Get paid for your time: On The Job 3.0

I've been using on the job for a few years now as a graphic designer, and i Can say the beyond a shadow of a doubt this is one of the best apps I ever bought. Things worth mentioning about the product,

A, it doesn't kill the processor, when your running heavy programs liek photoshop on the edge of yoru computer capability, you want a lean program and all the "on the job" apps up to this point have fit that bill.

B. Simplicity with power, I love how it monitors if you walked away from the computer, if I forget to hit the stop button when i leave for lunch it asks when I get back if I'd like to charge for the time, that's damn handy.

C. And the developer listens, I really needed non time related credit and expenses and I ask the developer for those in the next incarnation of the software, not only did he respond, but was eager to here of any other unique ideas that coudl enhance the software. I was very please that a short time after my request (and I'm sure others) an update to the software had credits, expenses, and so much more.

Great product if I can answer a question about it I can I'll try

PS. another great hidden feature is that when you grab a folder or multiple jobs you can see their grand total, this is really great for figuring our your gross profit for tax time, if your organize all your jobs into years.

It's amazing that in all the years TUAW has been going, they've never reviewed TimeSlice. If I search this site for TimeSlice, nothing even comes up. It's been around longer than any of these 2, and does an incredible job. Sure, it could look a little more OS X'ish, but it works spot on, and I've used it for 6+ years.

Joe, TimeSlice does application tracking, but I've never used that feature myself.

TimeSlice also has a corresponding iPhone App too. Worth a review for sure.

I have neither OTJ nor Billings but I'm wondering about something. I conduct business through a few separate entities (i.e. as "myself" and also through a company - separate kinds of work). Also, I have clients around the world (i.e. with different currencies).

So, while Billings looks great and quite feature-full, it looks to me like OTJ is actually better suited to my situation. Can anybody confirm this?

Is there anything out there that is much simpler? I use Quickbooks on an entirely different system and would rather just manually plug total time in there. What I really want is software that allows me to track what I'm doing throughout the day as an accountability tool. Too much TUAW and Facebook time!! Eek!

Any words of wisdom?

I'm a photographer and I'm looking for something very similar to this, but I don't usually charge by the hour except for custom item revisions. I need a place to enter my products, what I pay for them, what I charge for them, a way to discount as necessary, and be done. Most programs I've come across have way more than I need. Otherwise, this would be great.

I really wish these applications would work in a multi-user environment. iBiz is sad compared to Billings and this new app, on the Job... but iBiz has a server level for multiple user environments. Atleast give us bonjour networking please!

The printing company I work for has been using On The Job for almost a year. We evaluated several time billing programs including Billings. OTJ has done a great job of meeting the needs of our art department. Because we have an accounting staff that handles the invoicing and financial duties, we only needed to track our time for reports. I recommend OTJ to anyone with light to medium invoicing needs.

I didn't realize until I looked at the Stunt Software blog that if you bought in a certain time period you're eligible for a free upgrade. That's pretty cool, at first I couldn't see what the upgrade pricing was going to be (probably need my eyes checked)

I use OTJ because I like the really simple time keeping interface. The more I use it the more I actually like it as a little piece of software. Apart from skype this is the only other bit of software I have set on startup for my mac, if that's any indication of how often I use it. Really keen to see what version 3 is like to use, I had been considering Billings, but this may have given me all the features I had heard about in billings anyway.

@antiorario - Hi, I'm the developer for On The Job - could you send us an email (info at stuntsoftware.com) to give us some more details on the tax situation where you are? Thanks! -Dan

Looks good. Too bad that its tax support is very limited.

Billings is actually the only application that gets close enough to be usable, for example, in Italy, where freelancers must deal with a crazy tax system. "Close enough" doesn't mean it gets the job done. And that's why my invoicing is done in Numbers (which, after all, is not a bad choice).