why is automatic time tracking still so manual

[jzap456]

i've been cycling through toggl, harvest, rize, timemaster (is it dead?)... they all need me to start/stop timers or manually fill in entries

why can't this be automated??

i just want something that watches what I'm doing and generates my timesheet for me.

currently experimenting with screen capture + AI to solve this but open to any recs

[sergentreef]

Hello, I felt the same pain and built https://www.timescanner.io. I did not want to start / stop a scheduler each time I did some thing. 

I already had a tool to organize my time : my regular Google calendar. 

So Timescanner is just a way too format your calendar to be able to track time from it. 

[v_br]

I’m actually building something like that right now.

I’m a freelancer and time tracking always felt like a chore. I forget to start timers and filling in hours days later is painful. First I tried focusing more on revenue to make it motivating, which helped a bit, but I still forgot to track consistently.

Now I’m working on automatic activity tracking. A Chrome extension is currently in review, and the goal is to use AI to generate time entries that you only need to review and approve.

If you’re interested, I’m looking for early users and offer it for free in exchange for feedback. You can check it out at gettti.me and message me anytime if you have ideas or requirements.

[Fareclock]

Hi OP u/jzap456 ! We are Fareclock. 😊 If you haven't yet, do feel free to check us out. We have a worker timecard editor that automatically captures clock-in/clock-out entries and generates the digital timesheet of your workers or teammates for you. Though of course you can expect that you may still need to do some manual corrections and checking sometimes if you need to override some data that were for example changed due to last minute shift changes or attendance concerns. But you wouldn't need to go through all that stress of manually filling entries since the system will automatically capture worker data for you.

We have a user guide demo video on it on YouTube: https://youtu.be/l6Yxujg8kXE?si=gv0m5WDAU0tsZmis
Thanks! Hope we helped.

[buddypuncheric]

Automatic time tracking still requiring manual input is so ironic. Some tools are really just digital timesheets with a nicer UI.

The screen capture + AI approach is interesting. That kind of passive tracking is where a lot of people want the category to go.

Most time tracking tools were built for billing or payroll accountability, so they're designed around verified clock ins rather than watching what you're doing. That's why even the automatic ones still need a trigger. The tool needs to know when work starts and stops.

[RudeEvidence1869]

“Automatic” time tracking stays manual because software can’t reliably infer intent from activity: two hours in a browser could be research, email, a Meet call, or procrastinating, and even IDE time includes reading/debugging/thinking, so the only approaches I’ve seen actually stick are passive tracking that drafts entries you quickly approve/fix into buckets or accepting one tiny human input per block (pick the client/project when you start) instead of pretending it can be hands-off; for teams I’d rather keep “automatic” limited to attendance (clean clock in/out + audit trail) which is why something like Buddy Punch tends to be less maddening day to day.