Yes, it’s another post about Asana. Because I love Asana. This time, though, I want to talk about a feature that Asana is missing: time tracking.
One of the things that I do is web development, and creating a website can be pretty complicated and time-consuming. When it comes to keeping track of what I’ve done and what still needs doing, Asana is great. The more I use it, the more I like it. But when I comes to keeping track of how long I’ve spent on something, Asana can’t help me.
This is very unfortunate. I know there are plenty of good cloud-based time tracking services out there (Harvest, Toggl and Paymo all get the nod, and all have a free plan of some sort available) but I don’t actually want to use another service to track my time. If I’m tracking tasks in one place, it doesn’t make sense to enter those same tasks in another place just so I can keep a record of how long they took.
On the other hand, one of the things I really like about Asana is its simplicity. Perhaps they’d lose that if they started adding time tracking options. Most people who would use time tracking would be using it for billing, and billing means reports, and reports mean graphs and charts and invoices and exporting data. And all of that means adding complexity to the interface. I’ve got every confidence that the crew at Asana can manage that without turning their app into a steaming bloated mess, but perhaps it’s sensible of them to be thinking twice before they leap in and start adding those sorts of features.
Asana have said several times on their forums that they don’t have time tracking on their roadmap at the moment, but that they are considering it. I hope they come out with it soon, but I also hope it’s good when it does come out, so I’m willing to wait a while.
Geez. This is sad. I’ve tried everything, and everything fails. What good is a project manager if you don’t have a good way to track time? I think there are good options out there for individuals but fewer for teams. So Teamwork is really the best bet if you need a full-scale project manager with time tracking, and that makes me sad cause I love the beautiful simplicity of Asana. Bye, bye Asana.
We are fond of Asana. But alas, because of missing time tracking we are going to move to other system.
We are thinking about balance: good task management + good time tracking. For now we like http://projectsputnik.com This system has great time tracking support, but in terms of task management it is a bit simpler / smaller than Asana.
Not having a time tracker in a project manager is a huge mistake. That’s where it belongs. If it’s not there and you’re forced to use an external time tracker, you have to enter projects and tasks in the time tracker too, and that’s a lot of time I shouldn’t have to spend. No, Asana is really missing something really important by not having it, and limps along as a result. And, Ed, no you don’t need invoicing with time tracking or even in the project manager! That’s the job of the accounting program. Just have it add up the time per client and send it to the accounting program that adds it to an invoice. Keep it simple.
CL, I used your time tracker and really like it, but I still have extra work I have to do with it, like adding up time and recording it to a project. And what about when I have team members who need to track time? I need to be able to see their time reports and see how they are affecting a project. So your time tracker is a good start but not enough. Thank you for starting it though!! Much appreciated. It’s probably great for teams of 1. Or am I missing something?
So what now for me as I search for a project manager with a time tracker? I was using Teamwork, probably the most robust project manager, but it is so heavy and so unwieldy, that no one here liked it. It doesn’t have that beautiful, simple interface that Asana and Do have. I just spent 3 days trying out do.com and Harvest, but there is not a complete integration with the two, and the integration that is there is buggy. So right now, they have to be treated as two completely separate applications. So maybe I’ll try paydirt with Asana, but it seems crazy to spend that much per month when the heavier app – Asana – is free.
Asana, if you’re reading this, my recommendation is team up with Waveapps, my new favorite cloud-based FREE accounting program and someone please build a bridge between the two in the form of a time tracker. Then we’ll have the perfect solution. CL, you interested? Or Asana, you build that bridge. In any case, Asana, if you’re reading this, can you see how we’re all dying for a time tracker here?
Hi Kath,
Thanks for your comment – some good points there. I seem to be saying this a lot at the moment, but have you looked at Zapier (or similar services) as a possible solution to your integration woes? A native integration with your app of choice from within Asana would be great, but until then, you might be able to achieve what you’re after with a third-party integration.
Cheers,
Ed
An option is to automatically synch Asana and Toggl.
With this simple integration, no technical skills are needed, you can:
Automatically creates a task in Toggl each time there is a new task in Asana
Automatically create a task in Asana each time there is a new task in Toggl
https://cloudwork.com/integrations/asana/toggl
Is that the sort of integration you were looking for?
Feedback welcome.
Thanks
Chris
It’s certainly an option, and for some people, it will be the option. Personally, I’ve decamped to TriggerApp for anything that requires time tracking or billing, but if others are still looking for a solution within Asana, this could be what’s needed.
Toggl looks good! I’m going to try it. I tried Paydirt and liked it, but for 2 users it will cost me $40 a month because of all its features that I don’t need. Toggl is only $5 per user. Thanks!
I checked into this integration. From the looks of it, you have to create an integration for each project you add which creates a lot of work. So, unless I’m missing something, this integration is just too weak. If I’m going to have to create an integration each time I add a project, I might as well do that in Toggl and save me the Cloudwork cost and headache. Same goes for Zapier. Don’t get me wrong Zapier and Couldwork are great services but I’m looking for something that actually does the work for me. I think I need to get back into the software design business.
Paydirt just launched a time tracking integration with Asana too. Looks clever, it seems to figure out who you’re working for automatically and you can clock on and off instead of just entering the total number of hours.
https://paydirtapp.com/time-tracking-in-asana
That’s good news, and it’s something that Asana needs badly. I do wonder whether people will be willing to pay for it, though – I imagine that being free is one of Asana’s big drawcards.
Thanks for the Article Ed,
Asana is pretty much the perfect productivity tool! If they start to deviate form their core product and become a reporting tool, an analysis tool, a contact management tool, a messaging, invoicing, charts, graphs, ect. tool, it will cease to be the best productivity tool.
I really hope asana stays true to itself, and instead of creating these things in Asana, integrate Asana into the greatest messengers, invoicers, analyzers, ect.
My big hopes for Asana:
1) Provide the ability to assign start finish times on tasks (track time), and integrate them into Harvest, Toggl and/or Paymo, ect.
2) Link Projects/Tasks to Contacts (integrated from google apps / others)
-I’m already doing this by making a task for each contact and just linking to them. This is time consuming and means entering everything by hand.
3) Project/Task Templates -Where you can take a task that you do for a lot of clients and which has multiple parts and make it a template in order to recreate it over and over.
I love Asana and I have been so impressed with how they are constantly making improvements to their app. I look forward to seeing what is to come!!!
I think Asana is ideal for what it is, but what it is is social task management. And if you’re trying to use it for anything else, it’s really not that great. I’ve seen their support videos about how to use Asana in various other ways, but I’m not really convinced.
If Asana were to partner with someone like Toggl or Harvest and offer integration from within Asana (ie, no messy third-party solution required), then I think that would make a lot of people happy.
Ian, you suggested an integration with Harvest. I spent a month trying it out and was extremely disappointed. Not only is it confusing, the integration with Do is so poor in design that I’m not convinced they have the software designers over there to build an integration in the right way.
I only spent a few minutes in Toggl and was equally unimpressed.
Perhaps it’s too much to ask these time trackers to fully integrate with project managers. From what I’ve experienced with integrations like Toggl – Asana, Harvest – Do, Cloudwork, and others, they are not true integrations. You still have to set up projects and tasks in the time tracker. Once you get it set up that it can tie time to a task. But who wants to have to set up projects and tasks in two places? Not me. Then when you have to track teams, budgets, projects, task lists and individual tasks, most do not have the core structure to do that. That exists in the project manager. Asana needs to step up to the plate. Teamwork already has.
Also regarding your point #3, Teamwork has that and is a HUGE reason I chose it. But I thought Asana did too. No?
Honestly, I’ve been through at least 6 project managers now and Teamwork is by far the best as far as functionality. I just wish it had the simple interface that Asana has. My team and I feel overwhelm when we log in, and you don’t want that when you’re trying to get projects done.
Developers, there’s an opportunity for you here!
Hi All
I’d love to see Asana come through with the Subtasks that they’ve been teasing us with in some projects.
Any news on that?
Cheers, Mark
Hi Mark,
It seems like they’re still doing A/B testing on subtasks. Apparently, the full rollout will be happening ‘soon’. It’s pretty hard to get actual information out of Asana, though, so I wouldn’t hold my breath if I were you.
Ed
Hi Mark,
You may have already noticed this, but if you haven’t, subtasks are live in Asana now.
Ed
Hi,
well thanks for posting your experiences here. After evaluating we decided for asana too and i have the same issue. Simple timetracking on the taskbase and reports on the projectbase would be the killer. While evaluating we tasted a tool called “happytodo” wich was not very bling bling, pretty slow no support at all…so we droped it. But the time tracking integration was stg for all the others incl. asan to look at. simple and effective.
cheers form bavaria, markus
hey ed,
we love asana, but we missed a Time Track Tool too. So we created one on our own, which works perfectly well with asana together. It´s open-source!
http://codelovers.github.com/asana-time-track/
Feel free and use it
Excellent! I’ll check it out, and thanks for letting me know. I think there are a lot of people out there who will really appreciate this.
Hey ed,
quite nice little article.
We love asana, but we missed a Time Tracking Tool too. So we decided to make an open-source extension for asana. Just check it out http://codelovers.github.com/asana-time-track/ . Feel free and use it