By Noah Bolmer

This is the second blog in a series that evaluates software packages’ suitability for expert witnesses.  

Time-tracking software is an important piece of the expert witness toolkit. Beyond routine billing, these applications can increase productivity, help maintain organization, justify fees, and provide your clients with peace-of-mind. While there are over a dozen time-tracking applications, I’ve downloaded and evaluated five popular packages for expert witnesses. Note that some of the bigger players like Time Doctor are strongly geared toward tracking large teams, so were not considered for this review, as most expert witnesses likely to choose their own packages are individual freelancers or consultants.  

In researching time-trackers, it became immediately clear that there is a cottage industry of fake comparisons and reviews from data collection firms, alternative time-tracking software (many of which are white-labeled software owned by one company), and AI generated affiliate blogs. This evaluation is strictly from my own weeklong real-world test of these tools. I ran each piece simultaneously, performing the exact same task in real time with each tool. Fortunately, these are all fairly low overhead and ran simultaneously without a hitch. They each have a trial version of their premium offering, which I utilized. 

Time Tracking vs. Scheduling Tools

As opposed to scheduling tools, which help organize your time and resources, time trackers are largely focused on billing. Experts may have different rates based on task (research vs. administrative), location (travel pay), or project (applying a discount to steady clients). These pieces of software measure time spent, apply the correct rate for the task, and generate invoices, timesheets, and statistical data.  

Factors

In choosing a time tracker, there are five major factors: 

1. Price: Most of these packages offer a free and a subscription-based option, although I have included one completely open-source product. When important features are placed behind a subscription, the free version may not suffice. Unfortunately, many of these applications bundle useful features with those that are likely irrelevant to expert witnesses. Prices are at the time of publication and subject to change.  

1. Platforms and Integration: Most of these options are available as a standalone application for PC or Mac, through a web portal, or as an Android or iOS app. Some users prefer to integrate time tracking into an already-established workflow. Some of these tools are available as direct plugins to various applications and software suites. 

1. Interface: A clean UI decreases the learning curve. Applications that present options in an intuitive manner let you focus on your work, rather than learning and navigating software.  

1. Invoices: One of the most important features in time trackers is generating invoices with detailed reports. Invoices should be clean and customizable, with granular options to break down billable hours. 

1. File Support: Some time-trackers support file attachments, allowing experts to directly correlate hours with work product.  

While time trackers are designed for a broad range of professions, this comparison will focus on the feature set most relevant to expert witnesses. Testing was conducted on the PC version of both browser and stand-alone applications where available, as well as the android version when applicable. Testing was conducted using the pricing tier which includes features deemed most useful for solo expert witnesses, so enterprise features were not taken into consideration. 

Software

Toggl Track 

Founded in 2007, Toggl was among the first cloud-based time trackers on the scene. A combination of decently powerful free version, intuitive UI, and name recognition make it the most popular time tracker out there. Full disclosure: Toggl is my current time-tracking tool, so I began this review already familiar with the product.  

• Price: Three relevant pricing tiers including a free version, a $9.00/month Starter version, and $18.00/month Premium version. 

• Feature Tiers: The free version allows an unlimited number of projects and entries, but only one billing rate. Starter allows unlimited billing rates, time rounding, and unlimited inactive data storage. Premium Adds fixed-fee projects, automatic report emails, and approvals.  

• Platforms: Offline capable web-based, plugins, with standalone applications for all major platforms and mobile.  

Toggl Track’s web interface is clean and intuitive, dividing the screen into an organized list of options on the left panel, and the main interface in the center. The main interface includes the most recent time entries, and the timer itself at the top of the screen. Starting a timer is as simple as clicking a button, but I tend to hit the “play” button on an earlier entry, which starts a new timer. This allows the timer to prepopulate with an existing project and description. There is also a customizable favorites bar on the workspace which is automatically populated with your most common projects and descriptions. 

The left panel is divided into analytics, management, and admin functions; well-labeled options making it simple to generate a report, view invoices, or change settings. No matter where you are in the web app, the timer is always on a ribbon at the top of the screen. Stopping the timer places a time entry into your log, which can be edited or removed as needed. The time log is viewable as a list or calendar, or as part of a report (in CSV or PDF at the Starter or higher tier). 

The PC application and mobile apps are similarly intuitive and easy to use. Moving back and forth between them is completely seamless, with changes populating instantly across versions.  

A significant drawback for expert witnesses is the absence of file support. The ability to link time entries to supporting documentation limits Toggl’s usefulness if you prefer to organize your projects with actual files you’re working on. While not a deal-breaker (as the project can be named the same as a file), it is an unfortunate lacking feature. Pricing granularity is also not ideal for experts with different billable rates, or those which require rounding. Similarly, experts who want to add fixed-fee projects to invoices can only do so at the Premium tier, which is double the price of Starter, at $18.00/month. A great many tools which would be irrelevant for solo freelancers are also included in those tiers, with no ala carte option or freelancer-focused tier; you end up with teams-focused features in order to get billing rates.  

Rounding is another Toggl quirk—the math on invoices will often be off by a few cents because of the way it converts time to decimals. Fortunately, you can manually enter amounts on invoices, but this is one of the more commonly reported frustrations with the software. There is no way to set rounding parameters to fix the mismatch. 

Suitability: Despite its quirks, I enjoy using Toggl. I found it the most intuitive, the easiest to make modifications to entries with, and with the most fluid workflow integrations of any time tracker. Recommended. 

Clockify 

Founded in 2017, the free version of Clockify is among the most popular time-tracking apps, second only to Toggl.  

• Price: Three relevant tiers including Free, $5.00/month Basic, and $7.00/month Standard, each with discounts for annual pre-payment.  

• Feature Tiers: The free version has unlimited tracking, users, and reports. Basic adds auditing tools, and Standard is required for invoicing, making it the only useful tier for experts who don’t generate invoices elsewhere.  

• Platforms: Offline capable web-based, plugins, with standalone applications for all major platforms and mobile.  

Clockify’s user interface seems almost entirely lifted from Toggl, which, frankly, is fine. I did notice right off the bat that Clockify seems to put a lot of emphasis on teams, down to a GPS tracking option. Expert witnesses who are independent contractors and consultants with limited support staff will find these unnecessary options clutter. It is still fairly intuitive to navigate, and I had no trouble locating tools (especially coming from Toggl).  

Unlike Toggl, Clockify supports file attachments, but only to support expenses that are part of the project. You can attach a receipt to support a fixed travel expense, but not to an individual time entry. Still, this makes invoicing more robust—even at the free level—than Toggl, which has no file attachment capability. The reporting is a bit more basic than some of the competitors, but it presents clear reports and summaries that are easy to use, available in CSV, PDF or Excel. Invoices are attractive and there are robust rounding tools (which is reflected in all reports as well as invoices), so that the calculations always match.  

On- and offline modes worked perfectly, and transitioning between the web interface, integrated versions, and mobile apps were seamless.  

Suitibility: Clockify is significantly less expensive than Toggl, the primary competitor, but critical features like invoicing are paywalled behind the Standard plan. It is a solid, affordable package with a robust userbase, and a strong featureset—particularly for experts who want to bill for related expenses on the same invoice. Recommended.  

Harvest 

Founded in 2006, Harvest may be the first cloud-based time tracker, which could explain the unusual interface. While its popularity has waned over the years, it remains popular in the space, and emphasizes project management.  

• Price: Two relevant tiers including Free, and $11.00/month Pro.  

• Feature Tiers: The free version has unlimited tracking, one user, reports, and invoicing. Pro adds billable rates, upgraded support, and team features.  

• Platforms: Offline capable web-based, plugins, with standalone applications for all major platforms and mobile.  

I do not like Harvest’s interface. Essentially, everything is done from within a timesheet, rather than the ledger-like log which is standard in other trackers. You press a large plus sign to start a timer, which creates a popup that you need to fill in. Unlike Toggl and Clockify, the detail of your current timer isn’t present across tabs, thus you need to go back and forth to the timer tab to start/stop/edit. It doesn’t have a simple “favorites” or auto-populated recent projects. Each time you run the timer, you must fill in the details of what you’re timing, although you can go back and continue projects you’ve entered. I strongly preferred the workflow of other apps, where you can start a timer with one click, and deal with the details later (or not at all).  

On the other hand, Harvest excels in its project management capabilities, including tasks and subtasks, enabling granular tracking of time spent on different aspects of an engagement. While most expert witnesses will probably have more basic needs—just projects with a couple different billing codes—if you prefer to divide your expert work into a lot of small pieces, Harvest may be the tool for you.  

Harvest allows attaching files to time entries, not just expenses (like Clockify). This means that an expert witness report, for instance, could be attached to the Report Project and submitted as a package with its own invoice (or part of a larger invoice broken out into multiple projects and files). This would be an organized, easily auditable workflow for experts who submit multiple types of documents. 

Invoices are customizable, attractive, and can be made extremely granular. Rounding is simple and works as you’d expect it to.  

Harvest’s free tier includes only one individual (which for most is fine) and two projects, which is very limiting. Most experts would opt for the $11.00/month Pro version to get access to unlimited projects. That version also includes payment integrations, allowing your clients to pay invoices directly (although most will probably use their regular accounts payable).  

The standalone version and application version are essentially the same, and the mobile apps are quite simple, but perfectly serviceable. I had no problems moving between them or using them offline.  

Suitability: Harvest’s primary feature setting it apart from the competition is the robust project management and file attachment, but neither were enough for me to accept the dated, unfriendly UI. Not recommended.  

TimeCamp 

Launched in 2009, TimeCamp is an affordable competitor offering unique automatic tracking features.  

• Price: Two relevant tiers including $5.00/month Starter, $8.00/month Ultimate, with pre-paid annual discounts available.  

• Feature Tiers: Starter includes invoicing, unlimited tasks, and rounding. Ultimate adds expenses, billing rates, and audit logs. 

• Platforms: Offline capable web-based, plugins, mobile.  

TimeCamp’s interface is similar to its competitors, with a left-hand dashboard that includes tracking, analytics, and management tabs. Unfortunately, it uses an icon-first approach requiring a mouseover or engaging the flyout menu to figure out exactly what a laptop icon, or dollar sign does. Nevertheless, after spending some time with the interface, it works essentially the same as the others, just with less polish. Fortunately, the interface is customizable, and I was able to easily remove items I’d never use (team features) and move frequent ones to the top. This is a great feature that I’d like to see in other time-tracking apps. Better still, these customizations are persistent across the browser and application (although not the mobile version).  

On the downside, the timer itself isn’t persistent across all pages. This is something that Toggl and Clockify do very well—after all, the timer is the main feature. Like Harvest, you have to be on the main page to access the timer.  

One of TimeCamp’s core features is automatic time tracking with keywords. A user can set a keyword to reference a specific file. Typing that keyword will allow TimeCamp to automatically start and stop timers while working on those specific files and generate detailed time logs with starts and stoppages. For some experts with small billable increments, this could be more efficient than stopping and starting timers frequently. Moreover, it can help prevent forgetting to start (or stop) a timer while working, and those “how long have I been doing this?” moments. If attorneys require extensive audit trails, it also can provide a complete detailed record of computer usage, including active time in any app. Again, this is probably not useful to most experts, but I can imagine that such a log would be helpful if there was a billing dispute.  

TimeCamp has robust file management capability through the Planner feature (which uses Google Drive exclusively), but you cannot directly attach files to time entries. You can, however, reference a file that you are working on if it has been uploaded to the Planner.  

Reports are simple, but detailed enough for invoicing, which is also quite basic. Rounding is simple, and works well.  

The mobile apps are extremely basic and lack core features, such as setting up new projects, but the timer works and is synchronized with the web interface. There is no standalone PC application. 

Suitability: TimeCamp is a quality application, with a good price for the feature set. Keyword based automatic tracking might be a compelling feature for experts who move back and forth to various projects, resulting in a cleaner workflow. For those who use it, this feature could help mitigate the lack of a persistent timer across the web app. Recommended. 

KIMAI 

Kimai is an open-source time tracker which can be run locally for free or accessed via the cloud for a nominal fee. The project was launched in 2006, with the cloud-based subscription version released in 2020. 

• Price: Free (locally hosted), $4.00/month Professional (cloud-hosted).  

• Feature Tiers: Identical feature set, including project-based time-tracking, invoicing, and expense tracking.   

• Platforms: PC/Linux/Mac (locally hosted) or browser (cloud-hosted). 

Installing a Kimai server locally requires technical expertise, but the result is identical to the no-fuss cloud-hosted version, which many experts would likely opt for.  

At first glance, Kimai’s interface looks like Toggl; even the color scheme and tool names are similar. Like Toggl, the timer ribbon is always present across tabs, but it uses Harvest-style popups when the timer is started, which I dislike. There seems to be no way to continue a task from the ledger—you need to start a fresh timer and fill in the popup every time. This is inconvenient for someone coming from Toggl or Clockify. While it superficially resembles other trackers, clicking through the tabs reveals an interface that resembles server backend software. Everything is there, but the presentation is clunky, with too many fonts that don’t quite fit where they belong.  

On the positive side, it is easy to export from your previous app (they all export data to CSV) and import it into Kimai. I had no trouble importing my Toggl data and continuing existing projects.  

Like Toggl, Kimai does not have file support. 

Reporting is extremely detailed and robust, but this proved to be annoying to me. While a programmer could customize the software, as it is open source, I wish I could remove a lot of the team and enterprise level features. The interface requires a lot of moving back and forth between pages rather than using simple dropdown lists. For instance, if I want a report, I have to navigate to the reports tab, then select from a screen full of buttons with every possible report type. I prefer the more streamlined, uncluttered interface of Toggl, where a persistent dropdown menu lets me easily move between report types without changing pages.  

Invoicing is similarly difficult. Instead of generating invoices from a report, they’re generated from an invoice page which you must manually add projects and time ranges to. 

Suitability: Kimai is a solution for an individual used to the shortcomings of open-sourced software. The primary advantage is an active community and an unbeatable price, but I found it clunky and frustrating, despite being a fairly technically minded individual. Not Recommended. 

Conclusion 

Toggl, Clockify, and TimeCamp will keep time and generate invoices without issue. Toggl has the best user interface, which has largely been mimicked by the competition. Unfortunately, it is also the most expensive and has a rounding quirk. Clockify is less expensive, and works nearly as well, even surpassing Toggl with fixed expense tracking, although a lot of team-focused features are upfront, cluttering the experience for solo experts. TimeCamp has the best automated tracking, and advanced file support, though its mobile app is lacking, as is invoice customization. Despite their shortcomings, each is recommended for expert witnesses. 

For over 30 years, Round Table Group has been connecting litigators with skilled and qualified expert witnesses. If you are interested in being considered for expert witness opportunities, contact us at 202-908-4500 for more information or sign up now!