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.
Out of all the top apps taking over today’s productivity scene, Time Doctor has teams and solo users in a trance for its jam-packed time- and task-monitoring capabilities. But has it caught us the same way? This comprehensive review will help you find out.
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 In South Africa
Time Doctor is a time tracking and project-monitoring tool that’s best suited to small and large businesses, freelancers, remote teams, and freelance workers. The tool’s range of features and tools is designed to assist teammates and individuals in improving their productivity by 22% on average.
Launched in 2012, around a decade earlier already, Time Doctor has slowly gained a large following, becoming a popular time management tool among companies everywhere, whether they’re established or just starting in the industry. It has also become a hit among freelancers who often work for multiple clients thanks to its convenient client portal feature.
Time Doctor has accumulated a user base that exceeds 250,000 over its 20-year 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.
Time Doctor is well-known for its time and activity tracking functions, as well as advanced capabilities such setting reminders to remind you when the timer should be started and stopped. These features alone may be enough for the platform to position itself way ahead of other time management apps. Still, the lack of cohesiveness in its general user usability stops it from doing so.
We believe Time Doctor can be a great addition to any team or individual looking to increase their productivity. Continue reading to learn more about the unique platform’s other features and how they work! Time In South Africa
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The pros
- Time Doctor is best recognized for its excellent, 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 In South Africa
- Despite its potential, its mobile apps don’t provide the same flexibility as the desktop and web versions.
- It does not allow for smooth switching between web-based client apps and desktop apps, particularly if you are both the administrator or the user.
- Only the web extension or desktop app can access the time tracking function.
Pricing and plans
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 check out the following three available plans in the Time Doctor platform.
- Basic – $70/user per year or $7/user per month
The Basic tier of Time Doctor includes access to core platform features such as task and project management and time and activity tracking. It also allows unlimited screenshots. You can only access them if the web extension or desktop application is downloaded. You can only store one month of data.
- Standard – $100/user per year or $10/user per month
Standard plans allow you to access advanced features such as tracking your team’s apps and URLs, the payroll tool, reporting and 60 additional integrations with third-party applications. 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 In South Africa
The premium tier offers the most comprehensive of all three. Those subscribed to it are given access to all of what Time Doctor has to offer – on top of the core tools, they can also explore the client portal, take video screen recordings, and receive VIP-style support.
Those who choose to pay yearly will receive a free charge for the first two 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.
> > Click Here to Try Time Doctor Now < <
The User Interface
Time Doctor is a robust tool for managing time and activities. However, it’s well-known for its awkward and poorly designed user interface. 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.
For instance, many who’ve used Time Doctor have found issues accessing its range of functions. They’ve complained about the lack of in-app centralization, which would have saved a lot of time and effort. Users can access the time tracking feature via the web extension or desktop app. The website version only has project management, reporting, as well as other admin features. 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. It also needs the diversity of data graphs used for reporting – sure, and the bar graphs are great and all, but what about the circle graphs? You might also like pie graphs. Line graphs, perhaps?
Time Doctor’s interface and design are already a problem. We’ll be reviewing that in a moment! Despite their lackluster appeal, they are not strong enough for the platform to track work activity. Some users aren’t bothered by the UI problems, while others adjust to it quickly. Time In South Africa
There’s still a glimmer of hope that the UI and UX issues in Time Doctor could be resolved and improved in the 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.
Time Doctor: Key Features
Let’s now dive into the tools and features you might want to explore when you log in to Time Doctor.
Project and Data Management
Time Doctor’s project management capabilities allow individuals and administrators to create tasks and group them in a matter of seconds. Administrators can also use this feature to assign tasks to their employees to reduce workload and increase productivity. Although you can set up standalone tasks, you may group them if you’d like into larger projects to keep things tidy and organized – a great idea for big companies whose stability relies on numerous departments beneath them.
Time Doctor understands that a clean workboard can easily 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. You may want to see who is working on the task or project right now. The dashboard allows you to track their progress and see how long they have been working.
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 In South Africa
> > Click Here to Try Time Doctor Now < <
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. Despite not being available in the web dashboard, its capabilities are surprisingly well-versed enough to make it stand independently. It’s quite straightforward – just add in the task you’re assigned to work on and click the timer’s start button to track your progress. It’s simple as that!
As the timer plays out throughout your task, all your actions and activity will be recorded in the background. These actions and activities will be recorded and saved to the dashboard. Administrators can then access the dashboard to monitor their employees’ progress. You may do it the same way if you are working alone.
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. The software also has a reminders function that reminds you when it is time to start and stop work. 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.
The timer will stop the tracking if there is no user activity after a few minutes. If you ever spot something like this and you’ve gone to attend to other things beforehand, you may manually click the play button to resume 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.
Time Doctor may be able to track your work hours and progress online, but did you know that it could do the same offline, too? 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 In South Africa
Monitoring Website and App Usage
It’s not just the amount of hours that Time Doctor is keen on monitoring, as it also applies to the other desktop apps you’ve visited, the websites you’ve explored, and even the keystrokes and mouse movements you’ve made as you work. The platform will immediately pause if it detects that your mouse cursor or keyboard is still stationary for longer than a set time and it will stay there until you do something.
It’s often difficult to determine if someone is productive until you know what they have been doing. It’s an easy relief to hear if they are focusing on their tasks. If they’ve been procrastinating by going to other platforms that divert from what they’re supposed to do, that’s a completely different story. 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.
- If it serves no purpose and is therefore inefficient, it will be a time-waster
- If it is neither productive nor unproductive, it will be considered neutral.
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. It is extremely convenient for those who work in specific jobs, such as content writing, to be able to monitor website activity and set productivity statuses per user. For what it’s worth, Time Doctor may be lucky this time to have this crucial function included, unlike other time-tracking software. Time In South Africa
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. While those subscribed to Time Doctor’s Basic and Standard plans have access to unlimited screenshots, Premium users get the upper hand with the inclusion of video screen recording. 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. If this happens, they may be allowed to delete screenshots or screen recordings within the Time Doctor platform for their safety. However, this will likely result in the deduction of work hours listed on the day of recording.
> > Click Here to Try Time Doctor Now < <
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. Users can request reports to determine which time management and productivity practices are working well and which ones need to be improved.
Time Doctor’s report collection has so many options for you to explore. 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. However, issues have arisen, especially from multi-screen work set-ups where one could jam to their favorite playlist on one screen while they get to their task on another. Poor Time Use includes the ability to open pop-up windows to block certain websites. This means that if someone goes to YouTube, they will be immediately reminded if they wish to continue or return to their 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 In South Africa
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, XSL and CSV are the only two options Time Doctor has made available and nothing else – some may be simply okay with that, but others won’t like this lack of export file diversity as much.
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!
Simply send the link to the portal directly to your clients. Once they have access to it, they can see how long you’ve been working, how many tasks you completed, and even the archive of 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 this within the Time Doctor platform using its built-in payroll function. You can turn on payroll deep within the settings of your web dashboard and your team will be automatically billed. Your teammates may be paid based on their hours worked or on a fixed rate.
Time Doctor’s payroll tool supports every form of currency in existence. As for payment methods, you may ask your employees to have their salary sent through PayPal, Payoneer, or TransferWise. If you’re working for a larger company, you may export all the payroll info into a CSV file for purposes of batch payments (multiple payments are sent all at once).
Integrations with Third-Party Services
Time Doctor offers a wide range of integrations to various third-party platforms. These integrations are primarily focused on work, business, 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 program is available to download and install on Windows PCs, Mac OS devices, and Linux OS computers. At the same time, its recent web extension is offered exclusively on Google Chrome. However, the time-tracking software also offers its users unlimited access through their smartphones: Time Doctor currently offers not one but two mobile app versions, both of which you can download on the Apple App Store and 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. Only two differences distinguish the two versions: 1) TD2 can only be used on Android devices and 2) you won’t have access to other features other than time tracking – a notable downgrade from TD Classic.
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How Safe and Secure is Time Doctor?
You may be questioning whether Time Doctor is worth using as a time management tool. 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. It’s 100% not spyware material, so you’re in good hands.
We’d like to reiterate that your work activity may be tracked through screenshots and recordings, and we’d also like to add that there is a webcam shot feature that project managers may use to see their teammates right in front of their eyes…
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 also takes extreme security measures to make sure that no account is easily hacked. This includes strong password policies and 2FA protection. All data stored within the platform is protected by strong SSL encryption with maximum security. Time Doctor is cloud-based so you can expect your data to be regularly backed up. You may be able to have your data restored quickly in the event of an internet or power outage. This will ensure that you don’t lose any progress.
The Bottom Line: Should 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.
While its line-up of dynamic features has admittedly left us in awe, the experience would have been significantly better if it weren’t for the disorienting UI and UX, lack of functionality and cohesiveness in the mobile apps, and, to an extent, undersupply of report graphics options. 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 In South Africa
How can I approach Time Doctor’s customer service team?
You can contact Time Doctor’s customer support hotline via 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.
Where else can I look for tutorials and tips on how to use Time Doctor?
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.
To apply for a Time Doctor paid plan, do I need credit card information?
No, you won’t need to use your credit card to sign up for a 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.
Is Time Doctor HIPAA-compliant?
Yes. Time Doctor adheres to the standards and rules of the US Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). Even though it can technically be used for a vast range of niches, industries, and professions, the platform can be a solid addition to healthcare teams.