There are plenty of project management apps out there and while some are great because they have plenty of features, it’s obvious that some are going to be better at performing certain tasks than others. Because of this, many people can be left app-hopping when they need to do something that a certain app can’t. In some cases, there are even apps dedicated to a specific task that can be a lot better than the all-in-one apps and for the app-hoppers out there, they are well-worth checking out.
Freckle is one of these. Freckle is a web app dedicated to the task of tracking and managing time and can be especially useful for those who wish to complete the task with minimal effort. Find out more about Freckle inside the article.
Overview
Freckle is a sleek time management web app that allows anyone to easily and quickly log the time spent on projects from its well-designed interface. Time can be logged in a unique way that streamlines the process and makes it possible to easily reference these times when required. With a killer interface and plenty of features for the task, it can be the perfect addition to any freelancer’s web app collection.
Overview
Pricing
Freckle offers both paid plans and a free plan to allow anyone to take full advantage of the app, whether they have a big budget or not. They cater for both freelancers and larger businesses who require more users for their account and with free 30-day trials of their paid plans, it can be a great way of testing out the app to its full potential before investing.
Pricing
Getting Started
Once you’ve chosen a plan, you can register within seconds after you’ve entered a small amount of personal data and chosen some initial Freckle cridentials. The username you choose will allow you to log into the account should you forget which email address you’ve registered with and the URL you choose will be the page from which you can access your Freckle account.
Registration
Once this is submitted, you will be sent a welcome email which also shows your Freckle URL and you can then immediately begin using the app by logging into your account from the succeeding page.
Logging Time
Unlike traditional time management apps, Freckle offers a unique way of performing the task which is in some ways extremely easier and can ensures that the process can be completed considerably quicker which can help to save valuable business time. At the top of the Freckle dashboard is a blue form that contains three fields that are integral to logging time within the app.
Dashboard
Time
The first field is for the time and as you would expect, this is the amount of time you’d like to log in the app for the work completed. Once a time has been entered and you’re unfocused on that field, it will automatically convert itself to a Freckle-understandable time unit if it isn’t entered — though it does offer many means of entering a time.
For more information on how the time works, see the quick start guide.
Client or Project
This field represents the client or project that the time is being logged to. When you start typing in this field, the app automatically checks to see if the same entry already exists and if so, the time can be logged to an already-existing project or client. If this is a new client or you’re using the app for the first time, you can just enter it here and it will automatically be created when the time is logged.
Tags
The third field is an interesting one and it allows an entry to be tagged with multiple words or phrases that represent the type of work completed on a project. This field is similar to the previous and if a tag already exists, it will be recommended as you type.
Adding Tags
This can be an efficient way of finding similar projects or referencing where the most time is spent based on tags. It’s also possible to either append “!” or prepend “*” to mark the time as unbillable. This is useful for when you just want to keep a note of how your time’s spent — billable or not.
Once the time is submitted, it will be then added to the list of recent additions in the dashboard of the app.
Pulse
The Pulse section of the app allows you to view a monthly breakdown of all activity associated with the account and ensures that you can easily see which days you were most active based on the circle for that day and its size compared to the rest. As with the rest of the app, this is a unique feature that can really give a good insight into the account’s activity and can prove to be useful when time is of the essence and you’ve got to reference something quick.
Pulse
Reports
The app is also really good at handling the data entered and can generate reports that can easily breakdown this data into a readable form. It can show a pie chart of the ratio of billable to non-billable hours recorded for that specific project or tag and can also show a breakdown of the tags entered for that specific project and how much time was spent on completing each one.
Reports
Final Thoughts
Freckle is a promising app that has an edge on all others, whereby it takes its simplicity and flaunts it in a way that makes it stand out from the rest. It’s rare that a gem like this that comes along that isn’t just a blatant copy of another app with a couple of features thrown in — Freckle really is unique. One of its best assets is its interface which is both simple, yet extremely functional to allow anyone to take full advantage of the app’s features. Overall, I believe that Freckle is a really exciting app that can prove to be a great contender in the field of time management apps.
