. Not sparse, but easy to read. As we do with any project oriented application, the first step is to input information, which in the case of Tick is done through the form on the Projects tab.
Entering the information for our project we have the option of setting estimates on time and entering tasks for our new project. Each task has a place for an estimate of time and tasks can be marked as billable or not. If your estimation on the time a task takes goes over your initial estimate, Tick will automatically adjust for it. On this same page we can set our preferences to send reminders and determine who in our team can enter changes. Once setup, the Projects page is an at-a-glance look at the progress of the project, based on time input. Details about the time spent is shown at the bottom of the Projects page, and a RSS link can be input into your preferred reader.
Tick’s Timecard tab is as simple to grasp as the other tabs, which makes entering time (and attaching it to a project) as easy as it should be. TimeSpot seems to know that there’s no point in wasting time on complicated time management systems, just enter the time and apply it as you go. Quick and easy. Weekly schedules can be generated by a link at the bottom of the page, and a pull-out calendar or a navigational bar with dates from the week let you navigate across time. From the web there is no way to automatically time hours you are currently working, but Tick has created a widget with a timer and “Budget Check”, which is their way of giving you a quick report of time spent on the project. The widget is built with Adobe AIR and requires a download, but as we have seen with our review of the AIR built Twitter tools, AIR is efficient and bandwidth-light. The widget also has a link to create a new timer (while the other stays open), which could be helpful if you work on a different task and want to bill for it separately (i.e. working half an hour on marketing and shifting to coding).
The last tab in Tick is the Reporting tab where you can run reports based on dates, billable hours, unbillable hours, clients, or users. All reports are exportable via csv (Excel). Tick is also capable of exporting to Quickbooks for accounting needs, and once users begin with the starting pay plan of $9 a month, they can also integrate Tick into Basecamp. SSL encryption and an increase in the number of projects and users are also available with paid plans.
The weakspot of Tick is in its reliance on integration into other platforms. Though light users could use it as a stand alone time keeper, invoicing is nonexistent, requiring another platform. The good news is that Tick is a breeze to use, its interface and simple feature set require no training, but the cost of that simplicity are options. Timesheets can be printed but not exported, there is no monthly or long-term view of the project, reports are only exportable by csv, and there is no customization or branding. For users looking for a simple time management tool, one that is not complex and can integrate into Quickbooks, Tick is worth looking into. For heavy users who require a range of tracking and project management options, Tick is likely to disappoint. Find Tick and applications like it there is the Listio search manage+timesheets.
New to Listio? Our tag cloud search offers an easy way to narrow your hunt for the perfect web application or service. No more second guessing of search terms. Just click on one tag, then as many more as you'd like to narrow your search results. It's easy and ensures you get to the listing you want. Finding web 2.0 was never so easy.
Tags: business, manage, organize, time, timesheets, track
Posted in: Time Management | Respond
Bookmark & Share: 
