Technology for solo practitioners 3: Keeping track

Other time recording (and invoicing) services that readers may want to investigate include Minutedock, FreshBooks, Freckle and Harvest.  Just some that sprang to mind.

I found this unexpensive piece of software years ago.  http://timeslice.us/TimeSlice/Welcome.html

It sits on my desktop, it has a clock which is click start, can be paused (for lunch break), or stopped and restarted.  I click on the clock when I start on work, stop and restart if a call comes in or I am interrupted.  After the call I then have the option of restarting the original or starting a new session.  I can then record by client, project, category and there is a more than generous field for file notes.  In fact I record all my file notes here. 

At the end of the month I export the total file into an Access database, run reports and raise invoices.

I can export by client and retain in the client folder, thus retaining a full record of the file notes applicable to that client.

I can probably do more, but haven't got round to exploring this.

When I employed staff, I had this on all their computers and found it a godsend.

Although an old piece of software, it successfully runs on Windows 7 (never tried it on Vista as I avoided Vista altogether)

"Note that Toggl stores data on servers in the US that don't seem to have Safe Harbor certification, so use pseudonyms for clients if you do use the service."

You also mention Dropbox (which offers up to 2Gb storage for free). I think that Dropbox, like Toggl, may not be 'Safe Harbor' compliant. For online storage it may also be worth considering Microsoft's SkyDrive.

SkyDrive offers 25Gb space for free and Microsoft claim that all their online services have "Achieved the EU Safe Harbor seal"

Quote from MS:

• Security audits: Microsoft regularly assesses the Microsoft Online Services infrastructure to ensure that the latest compliance policies and antivirus signatures are installed, along with high-level configuration settings and required security updates. The Microsoft Office 365 services have:
o Achieved ISO 27001 certification.
o Completed SAS70 Type I and II audits.
o Added controls that assist customers in complying with HIPAA and FERPA.
o Achieved the EU Safe Harbor seal.
 

List of US 'Safe Harbor' compliant companies: http://bit.ly/cLSFqf

Does all your time-recording in the background, without you having to do anything. Produces nice reports too. 

 I've come across two very useful systems that are both completely free:

One is http://www.bizzbug.com - effectively a secure document exchange and client management portal - see this post about how I use it.  http://www.carvillcreative.co.uk/blog/keeping-it-all-in-one-place%E2%80%A6-a-necessary-part-of-doing-business-in-2010/

And also for all Company Management - Company Secretarial work - http://www.companiesmadesimple.com/cosec

Totally free to use - and free sign up.  Certainly worth checking out.

Interesting that the poster named Made Simple Group has "come across" his/her own service. You would have thought he /she would already have known about it. Doesn't inspire confidence.

Rather late in the day, but to add: Dropbox's service is hosted on Amazon's S3 servers, which do have Safe Harbor accreditation.  As I was already taking up reams of space I didn't add that I also directly encrypt client information that's stored on Dropbox, so that I control the encryption - Dropbox encrypts it again in the upload to the Amazon servers, but I have no control over that, so prefer the double layer approach.