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First Look: Minimalist time tracking on Mac using Minco

by Steven Sande Sep 21st 2009 at 4:00PM

Mauritius is a minimalist island nation in the Indian Ocean, and from that tiny set of spots on the map comes a new Mac time-tracking application for anyone who needs to keep track of how much time they spend on tasks. Minco, now in public beta from Celmaro, is a minuscule Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard app that works with any application that supports iCal.

When Minco is launched, all you'll see is a tiny clock icon in the menu bar. Clicking the icon opens a glossy transparent black display that shows either the time you've spent on a project or the revenue you've gained from doing billable work on that project. Clicking on the time or revenue counter starts the counter, which then disappears from view. When you stop the timer, a new calendar item is placed into iCal so that you can keep track of how your day was spent.

The iCal integration works the other way as well. Creating a To-Do item in iCal adds it to your Minco timer so that you can start tracking time. When you start up the timer, the iCal item shows up in your calendar with the phrase "...working" attached. Publishing that calendar could be used to show co-workers or clients what you're currently working on.

If you want to keep a log of what you do during your work days, Minco also writes your time log to a standard .csv file that you can import into Numbers or Excel for analysis. The company is considering writing other export adapters, although the existing adapter is amazingly flexible.

Celmaro provides a 14-day free trial download, and the software is available for US$9.95. I found it very unusual for a company to be charging for beta software, but then again, Minco is much more stable and usable than a lot of beta software I've used.

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Mauritius is a minimalist island nation in the Indian Ocean, and from that tiny set of spots on the map comes a new Mac time-tracking...
 

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17 Comments

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ronald.hourdoc


HourDoc is tool for Time Tracking. HourDoc Time Tracking Software is right treatment for time and labor management processes has to be an easy-to-administer and affordable solution for supervisors, employees and HR and payroll managers. They offer free application to companies less than 50 employees.

December 14 2009 at 1:15 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
jbrown510

Again.. it's web based... fail...

November 19 2009 at 1:26 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
inmysmallroom

iCal + Things + Minco can sync togeter.
I do this, first, create to-do list in Things then sync with iCal,
you can customize your Things-iCal sync by tag, priority etc.
After sync complete, you can see all of to-do list that sync from Things in iCal.

When I start to working on my to-do list, just click Minco, you will see all to-do list (I set limit to 6 tasks). Just click on task you want and now click at the 00:00:00.

Because my rate is not on hours, I just use this to track how I spent for each task, record my day to iCal. Finally, it's help me to complete my Freelance working day.

Thanks iCal, Things and very easy to use time tracking, Minco.

October 06 2009 at 4:42 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Ivan berroa

this program is a waste of time. i couldn't get it to work with iCal Events. I guess it only does tasks. Not sure why.

September 22 2009 at 11:44 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Matt

I'm in the market for a lightweight time-tracking app so giving this a go. As I bill by the day or by project, the invoicing aspect of other apps like Billings actually gets in the way - I just want to track time for internal purposes.

I'm also trying out TimeLog at the moment - one feature that gives it a big advantage over Minco for me is the application tracking. I do like Minco's menubar interface more, though.

I assume that you can get this to sync with Things by using Things' sync with iCal option. Has anyone tried this yet?

September 22 2009 at 4:05 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Tobias

ohh, cool! Heres also a cool time tracking app: http://colorhat.com/

September 22 2009 at 2:03 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Tobias's comment
jbrown510

I love the interface of Coolhat, except it web based... who wants to have to keep web page open all the time to keep track of their time? Not to mention I don't always work where there is internet access...

November 19 2009 at 1:25 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
raleedy

I don't get it. The menu pop-up says "No Task. Click to add task in iCal." iCal doesn't know from "tasks". Worthless.

September 21 2009 at 8:21 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
4 replies to raleedy's comment
kylejnolan

This is great. I just downloaded the trial and it automatically synced with my Anxiety to do list. I'm guessing that's because Anxiety works with iCal, but this is great regardless.

September 21 2009 at 7:57 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
robogobo

sounds great. but what's a minimalist country?

September 21 2009 at 6:36 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
George

Looks interesting, but the lack of an integrated invoicing feature is a non-starter for me. Sticking with On The Job.

September 21 2009 at 5:15 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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