I'm always on the search for a decent piece of software to help track the time I spend on various coding projects for clients. Before I found Tasktop, I was already using Mylyn tasks to plan out items I needed to do for various projects. But I used a timer no my phone, then manually recorded the time into another project tracker such as Zoho Projects, JForce, or Trac. A pain in the you know what if you know what I mean. As I usually do when I have had enough with my current method of doing things, I do a google search to see if anything new presents itself. Well, this time my search led me to Tasktop and I was sold as soon as I tried the trial.
Tasktop is not the perfect solution for me. The perfect solution is an all-in-one project tracker, invoice and quote manager. The project trackers above fall short and/or are expensive for small-scale freelancers like myself. However, Tasktop has solved my time tracking issues and has made it very convenient to code for clients within Eclipse and track billable hours. And, if I use a supported connector, Tasktop will keep my tasks and time in sync with various project trackers!
I'm not going to layout all of Tasktop's feature as you can head over to Tasktop.com to see and experience it for yourself. However I will layout a couple of my favourite features.
1) I love the feature that opens all the windows you were working on when you deactivated a task. This makes sure that only windows (editor or built-in browser) that are pertinent to the task are open. It is such a convenience and a time saver!
2) I live off Google calendar and Tasktop allows syncing tasks as calendar events to my calendar! It will even display the current events in the bottom left hand corner of Eclipse. It gives you the option to sync the due date/time and or scheduled date for the task.
3) Of course my most favourite and the reason I found Tasktop to begin with, is the time tracker capability. I can add/edit/remove time items to be billed. The ONLY thing I do not care for and have communicated to Tasktop is the way the "No Task Active Time." Basically it tracks the time that Eclipse is open but a task is not activated. However, I'm bouncing back and forth between items for clients and I have not found a way to tell it to divvy out no task active time between the clients appropriately. So, I'm forced to just ignore it. Myabe I'm configuring it wrong, I dunno. I hope I am and will be enlightened soon ;-)
Anyway, Tasktop pro is $99 bucks but for me, it is well worth it.