Saturday 18 February 2012

Track time, manage tasks and generate reports online

MrTickTock 1.6 has been released and published at http://mrticktock.com.

What's new?

In this version we have again focused on several improvements:
  • Close and Reopen tasks
    It is a great complement to delete task functionality.
    If you open task and track time for every single activity then you probably have plenty of them and your Tasks view looks messy. Now you can simply close task if you feel it is done and you don't want to track time against it any more. Closed tasks disappear from the view unless you want to show them with 'show closed tasks' checkbox.
    Closed tasks can be reopen if you decide to work more on them.
  • Reports section available for non-admin users
    If you invited other users to your MrTickTock account, probably some of them are in the User role and do not have admin privileges. Since version 1.6 non-admin users can access Reports section and get use of flexible reports. They can of course see only their own data and cannot access reports for other users.
  • Google and Yahoo login
    Google and Yahoo are most popular email providers. We decided to let our customers log in and sign up with just one click without the need of filling Log in or Registration forms.
  • Simple registration
    Standard registration form is now much simpler so new users can start working with MrTickTock even faster than before.
    We will also switch Android app to benefit from that feature and allow mobile users to start using the application without the need for a web based sign up.  
  • Change email
    Have you registered your MrTickTock account for a wrong email address? Have you changed your email provider? It is not a problem for MrTickTock any more. Just go to your profile page and change your email.

As usually there are many more simple improvements and bug fixes which make MrTickTock more usable and friendly.

What's next?

Version 1.7 will bring few more task management facilities. It will be possible to move task between projects and customers. It will be also very easy to duplicate Customer or Project structure - very handy if every new project contains the same set of tasks.

We will also introduce new In/Out view. It will show Start/Stop Work button, time worked, list of users with activated Start Work and few other things related to Today. It will not contain weekly time sheet as it is currently on the Tick-Tock view. The new page is an answer to the customer requests who prefer to focus on the current day and want to have the information bigger and more legible.

After 1.7 we will work on a vacation tracking improvements. We want to make easy not only to set day off but also track Paid Time Off. The new feature will contain calendar preview and summary page.
Another features in the queue are billable hoursinvoices and integration with other project and task management software. We will start with ability to automatically retrieve tasks from JIRA to MrTickTock. Next we will probably integrate with Basecamp and Trello.

That's all for today. You can try all of that at mrticktock.com.

We also publish most recent news via Twitter

Enjoy,
MrTickTock team

Saturday 4 February 2012

Automatic time tracking with MrTickTock for Android

MrTickTock for Android (version 1.0) has been released and published in android market.

What's that?

MrTickTock for Android is an easy to use Android application. It allows to manage tasks and track time so you don't have to visit mrticktock.com website if you have Android device in your pocket.
It connects to the mrticktock.com in the background if possible and sends all reports to the system so users can benefit from the web UI and features.

We tried to make MrTickTock for Android as simple and useful as possible. Personally I use it every day to track my time automatically. I sometimes adjust the tracked value manually if I forget to switch tasks or leave the phone in the office when going for a lunch.

Here is the list of current features:
  • Manual time reporting
    Simply enter how much time you have worked and press 'Send Report'. It works in exactly the same way as reporting time on the web. Simple but useful.
  • In/Out tracking
    Press 'Start Work' button and MrTickTock for Android will start the timer. Press 'Stop Work' and timer will stop. Tracked timed will be sent online or saved to the Log if  no internet connection is available.
  • Automatic tracking
    This is the coolest and very unique feature. We have found only one other Android time tracker offering similar thing as a beta.
    If you work in the office and there is available WiFi network, just mark it as the office one (in the settings). MrTickTock for Android will start tracking your time automatically when you enter the office and stop when you leave. The nice thing is that it does not require access (password) to the WiFi. It simply checks if the network is in range. Therefore it will work also if you visit your customers' office but can't log into their network or if your company does not allow to access WiFi from devices other than workstations.
  • Log view
    It contains all time reports which have not been saved online to the server. The most common reason for that is missing internet connection when tracking was being stopped.
    Users can simply delete the Log entry or send it to the server.
  • Task management
    MrTickTock for Android allows to create and delete tasks. The task list can be filtered by Customers and Projects - quite useful if the list is very long. Next version will allow to close and reopen tasks.

Try it from android market.


What's next?

Next versions will contain bunch of new features:
  • Close/Reopen task.
  • Add note to the time report (e.g. work description) - visible as a Scrum report at mrticktock.com
  • Allow to mark day as Sick/Off/Non-working - visible online to the team members.
  • Summary view - show tracked time and tasks for today, yesterday, last week and month.
  • Widget - start/stop tracking and preview of tracked time.
  • Export report to DropBox or save locally - MrTickTock reports are flexible. You can choose customers, projects or tasks, date range and grouping method to get exactly what you need as CSV, PDF or HTML file.
  • Automatic tracking based on location (GPS, AGPS, etc.) - great solution for people working outside the office (geologists, builders and others).

We will strive to release new versions of MrTickTock for Android every month.

If you tried MrTickTock for Android or have any suggestions, please let us know. Email us at info(at)mrticktock.com or raise an issue at https://jira.spartez.com//browse/TTA.

Follow us on Twitter to get latest news.

Best,
MrTickTock team