Time Doctor vs Microsoft Planner

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In searching for the ideal time-tracking software, you must not only look into what it is and how much it can offer but also the aspects that make it stand out from the rest. All time trackers may not be created equal. It’s crucial to compare and decide which of the competitors is worth a shot.

Of course, we mustn’t forget to look into the aspect of personal feelings as well. What you ultimately choose may either increase your team’s productivity or not – either way, it will change you whether you like it or not.

Time Doctor is one of the most popular apps in today’s productivity market. It has both teams and single users in a stupor for its task- and time-monitoring capabilities. But has it caught us the same way? Read this comprehensive review to find out.

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For those of you who prefer a more visual experience, here is a video review from Frank on his YouTube channel Franklin Rivera. You can still read our article to get a complete overview of Time Doctor.

A Closer Look at Time Doctor Time Doctor vs Microsoft Planner

Time Doctor is a time-tracking and project-monitoring platform best suited for large or small businesses, teams who work remotely, and freelance professionals. The tool’s range of features and tools is designed to assist teammates and individuals in improving their productivity by 22% on average.

Time Doctor was launched in 2012, a little over a decade ago. It has gradually gained a large audience and is now a well-known time management tool for companies, no matter how established or new to the field. The client portal feature has made it a favorite among freelancers, who frequently work for multiple clients.

Time Doctor has amassed a user base of over 250,000 businesses throughout its history. Among those who’ve used the service for time and employee management matters include Apple, Ericsson, Better Business Bureau (BBB), Verizon, Boost Media, and Thrive Market.

Some of the features Time Doctor has been renowned for are its robust time and activity tracking functions and advanced capabilities, such as setting reminders for when to start and stop the timer. These features may be enough to help Time Doctor stand out from other time management apps. However, it is unable to do so because of its lack of consistency in user useability.

Despite this, we believe that Time Doctor has the potential to be a wonderful addition to any individual or team looking to expand their productivity levels. Continue reading to learn more about the unique platform’s other features and how they work! Time Doctor vs Microsoft Planner

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The Pros

  • Time Doctor is most well-known for its easy-to-use, time- and activity management tools and functions.
  • It includes outstanding features like pinpoint-accurate reports, idle alerts and automatic reminders.
  • Its accessible and comprehensive client portal makes freelancer-client interactions a convenient experience.
  • It offers a smooth and sizable list of integrations with third-party platforms.

The Cons

  • The platform’s confusing user interface makes navigation difficult for many users, particularly first-timers. Time Doctor vs Microsoft Planner
  • Despite its potential, its mobile apps don’t provide the same flexibility as the desktop and web versions.
  • It doesn’t offer smooth switching between the web-based client and desktop apps, especially if you’re both the administrator and the user.
  • Only the web extension or desktop app can access the time tracking function.

Plans and Pricing

Before we move on to everything else, let’s talk about the plans and how much they cost first. Time Doctor currently has three paid subscription tiers. Each tier offers a unique set of tools and features that get more expensive as they become more complex.

The pricing will also increase according to the number of users added to one team. Let’s take a look at the three plans available on the Time Doctor platform.

  • Basic – $70/user annually or $7/user monthly

Time Doctor’s Basic tier includes access to the platform’s core features, such as time and activity tracking, task and project management, and unlimited screenshots. However, you can only use them if you download the desktop application or web extension. You can only store one month of data.

  • Standard – $100/user annually or $10/user monthly

The Standard plan unlocks the opportunity to access a few advanced features, such as tracking the apps and website URLs used by any of your teammates, the payroll tool, reporting, and an additional 60 integrations with third-party apps. It also sees upgraded time limitations to its customer support hotline – from three days to 24 hours.

  • Premium – $200/user per year or $20/user per month Time Doctor vs Microsoft Planner

The Premium tier is the most complete yet out of the three. Subscribers to the Premium tier have access to all the Time Doctor features. They can explore the client portal and take screen recordings.

Paying annually will get a complimentary charge for the first 2 months. Time Doctor doesn’t offer a free plan. However, each of the three plans offers a limited 14 day trial that allows you to try it out and decide if it is the right tool for you.

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The User Interface

Despite being filled to the brim with robust time and activity management tools, Time Doctor may be highly notorious for its clunky and poorly-designed take on the user interface and experience. In most cases, going through the platform can be such a hassle – it’s even much harder if you explore its dashboard and features for the first time.

Many users of Time Doctor, for instance, have had difficulty accessing the various functions. They’ve complained about the lack of in-app centralization, which would have saved a lot of time and effort. Until now, users can only access the time tracking feature through the desktop app or web extension. Project management, reporting, and other admin features are exclusive to the website version. This is why switching between the portals is easier – it’s not possible to do this with other time management platforms.

Another obstacle Time Doctor users need help with is the general look and design. The website-based dashboard lacks key features that would make it easier to use, except for the desktop app. The diversity of data graphs needed for reporting is also a must. Sure, the bar graphs are awesome, but what about the circles graphs? You might also like pie graphs. Line graphs, perhaps?

It’s already clear that Time Doctor’s user interface and design don’t shine as brightly as its features – we’ll review that very shortly! However, despite their combined lackluster appeal, they’re not strong enough to fully soil the experience of tracking work activity, which the platform was designed for in the first place. Some users don’t even mind the UI issues at all, while others have learned to adjust quickly to it over time. Time Doctor vs Microsoft Planner

There is still hope that Time Doctor’s UX and UI issues could be fixed in the near future. But for now, those new to the platform will have to go through a rather steep learning curve before getting used to its inner workings.

Key Features Included in Time Doctor

Now, let’s dive deeper into some of the features and tools you may want to explore if you log in to the Time Doctor platform.

Project and Data Management

With Time Doctor’s project management capabilities, individuals or administrators within a team can create tasks and group them into groups with just a few clicks. Admins may also utilize this feature to assign their employees tasks to offload and maximize their teams’ productivity. You can create tasks as standalone tasks. However, you can group them together if necessary into larger projects. This is a great option for large companies whose stability depends on many departments below them.

Time Doctor knows that a clear workboard is a great way to get things done. With that in mind, admins may opt to limit access to select tasks or projects by assigning them to only a specific employee or group of employees within the team. Do you want to check out who’s working on the task or project now? You may monitor their progress through the dashboard by checking how long they’ve been working, among other things.

Unlike the few other time management platforms out there, Time Doctor allows users to create permanent trackable tasks that can be easily adjusted, edited, or even deleted without having to worry about adding one day by day. Those who work around repetitive tasks will no longer need to face this burden every time – all they need to do is change them to permanent status! Time Doctor vs Microsoft Planner

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Time Tracking and Alerts

As already established, Time Doctor’s signature time-tracking tool can only be accessed through either its desktop application or Chrome web extension. Although it is not available through the web dashboard, its capabilities can be used independently. It’s easy to use – simply add the task to which you are assigned and then click the start button to track your progress. It’s simple as that!

All your activities and actions will be recorded as the timer runs through your task. They will then be logged and saved to the web dashboard, where admins may use this to check on their employees’ progress on the go. If you’re working solo, you may go through it in the same manner.

Time Doctor’s time tracking tool is unique in that it allows users to set up their own setup until they are happy enough to work. This includes the reminders feature, where the software automatically reminds you when to start or stop your work hours. Another is the “idle time” function, in which users can convert the duration in which they haven’t been working and reassign it to work hours.

If no sign of user activity is detected after a few moments, the timer will automatically bring it to a stop. If you spot something similar and have gone to attend other things, you can manually click the play button in order to restart tracking. Similarly, you may also pause it if you want to time out from work. If you need space to take a proper break and don’t want to resume or stop the timer on your own, Time Doctor lets you incorporate time intervals between your daily tasks.

While Time Doctor can track your progress and work hours online, did you know it could also do this offline? Like some time monitoring apps such as Hubstaff, which have this function, Time Doctor can record your activity and the hours you spend on your task even without the presence of an internet connection. Time Doctor vs Microsoft Planner

Website and App Usage Monitoring

Time Doctor monitors more than just hours spent on a desktop. It also tracks websites visited and keystrokes made while you work. If the platform sees that the mouse cursor or keyboard hasn’t moved for longer, it will pause instantly and stay that way until you do something with it.

Often, it’s hard to tell whether someone seems productive until you find out what they’ve been doing. If they’ve been focusing on their tasks, that’s a sigh of relief. It’s not the same story if they have been procrastinating and going to other platforms to distract from what they should be doing. Time Doctor lets you check out which websites and applications your colleagues have used during work hours, as well as how long they’ve been looking at them.

Time Doctor has a number of monitoring features that allow admins to easily see if employees are wasting their time or attending to a task. This feature can be used to identify if the URL or application name, and the status it is in, are some of the many. This feature is available to managers and administrators to adjust the platform’s productivity rating to any one of the three ranks.

  • Productive, if it serves a team/project’s purpose as a key driver to its tasks.
  • Unproductive, if it otherwise serves zero purposes and, therefore, a time-waster
  • Neutral, if it’s neither considered productive nor unproductive.

These statuses can be assigned to any app or website and can be set to be restricted to a single user, group/team or company. The ability to track website activity and customize productivity statuses per user makes it highly convenient for teams who work in jobs requiring a strong focus on specific tasks, like content writing, for instance. Time Doctor, unlike other time tracking software, may have been fortunate to include this important function. Time Doctor vs Microsoft Planner

Activity Screenshots and Screen Recording

Remember when we told you about Time Doctor being able to record your tracked time and activity in the background while they’re posting the data to the web dashboard for admins to see? Its built-in screenshot capabilities are there for this reason.

Administrators can specify a time period for screen capture across their project/team. It could be set to 10 minutes, 30 or even 30 minutes. If they please, they may also opt to select any of their teammates who should be allowed access to this feature.

As a measure of user productivity, each image includes additional information about the mouse cursor activity and keystroke activity. Premium subscribers have unlimited access to screenshots. Those who subscribe to Time Doctor’s Standard and Basic plans have unlimited access to screen shots. However, premium users can record video screens. The platform captures three minutes of actual work activity, instead of just taking photos of the monitor.

Rarely, a team member or project manager may be exposed to privacy breaches due to serious circumstances. To protect their safety, they might be permitted to delete screen recordings or screenshots within the Time Doctor platform. However, this will likely result in the deduction of work hours listed on the day of recording.

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Productivity Reporting and Analysis

Time Doctor lets users view, edit and save pre-built reports. Each contains data and insights collected by the software during their tracked work hours, all presented in the form of decent visuals and summaries. Reports can be provided as a means to help users determine which of the implemented time management and productivity habits have been working and which need improvement.

You have so much to journey through with Time Doctor’s report collection. Its Web and App Usage report, on the one hand, lets you see how many hours you’ve spent and how active you’ve been on any website or app that’s classified as productive. On the other hand, the Poor Time Use report plots out how long you’ve sat around on sites that have been flagged as inappropriate for work. Multi-screen work setups can lead to problems, such as the possibility of one person being able to jam out to their favorite music on one screen, while working on their task on the other. Poor Time Use also includes being able to set pop-up windows on off-limits websites, so whenever someone decides to go to YouTube, for example, they’ll be instantly met with a reminder if they want to continue or go back to focus on their assigned task.

Other types of reports include the Timeline report, which displays all your tracked hours in chronological order, primarily divided into the colors yellow for manual time recording and green for automatic; the Project and Tasks report, where hours spent on assigned tasks and/or projects are broken down in full detail; and the Activity Summary in which your total work hours and the full percentages derived from a combination of all other reports are laid out for you and your admin to see. Time Doctor vs Microsoft Planner

Time Doctor’s reporting tools are impressive, but some users don’t like the process of creating them. First, most reports are formatted in a clunky way, which can impact how they’re exported. Second, Time Doctor only offers XSL or CSV. Some may be okay with this, while others will not like the lack of options for export files diversity.

Client Access and White-labeling

Time Doctor is the one thing that solopreneurs and freelancers love the most. They can share their progress with clients even though they don’t have a Time Doctor account.

If your job is to take commissions from a wide variety of clientele, you may be glad to know that the platform’s remarkable Client Portal feature lets you do exactly that!

You simply send in the link to the portal to a client of yours, and once they gain access to its dashboard, they may be able to take a good look at how long and how far you’ve worked, the tasks you were able to finish beforehand, and even the library of recorded screenshots and reports. You have complete control over what your clients see through the Client Portal, which results in smooth, tasteful interactions.

Time Doctor’s white labeling feature allows you to integrate its tools with your branding if you are the owner or manager of a successful business.

Payroll

You want to pay your employees according to how much time they have dedicated to their tasks. You can do that within the Time Doctor platform through its built-in payroll feature. You can turn on payroll deep within the settings of your web dashboard and your team will be automatically billed. You may pay your teammates based on tracked hours or on a fixed-rate basis.

Time Doctor’s payroll software supports all currencies. You can ask employees to send their salaries through PayPal, Payoneer or TransferWise. For batch payments, you can export your payroll information to a CSV file if you work for a larger company. Multiple payments are sent at once.

Integration with Third-Party Services

Time Doctor currently houses a decent yet heavy range of integrations with various third-party platforms, focusing on business, work, and productivity. Time Doctor has over 60 integrations to make it simple for you and your team to manage their work together in one interconnected ecosystem.

These include connections to project management platforms such as Trello and Asana, payment services such PayPal, work messaging apps such Slack and CRM platforms like Salesforce. On top of all this, a public API tool is made available for integrations with other apps beyond the given list – you may utilize this if you or your teammate know a thing or two about coding.

The Time Doctor Mobile App

Time Doctor’s desktop software is available for download on Windows, Mac OS, and Linux OS computers. At the same time, its recent web extension is offered exclusively on Google Chrome. The time-tracking software offers unlimited access to its users through their smartphones. Time Doctor currently offers two mobile apps versions. You can download them both on the Apple App Store or Google Play.

You may be able track your work hours and progress no matter where you are. On one side, the classic version of the app lets you overview the tasks within a project that need to be done, as well as track where your teammates are through GPS – both on top of the basic time-tracking tools and limited dashboard settings.

The latest version – Time Doctor 2 – has more or less the same functionalities as the previous iteration. The only differences that set the two apart are that 1) TD2 is only compatible with Android devices, and 2) you won’t get to explore other features aside from time tracking – a noteworthy downgrade from TD Classic.

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How Safe and Secure is Time Doctor?

At this point, you’re questioning whether or not Time Doctor is worth trusting as a time management service. You may also wonder if its surveillance tools could keep track of your actions, even as you pause your timer momentarily to catch a quick break. Although the aspect of a 1984-esque work scenario may seem intimidating, we’re glad to tell you that your activities as the timer stops will not be tracked and saved to Time Doctor’s cloud-based database. You’re safe because it’s not spyware-like.

We want to remind you that screenshots and recordings can be used to track your work activity. Project managers may also use the webcam shot feature to see their coworkers right in front of them.

Ok, that might be a concern for some admins, especially if they are concerned about their privacy. But don’t worry, admins can disable screengrabs and webcam shots depending on how they feel.

As Time Doctor promises that all your activity and likeness will not be force-shared in vain, the same sentiment can be applied to the payment information typed into the platform by you or your teammates, which will then be automatically deleted after a short while for the sake of privacy.

Time Doctor further takes up drastic security measures to ensure that every user’s account isn’t easily breached. This includes strong password policies and 2FA protection. All data stored within the platform is protected by strong SSL encryption with maximum security. Plus, since Time Doctor is cloud-based, expect all your stored data to be backed up regularly. In the case of a power or internet outage, you may have them recovered shortly, so your progress won’t be lost.

The bottom line: Do you use Time Doctor?

Time Doctor provides a steady user base of professional teams and freelancers with the benefits of a simple, straightforward task management space and the charms of an advanced-level time tracker, creating a harmonious balance between the two.

Although the range of dynamic features in this app has left us speechless, we still found the experience to be awe-inspiring. However, it would have been much better if the UI and UX were more clear, less cohesive and lacking in functionality in mobile apps. There was also a lack of report graphics options and, to a certain extent, a disorienting UI. These issues alone may have prevented other users and us from fully enjoying it. Still, others don’t mind anyway because it works exceptionally in what it was originally designed to do – track time.

We believe Time Doctor is able to hold its own, even though it doesn’t offer the same ease of use as other apps. Besides, every time management platform shines uniquely, right?

FAQ Time Doctor vs Microsoft Planner

How do I contact Time Doctor’s customer support team?

Time Doctor’s customer service hotline can be approached either through e-mail or live chat. There is currently no phone support option provided. If you have a pressing matter that you need to resolve, and you feel the best way to do this is by calling the hotline. You will be notified by the hotline and can reach them any time.

You won’t find any tutorials or tips for Time Doctor anywhere else.

Though there are YouTube videos and how-to articles from independent creators that have already discussed it in full detail, Time Doctor does offer its users an alternative through its dedicated help center, where most of the information included comes from the team behind the platform themselves.

Do I need to add credit card details to apply for a free trial to any of Time Doctor’s paid plans?

You don’t have to sign up with your credit card for the limited 14-day trial. You can only bring it up once you finish the period and wish to commit to purchasing a Time Doctor subscription if you like.

Does Time Doctor comply with HIPAA?

Yes. Time Doctor adheres to the standards and rules of the US Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). The platform is technically flexible enough to be used in a wide range of industries and niches. However, it can also be useful for healthcare teams.

 

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