Today’s work culture is no longer defined by a fixed 9-to-5 workweek schedule. More and more of us prefer the flexible schedule of remote jobs and the freedom to work during our best hours, allowing our innate creativity to shine.
However, it can also be easy to become side-tracked by meaningless tasks.
Enter time-tracking apps and project management software like Toggl.
Toggl Track is a popular time tracker that can integrate with other existing apps to streamline your working hours. You can use Toggl Track for group projects, reporting, and invoicing clients–or to make sure you stay on top of your personal goals. But is it a good fit for your business?
In this Toggl Track review, we go in-depth to introduce you to some of this platform’s best features.
We’ll show you how to use Toggl Track to make your work week more efficient and productive whether you are an individual contributor, team, or project manager.
Key Takeaways
- Toggl Track is a great time tracker for doing exactly what it says… time tracking. It will let you and your team track your time on projects manually or automatically.
- You will likely choose Toggl because it tracks time nicely, it’s easy to use, and has great analytics and reports for studying how your teams time is being utilized.
- But as for all the other features, they are good but not best in breed. So you’re not going to choose Toggl for its project management features, or invoicing and billing capabilities.
- Toggl also has a free plan thats good for getting started and with decent features for teams who want to scale.
Why Toggl Track?
Toggl Track was created in the early 2000s by an Estonian IT software building company headed by founder Alari Aho. Originally, the company’s goal was simply to use the time tracker internally to generate tracked time reports for billable hours. This helped the company justify how much it charged clients for projects.
However, the clients appreciated the itemized reports so much they began begging to use a time-tracking app, as well.
And so Toggl Track was born.
Toggl Track is a user-friendly time tracker that can bend to fit your needs. You can use the free plan to add time manually or set a timer to keep track of your work hours in real-time. Paid editions of this app also let you send your billable hours directly to clients. It also offers integrations to work with other apps and programs.
Toggl stands apart from other time trackers because customers love that it can track both working and idle time by starting and stopping a timer. Also, Toggl Track lets users take time tracking on the go with its mobile app. One of its main advantages is its offline time-tracking capabilities.
Whether you are using your smartphone, working on a PC–or even if you’re offline, Toggl Track can help you define clear boundaries between working hours and idle time.
Standout Features of Toggl Track
Toggl Track offers many different features depending on which plan you choose. Here are some of our favorite features of this time-tracking program.
1. Track time on PC, iOS, Android–and even offline
Toggl Track can keep up with your working schedule whether you are at a PC in an office, or working from a remote location on your phone. You can set timers for specific projects or log your worked hours manually into the app.
If you often take your work on the go, download Toggl Track’s app to your iOS or Android phone. The mobile app tracks time while you’re away from your desktop, and automatically syncs to your PC Toggl Track account so you never lose a minute of worked time.
Even if your internet connection is unreliable, Toggl Track can continue to record your time offline and it will sync back into your workspace when you find a stable internet connection. Toggl Track is a great option for tracking your time, especially if you are a digital nomad working on the road in foreign coffee shops. (like myself!)
2. Create detailed reports and manage projects
Toggl track lets you create saved reports. You can zoom in and look at the details of past projects and hours spent, or get the big picture with weekly summaries. The charts and time-tracking data allow you to find exactly where you spend the most time and how to make your working hours more efficient.
You can also project profitability based on these reports by observing your earnings per client and calculating ROI. Evaluating your records and projecting for the future, enables you to cut down on labor costs and boost your business’s profit margins. This means stronger growth and feeling accomplished as your business grows.
3. Provide insight and analytics
Although several features in Toggl Track are only available in paid editions, I love that you can see analytics and insights into your work history even in the free version.
Check the “Reports” tab to review your time entries. Toggl Track’s overall reports are further broken down into projects, teams, and clients. Project overview charts help you see at a glance which projects and clients require the most working hours.
Once again, by analyzing which areas use the most time to complete, you can better understand how to organize your work day to cut costs and work most efficiently.
If a good time tracker like this one can identify even one area of your operations thats taking alot of time but returning very little in profit, it’s worth it.
The Premium and Enterprise Toggl Plans provide more in-depth analysis to help businesses like agencies or consultants identify pain points and showcase employee efficiency.
4. Integrate timer with other tools
Toggl Track integrates with 145 project management tools such as Slack, Evernote, Zapier, Jira, Asana, Notion, Toggl Plan, Google Calendar, Freshdesk, Salesforce, and others.
These integrations work best when you install Toggl Track as a browser extension. Otherwise, you may need to switch between tabs constantly to control the timer.
5. Guide time management with Pomodoro Timer and reminders
You can be more productive when you set clear boundaries in your workday. This is why one of my favorite add-on features in this app is the Pomodoro Timer. This timer clearly defines the lines between work and play by reminding you to take breaks.
The Pomodoro Timer helps you crack down on procrastination and creates an appropriate work-life balance while supporting your mental health.
Team managers can also set time-tracking goal reminders for projects.
- First set up project reminders under the tab Workplace Settings.
- Then, choose a goal for how many hours you expect team members to track daily or weekly.
This feature allows you to create clear expectations for ideal time management, which you and your team will appreciate. Toogl also has goal setting, tags, and other features to improve your productivity.
6. Invoicing and Billing
Toggl Track is a nice tool for accurately tracking your billable hours. You can also create invoices based on your reports–even in the free plan!
It’s simple to do. First:
- Track your time as you work
- Then, generate invoices from your reports.
- You can do this by going to the Reports tab or Analytics tab and choosing the Create Invoice option.
Toggl Track invoices include fields such as:
- the report date
- a description of the data
- a quantity
- and a total billable amount (in paid plans)
You can also edit the information on the invoices as needed.
The free plan comes with the Toggl Track logo on invoices. However, in paid editions, you can add your company logo.
With Toggl Track’s invoicing and billing capabilities, freelancers and businesses can ensure they aren’t selling themselves short or overcharging their clients. Project managers can also create reports to keep tabs on employees’ billable hours.
Who Benefits from Using Toggl Track?
Toggl Track is often used by freelancers, students, small businesses, as well as some larger corporations. The time management app is easy to install on mobile devices or use as a web app on your PC.
Freelancers can easily assign a client to a project and track their personal progress using Toggl Track. This time management app can help you stay organized and decide which project to tackle first.
Toggl is also useful as a team optimization strategy to track employees’ performances from past reports and better understand how to assign tasks and organize work schedules. So if you like reports and data for improving your process, Toggl is good for you too.
If you are a solopreneur or small enterprise like a lawyer or creative designer, Toggl Track works really well to keep track of your own progress or manage a team, improve productivity and provide fresh insights to help you reach your goals.
Pricing & Packages
Toggl Track offers four different packages depending on your business and freelancing needs.
Toggl Free Version
Toggl Track offers a version of the app that you can use for free forever. This plan is perfect for individual freelancers and small teams or businesses. It allows up to five people to work on projects using unlimited time-tracking.
You also can:
- Create reports
- Organize your work by clients
- Add tags
- Create exportable reports
- Set a Pomodoro timer
- Integrate into over 100 popular tools
Toggl Starter Plan
The Toggl Track Starter Plan has a mid-range cost of $9 per user when billed annually (or $10 billed monthly).
This plan is perfect for small start-up teams who want access to extra features such as
- Billable rates – so you can assign your strongest people higher rates they deserve
- Project time estimates – for knowing how much that new project will cost in time vs the return
- Pre-populated project templates
- Saved reports
- Time rounding – for easier timesheet management
- Combining several calendars into one Toggl workspace for a clear calendar view.
Toggl Premium Plan
Toggl’s Premium Plan costs $18 per user when billed annually (or $20 billed monthly). This plan adds valuable extra features to previous packages, such as
- Fixed fee projects
- Auditing
- Billable work rates for team members, and more
It also lets you lock time entries and schedule saved reports via email. This plan is perfect to keep a fast-growing team organized and on track.
Toggl Enterprise Plan (custom pricing)
Toggl’s Enterprise plan offers more advanced features and is tailored specifically to the customer’s business. This plan allows you to add several workspaces to an organization and add unlimited users.
It also provides an account manager and training so each team member can use Toggl most effectively. This time tracking package price point varies according to the customer’s individualized needs.
Available Discounts
Although some of Toggl Track’s plans are more expensive when stacked against its competitors, it does offer discounts for students, nonprofits, and educational institutions.
Pros, Cons, and Customer Reviews
Toggl Track has many positive features for tracking time and project management. Here is an unfiltered and unbiased summary of some of its best features and weak points according to other users.
Toggl Track Pros:
Most users agree that Toggl does a great job of tracking time, projects, and clients. This allows freelancers and team members to spend time most efficiently.
Toggl Track’s time management software gets hundreds of positive ratings on sites such as G2, GetApp, and Capterra.
Here are a few of the positive things that users had to say about Toggl Track:
“I like that I can easily access it on the computer and/or my phone on the app. It is user-friendly. It also helps me stay on track and I can run reports and categorize to see what I’ve been working on. I use it everyday.”
Verified User (Source G2)
“I use Toggl Track for tracking just about everything from volunteer projects that I work on to my accounting business – I love how easy it is and the reporting is terrific for my needs.”
Kimberly F. (Source GetApp)
“Toggl’s browser extension reminds me to actually clock my time. I’ll be on a website working on a project and it reminds me to actually push the button and track what I’m doing.”
Danielle M. (Source GetApp)
“I love that it remembers past entries so you don’t need to retype any frequent activities. Also, the reports are really detailed. And I really appreciate it when I get an email from Toggl because I forgot to stop the timer; really useful!”
Lisandro R. (Source Capterra)
In summary, most Toggl Track users had positive things to say about this time-tracking app. Many comments focused on the friendly layout of the interface, the detailed tracked time reports it generates, and the time-tracking reminders it sends for starting and stopping the timer.
Toggl Track Cons
While Toggl Track has mostly satisfied customers, there are also a few users with constructive criticism.
Here are a few opinions about what Toggl Track could do better:
“Maybe if it had an audible alarm to alert you when closing out of a browser instead of leaving the timer on. I normally have to go back and edit my time because it then says it took 29 hours to do something. An alarm or something that goes off when closing down would really help me avoid that.”
Danielle M. (Source Get App)
“I can’t say many things I dislike, but one thing that is missing is rounding project totals for a particular billing period. For example, rounding project totals to 1h multiples every week.”
Leonardo F. (Source G2)
“Sometimes the manual time entries can be a bit tedious, and I wish there were more automation options. Also, the mobile app could use some improvements in terms of functionality and speed.” Antonio M.
(Source Capterra)
In summary, many of the drawbacks were actually given by customers who were overall satisfied with the program and rated it with four or more stars. The lack of rounding project totals and manual report automation features were some of the most common cons reported for Toggl Track.
How to Use Toggl Track: A Step-By-Step Guide
You’ve seen what Toggl Track has to offer, but how do you use it in your business and daily life? We’ll walk you through a simple step-by-step guide for how to get started with Toggl Track.
Step 1: Create an account with Toggl Track
Creating a Toggl Track account is simple–all you need to get started is a valid email address and a password. You can download the app for iOS or Android or use a Google Chrome extension. You can also access Toggl Track via your smartwatch!
Try the basic features of the free Toggl plan, or choose a free 30-day trial of Toggl Track’s Premium Plan.
Step 2: Add one or more organizations and workspaces
Once you enter your Toggl account, the first order of business is to set up a an organization and workspace.
Click on “Organization” in the bottom left hand corner. You can use the default organization or click to add a new organization. You can name this your business. If you are managing several side hustles, you can create several organizations. However, most users create only one organization and divide it into several projects and clients.
To create multiple “New workspaces” within your organization, you will have to upgrade to Enterprise level. If you are just beginning, thats seems a bit much. Instead you can change the name of the “Default workspace” and use that. Simply click on “Organization” in left side menu, then the “Workspaces” tab, then the “Default Workspace”
Step 3: Add projects to your workspace
After you set up your workspace, add projects to track them individually.
In the “What are you working on?” taskbar, type a task name such as “design creation,” “photo editing,” “social media management,” etc. Then click on “Create project” to add the field to your workspace. You can also click on “Project” under Manage in the left side bar menu to add new projects.
When you are ready to work on that project, click on the project name and start the timer. When you are done working, click to stop the timer.
The more specific you make your projects, the easier it is to monitor where you spend most of your time.
Step 4: Assign projects to clients
If you are working on a project for a specific client, add the client’s name during your project creation. The client will be saved to your workspace and you can continue to add appropriate projects under their name.
Step 5: Make your projects public or private
Toggl Track is a trust-based time-tracking app. This means no one sees your saved working hours unless you choose to share that information. No surveillance is used in Toggl and your screen activity and keystrokes are not tracked.
However, you can choose to share your tracking data with different team members by setting your projects to public mode. This feature is useful for collaborating on shared projects.
Step 6: Create billable tags (paid version)
As you create projects for specific clients, you can tag them as ‘billable’. Once you complete your project you can send your time entries directly to clients for payment. This action is only available under Toggl’s paid plans.
Step 7: Start Tracking
Click on ‘Start time entry’ when you are ready to track time for a project. Then click the ‘stop’ button to take a break. To continue tracking, go to your time entry and click ‘play’.
You should be able to see separate entries each time you stop and restart. However, your tasks will also be pulled into one grouped entry so you can see your total time.
I personally like the “List View” better than the Calendar to review my tracked time.
Final Verdict
If you are looking for a user-friendly time-tracking app, Toggl Track is a great option. This app provides many tools you need from simple time tracking to detailed reporting, off-line time tracking, basic client billing, idle detection, client dashboards, and more.
Toggl really stands out from other time management apps because of its employee-centered and non-invasive approach which boosts productivity without the stress of micro-management.
It is suitable for managing your team or for your personal needs as a solopreneur. It’s easy to use and simple to onboard new team members.
But on the other hand, the manual tracking can be a pain, and its project management and billing features aren’t as robust as other options on the market.
Overall, Toggl Track can help employees and business owners organize their time and capture more profits for a pretty good value.
FAQs
Is Toggl trustworthy?
Toggl Track is a popular time-tracking tool for freelancers, small groups, and business teams. You can track time reliably online or offline and integrate this app with other platforms. Many clients love Toggl for its ease of use, work summaries, and billable reporting features.
Which is better, Toggl or Clockify?
Toggl Track has smooth user-friendly tools and is employee-driven to encourage creativity with less micromanagement. Toggl also offers powerful analytics and more pre-made reports. Clockify has stronger project management and team monitoring functions while being more budget friendly.
Does Toggl Track take screenshots?
No, Toggl Track does not take screenshots, track keystrokes, or use any other type of employee surveillance. This trust-based system allows you to track time across platforms using a timer, or input work hours manually online and offline. All activities are private unless you choose to share your time with other team members in Toggl Track projects.
