- Time Tracking
- Productivity Management
- Timesheets
- Team Management
- Project Management
- Reports
1. Time Tracking
At the heart of Toggl’s features is its user-friendly timer, which is located prominently on the top right corner of the screen as a bright-green play button. You can log into the application and simply hit the hard-to-miss play button to start tracking time. Alongside the timer are buttons that let you easily assign the time being tracked to a new or ongoing project, add relevant tags to it, and define it as billable or non-billable.
Second, the software has a Chrome and Firefox add-on called ‘Toggl Button’ that lets you track time without logging into the application. You can use it to track time spent on other applications without having to leave your browser. In addition, the button integrates with plenty of popular third-party applications to make this process an easier one. All you need to do is drag-and-drop the Toggl Button into the application to start tracking time on it.
Third, with the Toggl Desktop application, you can track time even when you are offline. This feature is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux users. Like the web application, you can save the time tracked to an ongoing project or create an entirely new one from the desktop. Further, you can assign a descriptive tag to it, making it easier for you to identify what you are spending your time most on.
Finally, Toggl allows you to manually enter time into the application, which is especially beneficial for businesses that need to track tasks that don’t require a computer. It is also a safety-net option if you have forgotten to turn on the timer (even with the multiple choices available). The manual time tracking option, however, is not available on the Chrome extension. No matter what time-tracking alternative you use, the software automatically syncs the data between these platforms so you can switch between them whenever necessary.
2. Productivity Management
Toggl has several features that can help you manage your time more efficiently. For one, you can configure the software to detect inactivity. Once configured, the system notifies you automatically if you have been idle for more than a set number of minutes. This is a fail-safe mechanism for times when you fail to turn off your timer. When you receive an idle-notification pop-up, you can choose to discard the idle time, add it to your ongoing timer, or even create an entirely new time entry for it.
Toggl has a feature called ‘Pomodoro mode’ which allows you to define work intervals and introduce break cycles into your workday. You can set your work intervals such that the software notifies you when it’s time to take a break with a pop-up and sound notification. This can help you ensure an excellent work-rest balance, which in turn increases employee productivity. Helpfully, this mode can also be used to remind employees when break time is up.
Other productivity tools include the software’s AutoTracker and Timeline features. The AutoTracker feature can be set up to remind you to track time when you open an important app. In addition, you can also associate tags and projects with the AutoTracker tab. This way, every time you start working on an associated app, tag, or project, the software alerts you to start tracking time if you haven’t already done so. Toggl’s timeline feature records your online and offline activity to give an overview of your day in 15-minute intervals. The feature is so efficient that it records any website or app you have been on for more than 10 seconds. This feature not only can help you plug the gaps in your timesheets but also help you identify where you are wasting time.
3. Timesheets
Aside from being able to differentiate billable work from unpaid hours, Toggle also allows you to set four different billable rates, which helps you track your billables with ease. You can change the prices according to your clients, employees, projects, and workspaces. Besides, you can assign different hourly rates to your employees in several different currencies as well. Toggl considers all these different rates to generate error-free timesheets that can be exported with a few clicks. Importantly, managers can lock timesheets to prevent employees from back-dating time entries. This feature, however, is only available to managers on the Premium and Enterprise plans.
4. Team Management
By default, Toggl has three access levels: Regular users, project managers, and admins. Each comes with different user permissions and privileges. Further, you can club employees together to create user groups, which is a time-saving feature that allows you to set up projects faster. Instead of adding individual employees one by one, you can just add a user group to a project to get the ball rolling. What’s more, managers and admins can set up time targets for individual employees or for their team to achieve as a whole. Helpfully, the software automatically sends employees who are falling behind in their time-tracking duties an email notification of the fact. Managers also get a team dashboard that gives them a birds’-eye, a 9-day overview of what their team members have been doing along with in-depth time-tracking data on each.
5. Project Management
Toggl’s boasts of basic but efficient project time-tracking features. You can set up as many projects as you want. With each project, you can set a name, color-code it differently for easier distinction, assign it to a client, and add team members to it.
Importantly, the software also allows you to create sub-projects or tasks within a project. You can assign these tasks to different employees, set time estimates for them, and track their progress as well. Notably, you can set up project templates complete with tasks, employees, time estimates, and billable rates beforehand, which is a nice time-saving feature for businesses that do a lot of similar projects. The software’s project dashboard gives managers an overview of their ongoing projects so they can see which ones are on track and which ones are lagging.
6. Reports
The software has three basic report types: summary reports, detailed reports, and weekly reports. The summary report allows you to see your total time tracked broken down into different activities. With detailed reports, as the name suggests, you get a comprehensive project-wise look at time tracked. Weekly reports give you a 7-day overview of tracked time. You can filter all reports by applying different date ranges, employees, clients, tags, descriptions, and billable or non-billable flags. Notably, Toggl allows you to schedule reports on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. The software will automatically email these to you or members of your team at the set intervals.
