Tracking time in Archicad

[Anonymous]

While I am asking dumb questions. Is there a timer in AC somewhere? I used a package many years ago that recorded how long I had each project open for which was great for recording how long I spent on a project. It even turned the timer off if the program was idle for a certain period of time. It was a very useful tool

[DGSketcher]

Gerald wrote:
For Mac guys I use a little program (Freeware) called Active Timer. You have to remember to start it of course but it keeps track of time you spend in all the programs you have open until you stop it. I then just to a journal entry each day to each job to keep totals.

Cheers,

Thanks for the suggestion Gerald. I just installed the fully functioning demo. Looks like it could be a new friend of my accountant On the other hand I'll need to stop hanging round this forum so much

[Gerald Hoffman]

DGSketcher wrote:
Thanks for the suggestion Gerald. I just installed the fully functioning demo. Looks like it could be a new friend of my accountant On the other hand I'll need to stop hanging round this forum so much

Your welcome. What is nice about this one is that it seems to only add time to each program that is running while you actually have that program window open. Any background programs stop adding time. The timer also stops even when a program window is open and you stop working, which means you don't have to remember to pause it if you get a phone call or decide to get a coffee.

[Anonymous]

I have purchased and have been using RescueTime for a long time now. I am very satisfied with it.

Are you using the full version or the cheapy one?

[Laszlo Nagy]

I am using the paid version that has full functionality.

[Stress Co_]

I demoed the free version of this one:
Hours Time Tracker

It doesn't keep track of software running on your computer,
but it does work on iPhones & desktops (thru browser).
Data is synced in the cloud. Nice to be able to turn a timer on/off
when out of the office (site visits, meetings, etc.).
User friendly.

Only problem (for me) is it doesn't share with Quickbooks.
Like Karl... I use Intuit's "My Time" (which has it's own quirks ).

[Anonymous]

Can’t seem to find Active timer on google search would you have a link to a download site? Thank you

[Anonymous]

laszlonagy wrote:
I have purchased and have been using RescueTime for a long time now. I am very satisfied with it.
Although it does not record which project is opened in ARCHICAD, it will report how much time you spent in each application in each hour. It would be great if it tracked project file names as well, but this solution is still very helpful to me.

Hi,
bit of an older post, but could still be of use. While rescuetime is great for analysing on what sort of activity all your valuable time was spent, I don't like it for time tracking for specific projects.
Manictime (http://www.manictime.com/) is a lot better for that. And it tracks the project name in AC as well, so you can easily see how much time you spent on each project. I have a paid version with greater functionality.

Rescuetime does have an android app that also allows you to track phone calls, that's the only feature I'm missing in manictime..

[Richard Morrison]

Patrick,
I guess I have a request for a reciprocal review.

I just took a look at ManicTime. It's very impressive; quite easy to use and at a good price. However, my one concern is that it seems to take a small screen capture of every website you visit and compiles a massive amount of computer usage data. I'm wondering what size of tracking file gets created after, say, a year's worth of use?

[Richard Morrison]

Richard wrote:
I'm wondering what size of tracking file gets created after, say, a year's worth of use?

Sorry, just found the answer in the knowledgebase. Surprisingly small file!

Have you used this as a single user in multiple locations? Without a network server, I'm wondering if Dropbox would work.

[Anonymous]

I never asked myself, so it's the first time I checked. I have a backup of 172MB since August 2014..
You can also have it take screenshots at regular intervals, that takes a lot more storage of course. But there you can determine the amount of days before deletion or the maximum storage.

Manictime is a very fast way to see where your computer hours went. Could not recommend it enough! I have the paid version just to be able to manually select blocks of time to tag to certain projects. It has saved me a ton of billable time and headaches. If you don't register your time right away, this will be a big help.

I register my hours in another app - Paymo, which is equally brilliant. Paymo has its own activity log, but just like in Rescuetime, I find it hard to visually discern what time blocks were spent in what project.
A Zapier or IFTTT connection between manictime and paymo would come in handy, but entering time in paymo is so fast it's not a big problem. Also, manictime gives yo uan overview of the time spent on a project per day, so in Paymo I put some time block together to have a cleaner overview of the day.