Toggl Track: Hours & Time Log Reviews

by Bryce Canada

I understand TogglTrack covers a wide range of use scenarios. Personally, I only use it on my phone to track work time. The most aggravating part is that if you work late at night, TogglTrack doesn’t know which day to assign it to, and even assigns it differently in different parts of TogglTrack ! For example, today I worked three hours before midnight on January 31st. But they appear on February 1st when you look at hours clocked over the week! This is extremely aggravating. Consistency would be good, but even better would be the option to set, say, 5am as the day cutoff, so late night work appears on the night it was performed.

TogglTrack is also a little tricky to use with the projects and tasks. I would love a drop down for me to be able to select tasks again and then measure based on task. The user experience is poor with this regard, instead requiring you to either find where you performed the task before or guess by entering the task again. Not ideal.

Finally, the perf is bad and sometimes things don’t load at all. A little bit of work could probably go a long way on TogglTrack.

by Arielnicole

I’m not dumb by any means, and I could probably take the time to really understand it if I cared that much. It shouldn’t be this complicated. I use it because i do different freelance projects and need to time myself to get paid. Sometimes I accidentally start the time when i’m just trying to check the project, sometimes I forget to stop it because there’s no indication that it’s still running when you go off TogglTrack (which i think that would be a helpful feature, I wanted to edit my end time because I forgot to turn it off and I can’t figure out how to do that, etc etc. I feel like I need an extensive manual for something that should be so cut and dry easy. I don’t understand why there is projects and tags? It’s too much to understand. I try to use it the best I can but I try not to touch any of the features too much so I don’t mess anything up. I like that it groups my project up and adds the time together and shows me the calendar of tracked time but it’s a finicky app for sure and needs to be simplified.

by Odalette!

I meticulously tracked most of my time on my first day with this, and thought I was in love.

Big Problems defeat the purpose. On my my summary page there is a % for a project with no name, but that entry is not listed anywhere so I can add a project name to it after checking the tags - it has just disappeared, but it is still showing up in my summary and there’s no way to edit it. It lets you archive project names, but not see them or un-archive them or even know if there is still time attached to them to attribute with a different name before archiving. And the very reason I am writing this review, rendering TogglTrack (heartbreakingly) useless to me: on the calendar page in TogglTrack , it’s impossible to scroll without accidentally changing the time on previously recorded time and there’s no undo option, so there’s no way to fix it unless you’ve previously memorized all of your increments. And if you can do that, you probably don’t need TogglTrack. Without reliable numbers, it’s just a waste of time. So, so disappointing.

by 8xwygg

Deleting a personal workspace and then creating a new one is a confusing and frustrating experience if you only have a phone. It’s not a process even available within TogglTrack , and without a workspace TogglTrack becomes non-functional until a new workspace is created through the web app (settings become inaccessible, there’s no way to log out, the prompt to create a new workspace doesn’t open anything, and uninstalling and reinstalling doesn’t log the user out). I shouldn’t have to dig through a web app that only displays correctly in landscape view (with unlabeled buttons I assume I would hover over to read) to manage an account I only created and use from my phone. All settings could be part of TogglTrack , or at least easily linked to from TogglTrack in a mobile friendly UI, and those settings could be accessible even if the user doesn’t have a workspace set up. I hope that’s on the development roadmap.

by Sacredbooty

The free version provides great multi-platform use for someone like me who doesn’t own a freelancing business and, as such, doesn’t need the capability to export billing documents or whatever to receive pay. I just use it to track how much time I spend studying, completing homework, and writing reports for each of my classes so that I have an overview and graph of what subjects I focus the most on. Seeing the numbers of hours worked on each subject helps motivate me to continue to keep my bar graphs high, and the timer function is much easier than imputing your own time into something like Google Sheets if you want to see graphs of your productivity.

The ease of use is superb and simplicity of TogglTrack ’s aesthetics is pleasing to the eye as well. It doesn’t look cheesy and that’s another big plus. There are also browser extensions and desktop applications for people who want to track their time offline. And TogglTrack itself also helps you track your workflow without a connection, then syncs when you’re connected to the internet. A+ job!

by Tonyaframm

TogglTrack has great flexibility. I use it to track my time for my own use. I’m able to track against projects and use the tag feature to identify the type of work I’m doing. This enables me to evaluate how much of my time I spend in meetings, administratively, and on real work.

The only recommendation I would provide is that it would be nice to have a separate discretionary notes section for keeping track of notes related to the work performed. If I was truly billing out time I would want to toggle on and off this notes section at my discretion. But likely it would be kept for internal purposes.

The application is easy to learn and master. I have used this with my teams for time tracking on shared projects and it works great.

by LaFoo In Indy

I am really enjoying using TogglTrack Toggl. I will often look at an app and try it out for a week before I decide if I like it or not, based on my specific needs. I do not have to create a billable hours list, however I do like to track how much time I’m spending on different parts of my Job responsibilities. If my responsibilities start to get out of whack, I won’t up having very little free time! Toggl has been so helpful for this purpose. It has a very simple interface, works across multiple digital tools, and does just what I need without a bunch of fanfare.
I recommend everyone try out their app to see if it fits their bill as well. Well worth the small learning curve.

by Skoodraw

I’ve struggled with keeping a timesheet for years, largely because of the user interface (or lack thereof) from giants like Deltek and Ajera. The simple play/stop button on Toggl is exactly what I’ve been searching for, and the graphic UI is delightful to deal with daily.

The program is installed on all my devices and is very fast to synchronize, Toggl’s reminders that I have been idle on the running time-clock are always timely (yes I DID forget to change my task), and the reporting is almost exactly how I need the data to transcribe into Ajera.

So far I am only using the free version, but features like time rounding are catching my interest for a paid subscription. If only there was a way to import into our company’s system- then Toggle would be priceless!

by Fearfulfool

I love Toggl, and will keep using it because it has everything I need. I write this review as a suggestion to the developers. I truly think TogglTrack needs a complete overhaul. They need to make it easier, its a bit finicky. Its easy to accidentally do many things you dont intend to do, and then not notice. Using the Timery app as an example, that app runs way better than the Toggl app. Toggl on browser runs way better than the Toggle app too. TogglTrack needs some quality of life updates, mirror the website if need be.

Make a menu to create, edit, add, remove projects and tags like on the website. Make it easier to notice when you accidentally start/end a timer. Make it easier to adjust how much time you've been working on a timer, if you forgot to start it.

As I said, Toggl is great, I just wish that they would make TogglTrack a bit better. I see myself using toggl on browser way more now that I found out about it, ive always used TogglTrack before this.

by Chrisbrodymt

The fact that TogglTrack ’s paid tiers are for teams makes the free version an incredible resource for people who work alone and just want to know where their time is going. For example, I’m an academic. My “clients” are teaching, research, and service. A “project” could be a course I’m teaching or an article I’m writing. And then tasks are more granular components of those projects, like “Lesson planning, week 8” or “Lit review.” It’s eye-opening, it’s a self-accountability tool, and honestly I think it helps me waste less time because I want to maximize the ratio of hours on the Toggl clock to hours spent in my office.

Also, major props for the online syncing between app and website. That’s not easy to get right, and it’s been flawless for me in my time using TogglTrack .

by MorrisonLS

I’ve been using the free level for several years to assist with timekeeping for my solo law practice. I’ve never had a problem with reliability or stability (data loss or system outage). It syncs across my devices with little to no lag and the web summaries are great for pulling the data together. My only compliant is that the monthly summaries can’t be sorted by client and then tag, so I have to keep using typed descriptions for my time entries in order to get convenient, cumulative totals of each time category per client at the end of the month. Still, the descriptions autocomplete based on earlier entries so it isn’t that onerous. It also seems like there might be a solution to this in the monthly subscription service; the inconvenience just hasn’t warranted that level of expense for me.

by CodyAustin

I started using Toggl six months ago and it is such a fantastic addition to my life. I'm such a data-driven human, so seeing charts, graphs, and statistics on my everyday life is so powerful. I have improved my time management skills, motivation, and have been able to more accurately communicate how I spend my working hours. I use it both at the office and at home. I recommend to absolutely everyone who will listen.

My only advice is to keep it simple. I began trying to write a little description for each project and session and I became frustrated and considered not using Toggl at all. But then I switched to limiting my projects to broad categories like "To-Do List", "Email", and "Exercise". Greatest decision ever. Since making that change, I have used it everyday as though it was second-nature.

by Ldhill

I’ve only been using this briefly, but it’s perfect for my needs. I’m a salary employee with little supervision over my time, so I wanted a way to keep track of my hours and productivity for my own peace of mind and paid time off. Basically, I open a time clock entry, type in the description indicating whether I’m at the climbing gym, at home, or out running errands, and create new tags or select old ones based on the task at hand, e.g. “emails,” “staffengagement,” “meeting,” etc. Then when I’m done for the day or the session, I just press “stop,” and it automatically records my hours for me. I can look at the day or the week, etc to see how many hours I’ve worked and what I did those days. I love it so far!

by Ywofon

Toggl’s biggest strength over other time trackers is the low overhead involved in starting, stopping, and editing tasks. The interface is quick and responsive and rarely leads me to make mistakes. It’s a slick, judgment-free, neutral experience that’s forgotten as quickly as it’s over.

Low overhead is important to being able to make it a habit, and making Toggl a habit has changed my life! Being able to see where my time goes helps me be more productive and prioritize tasks better. As someone who’s easily distracted, setting a timer for myself helps keep me on task. I even use it on the weekends, just to see how much time goes to watching TV vs being outdoors or other enriching activities. If you’ve ever wanted to track and reclaim your idle time, at work or otherwise, Toggl is perfect for you.

by Joe Linebender

I use this on a few devices and I really enjoy it. I don’t use it for billing, but more just to keep track of how I spend my time. Reading books, playing video games, excercising and working.
My main gripe with TogglTrack used to be the modal way that the new time entry button worked. Tap to start a timer and hold to create and entry. You could swap those functions but having them both on the same button, and that setting not syncing between devices, I would often do the unintended thing. I really like that TogglTrack has been updated to have two separate buttons now.
My only problem any longer is that sometimes the widget display is out of sync. I can imagine this being a very tough nut to crack, actually, and think the way widgets work may be more to blame here.

by Copawolves

TogglTrack was introduced to me by a mentor. Before TogglTrack, I never know how much time I spend on studying, you know, time flies very quickly when you accidentally move your attention to something else that’s more fun than studying. So Toggl really helped me as if I need a break, I pause it. Then come back when I am ready. It’ll sum up the time you spend on whatever you are doing on that day so that you actually know how much time you put yourself into the work.

After been using TogglTrack for at least a month now, I would ask my friend, “did you really study for a long time on #{some_day}?” , if they say yes, I then ask, how long did you study? The answer would always be IDK. Lol

To be able to see how much TIME I’ve actually put myself into studying, the more encouraging I am to keep it consistent everyday. I really love TogglTrack!

by Captaink1976

This works extremely well for logging hours for my small business. I use the free version both for tracking my own hours and for a few employees to clock in and out. When it comes time to invoice clients it’s a cinch run a report and have all the hours I need to bill for. I use the tag feature to record which hours have already been invoiced. One small change that would make TogglTrack even more fantastic is if there were an option when running reports to select all entries that do not have a particular tag. (i.e. not tagged “invoiced”). Overall a superb app, I love that I can track my hours on the go using my phone and my employees can do the same. If I forget to start or stop a timer I can always edit the entries at the end of the day. TogglTrack has saved tons of time and ensured that I’m billing accurately. I love it!

by Jodiecball

I really love this. I use it as my time tracker for all of my client’s hourly projects. I even use a filtered view and export the “reports” feature every month to accompany my invoices for added transparency to my clients. I really feel like that helps build rapport on a monthly basis with minimal effort (which is important since I’m an independent contractor and don’t have anyone in payroll). The one thing I was hoping would be a little more useful is the “insights” feature. I upgraded to use this feature and was hoping for more of a growth projections type tool but it seems to be a little thin especially if you have no employees. I still see it’s value for someone that has employees or additional contractors on an project but it’s unfortunately not very useful otherwise. if there was a way to input expenses or integrate with quick books for actual profitability and growth trends then that would be super useful.

by AdrianaHook

As an independent consultant and advisor, I am regularly charging less for my time than I should be because I multi-task projects so I used to jot start and end times but then I’d have to think about any breaks I took or calls that should be billed to someone else. Let’s say that I have shorted myself many times, until I discovered Toggl!

Now I can stop a project and instantly switch to another project or even a different client in seconds. I click the start the timer button and then I click stop and jump over to the next project or go back to the client and project I was working on before the interruption. I can then start the timer again and it picks up where I left off.

Not only am I ensuring that I get paid appropriately but I also have very professional reports of the client’s name, the project name, time spent on each of their projects and then tags that provide explicit detail of what I was doing with the time being billed.

Clients love receiving these reports because it gives them an idea of what is involved in a service and how much time it can take some like myself with more than 25 years of experience. So if they pawn it off to someone that charges less they usually end up having me redo the work and give them advice for future activities that are on their horizon.

Love TogglTrack! I tell others about it regularly but I’m also kind of selfish. I don’t want everyone to use my competitive advantage.

by J J J J J J J J

Great app. I’m an artist and this is great for tracking how much time I spend working on different projects. It’s super easy to use and adjust all the entries if you forget to start or stop a timer, which I do all the time. Nice looking and useful graphs to break down how much time spent on each task from week to week. I do wish it had was an easy way to see total amount of time spent on a task over all time, or at least yearly, as you can on the desktop version. Also in TogglTrack you only have quick access to the top three most used tasks, having all immediate accessible would be nice. My favorite little thing is that I work nights and it learned that automatically and doesn’t split it in to two different days at midnight. Would definitely recommend.

by Ay_vee_kay

TogglTrack worked so well for me for so long. One of the key features that I found helpful was that I could use it on my browser and in my app, and that my tracked time would sync between the two. This stopped working a few months ago; the time I tracked in the browser would vanish into thin air and I would have to update it manually in the browser. For someone who is busy and trying to increase productivity rather than detract from it by spending a lot of time manipulating a time tracker, this was very inconvenient. Every time I’ve contacted support about this, they’ve told me to reinstall TogglTrack or log out and log in, but nothing has helped. I’m quitting Toggl now, which is a shame since it served me so well for a long time and I recommended it to many friends and colleagues. Now, to carve out time to learn a new app... yay.

by C.l.a.u.d.i.o

I mainly use toggle from their web UI and there everything works great for me. Occasionally, when I am on the go, I would just use the iPhone app to start/stop timers. Unfortunately the iPhone app is not a great experience: it takes a long time to sync, and sometimes it happened that the sync does not work properly at all. An example of sync not working properly would be me stopping a timer using the iPhone app, but the timer would still be reported as running in the web UI. At first I thought about a network issue, but this bad syncing experience has been happening across multiple wireless and cellular networks, when other apps are able to connect to internet just fine, so I think there should be something wrong in TogglTrack .

by Fernando TTA's IPod

Toggl is a really good service with nice API and therefore shortcut integrations. It would be nice to have local shortcut interactions that then sync online when you open TogglTrack . It would also be great to have an Apple watch app, as time tracking on the watch is really the best experience. TogglTrack is also slightly buggy on an iPhone 6, but it mostly doesn’t seem to conform to iOS design. The biggest offense is a quasi menu on the bottom, that should be in the top left corner within a menu button. This would give more space to look at entries and plots. Instead there’s just a blank spot in the upper left corner and a bottom chin on the bottom of the screen with only 3 buttons/pages.

by Dontneednostinkinnickname

Toggl is good, but it lacks a few features I like. E.g. if I am working on laundry and switch to cooking. That’s as easy as stopping the laundry timer and starting one for cooking. But it would be easier if starting cooking automatically stopped laundry. Basically, a “switch tasks” function.

Go a step further, sometimes a meeting starts, and I forget to switch. When I remember later, I have to stop cooking. Roll its stop time back. Start meeting. Roll its start time back. Instead, as an enhancement to the switch function, I should be able to click “switch tasks.” Then set an optional “switch time”. Doing so would automatically roll back the start time of the new task and the stop time of the previous.

by Cagimi

I think I've tried every time tracker out there to track my project hours for work and freelancing gigs. Most other trackers can get really complicated with billing and requiring projects, but Toggl is only as complex as you need it.

It's especially great for those impromptu meetings--no need to assign a project and client before it lets you track your time. I invariably end up with a few line items with a description and no project, but it's super easy to go back and edit those later. If you forget to track something, it's very convenient to add it in later to get a picture of the day and see if there are time gaps that need a time entry.

I like the web interface but I really love the simplicity and visual design of the mobile app. I can quickly edit the time entries I messed up or forgot while I'm commuting, or stop a timer I accidentally left running all weekend.

I can easily enter my hours for work either for the day or week, or if I've tagged items with process tags, I can easily see how long tasks take and better scope future projects.

by Sherry Brown At AptiMap

I definitely recommend using Toggl for tracking time. It’s very easy to start and stop the timer (& edit if necessary) for the task at hand, including the quick assignment to projects and tags. The free version also provides a dashboard, which is very helpful to see the time spent by a selected time frame as well as by project.

The only down side is having to create entries you want to include before having Toggl. That was more time consuming than I would have liked. As noted above, however, it’s a very easy and intuitive tool to use tool in real time!

by Bullock0715

My only regret is not downloading TogglTrack sooner. I love the flexibility of being able to use Toggl on both my desktop and my phone. Toggl makes tracking my consultant work super simple and efficient! If I forget to start the timer I can easily create an entry with a previous time/date. And best of all, the basic version is FREE! Thanks Toggl!

(Note: I primarily use the web version on my desktop. I can’t speak entirely of the functionality of TogglTrack but so far the iOS version has synced without a hitch to the web version and the UI seems simple enough to navigate. Since I just joined Toggl, I can’t compare TogglTrack to previous versions but it works well for me.😊)

by MeaganDollars

My firm’s timekeeping software doesn’t allow me the flexibility to go mobile, start and stop timers on different devices, or keep entries without finalizing. Can’t tell you how many times I have lost days of billing because I closed my laptop before finalizing. TogglTrack has made a huge difference for me in capturing my time without having to recreate at the end of the month. You can also adjust the start/stop times for entries manually if you forget to start the timer right away, or accidentally left it running. Love it.